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“Are you scared?” Noah asked me softly as his driver and bodyguard, Daniel, drove us to my photo shoot. We were late, much to Austin’s annoyance, which forced him to leave earlier. But it really was the least of our problems.
“I’m not scared,” I finally replied.
“Just like you weren’t scared of that lion when we were kids?” he asked with a smile.
“I was not scared!” I argued like a child, and he just smiled at me. His blue-green eyes focused only on me so intensely, I stopped breathing for a moment. “Shut up,” I muttered, turning away.
Lifting my hand up, he kissed it. “Honestly, I’m afraid.”
“What?” I faced him again.
He nodded. “Growing up, the scariest man in my life was my father, and I would never forget how terrified he was of the Callahans. They’ve been getting away with their double lives for decades. When they want something, they get it,” he whispered. For the first time, I had seen him truly afraid. Even when he told me about Esther, even when he found me covered in her blood, he never once looked afraid. He was always a rock. My rock. And now, I would be his.
“I was scared of the lion,” I admitted, leaning into him.
“It was obvious.”
“Shut up,” I laughed before becoming serious. “I was scared of the lion. I’m not scared of the Callahans or your father or anything. Call me naïve or just stupid, but I honestly believe we’ll be okay. We haven’t gone through all of this just to be hunted by the mafia. Seriously, Noah—the mafia?”
“You’re crazy,” he said, despite the grin on his face.
“You made me this way—oh, wow,” I whispered as this beautiful Spanish-Colonial style mansion seated on acres upon acres of grassy hillside came into view. By the time Daniel pulled up, the gate was already open, and I was sort of annoyed by the crew and setup that covered the front entrance because they blocked most of the flowers and statues that lined the sides.
“I want this house,” I whispered to myself.
“You hate Pelican Point and Orange County,” Noah reminded me, taking off his seat belt. And it was true. Esther wanted me to buy a house here, but I couldn’t deal with a dozen other housewives just like her as neighbors and begged Oliver to help me stop her.
But damn, the house was gorgeous. “I would welcome Pelican Point and Orange County for this house.”
“Then you’ll only have $60 million, and what can I do with that?” Noah joked, winking at me before stepping out of the car.
“Ass,” I coughed.
“Did you just ‘ass’-cough me?” he said far too loudly, causing more than a few people to glance at us.
“You are not funny,” I muttered, elbowing him.
“It was a little funny.”
“Sometimes, I swear you are—”
“Amelia,” a voice said. We both turned to find Austin coming out of the house with a short, older Asian woman, her hair cut into a short bob. In her wrinkled white hands was a black camera. “I’d like you to meet—”
“Hanako Sugiyama,” I finished for him, stepping forward. “Ma’am, it’s so amazing to meet you. I love your photography.”
“’Ma’am’?” She tilted her head. “Do I look like a ‘ma’am’ to you?”
You sound like one.
“Be nice, Hanako,” Noah grinned, leaning in for a hug and kissing both of her cheeks. She made a face at him and smacked his arms.
“Don’t even get me started with you. You promised to do the Somerfall spread and backed out last minute.”
“It was three years ago, and I had the flu—”
“Don’t care, and don’t care,” she snapped at him. The fact that Noah towered over her and she was the intimidating one was just too funny. “I actually know how you can make it up to me.”
“How—”
