Page 8 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
But he wasn’t about to let her or any other human being go that deep with him. “What’s your favorite color?” he asked her.
Another surprise from him. She’d never met a man who was so interested in the details of her. Although she also knew it was a way to hide the details of him. But she liked his attention so she went along with it anyway. “I like the color purple,” she said. “You?”
“I like brown.”
Savannah smiled.“Okay.”
“Not like you mean,” he said, and they both laughed.
It was a joyful laugh. Marcellus didn’t remember the last time he laughed like that. She had such potential in his eyes. No other woman had ever come close to the kind of potential he saw in her. He could actually see himself proud to claim her as his own. She would keep him on his toes, that was for damn sure. There wouldn’t be a dull moment with a woman like her. He could see her as the one and only Mrs. Marcellus Drakos, he truly could. Which was so crazy to him that it was scary to him. He wasn’t in the market for a wife! Why would he even think such a thing?
Maybe it was the loneliness. In truth, he was tired of being alone. He paid women to be with him, when he had to have somebody, rather than go through the motions of a relationship with someone who was with him only for the power and position and money he could give to them. That kept his heart secured. But it did nothing for his happiness. He didn’t know what it meant to be joyous. As he was getting older, it was getting to him.
After nearly two hours of talking and getting to know each other, and Niko still hadn’t woke up once, they both concluded that he was out for the night. They both stood. They both stretched. And they said their goodnights in the living room.
Since it was a two-bedroom apartment, Savannah made her way to the guest bedroom down the hall while Marcellus made his way to the sofa. But it wasn’t lost on either one of them when Savannah made it to the bedroom door and looked back, Marcellus was already staring at her. Something past between them. Something quite sensual. But it was as if they both knew that was dynamite that could blow up in their faces. She went on into the bedroom and closed the door, and he bunched some sofa pillows beneath his head and laid on his back.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Savannah Richardson. He even pulled out his phone and Googled her. Theonly mention he saw of her was a post about how she was the secretary at the House of Drakos, which was the name Niko used for his fashion house. His brand, however, wasNikolas Blaise, which Blaise was his middle name. But he could find nothing else on her. Which made him feel foolish looking her up.
But even after putting his phone away, he still couldn’t shake her. Not that pretty face that had a way of looking so sincere even when she was joking. And the way she smiled such a beautiful, perfect teeth smile. And her skin tone. Such beautiful skin. Smooth, brown skin that looked so soft that it made him want to touch her every time he looked upon her. And that body. He’d always preferred a woman with curves, and she had them in spades. And the way her large breasts moved with the movements of her body kept him on edge too.
And even the fact that she was a handful, which she was, was a turn-on too. The way she didn’t let him or Niko get away with shit. The way she stood up for herself. The way she questioned what he always thought was unquestionable intrigued him. He wanted to know more about her, not less. That wasn’t the issue. If she wanted to know more about him was. And by the way she seemed frozen when he asked if he stood a chance with her, he thought regrettably, she didn’t have the same curiosity for him that he held for her.
Until, less than thirty minutes after she had gone into that bedroom and he was still laying on his back on that sofa, he could hear the bedroom door open again. When he looked, he saw her coming out with a blanket and a pillow in her arms. She was thoughtful too. His heart soared.
“Thought you could use these,” she said as she handed them to him.
He didn’t say anything as he took the pillow and placed it under his head and took the blanket and put it over his body.
Savannah thought it was rude of him not to at least say thank you, but what did she expect? She had laid down and was in what felt to her like a trance of thoughts about him. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. She’d toss and turn and turn again. But he weighed heavily on her mind. From the moment she laid down she wanted to grab a blanket and pillow and take it to him, to make him more comfortable, but she didn’t want to come across as some hot tamale looking to get laid. She usually didn’t care how things looked concerning her, or what people thought of her, but when it came to him she did care. More than she thought possible, she cared.
But after about half an hour of this, she thought about the man himself. He gave her a break by helping with Niko. He helped her out. Why couldn’t she help him out? And who gives a shit how it looked?
That was why she got out of bed, still in her little shorts and t-shirt, grabbed that blanket and pillow and made her way to the living room. It took a lot for her to do that. And he couldn’t even say thank you? That bothered her. But not enough to make an issue out of it. He was just some rich dude who figured, because she worked for his son, she worked for him too.
Forget him, she thought, and turned to head back to the bedroom.
But Marcellus couldn’t let her leave. He just couldn’t. And as soon as she so quickly turned to leave, he lost all reason and grabbed her hand.
When she turned and looked at his hand now gripping hers, and then looked into his eyes, she looked confused. So confused that it made him wonder if he’d taken leave of his senses too. What was he doing?
But despite her confused state, that look of sincerity in her eyes kept him holding her hand. And when that confusion suddenly turned into a look of what he could only describe aslove, he knew then he was on the right track. He slowly, lovingly pulled her against him. Then he slung back the blanket, pulled her on top of his body, and put the blanket over both of them. She laid her head on his chest, and he wrapped her into his arms. It was the sweetest thing he’d ever done. He closed his eyes. He could hold her forever.
Savannah was more alarmed than anything else by his gesture. What did it mean? She had a tendency to attribute too much to men who gave her any outsize attention, and she was learning not to do that anymore. But the way he held her was so tender, yet so sensual, that she felt as if she was melting in his arms. That they were melding as one. It was the most unusual feeling she’d ever felt.
And when the radio announcer over Niko’s stereo system said a group calledHall and Oatswas about to sing a song calledSara Smile, a group and song she’d never heard of before, she tried to ignore it. Elevator music might have been Niko’s thing and it helped him tremendously during his sick nights, but it wasn’t her thing. But the words to that particular song, as Marcellus held her, as she laid in his big, warm arms, touched her deeply:
“Baby hair,
with a woman’s eyes.
I can feel you watching in the night.
All alone with me,
and we’re waiting for the sunlight.
When I feel cold, you warm me.
