The vision of Rob’s eyes popping out of his head while Lu Garrett bounces on her tippy toes like a demented pixie is one of the most satisfying in my life to date.
I check my watch.
‘Aw, I gotta go,’ I say a little sadly. ‘Meeting Daisy after dinner.’
‘Say hi for me!’ Lu sings.
I nod and leave the warehouse, a small smile playing on my lips. Two down. One more to go.
Chapter Thirteen
Daisy
Downstairs in Sauvage’s dining room, even the delicious food isn't enough to draw me completely out of my melancholy thoughts, and my lowkey panic about meeting with the cops tomorrow.
But it’s necessary. I need to help my guys, and the first step in doing that is to help myself. The police watching me is just another complication I could do without and I need to get this guardianship thing gone. I need to make Andy listen to me.
Mav and Blake are at the club tonight, so the table is very quiet without them despite Sauvage spending the meal telling me stories about where he grew up in Paris, and making sure I'm entertained. I think he might miss me when I move out of his hotel.
After I’ve eaten the chocolate mousse I was looking forward to, I go back to the penthouse. I find Shade up there waiting for me. We cuddle on the couch for a while with a movie on and then take a shower. Afterward, he spreads my legs and devours me for his dessert. It’s nice and it’s familiar. When I come, it’s relaxing and muted and it’s exactly whatI need after the past few days. We fall asleep in each other’s arms.
In the morning, I wake early and go to the gym. Mav appears around nine and we run together on the treadmills until our legs feel like Jell-o.
When we get back into the penthouse, there's a chocolate muffin waiting for me on a plate. Mav makes himself a coffee. He gets me a cup of tea at the same time, and we sit in companionable silence while we breakfast.
'Do you need to go to campus today?' he asks.
I glance at him. 'Actually, I'm going to the Novelle estate, and I have to see the detective afterward.'
‘The detective?’ He puts his coffee down.
‘Yeah,’ I sigh, ‘but Shade is having his lawyer meet me there.’
Mav doesn’t look happy.
‘It’s necessary,’ I tell him. ‘Otherwise they’ll think I have something to hide.’
He snorts. ‘You haveseveral somethingsto hide.’
‘Yeah.’ I start pulling my muffin apart. ‘But their somethings and my somethings aren’t the same, so as long as I don’t act suspiciously, they’ll probably just think I’m sorta stupid.’
‘Is that the card you’re going to play?’ he asks, and I get the sense that he’s upset on my behalf that I have to pretend to be what I’m not.
‘I don’t mind,’ I say, looking at him. ‘Might as well use it to my advantage.’
I pop a piece of muffin in my mouth.
Mav regards me with a frown on his face, but he drops the subject.
‘And Andy?’ he asks. ‘Do you really think he’ll change his mind?'
‘I don’t know, but I want to see if I can appeal to him about all this stuff, the marriage to Marcus, and the fact that he sees me as some kind of mentally challenged person in constant need of care. It’s just bullshit John put in his head. Maybe if I can show him that it's not true, I don't know, maybe he'll go through the court and have the guardianship bullshit overturned even if it’s only so he doesn't have to waste Novelle money on me. Maybe I can even get him to call the lawyers in NYC so they’ll talk to me about my own business.'
'Who's going with you to the house?' he asks.
I give him a look, the same one I gave Shade last night. 'I'm a full-grown woman. I'll be fine.'
'Will you?' he asks, his eyes seeing a lot more than I’d like.
