Page 69 of Ruling Scar
People swerve around her and a large group spills out of the bookstore, bags in each of their hands. I want to know what’sdisplayed in the window because Adeline lifts her hand, her fingertips grazing the glass before she drops it.
It’s like she glitches, the way she steps back and pushes her hair off her face. Her movements aren’t shaky, but they’re robotic, adding to my worry.
She turns and walks away and for a second I think of a little kid walking all alone.
“Ads,” I call after her, but the pitch isn’t loud enough to be heard.
Elijah pushes a strand of hair out of my face, forcing my attention away. “You don’t know that it’s anything bad.”
He’s right. The bookstore is gorgeous and getting a far-off look isn’t grounds for immediate concern. But the worry doesn’t fully subside.
After a few frozen moments, I link my elbow through his, pressing into his side. “Hey, Elijah.”
“Yes?”
“Um, you know don’t you, that most boyfriends buy their girlfriends books.”
He laughs. “Come on you insatiable thing.”
It’s the truest nickname he’s called me yet.
CHAPTER 16
Elijah
Leopold is turning into a nuisance.
He’s dreaming if he believes he’ll own Leonora one day. But what really irks me is the constant fright she’s in.
The bastard will end up dead and buried eventually, but in the meantime, Uncle Dima continues to put out feelers, while I do everything I can to pull Leonora closer to me.
It’s up to me to keep her safe. To show the bastard he’s coming after what’s mine.
Most men would drop it immediately, but Leopold wants to play.
Fine. It’s been a while since I’ve had the thrill of a game and better yet, this one brings Leonora nearer.
It’s something that should’ve happened years ago.
If it weren’t for some stupid steak knife, an overbearing mother, and the fact that Leonora continually scuttles into the shadows, she would’ve been mine years ago.
I don’t say it lightly and I don’t say it because I want what I can’t have.
Leonora is mine.
I claimed her years ago, when I recognized that she alongside my brothers, are the only company I could stand. She’s notannoying like her sisters. And even as a kid, she never grew offended at the blank masks I wore.
After the accident, and when her family kept her away, I realized I missed her presence. For years when I stepped closer to her either someone blocked my path or she dodged me.
This Leopold, damned as he may be, did me a favor by delivering her to my doorstep.
And then when I woke up to her hand around my cock, I decided she’d never leave.
But despite exploding on my tongue, she remains shy. I went to lunch with her on Friday and bought her a load of books after we saw her sister acting strangely.
She refused to come to me over the weekend. The hiding’s going to get on my ever last nerve.
And she refused to sleep over tonight, but she did arrive for dinner. I’m chopping vegetables, while she perches on a barstool. A basketball game plays in the background and Albert hovers, hoping for scraps.
