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Maybe even more than just like him because he’s more thoughtful than I expected.
If I shiver, he asks me whether I’m cold and whenever I sing along to a song and sound worse than a baby crow, he doesn’t ask me to keep it down. And whenever I laugh and accidentally snort, he seems to find it endearing instead of unrefined. Looking at him over the rim of my glass he appears even bigger now than before. Triumphant almost because he knows I’m responding to him...and I’m responding more to him than any other male I’ve met, any other human even.
Time passes fluently, almost too fluently and I startle when Bram lets me know dinner is ready.
“So soon?” I ask with widened eyes, standing up but I do it too fast and I almost tumble backward. Bram steadies me, putting his hands behind my back but one of his hands is closer to my waist and I go dizzy again.
He’s not pressing himself against me but I can still feel the heat rolling off of his body. He’s not like other men that I know. They are rich and wear sharp clothes too but Bram is different. He’s not arrogant or boastful or annoying. And his hands are never clammy, they are just...right.
“Look at me,” he rasps, “can you focus?”
My face almost bobs against his chest. “Sure can,” I nod, my drawly accent thicker than ever and Bram does an eye roll.
“You’re drunk.” He shakes his head at himself. “Remind me, never to fall for those puppy eyes of yours ever again.”
I snigger, before glancing at the clock on the wall and we are very, very late. My brows rise in surprise when Bram clasps my arm, putting his mouth close to my ear and my heart starts rowing.
“Promise me that you will look and talk to me during dinner. I don’t like it when you ignore me.”
Nodding, I whisper, “I promise.”
Reassured by this, he lets me go and I keep my promise. During the whole dinner, I barely even remember to pay any attention to Miss. Pattie or Mr. Bryce. They throw me disproving glances but they bounce off of me whenever Bram throws me a look full of admiration. And it almost makes me tear up even though I know it’s silly but nobody has ever looked at me that way and I never even knew how much I needed it.
Bram didn’t used to be in my life. But now that he is, I want him to stay.
4
Bram
Yesterday’s dinner was a success and a disaster. A success because the girlhas finally stopped acting as if I am the boogeyman and actually gave her attention to me, and a disaster because she was so tipsy that she almost fell asleep with her face in the plate.
The Bryce’s weren’t too happy and Mr. Bryce even demanded to know what exactly had gone down in my chambers. I told him that it’s better if he doesn’t know and I enjoyed the look on his face when he realized the power I have over the girl.
Because of my wealth and connections they don’t want to get on my bad side. At the same time, my wealth doesn’t mean everything. I wouldn’t be able to pay them and ask them to let go of the girl in return. She’s valuable to them. They’ve raised her and groomed her to be a trophy wife to their son and whenever they look at her, their eyes fill with greed.
They can tell that the girl has something special, something that can’t be taught or mimicked because it’s rooted in the girl’s DNA. She was simply born that way and they want more of her. But so do I and it infuriates me to think that I could have been late.
Even before coming here I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She occupied my thoughts day and night and those closest to me could sense a change in me and they weren’t wrong but they couldn’t put two and two together. They thought that I had met someone at the gentleman’s club but no, it was uniquely the girl.
I almost crawled out of my skin before coming here, the plan ride hellish because I knew that I would be coming to her but I had to curb myself. Some would say that what I’m doing is sick, perverted and taboo but a male like me does not care. I was raised to break rules not follow them but it is also what sets me aside from the girl because she was raised to act as if life is set in stone.
It isn’t. I know that better than anyone. Soon she will too even though she might resist.
If only a couple of more months had passed she would have already been married to the Bryce’s spawn. If he had managed to impregnate her then it would have all been over. But...it looks like I beat him after all and the girl will be mine and the only family she will have, she will share with me.
There is something about her that reminds me of women from the past, the way she gracefully moves, the way her back is straight as if she was walking around with books toppled on her head during her formative years.
This girl has never been out clubbing, she’s never been in crowds with men, trying to grope her or get close enough to catch a whiff of her throat.My throat. And as much as I feel contempt for the Bryce’s, I am thankful that they had enough sense to shelter her.
I am thankful that nobody was able to get to her before me because it could have easily happened. Someone in a car could have driven up beside her while she was walking down the road, asking her to get in. Anything could have happened while I wasn’t here but thank fuck it didn’t.
Ever since I saw her face on that photo, I’ve been wanting her in my bed, wanting the sweet smell of her on my skin, feel her closeness and a fury would hit me when I thought that I might not get to her in time and I would wake up in the middle night and grasp for her like she was there. She wasn’t.
But now she is.
Clearing my throat, I knock on her door and she calls out that she’ll be there in a minute. I wait for more than a minute but then she finally opens, looking flustered. And beautiful in a turquoise off-shoulder dress and white leather sneakers. My mouth waters at the sight of her, that burning need in my throat intensifying and I almost force an entrance, needing her now more than ever. While she still was wary of me, I kept my distance but now that she’s finally loosening up, I don’t want to hold back much longer.
“Hi,” she murmurs, her mouth curving in a smile like she’s happy to see me and it’s a nice change. “I didn’t expect it to be you.”
