Eyes Wide Open (The Blackstone Affair 3)

“Six months ago, I just said.”

“No, what day did you get him?”

I thought about that for a moment. “Well, now that you ask, I believe it was Christmas Eve, actually.” I looked at her and tilted my head questioningly.

“That was you! It was!” Her whole face lit up. “I was shopping for a present for my aunt Marie and it was so freezing cold. I had a bit of a walk ahead of me, so I dipped in there just to get out of the cold for a few minutes and it was nice inside. Dark and warm. I looked at all the fish. I saw Simba.” She laughed to herself and shook her head in disbelief. “I even talked to him. The clerk told me that he’d been sold and that the owner was coming to pick him up.”

Realization dawned on me in a sudden blast. “It was snowing.” I said in amazement.

She nodded at me slowly. “I went to the door to leave and brave the cold again, and you walked in. You smelled so nice, but I never got a look at you because I couldn’t take my eyes off the sight of the snow. It had started while I was inside the shop getting warm—”

“And you were shocked as you looked out the door and saw it. I remember . . .” I interrupted her story. “You were bundled in purple. You had on a purple hat.”

She just nodded, looking beautiful and maybe a tad bit smug.

I swear Brynne could have pushed me over onto the cobblestones with her pinky finger if she’d wanted—I was that floored by what she’d just told me. Talk about the divine hand of fate. “I saw you step out into the snow and check yourself in the window of my Rover before you walked off.”

“I did.” She brought a hand to her mouth. “I can’t believe that was you . . . and Simba, and we actually spoke to one another, two strangers on Christmas Eve.”

“I can hardly believe we’re having this conversation,” I repeated, the amazement still evident in my voice.

“And it was so, so beautiful when I came out.” She glowed at me as she remembered. “I’ll never forget what it looked like.”

“So I smelled good, huh?”

“Very.” She gave her head a little shake. “I remember thinking whoever got to smell you all the time was a lucky girl.”

“Man, I missed out on months and months of you smelling me. I don’t know if I’m happy about knowing this news or not,” I joked, but really was quite serious. Would’ve been nice to have met before all this mess. Maybe we’d already be married . . .

“Aww, baby, that’s so sweet,” she told me, shaking her head at me like I was crazy but she loved me anyway.

“I love it when you call me baby.”

“I know you do, and that’s why I say it,” she said softly in that gentle way she had. The one that made me insane to possess her and have her splayed out naked underneath me where I could take my time crawling my way up inside her, making her come and come some more, calling out my name—

“What are you thinking about, baby?” she asked, interrupting my inner erotic ravings, just as she should have done.

I told her the honest truth, in a whisper, of course, so nobody else could hear me. “I’m thinking about how many times I can make you come when I get home from work tonight and have you naked, and I’m all over you.”

Brynne didn’t respond to my little speech with words. Instead, her breath hitched as she swallowed hard, making the hollow of her neck and throat move slowly in tandem with the flush that started creeping up to her face. Mouthwatering . . .

The slight breeze made strands of her lovely brown hair dance across her face occasionally, necessitating that she brush it away every so often. Brynne had that certain special something— a joie de vivre that others recognized. When I had her in my view like this, it was hard to ever look away. I knew it was hard for others too. I didn’t like other people noticing her and looking. It was terrifying for me, and I knew why. Their attention made her vulnerable as a target, and that was something utterly unacceptable to me.

My eyes tracked the courtyard out of habit, scanning the patrons of the delicatessen as they came and went. It was a nice day for July, and crowded. The Games were going to turn this place into a mob of ungodly proportions. That worried me too. There were thousands of people coming into London for travel now. More athletes and teams were arriving each day. Thank the bloody gods I didn’t have that load on me. My VIP clients were going to be enough of a crush and a headache.

I was still cautious all the time with Brynne, and I had very good reason to be. Until I knew who’d sent the text to her phone I wasn’t taking any chances. Especially with Neil in the States. He’d be returning on Saturday with what I hoped were some leads on who this motherfucker was. If it led back to Senator Oakley’s camp, then that shit scrape was going down. I knew a few in government, and I would reel in favors if it came down to that. Calling my bluff on a serious threat to Brynne was like poking the rattlesnake with a stick. I was prepared for whatever I had to do in order to protect her.

“Are you finished?” I asked, noticing she’d stopped taking bites of her sandwich.

“I am. It’s baby steps right now.” She laid her palm on her stomach. “Literally.”

“I know, but you have to eat. Dr. Banana Probe said so. I heard him clearly and he is the absolute authority on these things.” I gave her an arch of the brows.

“Well I’m pretty confident that the good doctor would avoid food too if he spent as much time as I do hung over a toilet, puking his guts out after eating some.”

“You poor thing—and you have a very good point, my beauty.” I leaned in to kiss her lips. “What have I done to you?”

She scoffed and kissed me back. “I think that’s fairly obvious, considering where we just spent the last hour.”