Page 34 of Greed: The Savage
No, the man behind Addien’s sparkling laughter knew how to laugh, and make women laugh…
His fingers curled into loose fists at his side.
Correction.
He knew how to makeAddienlaugh.
Why did that distinction—
“There ain’t nothing you can’t do,Snap.”
Roy.
Roy, who, like Addien, had no surname that he either knew of or used. He was one of Dynevor’s, and subsequently Thornwick’s, best guards.
That’s who’d been laughing in that carefree way?Roy? With a dark, angry personality to rival Thornwick’s, he’d never caught the fellow crack a grin, let alone a laugh.
“This, I can’t do,” she said, truthful in a way Thornwick had never heard her. No, correction. Truthful in a way she’d never been with him. There was a slight distinction between the two. The very lightest. Thornwick wasn’t exactly sure what the distinction was, and he was too unbalanced to sort it all out.
“You aren’t giving yourself enough credit, Snap.”
Snap.
A muscle ticked in Thornwick’s cheeks.
What an irritating moniker. It was a name for a schoolroom child and not the Valkyrie who’d faced the devil Mac Diggory, and flown brighter and higher for her fight than any phoenix. To him, she was and always would be Addien. Those lyrical syllables joined together, he’d come to find, rather suited her. Addien. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know much of anything. Right now, Thornwick found himself discombobulated.
“Roy, there ain’t a prayer in a penny chapel I’m going to pass for a lady.”
His brows dipped another notch.
It appeared for all his observations, the chit did allow someone in.
This discovery set off an unknown, unfamiliar feeling in his gut. Something dark and raw and primal.
Only because there’s so much you don’t know about her. When you conducted such thorough research, this dark, unpleasant feeling was all a product of professional frustration with himself.
“This from the girl who taught me to read.”
She’d taught the guard to read? She’d failed to mention as much while she’d shared parts of herself.
The timbre of Roy’s voice changed. “Do…enjoy…”
Whatever Addien’s reply, it came stuttering and shy.
Thornwick gritted his teeth.
Bloody shy?
Addien.
Addien.
This was bloody enough!
The bloody guard had work to be doing at this hour, and instead he stood here flirting with Addien?
He’d bloody sack the bas—
