Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

James ran toward him as he rode up the street. Phillip slowed his mount and fought to hide his smile at the sight of the boy. His sharp mind and cunning were intriguing to him.

This time, however, James didn’t stop. There wasn’t even a wave. The boy blew by him, feet churning up the dust as he ran right on past. While his horse snorted, Phillip turned his head to follow where the boy ran, and watched him vanish around the corner.

Not quite sure what happened there, he continued on his original way despite staring after the child. He’d overheard his housekeeper’s assistant mention she had seen Fyre this morning helping out Georges because he’d injured his arm, and that alone had been enough for him to leave his home and come into town.

He wanted to see her. And it bothered the hell out of him that he couldn’t have her at his place all the time. She lightened up his world. Being the selfish bastard he was, Phillip wanted to keep that around him, all the time.

Stopping his horse at his destination, he swung down and tipped his hat to a few of the women walking along the street. They smiled and blushed but he didn’t stop, just walked into the shop he hoped to find Fyre at—Mr. Holmes’ Mercantile.

He strode in, boot heels clacking on the wood floor. It didn’t take him long to know that the woman he sought was nowhere in the building. Fyre gave off a vibe when she was in a place. Hell, when she was anywhere. And it was one that resonated through him like part of his own beating heart.

That was absent today and he didn’t like it.

Mr. Holmes was at the counter. He smiled and nodded. “Good day, my lord. Is there something I can help you find?”

Moving toward the aisle that held the toys he’d gotten before, he shook his head. “No thank you, I was just looking to see if there was anything new for my nephew and nieces. Miss Gwen helped me out last time.”

The man tsked and muttered something he couldn’t make out. “She should be back in a few days.”

God, all the questions that perched on the end of his tongue fought to escape. Phillip bit them back. He wasn’t about to beg for information. Not from this man. So instead he looked over the shelves quickly and picked up two new items there and took them to the counter.

“These two will work.”

“I will charge it to your account, my lord. Would you like me to wrap them?”

“Yes.”

He longed to know what was going on. After he finished here, he would track down James and get his answers.

Mr. Holmes wasn’t as fast as Fyre, but he was efficient and it didn’t take long before Phillip was striding out the door he’d entered not too long ago.

It turned out he didn’t have to locate James to learn anything about Fyre, for he spotted her across the street. She had just come out of Caulfield’s place and his heart caught.

It wasn’t fair. This woman could bring him to his knees with nothing more than a look. But unlike other women, he didn’t think she cared about the power she wielded over him. Not in the slightest.

Albie stepped out after her and called her name.

A low rumble of possessiveness rolled from Phillip’s chest as he watched her stop and turn back, protectiveness a swift second given how he read her body language. She was scared.

Phillip swung up on his horse and rode across the street. Both people glanced up at him. Albie’s expression was dark but smoothed away quickly, Fyre’s unreadable.

What wasn’t indecipherable? The way she didn’t hold their gazes, either one of them, but looked down at the toes of her dusty shoes. The slight tremble to her fingers as she flexed them on the strap of the bag she held.

This wasn’t in any way the woman he had verbally sparred with recently at his place. And it bothered him. Who had done this to her? Made her appear…scared and vulnerable. Better question, who was he going to kill?

“Afternoon, my lord,” Albie said, shifting slightly to position himself closer to Fyre.

Another move that Phillip wasn’t fond of.

“Caulfield.” He looked to the woman who had solidified a place in his heart. “Miss Gwen.”

A slight curtsey. “Lord Edais.”

When she straightened, her collar dipped, and anger lashed at him like a storm-tossed sea when he noticed the marks on her neck.

“We were in the middle of a discussion, my lord. Is there something I can help you with?” Mr. Caulfield’s grating tone raked over him and he didn’t give a fuck.

I want answers.

“No.” Not giving a damn if he ruined the man’s day, bastard shouldn’t be sniffing around Fyre anyway. “I need a word with Miss Gwen.”

Her gaze flicked between the both of them and she licked her lips. “Is it something that can wait, my lord? I should be getting home.”

“No.” Again, a one-word answer, but he didn’t trust himself to try to string together more than that. Not as pissed as he was. He swung down and fisted the reins. “I will walk you to the edge of town.” A fleeting glance back to Caulfield. “Caulfield.”

They walked in silence until he was confident that Albie couldn’t hear them. Sure, there were others who watched, but it didn’t matter.

Who the fuck cares?

“What happened?”

