Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“Both,” I said frankly. “He can protect us.”
“Yes, by keeping you in a cage, Cami.” My mom looked around Emma’s beautiful room with distaste. “How do you even breathe in here? There’s no light.”
In fact, there were two large windows in Emma’s room, both of which framed the gorgeous blue skies and allowed bright white sunshine to flood in. I raised my eyebrows laconically and gestured to them.
Mom, realizing that she’d overplayed her hand, switched tactics. “In Morocco, she could actually go outside. No one would know we were there. She would be safe.” Now her voice was earnest, persuasive. I was swayed for just a moment, thinking of it. We’d spent one summer in Marrakesh in a 10,000-square-foot villa owned by a friend of my parents. It was a beautiful place filled with natural wonders. Emma would love the beaches and the waterfalls – but no. The fantasy evaporated as quickly as it had solidified. Landon would never go for it, and no matter what ultimately happened between us, I wasn’t going to disappear again.
Annoyance creased my mother’s brow briefly. She had expected this to be easy. I’d been dependent on her and the Lavigne Beauty fortune for so long, surely, I would jump at the chance to be wrapped in its luxurious embrace again.
“I hope you know what you’re getting into with this man,” she said delicately, her dark eyes shining imploringly into mine.
“I do.”
The truth was, I had no idea, but strangely, I was okay with that. I’d had a golden safety net spread out beneath me my entire life. Having it ripped away had been jarring. Replacing it with the mysterious, dangerous web Landon spun around me was unsettling at times, but I felt more alive than I ever had.
I didn’t want to go back to the way things had been.
19
LANDON
Cami didn’t tell me that something was wrong after Elyna and Robert left, but I knew something was.
“They gave you shit about me, didn’t they?” I asked.
“Of course they did.” She poked me and tried to smile. “You’re an old man, remember?”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her close, feeling some of the tension relax from her body as she leaned against me. “Do you want to cook or order in tonight?”
Cami sighed, tilting her head back to look up at me. “I guess there’s no way we can go out to eat.”
I considered it. “If you really want to. I could get a few of my guys on the restaurant.”
Cami made a face. “No, that’s okay. Let’s just stay in. I don’t want to drag some poor guy away from his own dinner table to stand around watching us eat.”
“They wouldn’t exactly be watching us eat, Cami.” I didn’t bother explaining what they actually would be doing because I didn’t want to freak her out, talking about the various dangers a protection officer had to be on guard for. I held her close for another minute, thinking. She was clearly tired of this apartment, and I couldn’t blame her. Even I was getting a little sick of being in it all the time, and I went out more than she did. I knew that if we went to a restaurant though, I wouldn’t relax without a few guys on the place, and she wouldn’t relax with a few guys on the place.
“I have an idea.” Reluctantly, I unwound my arms from around her supple curves to pull out my phone. “Let’s go to Con’s place for dinner.”
Cami’s eyes lit up with interest. “Con who just had a baby?”
“Yeah, I think you’ll like his fiancé Lily. She’s close to your age.” I called him to make sure, but as I expected, he and Lily were ordering in. They hardly went out anymore since they’d had Harper.
When we told Emma we were going to visit friends of mine who had a baby, she ran back to her room and grabbed a fuzzy purse and a stuffed blue dog. “For the baby,” she explained.
I wasn’t sure whether she meant the purse or the dog, so I just nodded. “That’s nice of you, Em.”
“I know.”
On the way to Con’s, I reminded Cami who he was.
She didn’t need much reminding though. “The one with the teenager, right?”
“Halley,” I confirmed. “She’s not a teenager anymore, though. She just graduated college.”
When we got to Con’s, he had the Chinese food they’d ordered set out family style down the center of the dining room table. He’d remembered to order a few vegetarian things for Cami, but he sent her over to his wine collection to see if any fit the vegan criteria. Lily went with her, curious as I had been about what made wine vegan. Emma went over to the pack n play where Con’s youngest, three-month-old Harper, was laying.
“Can you get her out of there?” she asked Con. “I don’t think she likes it.”