Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
All the food on the table, with its enticing smells and beautiful colors, could no longer hold my attention. Anger instead of fear pulsed in my veins.
If you’re going to threaten me at least do it without hiding behind an anonymous email.
Chase snatched my phone and read it. A feral noise erupted from his throat as he shot up. His chair fell back to the floor.
He wrenched out his phone and pressed a button.
“You threaten her through an email?” Chase roared and stomped out of the room. “I don’t care!”
I stood up and followed him. “Who is that?”
Ignoring me, he went into the bathroom and shut the door.
The lock clicked.
“Then who did?” he asked. I twisted the doorknob to make sure it was actually locked. It didn’t turn.
“Stay on topic!” he yelled. I jumped back at the volume of his voice. Something slammed as if he’d hit it. “Then I’ll never come back with this behavior.”
I banged on the door. “Chase?”
“I’m not acting different,” he said.
Minutes passed. He shouted out sentences I didn’t get the context of. Then finally silence came.
The door clicked.
Chase walked out.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He didn’t look at me as he stomped into the room. His voice was thick with rage and concern. “I’m adding two extra guards to you, but everything is okay.”
“Who was that?”
“No one.” He put his phone in his back pocket and returned to the table. “Don’t think about this again. It was someone’s anger, not a serious threat.”
“Then why two more guards?”
“I like to have you protected.”
“But you also think I’m in danger and that the email was a serious threat.”
“No.”
“You’re full of it.” I placed my hands on my hips. “Chase, I’m not going to—”
He got up from his seat, rushed to me, and grabbed my arms. “You run, and I’ll—”
“I’m not running.” I tried to shove him away.
He captured my lips and dipped his tongue in my mouth.
I twisted my face away from him.
“Do you think I can’t protect you?” He nibbled the curve of my neck.
“I shouldn’t need you to protect me.”
“You don’t.”
“Then why more guards?”
He blew out an exasperated breath. “Look. Three girls have died before. It’s a sad fact that I’m not comfortable with. Any little thing, whether it’s a big or small threat, I’m going to take seriously.”
I formed my lips into a grim line. “So you think I’m in some sort of danger because of the schedule?”
“No. I think one of them is mad that you messed up their dates. They want to scare you, but just in case I’m wrong, you’ll have four guards just for my and your sanity.”
Tension hardened around my shoulders. “Who did you just call?”
He averted his eyes. “Dawn. She was the most upset by the trip and all the running after you.”
“You think she emailed me that?”
“She tends to do irrational things when she feels our relationship is threatened.”
Your relationship?
A tiny pang of jealousy hit me.
“She thinks I’m falling for you too quickly and that I’m treating you differently,” he admitted.
Are you?
The words clung to the tip of my tongue, but I kept them in my mouth.
He rubbed his forehead. “We should cut the three-day trip I had planned to two days.”
I forced myself not to frown or pout. “So we’ll leave tomorrow night?”
He nodded.
I struggled with relaxing and not lingering too long on any of my anxious thoughts—the threatening email, Dawn’s hold on Chase, how he felt about me, or what his shortening of the trip truly meant.
“Jasmine, are you okay?”
I have four guards monitoring my every move. Relax.
“Yes. Let’s enjoy this while we can.” I slipped out of his arms.
Several emotions bundled together and dropped to the pit of my gut—jealousy, annoyance, and anxiety for the days to come. I shoved them to the back of my mind and promised myself to not think about them again.
Chapter 21
Surprise
To my dismay, the hours in Paris raced by. Each instance I collected a mind-blowing memory. Celebrities lounged in the Ritz lobby and strolled the hallways. Holding in shrieks and screams, I warred with myself to not ask for autographs. Besides, Chase always remained next to me in a composed and cheery mood. If he didn’t seem star-struck, I wouldn’t either.
Throughout the day, we rode bikes all over the city and visited shops, sampling food to my heart’s content.
Chase had to drag me out of a cheese shop where I’d attempted to taste every item in the place.
Next was a store dedicated to varieties of honey products, from lavender honey nougats to a spicy honey mustard that scorched my tongue.
In pastry shops, I gorged on macaroons sandwiched with a sweet ganache or butter creams that came in many flavors—rose petal, vanilla, salted caramel, and pistachio.
But my true undoing was when we arrived at Dubernet Foie Gras and I spotted several types of foie gras stacked from floor to ceiling, pates in combinations I’d never imagined, and sausages that beckoned me to come and try them.