I don’t remember agreeing to come home with Storm. One minute I was telling him no and that I was going to work out my next steps alone, and the next he was bundling me into his sports car and peeling out of the alley behind the club like a bat out of hell.
Snow seemed both amused and concerned by the way her brother was acting, and Doc became distant after I told him what my sister’s intentions were tonight. I suppose hearing someone’s own family would sell them like they’re cattle will do that to a person.
Storm drags me out of my thoughts when he reaches over the center console of the car and grasps my hand in his, visibly relaxing the moment our skin touches. As strange as it may sound, he has the same effect on me.
I’m not stupid, I know that Storm Saint James is so far out of my league that the fact he’s holding my hand at all is a small miracle, but there’s something about not only him, but the way he looks at me that sets a fire in my belly. No one has ever affected me like this before, and by the way Snow looked at her brother every time he touched me, I suspect his behavior isn’t typical for him.
“Are you warm enough?” he asks, the deep rumble startling me. His brows knit together and he lets out a long breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I know you’ve been through a lot tonight, it’s only fair that you’re jumpy.”
My mouth drops open in surprise at his words. Did Storm Saint James just apologize to me? He doesn’t seem like someone that apologizes for anything, let alone startling the woman who he’s already saved from being sold, looked after, and now is insisting on taking home like a lost puppy he found on the street. “I’m warm enough,” I murmur, dragging my attention from the god of a man sitting beside me to the buildings passing us on the way out of the city. I assumed when he said estate it wasn’t going to be in the city, but now I’m questioning my own decision that I still don’t remember making. Who’s to say he’s actually going to take me somewhere safe and this isn’t some elaborate plan set up by my family? I’ve heard the stories about Frost Industries walking both sides of the law, so how do I know he isn’t involved in human trafficking?
“Your hands are freezing,” he grumbles, carefully taking his hand from mine and cranking the heat higher. If he keeps this up, it’s going to be an oven in here any minute now. “And why are you tense, you’re safe now?”
I sigh. Why do I get the impression he’s never had to be gentle with anyone in his life? “I’m tense because I’m in a car with a strange man, going somewhere I don’t know, and I’ve had the worst night of my life. It’s kinda hard to relax.” I don’t mean for the words to come out quite so harshly, but I can’t help it. Never in my life did I expect to meet a man like Storm, let alone have him insisting on taking care of me, and I don’t know what an appropriate reaction is to everything that’s happened tonight.
“You’re right.” His eyes momentarily meet mine before returning to the highway in front of us. “I can’t imagine how terrified you must be, and my reactions likely aren’t helping that, so I apologize. My brother Rayne’s wife, Emerson, is a counselor and she’s meeting us at the estate. Her and her father run the Chicago Center for Youth and she’s seen a lot of bad shit in her time, so if you need to talk to someone about what happened tonight, she’ll be there. But I can assure you that no harm will come to you while you’re in our care.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“For what?”
“For saving me.” The words fall from my lips before I can stop them, but I can’t bring myself to regret speaking them. I should thank him for what he’s done for me tonight, because god only knows what fate would have been ahead of me. I’ve tried not to allow my mind to wander to what could have been tonight, but the thoughts sneak through the defenses I’ve built.
Storm takes a turn off from the highway and onto a road with tall pine trees lining both sides. I don’t think he’s leading me to my death, but this is a lot like the horror movies Sarah used to make me watch when I was a kid just to terrorize me and then complained when I woke up screaming in the middle of the night. The sun peeks over the horizon, the faint orange glow lighting the road ahead of us. I didn’t realize it was so late, or early I guess.
“You shouldn’t have needed to be saved, baby girl, because what happened to you tonight never should have happened,” he growls, and this time I don’t find myself flinching away from the sound. Instead, the deep timbre finds its way to my core and an unfamiliar ache takes hold. I should not be thinking about the things I want Storm to do to me. Not after everything that happened tonight, and not when he’s at least ten years older than I am.
What do I have to offer a man like Storm?
Not a damn thing.
Before I have a chance to respond, he takes another turn onto a long driveway with a large wrought iron gate at the end. Holy shit. Perhaps I should have expected something like this, but then again when you grow up poor, with your parents constantly reminding you that you’re a burden, you forget that there are people in the world who have this much money, who have houses that each room is bigger than the entire apartment I grew up in.
I’m speechless as the gate opens and after a few moments, we drive into a clearing with a mansion on the other side of the driveway. Oh my god. I don’t belong here. Someone like me has no right being in a place like this.
“Uh, Storm,” I say quietly, unable to wipe the shock from my voice.
“Yeah baby girl?” He stops the car at the bottom of the large stone staircase and turns in his seat. His eyes brush over my body as if checking I haven’t got any extra injuries during the drive. The way he looks at me is like he truly cares about my health and safety, but that’s insane… right?
I look down at my bare thighs, unable to look into the intensity of his gray eyes for a moment longer and tug the coat he wrapped around my shoulders as we left the club closer. “I think maybe I should go back to the city.”
A quiet rumble fills the car and even without looking at him I know he’s trying to reign in his anger. “No. You’re going to stay here where you’re safe.”
“But I don’t belong here, Storm. This is too much after everything I’ve been through tonight.”
After a few beats of silence, I glance up at him to find him staring at me curiously, like he’s not quite sure what to think of the words I’ve just spoken. “Normally women aren’t so against staying in a mansion and being protected from people who might be coming after them,” he muses. “But it seems as if you’re different to the other women I’ve spent time with.”
I’m not sure if I should be offended or not, but I kind of am. I know he’s out of my league, I don’t need him to remind me of that. I’ve been made to feel like a burden my entire life, I don’t need him to make me feel like that as well.
“Sorry,” I snap. “Can you just call me a cab and I’ll get out of your way?”
He looks stunned for a moment before his brows pull together with confusion. “That’s not a bad thing, Ayvah. I like that you didn’t jump at the chance to come home with me because I know you’re not going to use me because I have money.”
I glare at him for a long moment, my arms crossed across my chest with defiance. I don’t want to rely on him, or anyone for that matter. Look where that’s got me in the past, sold by my own goddamn family. But there’s something about the way Storm looks at me with such earnestness that I can’t believe he’s going to hurt me. “Why are you helping me?” I probably should have asked the question long before I allowed him to carry me to the car and drive me to his secluded estate where he could do anything he wants to me and I’d have no way to get away or alert anyone, but after everything I’ve been through tonight, it didn’t occur to me.
Storm watches me for long moments as if he isn’t sure of the answer himself. A ruthless man like him wouldn’t normally be interested in the safety of an eighteen-year-old girl he just met, but when he looks at me like he is right now, I can’t help but wish I was more.
All I’ve ever wanted is for someone to love me, but I’m not so naive that I don’t know a man like Storm Saint James isn’t capable of such an emotion, and so there has to be a reason he’s helping me. I just hope that reason isn’t as dark as the future I would have had if my family’s plans had gone off without a hitch tonight.
