Page 89 of Receiving His Mercy
“You’re welcome, Goldie. I’m here for whatever you need. Although we will be having a chat about you not telling me what sort of photographer you are. Oh, and about how you got here tonight since you’re supposed to call me if you need to go out at night.”
Lord.
This man.
He was a raving lunatic. But a lunatic who’d just saved her from being assaulted by an overly-enthusiastic man with garlic breath.
Bloody hell, he’d stunk. She’d actually thought she was going to be sick.
There was already a headache thumping in her temples. She really hated these kinds of things. Too many people, too much talking. She’d had three showers today alone. Her stress levels were through the roof.
Why had she agreed to do this?
Ahh. Yeah. Exposure. To get these photos out in front of people. To get them talking.
She still thought that they should open the first night up to the public. But Oliver liked it to be invite only. At least for the opening.
Just as she’d thought she’d been about to pass out or run off, Travis had parted the crowd like he owned the place, drawing her away from the crowd.
Like a flipping hero.
How amazing was that? She’d had her own hero moment.
With the guy she’d had a crush on for years.
For a moment she’d been concerned that she was headed into a panic attack. And it wasn’t about disliking crowds or functions like this where people tended to fawn over her.
She’d handled that sort of thing in the past . . . no. This fear and panic was a more recent thing.
Something else that fucking bastard had given her.
A fear of being hemmed in. Of not being able to reach an exit.
Being trapped.
Okay. Don’t think about that right now.
“You need to leave at any time, say your safeword, got me?” Travis growled at her.
Caren stared up at him in surprise. And to her shock, she felt her panic lessen. How did he make her feel safe?
She should be trying to find ways to extricate herself from his hold. After all, the crazy man had just declared himself her boyfriend to a bunch of strangers.
Well. He did do that to help you.
True. It wasn’t his fault if she wished that was real.
Everything was mixed up in her brain. The fact that he’d given her the most spectacular orgasm of her life and that he kept inserting himself into her life to boss her around and protect her didn’t gel with the man who she had barely heard from this last week.
Yep. It was no wonder her mind was a mess.
“My safeword? Won’t people wonder why I’m calling out red?” she asked dryly.
He snorted. “Half of these people probably have a safeword of their own. Don’t be fooled by the diamonds and tiaras, there’re kinky fuckers everywhere.”
Her lips twitched. “You should get that put on a T-shirt.”
He grinned down at her. “I should.”
