Authors: Elizabeth Nelson
She found him in his den looking over some important looking papers. After her brief knock and his: “Come in,” she stood in front of his desk with the coffee clasped in her hands. Savannah knew at once she was looking for comfort, for reassurance of some kind, that the maid was just full of shit and didn’t know what she was talking about. But she couldn’t ask for that reassurance.
“Sit, please,” he said with a wave of his hand toward the sofa on the other side of the large room.
As she sat down in the padded antique fainting couch, he put his papers away and stood up. He walked gracefully across the room to join her, his tall body casually clad in boat shoes, jeans, and a lavender dress shirt rolled up at the elbows. Savannah she felt her admiration and love for him swell up and overflow her inside. All her doubts inspired by Marie’s spiteful words fell away.
Graham sat on the couch next to her, lifted her until she was sitting in his lap. He smelled of a recent shower, coffee, and a darker scent, like a damp and dark forest. He touched her cheek.
“Have Marie help you move your things into my bedroom. Our bedroom.” His thumb brushed the edges of her mouth. “After that, I want us to enjoy this Sunday together,” he said. “Tomorrow I’ll be leaving town for a few days on business. You’ll be on your own here. Except for Marie and the rest of the staff, of course.”
“Of course,” she said, smiling. “But since you’re not here, I might as well be on my own. I’ll miss you.”
“I’m glad to hear that, because I most certainly shall miss you. One night of you in my bed isn’t nearly enough.” He caressed her face with the back of his hand, and Savannah closed her eyes, moving into the caress like a cat.
She loved him so much.
“When will you be back?” she asked.
“By Friday, at the latest. If things work out well for me, then perhaps I’ll come back a day or two earlier.”
“I hope things work out really well for you, then. The sooner you’re back here with me, the happier I’ll be.”
He smiled down at her, gray eyes bright with some indefinable emotion. “Your happiness means the world to me,” he murmured. Then he lowered his head to kiss her, pulling her even more firmly into his arms.
When
Savannah woke up the next day to get ready for work, Graham was already gone. The house immediately felt different, duller, not as interesting. But she gathered her fallen spirits and left for the office, intent on burying herself in business at the magazine until he returned from his business trip.
On her lunch break, she called her friend, Elise, and told her about her and Graham’s engagement. Her friend squealed into the phone.
“Oh my God! I told you this would happen.” She squealed again in delight. “We absolutely have to celebrate. What are you doing now?”
“I’m on my lunch hour, just sitting at my desk.” As she talked to Elise, Savannah picked at the salad she’d bought at the deli downstairs.
“That will not do, my dear. I’ll be there in five minutes. I’m taking you to a proper lunch!” Already, Savannah could hear sounds of movement in the background: keys jangling, shoes against tile, the whir of a garage door opening. “Five minutes,” Elise said. “Meet me downstairs and I’ll pick you up.”
Elise didn’t give her the chance to accept or refuse, merely disconnected the call with the assumption that Savannah would be there waiting.
Of course, she was. Barely three minutes after stepping outside the high-rise building in downtown Miami, she saw the pale blue gleam of Elise’s little Jaguar. The car coasted to a halt in front of the building, blocking traffic behind it. The passenger door popped open.
“
Get in, Ms. Bride to Be.” Elise’s low voice bubbled with humor.
Savannah got into the car, closing the door behind her. Elise immediately engulfed her in a perfume-scented hug.
“Congrats, honey!” Elise was gorgeous and chic in a pale yellow designer mini dress, a waterfall of tiny gold chains cascading over her chest and breasts. “I knew it would happen, but I didn’t think it would be this fast. I’m so happy for you!”
Behind them, a car honked its horn. Elise glanced briefly over her shoulder but otherwise ignored it. Only when she was good and ready did she release Savannah from her scented hug and pull off. The car behind her honked again. She ignored it again.
Elise took her to a restaurant nearby where she pumped Savannah for every detail of the proposal. She blushed in remembered passion and pleasure just thinking about it, but gave her friend a PG-13 version of the events.
“He proposed to me after we had dinner,” Savannah said as the waiter placed champagne glasses of mimosas in front of them.
“That’s it? No orchestra to serenade you? No sky writing?” Elise looked disappointed.
“No,” Savannah waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t need any of that stuff,” she paused. “The dinner was very romantic. I never dreamed we would click so well or have as much to talk about, and afterward...” She bit her lip, trying to decide how much to tell.
Elise’s look was intrigued. She grinned at Savannah like a cat waiting to pounce on a particularly juicy tidbit. “And?”
“Then we had the most incredible sex I’ve ever experienced in my life,” she said finally. “It was after that happened that he asked me to be his wife.”
“Oooh!” Elise murmured, fanning a hand near her face. “Much better than an orchestra or sky writing.” She leaned toward Savannah and grabbed her hand. “So where’s the ring?”
For a moment, she was lost for words, not knowing what to say about the collar she wore, if she should say anything about it. But...
She drew her hand away from her friend
’s and touched the gold collar at her throat. “This is it.”
