Page 9 of Fergus

“History.”

“Impressive. I’m being serious,” he assured when Thea eyed him skeptically. “Teaching isn’t an easy profession nowadays. I’m not sure it ever was,” he dismissed wryly. “I’m guessing this is the Easter holiday if you’re still actively teaching but currently spending time in Paris?”

“Yes.”

“History was one of my favorite subjects at school,” he reminisced. “I have my degree in History and War Studies.” He’d mainly been interested in the battles and strategy used to either win or lose them.

“I know.”

Of course, she knew. He had no doubts that Thea would have made it her business to find out everything she possibly could about him before she flew to Paris to speak with him. He would have done the same in her position.

Despite his derisive reaction earlier, Fergus could admit, if only inwardly, that itwasworrying that someone had broken into Thea’s apartment.

It also didn’t seem like the actions of someone Lev Yegorov would have sent to watch and guard her. Not when whoever had broken in had also made themselves comfortable on the bed Thea slept in. Fergus doubted that the lecherous and possessive-sounding Lev would have liked that at all.

Fergus wasn’t sure where the theft of the pillow fit into that scenario, but its disappearance was as concerning as the rest of what Thea had told him.

The real question was whether he was willing to commit to going back to London with Thea to look into this situation more thoroughly.

Whether he was willing to test his own self-control by spending more time with her, when he knew how much he wanted to kiss and bite her delectable arse!

CHAPTERTHREE

Thea could seethe indecision in Fergus’s expression and knew it was because, as she had suspected would be the case, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted anything to do with something that would mean he had to continue to interact with a woman with the surname Morgan.

Her mother had a lot to answer for.

Not least being the way in which she had tried to trick Fergus when he didn’t fall in with Jessica’s plans to marry him.

What would Fergus have been like as a stepfather?

Better than Andrei, Thea would take a guess. The Russian had never been cruel or mean to her. On the contrary, she had been telling the truth when she said Andrei had basically ignored her existence after she refused his financial assistance.

She had no doubt Fergus would have made a much better stepfather.

Although Thea had to admit, the fact she now found herself attracted to him might have made that situation more than a little awkward!

How could she not be attracted to him?

Fergus was everything that encompassed tall, dark, and handsome. His age of forty-two also gave him an air of experience and sophistication. He was so handsome, with that chiseled chin, high cheekbones, and piercing green eyes, that he could have been a model on the cover of one of the romance novels Thea liked to read in her spare time. Throw in the fact he wore his elegant suits like aGQmodel, and she doubted too many women would be able to resist him.

A fact Thea had noticed more than one Frenchwoman confirm as they walked past Thea and Fergus seated together on the bench.

Thea had noticed during the past couple of days that Frenchwomen, most of them elegance personified, could be very judgmental when it came to how a man looked and dressed. Fergus obviously more than passed those stringent tests.

Thea wondered what he would look like in a pair of fitted jeans and a shirt with the collar unfastened and the sleeves rolled up to just beneath his elbows.

Just as devastatingly attractive, she would guess.

But she hadn’t come here to drool over how attractive Fergus now was.

“I’m staying at the George V hotel?—”

“As most millionaires do,” he taunted.

Thea sighed at his obvious mockery. “It’s been listed as the best hotel in Paris. As I doubt I will ever have reason to come back here again, I thought I might as well stay at the best hotel.” Her chin rose. “I’m not paying for my stay with any of the fifty million pounds Andrei left my mother, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, that is sitting safe and untouched in the bank, accruing interest, and it will continue to do so until Lev agrees to take it back.” She shrugged. “Apart from a weekend in Cornwall last summer, I haven’t been on holiday for years, and so I decided I had enough money saved to treat myself to a stay for a few days in the best hotel in Paris.”

She didn’t regret that decision either. The hotel was as amazing as its online hype had said it was. Her suite even had a view of the Eiffel Tower. She could also see the rest of the magnificence that was the Paris skyline out of the spacious floor-to-ceiling windows. There was even a balcony in the sitting room she could step out onto if she wanted to.

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