“Miss North, wait.”
Warm fingers curled around her wrist, halting her progress. Zia bit her lip and stared at what she hoped was the door. She hated the dark that waited just outside this tiny ring of relative safety he provided, but she preferred to lick her wounds in private more.
Still, she waited, horribly tense, for whatever it was he wanted to say to her. Would he tell her not to come back tomorrow morning? Would he scold her for how ridiculous she was? Would helaugh?
She would take almost anything over him laughing at her. It would cut so much worse coming from the man she’d nursed an impossible crush on for so long.
“Come into the house and warm up before you go.”
Zia was so surprised, she actually swung her head back around to peer at the vague shadow of his face. “I’m sorry?”
In his deep, deep voice, he repeated, “Let me walk you back to the house. You’re cold, you’re upset, and you’re not fit to drive. Let me… make you tea.”
Without thinking, she blurted out, “Do youhavetea?”
Zia wanted to melt into the floor.For Glory’s sake! Why can I not keep my damn mouthshut?
Miraculously, Mr. Bounds didn’t appear to take offense to her insensitive question. Instead, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Sometimes I buy things that look nice, though, so we might get lucky.”
Oh.Why did she find that painfully endearing?
“Okay,” she breathed, momentarily dazed by the image ofMr. Boundsbeing so taken with a tin of green tea he could never drink that he bought it anyway. It was… kind of cute.
The warmth of his fingers vanished, leaving her somehow colder than she was before. She watched him scoop up his phone. He flicked off the flashlight setting before he turned to press just the very tips of his fingers against her back, ushering her forward.
Of course, without the light, she immediately stumbled over what she could only assume was a hose that hadn’t been there a minute ago. “Shit!”
Mr. Bounds grabbed her arm, only just saving her from a nasty spill into her workbench. He cursed as he gently righted her. “I’m having this fixed tomorrow,” he rumbled, turning the light on his phone back on. Stuffing it into her slack hand, he added, “I didn’t realize this would be so hazardous. Forgive me, Miss North.”
Something hot coiled in the pit of her stomach when he touched her back again, firmer this time.
“Really, it’s fine!” She let out a high, nervous laugh. “I’m the one who shouldn’t be leaving tools on the ground, or— or be here when I can’t see them, I guess.”
His entire hand rested on the small of her back now. Zia could feel the heat of it radiating through the layers of her sweatshirt and tank top as he guided her toward the door. The smell of soap, woodsy aftershave, and something richer, muskier, cut through the earthy scents of the greenhouse.
Her hand shook ever-so-slightly as she pointed the phone’s light at her feet.Calm, Zia. He’s just a man.
“I’ll have lights installed. Not just in the greenhouse, but all over the grounds. I didn’t realize it could be this unsafe for you.”
“Oh, it’s okay. It’s not your fault I have weak human eyes.”
His voice got somehow deeper, colder, when he said, “If I wasn’t here tonight, you could have tripped on that hose and smashed your head open. By the time my guards would have thought to look for you, you could have been dead. That is unacceptable.”
ChapterFour
They reached the door,and Mr. Bounds shifted to the side to open it for her. That coil of heat in her belly got just a little hotter.
“Put that way, I agree that a light would have been nice, butyoudon’t need them,” she protested, stepping out onto the familiar gravel of the rose garden’s path.
“No, but you do.”
His fingers flexed on her back. With each step they moved slightly closer to her hip, until the palm of his hand molded to fit the curve of her waist.
Zia’s fingers tightened around his phone. He obviously meant an expansive, all-staff-encompassing sort ofyou,but that dreamy part of her felt a littlezing! when he said it.
However he meant it, she wasn’t about to argue the point. She was in enough hot water without contradicting him.
Biting her lip, she tried very hard not to think about the fact that Mr. Bounds was carefully guiding her out of the rose garden, up the brick steps, and across the patio to his gorgeous manor house.
