Page 33 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
“We believe you now,” Marcellus said as he unfolded his legs, removed his arms from the back of the sofa, and leaned forward.
It was only then was Savannah able to look beyond his good looks and see his pain. She knew Niko called him difficult and coldhearted, but that wasn’t what she saw in his eyes. There was something that seemed so decent about him when she looked into his eyes. Something that made her feel that he was being straight with her and wasn’t about the bullshit. She felt a sense of calm in his presence. Like she was in the presence of a kindred spirit. He was in total control, but in a good way. In a welcoming way. It was the same way she felt eight years ago and still felt.
It was the oddest thing for Marcellus, too, because he suddenly felt a need to confide in her when he never confided in anybody. But he felt as if his secrets would be safe with her. He didn’t know why he felt it. There was no reason on earth for him to feel anything about this woman but resentment and bitterness. But he felt just the opposite. “This is one of my worst nightmares,” he said to her. “It’s what I’ve feared since the birth of each one of my children. I kept security on them, of course, very elaborate security, but Niko especially was very adept at evading his security detail. To his own foolish detriment,” he added.
But it was that addition that alarmed Savannah. “To his detriment? Are you saying they’ve done something to him, sir?”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way. I meant detriment in the sense that his lack of security aided his abduction.”
“Oh.”She nodded.“Right.”
Then she leaned back and leaned her head back as well, as if the stress was getting the best of her. Marcellus studied her neck. Most women showed their age in their necks if nowhere else. But not her. Her neck was as smooth as silk. Justperfect. And for the first time since he first broached the subject to her eight years ago, he wondered about her status. Was she married? Engaged? Or just seeing somebody? Or was she, as he was, not at all interested in any attachments?
Perhaps it was a needed distraction. Something to get his mind off of his child. And it worked on the edges. But only on the edges.
Until tears appeared in her large, clear eyes. “Don’t cry,” he said to her.
“I’m sorry,” Savannah said. “But the idea of Niko being held captive by people who could do him terrible harm just . . . . I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” said Marcellus. Now he remembered why he was so instantly enamored with her when he first laid eyes on her. She was something else.
She was attempting to wipe her tears away with sides of her fingers. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cry.”
“It’s alright. It’s okay.” Marcellus was truly concerned about her distress. So much so that he felt a need to comfort her.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Stop apologizing,” he said firmly, “and come here.”
Savannah felt like an idiot crying in front of the man who was already in deep despair about his son, as if she felt for Niko even more than his own father did. But there was no denying her fear for his safety. She was very concerned.
She would not have ever gotten up from her seat had she not needed some reassurance, some comfort from this man from whom she only felt good vibes. She got up and went and sat beside him on his couch.
As soon as she sat down beside him, he felt the weight of her, as if she was suddenly his responsibility. As if while she was over there in that chair, she was just another person talking withhim. But now, sitting beside him, felt like she was much more than that to him. As if they were picking up where they left off.
Although he dared not touch her, he felt her. He pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. “Look at me,” he said to her.
She hesitated, as she wiped her tears with his handkerchief, but then she turned and looked at him. But it didn’t help. As soon as she saw that compassionate look in his big, blue eyes, she melted. And even more tears came. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said as she wiped the new tears away. “I’m not an emotional person.”
“Could have fooled me,” Marcellus said truthfully as he stared deep into her tear-stained eyes.
But that little comment, for some reason, did something to her. It made her realize that she was vulnerable in that moment. That she wasn’t herself in that moment. And she quickly wiped her tears away for good.
But there was something else too. She got up from her seat and came to him when he told her to because she expected him to comfort her. To put an arm around her and give her more reassurances. Just like he did before. But he didn’t make any such move. They were seated beside each other, and his muscular arm was touching her much smaller arm, but he made no move on her. No hug. No staring at her lips. None of the things men normally did when they wanted something from her. But he seemed totally content just to have her by his side. As if that was enough for him and it should be enough for her.
She realized, in that moment, that it was. Just sitting beside him, with him not giving her any empty words of comfort, was what she needed more than any hug could give to her.
For several moments they sat there, side by side. At one point he looked at her again, and she looked at him. “Feel better?” he asked her.
She smiled a smile he saw as weak at best, nowhere near the grand smile she had given to him when they first met at Niko’s place, but it was a smile that was completely sincere. “Actually I do feel better, yes sir. Thank you. I guess I just want Niko back.”
He nodded his head. “As do I,” he said in a way so heartfelt that Savannah felt it.
At another point he leaned back while she remained on the edge of the seat, and she could sense he was assessing her. But even that didn’t disturb her. For some reason so outlandish that she couldn’t put it into words, she didn’t mind his scrutiny. She welcomed it the way she would welcome someone close to her making certain she was okay. That was how Niko’s father made her feel. Like he was concerned about her welfare. Like he cared, which was ridiculous. But that was how she felt.
It was a different level for Marcellus as well. He wanted to hold her, and rub her soft skin, and smooth down that wild ponytail of hers that inwardly made him smile. But he didn’t do any of those things because he felt she deserved better than that. Touching her would be wholly self-serving. But being there with her, in a way he’d rarely been for any other human being, went well beyond any physical attraction he had for her.
Although the physical part was there too. There was no denying that. He got hard the moment she sat beside him. But it was almost insignificant to him compared with how she felt, and what she was feeling, and if she was going to be alright. That was his focus. Not his sexual needs the way it always had been, but she was his focus. Her wants. Her needs. It was such a foreign concept to him that it bordered on the inexplicable. Marcellus Drakos caring about how some woman he’d only met once before felt? Who would believe it? He barely did himself.