“I am sure I do not know what you mean, my lord.”

“Do not push me on this, Fyre. I will carry you to the doctor right now and have them look you over. Who the fuck put the marks on your neck?” It was a good thing the leathers didn’t have feelings because he surely would have wrung them dry or broken them in two had they been stiff.

Her hand fluttered to her neck ever so briefly.

“It is not very gentlemanly to point out the scars on a woman’s neck, not even if one is an earl.”

Despite the situation, he couldn’t help but grin at the primness in her tone. This woman had an uncanny way of soothing the anger within him, using nothing more than a few words and the barest of smiles.

“We both know,” he muttered, “I am no gentleman. I work at it for one reason only, Fyre.”

She glanced at him, the question blatant in her gaze. He dug the fingers of his hand into his palm to keep from reaching out and cupping her cheek. They’d stopped walking.

“You, Fyre. You are the reason I try. But do not make the mistake of thinking I am a gentleman.”

The tiniest smile turned up her lips and his heart cavorted within his chest.

“I think you are far more of one than you want to admit to yourself. But thank you for trying.”

He stopped and so did she. “Do you know how badly I want to kiss you right now? How much I long to pick you up and back you into the post there, using it to push us together? I am no gentleman.”

“Yet you are telling me what you want to do instead of doing it. That, to me, is the mark of a gentleman.”

Damn her.

“Would you let me?” Gods, he wanted to move closer to her. “Would you let me kiss you in town? Would you let me do that to you?”

Her fingers danced over her skin once more, enticing him all over again. “I think, my lord, that once again, our discussion is not appropriate. However, I will say this—I believe any woman who is worth your love and affection would jump at the chance to be touched and kissed by you often. Regardless of the place it happened. If you will excuse me, my lord. I need to get home.”

She was gone, leaving him alone with his horse in the middle of a town that hadn’t quite found its place in the world yet. His body was so hard for her it ached. Ignoring the current state of his cock, he swung up in the saddle and turned his horse back in the direction they’d just walked from.

He wanted nothing more than to follow her, put her on his horse with him and ride out to his lake. That was it.

I will take her on a picnic.

He remembered Lucien and Ciara doing those and enjoying them. Fyre would as well.

I hope.

Finishing up in town, he was still pissed at the reminder that he hadn’t learned what had happened to her or who it was that had put the marks on her neck. Fyre was so good at distracting him. Although he had a very good idea who the culprit was.

And it was his responsibility to make sure it would never happen again.

* * * *

Fyre stared at her reflection as she rubbed the cream Marta had given her into the marks still standing out against her darker skin. The woman had been the one to find her and knew who had done it because Fyre had broken down in her arms.

All day she could feel people looking at her, and she’d tried to keep her neck covered as much as possible. Albie had not said a word, but Phillip, he’d known. Somehow that man, the earl who by every single account should be off limits to even her thoughts, he’d known.

And had been pissed on her behalf.

But then, that man always looked at her like she mattered. To him. Scowling at herself, she closed down that line of thought. It wasn’t one she should be following.

She still shook as she fixed herself something to eat. After she’d eaten, she set about cleaning up and thought about the current state of her life. Something had to give, and if things were any indication, she would end up being the one who had to give all.

I do not want to have to do that.

A firm rapping on the door dragged her from her thoughts. Clutching her scarf tighter around her neck, she went to the door, hesitated and hated herself for it before she pulled it open.

Phillip stood there. Larger than life and everything her mind created for her when she thought about what made her happy, and what kind of man she would like to spend her days with. His expression was hard, unforgiving, but his eyes, they told her a completely different story.

He was concerned for her.

“I was just thinking about you.” Fyre blushed as the words slipped free. How she longed to be able to take them back.

One eyebrow rose and the side of his mouth twitched up as his eyes heated.

Determined not to look away from him, she cleared her throat. “Lord Edais, how may I be of assistance?”

He never let go of her gaze, just reached out and dragged the backs of two fingers down the side of her cheek. Her belly erupted into a mess of tumbles.

“I am always thinking about you,” he whispered.

When he dropped his hand, she felt the loss. Deeper than any she’d felt before. This man had gotten far beneath her skin, all without trying.

“We need to talk.”

No more softness in his tone. This was the voice she heard from him at his place, barking orders he didn’t believe anyone would dare contradict.

“There is nothing to say if you have come to let me go. Just tell me and be done with it.”

