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“Please keep your phone on so I know you’ve made it home safe,” he pleaded.
“I’ll be staying at Claire’s indefinitely.”
“Evie-”
I held up my hand, stopping him. “You lost the right to worry about me. As far as you’re concerned, I’m someone else’s problem, and he is so drunk right now he won’t even notice I’ve gone.” I went to the back room and grabbed my purse. I had so many memories of this place. Good memories of helping my dad. But he had betrayed me too, and I now wondered how old I was when he sold me to another man. The rolling in my stomach returned. I needed to get out of here. I hurried through the pub and out the front doors, pulling out my phone to order the Uber. A 1964 vintage black Aston Martin convertible pulled up with Keir in it. He stopped and got out, coming around to the passenger side. “Get in,” he said, opening the door.
“I just got an Uber.”
“Cancel it.” He took my arm, helping me into his car. “I’ll take you home, but first, let’s go back to my place so we can talk,” he said, getting behind the wheel and driving off.
“Fine.”
“That was quite the eventful evening,” he said. “I take it he was your ‘kind of’boyfriend.”
“Yes, but it’s not what you think.”
“Aye, whatever it is, it’s not good. You’re frightened of him.” He rested his hand on my thigh.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because I recognized the look in your eyes. It was the same look you gave me when I forced you to marry me. You were scared then too.” His thumb gently rubbed the skin on my leg. “Do you love him then?”
“What do you think?”
“Why did you accept that bloody cheap diamond from him?” he asked after a bit. “After the tirade you gave me.”
“Cormac lacks intelligence. He would have never understood what I was talking about. His world is small, he only sees what is right in front of him, and if it benefits him, he cares nothing for the bigger world and other people.”
“Yet you’re going to marry him.” He turned into the garage at the Four Seasons Residence and pulled into a spot.
“Like I said, it’s complicated,” I repeated myself.
“Well, you can tell me about it later,” he said, giving my leg a squeeze. “We’re here.” He got out and came around to get me. We entered a private elevator that took us up to the penthouse encompassing the top two floors. The door opened into a large hallway.
I followed him into the main living area. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined three of the walls, overlooking a spectacular view of the city. “It’s gorgeous,” I said, running my hand along one of the cream leather sofas. “This is where you live?”
“For the most part, when I’m in LA. I sometimes spend my weekends at my beach house in Malibu.”
“And if you’re not in LA?”
“Then I stay at my other residences.”
“Oh, and where are those exactly?” I asked. Except for our short weekend together, I knew nothing of the man before me.
“New York, London, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, and I suppose now my island in Shetland.” He smiled. “Are you impressed, lass?”
“How could I not be?”
A thin thread of familiarity linked us together. It was neither friendship nor love.
Intimacy perhaps.
We knew each other in a different way. A private one. It was a knowledge of body but not of soul. There was still a lot to learn.
He took off his suit jacket and placed it over the arm of a chair. “Are you hungry? When was the last time you ate?”
“I haven’t. My stomach couldn’t handle it,” I said. “I’m afraid I drank too much last night.”
