AllFreeNovel
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I mentioned to Noel that it seemed more than a little elitist that his guards are in bunk beds while we’re staying just the two of us in a twenty-bedroom manor.
He just shrugged and told me he plans on having me naked in all twenty of them, and that “replacing good security personnel is tough.”
I’ll make of that, blushingly, what I will.
As I’ll also make of it as I will, and dwell on it as I will that upon entering the mansion, Noel had our things all brought to one enormous master suite. We’ve obviously shared a bed a number of times back in London. More and more, lately, I’ve been almost exclusively sleeping with him in his bed. Still, I’ve always had my own room.
Here, it’s like it’sourroom—our room where I’m seated in a chair by the window, taking pictures of thestunningestate to send to Harry.
“Who are you sending those to?” Noel grunts from behind me.
“Oh, just the media. Maybe some hitmen.”
His jaw tightens. I smirk.
“Just Harry. Relax.”
He eyes me, his lips curling slightly as he moves towards me. I swallow when he leans down, cupping my jaw and tilting my head up to his.
“I have to take some calls in the study. But the estate is yours to explore. The cook is preparing a dinner for seven.”
“The usual formal dress required, I assume?”
He nods.
“The closet is fully furnished with a bunch of stuff in my size, too, I assume?”
“I’m becoming predictable,” he grunts.
I grin, leaning in to kiss him softly.
“A little.”
“I’ll have to change things up.”
He smirks, kissing me again before he pulls back and checks his watch with a frown.
“But yes. Dinner at seven. It’ll give this a sense of normalcy. We’re not going to let fear dictate—”
“Noel?” I shrug, smiling wryly when he cocks a brow. “Look who you’re talking to.”
After astunningdinner,Noel dismisses the rest of the small household staff. And the house is ours alone.
He grabs two glasses, an opener, and a bottle of Burgundy with a date on it from before I was even born. With my hand in his free one, he leads me out of the dining room out onto a sprawling, gorgeous veranda overlooking a pool and the vineyards.
We both sit in sumptuous reclining chairs beside each other, watching the sun go down over the hills of southern France. And despite everything going on, when I inhale, I breathe in a sense of peace.
Noel pours us both glasses, clinking his to mine as we sit and watch the sun dip.
“We’re safe here, you know,” he growls quietly. “There are more guards than are even visible patrolling the perimeter, and I have friends in…” his brow furrows. “Less than reputable circles keeping an ear to the ground for anything that might be coming our way.”
He smiles thinly as he turns to me. “You don’t need to be worried.”
“I’m not.”
“Whatever you need—”
“I know.”
