The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,24
the kitchen and get some breakfast. Fee’s making French toast. Then you can come back up here and sleep for a few hours. I need you to take care of yourself so you have the strength and energy for Luc.”
I nodded again, though I had no appetite. And I had no idea when Luc would even need me.
Or if he’d ever let me get close to him again.
A few days, it turned out, wasn’t enough time for Luc to get his head together. Neither was a week.
As I sat at the kitchen table with my hands wrapped around a hot mug of tea ten days after we’d arrived in Scotland, I glanced at Felicity at the kitchen counter, loading a few items into a bag for her and Marco’s trip south, not entirely sure this was the best plan. “And what if he takes a turn for the worse?”
Felicity pinned me with a look. “Like... a runny nose?”
I frowned. “You know what I mean. An infection of some kind.”
“He’s past that. I took most of the stitches out yesterday. What’s left, you can manage later today.”
I wasn’t so sure of that. I lifted the tea to my lips and muttered, “You’re assuming I can get near him.”
Felicity sighed and crossed to sit in the chair next to me at the table. Laying a hand over mine she said, “It’s going to be all right.”
“How? Every time I even get near his room, he barks at me. He doesn’t want my help. He only wants you or Marco.”
“Which is why we’re leaving. It’ll force him to deal with you.”
I frowned again. “Force him to yell at me, you mean.”
Felicity smirked. “You married him, honey.”
No, I married a sweet and loving man. Not this bear. Though, thinking back, I couldn’t help but see a similarity between the Luc I’d first encountered in New York at the Covet offices and this Luc. Both seemed to think bullying me was going to get me to back down. It hadn’t worked the first time. He should know better than to ever try that strategy again.
Felicity’s smile widened. “There’s the fire I knew was in you.” She leaned close and squeezed my hand once more. “Don’t let him push you around, Natalie. The time for coddling is over. He needs to get out of that room. He’s staying in there because he thinks he’s safe from you there. Get in there, kick his ass out, and make him start dealing with real life.”
He was hiding. I should have realized that earlier, only I’d been too wrapped up in my own emotions to notice. It was the exact same thing I’d done after he’d abducted me and trapped me on his island in the South Pacific. If I could get past that, he could get past the fact I’d seen him freak out the first night he’d awoken here.
“In all seriousness,” I said, “what if something really does go wrong?”
“Nothing’s going to go wrong. The perimeter of the property is highly protected. So long as you two stay on the estate, you’re perfectly fine.”
There was that feeling of being trapped again. “And if we don’t?”
“My father made an agreement with Luc’s dad. House Salvatici is not going to risk an open war with House Merrick over this. You’re safe here in the Isles. If you want to leave the property, I wouldn’t do it alone, and I also wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. People in this country know who Luc is. If they see him out, word will spread. And if word gets back to the Grand Duke that he’s healed, they might call him back sooner than any of us are ready for. That’s all I’m saying.”
Sickness brewed in my stomach over the thought of Luc ever going back to his House, but I swallowed the words and kept them to myself.
I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do about Luc’s parents, but every night when I went to bed alone, I came up with new and more painful ways to make them suffer. It was becoming an obsession for me. One that, for a few moments, took my mind off Luc.
“We’ll be careful. I have no intention of leaving the property. I just wanted to know in case Luc decides to be uncooperative.”
“He won’t be that uncooperative. As grouchy as he is right now, he wouldn’t dare do anything to put you in jeopardy. And exposing you at all still