Elise stared at the wide, glittering band around Savannah’s neck. “Oh!” She leaned forward to inspect it, to run her fingers the length of the piece that seemed to have no clasp to remove it.
“I didn’t know you were into that.” There was no judgment in her friend’s eyes, just a dawning realization, a slight widening of the brown eyes.
Savannah blushed. She didn’t bother to ask Elise what she meant. If by the sight of the collar, she knew what Savannah was “into” then there was no denying it.
“I am,” she said. “And he is, too.”
“I’m happy for you, honey.” Elise shrugged. “As long as you’re safe and you’re sure this is what you want, I’ll support you all day long.” She lifted the glass of mimosa and held it up, “To happiness.”
A wide grin spread across Savannah’s face then. She lifted her glass in turn, “To happiness.”
Because Savannah had to get back to work, their lunch was sadly brief. With their luncheon sushi devoured, the mimosas happily consumed, and tight hugs exchanged, Elise dropped Savannah back at the magazine with a promise to meet up soon to begin planning the details of the wedding. Savannah went back to work with a lightness in her step she hadn’t thought possible. She felt like she’d just “come out” to her friend, accidental as it might have been. Although she hadn’t realized it, Elise’s acceptance of the way she lived her life meant something to her.
For the rest of the day at work, she floated on a cloud, the happiest she could remember being in years.
“There’s someone at the door for you.”
Savannah looked up from her book at the sound of Marie’s voice. The woman stood in the doorway of the library, her maid’s uniform immaculate, her face an unreadable mask.
Savannah frowned, wondering who it could be visiting her. She’d already talked with Elise earlier that day and agreed to meet after work on Friday to discuss the possibility of a bachelorette party and anything else that might come up. Her other friends in the city hadn’t been in touch with her for weeks--or she with them--so she really had no idea who the visitor at the door could be. Savannah put down her book.
“Show whoever it is, please.”
After a brief spasm of what looked like disapproval on her face, Marie withdrew. Moments later, she was showing a tall man dressed in jeans, a plain white t-shirt, and work boots into the living room. Savannah got to her feet.
“Michael! What are you doing here?”
She smiled at her surprise visitor, crossing the room to warmly clasp his hand. It seemed like weeks since she’d seen the policeman and her former neighbor. So many things had happened between now and that accidental meeting at the coffee shop that she hardly knew what to say to him. In Graham’s world of opulence and leisure, the rugged cop hardly seemed to fit it. But he smiled easily at her and clasped her hand in return.
“I’m just stopping by to say hello and offer my congratulations on your engagement,” he said.
“Thank you! Come in and have a seat.” Savannah led him to the sofa where she had been sitting, moving her paperback novel out of the way to make room for him.
Once they were seated, he leaned back into the sofa with his thighs spread wide, making himself comfortable. He looked the same as always, rough and capable with his black hair cut almost militarily close to his head, his bright green eyes taking in everything around him, everything about Savannah, without seeming to stare. She idly wondered if he had his gun on him and if this was a social visit or something more.
There was an alertness to him that she wasn’t used to seeing, a subtle tension that wasn’t something she could immediately point to. Everything about his posture spoke of relaxation and ease, but that didn’t distract her from the knowledge that he was absolutely alert, absolutely aware of everything going on around him.
“Thank you for welcoming me into your home, Savannah,” he said, his tone almost formal.
“You’re welcome. I couldn’t do anything less. You’ve been very kind to me even when you had no reason to be.”
“No one ever needs a reason to be kind,” he said with a faint smile. “But I do know that my visit here was unexpected so I wasn’t quite sure of my welcome.”
“You’re always welcome here,” she smiled at him.
It wasn’t simply because he had been so helpful to her through the scare she had when her apartment was broken into; he was just a nice man, a nice person. In Miami, she realized people like that--men or women--weren’t easy to come by. Everyone seemed too focused on their own lives, on what they were scrambling for, to take the time out to be kind to anyone else, especially strangers. That was one reason she hadn’t made that many friends in the city.
“That’s nice of you to say,” he said. “You’re a good woman.” His green eyes were bright and intent on her face, as if searching for something.
Unexpectedly, she found herself blushing. His gaze was unnerving in its intensity, like he could see into the very heart of her, beyond the person she was with Graham, Elise, or even with her brother. She cleared her throat. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Sure. I’d like that. Lemonade if you have it, water if you don’t.”
“I’m sure I can find that. Give me a moment.” She stood up and left for the kitchen where she found a pitcher of freshly made lemonade. She brought that and two glasses on a tray back with her into the library. As she walked back into the room, Michael stood up. She paused for a moment, surprised at his gentlemanly act. Then she smiled, shaking her head as she came toward him to put the tray on the coffee table.
“I didn’t think men did that anymore,” she said.
“In the presence of a lady, absolutely.” A tiny smiled touched the corner of his mouth. He sat down after she did.
“I didn’t mention it earlier but that’s a really nice piece around your neck. Is that for your engagement?”
Savannah’s lashes quivered as she flicked a glance of surprise at him. Did everyone in Miami know what the collar signified? When she walked out in the world, was she also openly walking around to everyone as a submissive in a BDSM relationship?