Page 5 of Brutal Heir

Thrown off balance, I braced against his broad shoulders, the contact sending another jolt through me.

“You’ll ruin your suit."

His palm cupped my heel as he gently pushed the gold pump back onto my foot.

Now teetering with a four-inch heel on only one foot, I dug my fingernails into the soft, thick fabric of his coat as I clung to him.

“This really isn’t necessary.”

He placed my other shoe on my foot and rose.

Despite my added height, he still loomed over me.

His finger hooked under my chin. “I’ll decide what is necessary.”

The feminist in me wanted to object to such blatant, arrogant machismo.

The female in me told her to shut the fuck up, while I resisted the urge to swoon into his arms.

Flipping my damp hair back over my shoulder, I forced the words through my stiff lips. “Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.”

A shiver rippled through me.

I didn’t know if it was from the cold—or from him.

He noticed.

Without a word, he slipped off his coat and draped it around my shoulders.

I blinked. In the flash of movement, I’d caught a glimpse of something—black, rectangular, and definitely not a phone.

Is that a gun?

“You should not be out in this weather without a coat,” he said gently.

When I didn’t answer, he frowned.

I shook it off.

No. Not possible.

It was probably just some kind of fancy phone case.

The comforting heavy fabric of his coat settled over my shoulders. I couldn’t resist inhaling the smoky scent of his cologne.

At the expectant lift of his eyebrow, I lowered my gaze. “I know. I didn’t realize the bakery was so far from the Louvre.”

At my mention of the bakery, the man retrieved the soggy, waxed pâtisserie bag from where I’d dropped it on the ground when we collided.

“Yours?”

Fuck.

Édouard was going to lose his damn mind when he saw the state of his precious chocolate croissant—not to mention how long it had taken me to get it.

Not that I didn’t take a sick little pleasure in knowing he’d be biting into a pastry that had hit the filthy pavement. Served the arrogant prick right for sending me on this ridiculous errand.