Page 53 of Innocent Salvation

A slow song came on and he had the urge to dance with her, to hold her as the music played, even knowing it might be his one and only time. “Dance with me?”

Snow startled and he had a feeling she’d been miles away, thinking of who knew what. “Now?”

“Yes.”

“But we have to find…”

Sebastian didn’t care about Dominique or anyone else at the moment. He pulled her into his body, discarding the full glasses of champagne to a passing server.

“Fine. One dance.”

Her lips tipped into the smile he loved, and he moved her around the floor with ease as if they’d been doing this for years. Being with Snow was easy in every way possible, but still exciting. He knew it would always be this way with her, that he’d always experience a thrill of excitement when she walked in a room, tempered with the ease of being with someone who let him be himself.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her he loved her, to fall on his sword and spill the putrid truth of his betrayal, however unwittingly, when he caught sight of Dominique Dupont heading towards them. “Heads up. Evil Queen at six o’clock.”

He stopped Snow from turning, holding her tighter when she went to move. Reaper was across the room watching as he spoke with a redhead who was hanging on his every word. He couldn’t see Bás or Bein but knew they were close.

“Sebastian, how lovely to see you.”

The crowd had parted for Dominique like the Red Sea as the dancers moved aside and he could feel every eye in the room on them. “Dominique, nice to see you again.” The lie stuck in his throat like glass, but her attention wasn’t really on him. It was on Snow who was watching Dominique with barely veiled hatred.

“And who is this lovely young thing?”

He stuck with the script the team had agreed to. “Let’s cut the crap, Dominique. You know very well who this is. Now would you like to have this conversation here or somewhere private?”

Snow had remained silent, and he could feel the tension coming off her in waves. After everything his woman had been put through by the people who should have loved her the most, he had the overwhelming urge to step between the two and protect her, even though she didn’t need his protection.

Dominique’s face remained pleasant at his words, but he caught the slight twitch of her jaw and wondered if she was truly that great an actress or if the Botox just wouldn’t permit her to show how she was feeling about this sudden turn of events.

“I don’t think there’s any need for unpleasantness, Mr Alexander, so why don’t we take this to the salon on the second floor where we can have a moment of privacy.”

“As you wish.”

Sebastian followed, his hand on the small of Snow’s rigid back as they ascended the stairs behind Dominique and her guards. There was no sign of Patrick or Jean-Claude but that didn’t mean they weren’t there, simply that he hadn’t seen them. Although he suspected they knew he and Snow were there by now.

The hallway led to a large room that overlooked the back of the hotel, the interior luxurious and tasteful, with two long cream couches facing each other with an antique low table in between. “Please take a seat.”

“I’d prefer to stand.”

Seb glanced at Snow beside him and itched to take her hand in his but didn’t want this woman to know the extent of their relationship. Snow stood tall, her back ramrod straight, neck extended, chin up. She looked powerful, like a force of nature, and nothing like the woman who’d rolled around on the floor building a fort inside his home so they could watch a kid’s movie with Fleur.

Dominique’s hands fluttered. For the first time since he’d known her, she looked almost nervous but quickly recovered, tucking her hands behind her back. The dark navy sequined gown she wore hid any residual nerves as she straightened her spine.

“I know you hate me, Sabine, but I’d like a chance to explain.”

Snow rolled her hand. “Then explain why you murdered my father in cold blood.”

“Your father isn’t the man you think he is.”

“Oh please. Is this where you give me a sob story about how it wasn’t you, it was him?”

Dominique was a powerful woman but, in that moment, Sebastian didn’t see the President of France, he saw a mother.

Dominique sat on the couch as if her legs were weak suddenly. “No, I’m as much to blame as anyone.”

Snow’s expression didn’t flicker and yet he knew it affected her. He could read the slight changes in her body language.

“When I met your father, I was a young, ambitious woman. He was handsome and charismatic, full of fun and daring and I loved him. As time went on though, I began to see the small manipulations, the way he’d sway me to his thinking without me even being aware. I was about to leave him when I fell pregnant with you. I knew I couldn’t raise a child and chase my dreams alone, but I couldn’t abort my pregnancy.”