She didn’t have it in her to curb her tone. Quite frankly, she was done with the men in her life making demands and telling her what she could and could not do. Her outburst clearly surprised him, at least a tiny bit.

His eyebrows went up, both this time, and his lips twitched before he composed his features once more. Two others stepped up beside him and behind them, she noticed a maid.

“I already told you I was not firing you. Stop assuming that is why I am here when I come by. This is about you trying to hide the fact someone attacked you.”

It was then she recognized one of the men beside him. The one on the right, he was what passed for the law around the island. Or one of them.

“Twice.” Phillip’s voice was dagger-sharp.

Her fingers flexed again, her nerves ratcheting up. She didn’t typically have any use for the law. They sided with the plantation owners and the larger business owners on the island more often than not.

Were they all corrupt? No. However, enough were to make her suspicious. Plus, she’d grown up with Elonne bad-mouthing them, and that didn’t exactly inspire trust from her side.

“I am fine.”

“Bullshit,” he snapped out before her words could even fade from the air. “You have been attacked twice, no way you are fine.”

“May I have a word, my lord?” A deep breath. “In private?”

Liquid steel watched her. “Step away,” he commanded without looking away from her. Arms crossed, he didn’t say another word until the two men had moved back to the maid who stood there, watching the entire situation. “This is as alone as we can be right now, Fyre. I go inside your house with you and I will be inside your body in seconds, filling you with my cock, making you scream my name as you come apart around me.”

She’d not been prepared for the amount of heat that hit her at his blatant honesty.

Licking her lips, she noticed the way his gaze tracked the movement, as well as the low groan that slipped from him.

“Why are you insisting on pushing this?”

The heat vanished, leaving behind the cold man who so many on this island feared.

“Because you were attacked. And I know who did it. He lays a hand on you again, family or not, he will be answering to me and he will not be pleased with the outcome.”

“I cannot have you stepping in to fight my battles.”

“I already have.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “You are the most obstinate, infuriating woman I have met in my life. I am trying to protect you. Do you know how much I want to make you move into my home, so I know no one can get to you?”

She watched his expression as it morphed into something she could only describe as tortured.

“I did not ask for your protection.”

“Of course you did not ask. You are too hardheaded to do so. You are one of my people, Fyre.” A jaw clench before he took a deep breath. “You are mine.” In a louder voice, he continued, “I do what is necessary to protect those who work for me. And if that means I pay to have someone guard you, then that is what I will do. But I will not stand for you to have to walk to work after a sorry excuse for a human attacked you. Your choice is go along with this or I will move you to the estate.”

Others had begun to gather, including Georges and Marta. Not wanting to be the center of a scene, she sucked in a deep breath.

“You are causing a scene, my lord.”

“Oh am I?” He pitched his voice louder. “Good, because I want this to get back to the ones who are cowardly enough to attack a woman. They touch you again, I will kill them.”

“What are you saying?” she hissed. “You are all but declaring that you are after me.”

The immovable man vanished as his features slid into the ones of the man who liked to tease her. His gaze softened and he winked. “If they want to believe that, good for them, but trust me, Fyre, when I make it known that you are the woman I am courting, it will not be because I have to force you to take some protection.” He prowled closer. “There will be kissing, and a hell of a lot of it.” Phillip’s grin made her weak in the knees.

“Everyone can hear you.”

His smile grew wider. “I know. Maybe it will get back to that pussy Caulfield and remind him to keep away from you.” Phillip stepped back from her and she had to curl her fingers into her palms to keep from reaching for him. “It is going to happen sooner rather than later, Fyre. Fair warning. In the meantime, this is Damon, and he will be watching to make sure no one touches you.”

How was it possible for the man to make her feel so much?

The man he’d named Damon stepped forward and nodded. “Ma’am.”

“I will send a carriage for you later.” Phillip turned to the law officer only to stop and stride quickly back to pause before her. “Unless you’d like to invite me inside and we can continue our discussion there?” That damn infuriating eyebrow went back up.

Fyre knew he was goading her. She couldn’t forget his words, even if she’d wanted to. Which she didn’t.

“No, my lord. You made your point.”

“Pity.” Another wink. “Perhaps later then.” He walked away without a look back, engaging the lawman as they departed.

Then it was her and Damon along with all the onlookers.

“You will not know I am around, ma’am,” he muttered for her ears. “I am just here to keep you safe.” He stepped away and she looked at Georges and Marta, whose concern for her overflowed their expressions.

Everything had just gotten so much more complicated.