I had considered that. “I know, but it was her whole body language. She just seemed happy to be outdoors, and to...” I swallow the knot of happiness and perhaps disbelief that clogs up my throat.
“And to what?”
“To be with me.”
He smiles.
“Am I fucking insane, Pierre? I feel like a fucking teenage boy.”
“You are in love,monami. It happens to the best of us, and yes of course it feels like you are going crazy.”
“I’m twice her age,” I remind him. I’ve never fucked a woman young enough to be my daughter before, let alone take her for a picnic and discover a new and incredibly satisfying use for butter.
He shrugs. “Only for one more year, and then you will simply be twenty-one years older.”
“I’m her godfather,” I add.
“In name alone. You have not known her for almost her entire life.”
Guy has an answer for everything.
“She thinks I murdered her parents.”
He throws his hands into the air. “Then tell her the truth. Tell her you did not!” He says that like it’s easy.
“She spent eighteen years of her life being convinced otherwise, Pierre. We know her grandfather is a piece of shit, but she loves the guy. She’s still loyal to him, and I’m not sure yet whether she’d believe me over him.”
“Not yet, but one day. Maybe you should look into her grandfather a little more,non?”
I’m already looking into him after the whole chess quote, but he’s frustratingly difficult to get information on. Like me, he has very little online presence. Despite being incredibly wealthy, he has very few expenses or social interaction. He’s a shut-in—even more of a recluse than I am.
I did entertain the notion that he may be the King I’ve been looking for, but that makes no sense. He’s just too... bland. The King, while his identity is protected, would live the kind of decadent lifestyle his wealth afforded him. Despite Imogen telling me Saul has six drivers, he rarely leaves his estate except foran annual board meeting once a year. He’s a born-again Christian, devout advocate oftraditional family values, yethe doesn’t even leave his estate to attend church. His expenses are minimal. He doesn’t fit the profile of a King.
“Find proof that he is a bad man, and then maybe she will believe you instead?” Pierre adds.
“I’m a bad man too,” I remind him.
He laughs. “Not bad to her though. Never bad to her. To her you are a teddy bear.”
Definitely wasn’t a teddy bear yesterday when I fucked her ass out in the open with only butter for lube. The memory makes my cock twitch in my pants.
I shake the image from my head. I came down here because I got an alert from one of my tracking software programs, and I need to focus on that. Not the siren currently sitting in the garden, looking innocent and far too fuckable for my mental health.
I drop into my chair and pull up the tracking program. “Bingo.”
“You have found something?” Pierre asks.
“One of the girls from the auction. She’s only a little over a hundred miles away too.” I check my watch. It’s a little after ten, meaning I could be there and back in a day if I leave this afternoon.
“You are leaving today?”
“Yeah.”
“You have not been home long.Mon chouwill be very sad.”
I know she will, and I hate leaving her, but if she knew why I was, she’d want me to go. She’d probably insist on coming with me. Now there’s a thought, but one for another day, one day in the future. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Maybe you and she could watch a movie or something? Explore a new universe now you’ve finished showing her the wonders of Marvel?”
He shakes his head. “You know I like to spend my evenings alone,monami.”
