Page 54 of Broken Bonds

“You have no idea how much.”

???

After leaving dinner in Lionel’s hands, I go upstairs for a long, well-deserved shower. Lionel said I shouldn’t go downstairs before eight-thirty or I’ll ruin the surprise, so I have plenty of time to call Valerie. It seems like we haven’t spoken in centuries. I drop onto the bed with the phone to my ear.

“It was about time you remembered us—the poor folk,” she says after answering the second ring.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I rebuke her. The sunset has tinted the white ceiling of the room we shared since we left the hospital ten days ago pink and orange. “I’ve been busy.”

“I imagine, with that husband of yours, he must be keeping you very busy, hussy…”

Valerie isn’t Lionel’s biggest fan, she was my only confidant and she knows of all the problems we had back in Carrollton.

“Lionel has changed a lot, Valerie,” I begin to explain. “This very afternoon he offered to help me establish my online store.”

I hear a gasp come from the other end of the line. “Well, it seems he has changed, now let’s see how long it lasts.”

“Valerie,” I scold her, I imagine her running her hands through her red hair. “Lionel has really changed. I’ve been talking to this woman who knows him well. Her husband is one of his closest friends, the one in charge of his security.”

I tell her what Alexandra and I talked about. To her credit, I must say that Valerie listens to me, although in the end she adds, “Just be careful, I don’t want your heart to break again. As you tell me, this new Lionel isn’t just dangerous, he’s lethal.”

When Lionel comes up for a shower, I’m still on the phone talking to Valerie, this time onto lighter topics. She tells me about the latest town gossip, about the planning for the cleaning day on the river and things like that. Valerie is enrolled in many committees. In Carrollton a leaf of a tree doesn’t fall without her finding out.

“Are you ready?” Lionel asks me when he comes out of the bathroom. He’s dressed quite casually, worn jeans that fit him well and a gray T-shirt that hugs all the muscles in his chest.

He reaches out his hand, and I take it without thinking.

“What did you cook for us?”

He just smiles, neither of us saying a word as we walk down the stairs with intertwined fingers. “When we reach the foyer you have to close your eyes, okay?”

“What if I fall?”

My lion kisses me on the forehead before answering. “Don’t worry, I’m going to be there to catch you. You never have to worry about hitting the floor.”

The irony of the situation doesn’t escape me.

But when I get to the terrace, my worries reach an epic size when seeing what is there.

Valerie’s words come back to my mind. This Lionel is lethal.

And he really is making me fall, and nothing can stop him.

Chapter 18

“What did you do, Lionel?”

He stole my breath away. A part of me screams to hold my horses. It’s like an avalanche, a thousand things go through my head at the same time. Lionel has upped his game and in no way was I prepared for the rule change.

“This can’t be.” I know I have to build my walls up again and find a way to protect myself. But my heart hits the gas, it only cares about thundering toward a stroke. “What is all of this?”

I swear a bit of color goes up Lionel’s cheeks, but he tries to hide it as he shrugs and smiles mischievously.

“I-I… had this in my office,” he explains. “I-i-it wasn’t a big deal.”

But for me it is, it’s as big as Mount Rushmore.

“No one has ever done something like this for me,” I mumble, and it’s true.

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