I wish I didn’t want my mother’s approval, but it was the one thing I wanted most in the world, and there were days I would do anything to get it. On those days, I tended to disappoint her most.
I watched her a moment longer, playing the conversation I wished would happen in my head.
I’m sorry, Mom.
That’s okay, because I love you, Abigail. No matter what you do, I will always love you.
After I’d stood there too long, Mother waved a hand for me to go.
I stopped just before the huge portrait of my father, Charles Crowne. He’d had a hard, square jaw and arresting reddish-brown eyes, and in certain lights, they looked purple. His eyes were the only thing I received from him, the only hint I might be a Crowne. He’d been gone for so long this was how I remembered him, in paintings and pictures.
“God, that was so much more satisfying than I imagined,” Gemma said to my back. “I think I came.”
“Oh, eat a dick, Gemma.”
“I would, Abby, but you’ve already gotten to them all. You’re the Pac-Man of dicks.”
It doesn’t count if it happens in Crowne Hall.
I spun around and raised my hand to throw one of my heels at Gemma’s head, but my hand froze midair, captive in someone’s grasp. When I looked over my shoulder, my knees buckled, and I nearly fell.
Theo.
Theo held me up by my wrist, unperturbed by the sudden weakness in my legs. I had questions…a lot of questions. Almost five years had passed since I’d last seen him in person. I’d seen pictures of him, but only in tabloids, and always in the back behind my grandfather, out of focused or cropped. Grandpa rarely visited our town of Crowne Point—and even more rarely so our home, Crowne Hall—which meant I never saw Theo.
Never saw the boy I’d saved.
The boy I’d loved.
“What are you doing?” I tried to yank my hand out.
He wouldn’t look at me.
It was a rule all servants and bodyguards followed, but it had never been one Theo had obeyed. Not with me.
He’d grown into his features, his jaw now square and hardened. His cheekbones so sharp they were almost hollowed. Thick, silky, lustrous brown hair fell over hazel-green eyes so clear they were like gemstones.
He was in a suit too.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Theo in a suit. It was tailored perfectly to his tall, lean muscular build.
“Your poor bodyguard is already having to save your ass,” Gemma said.
“My—my what?” I stammered.
He still hadn’t released me, the blood draining beneath his touch.
Heat rose to my cheeks. I tried not to think about how it was Theo touching me and instead attempted to pull my arm from him. He held tight, fingers bruising.
I was above him. I shouldn’t be thinking about the delicious, spicy way he smelled, or his calloused touch. Did his voice still catch on a growl?
“You’re my bodyguard?” It came out on a whisper. “Why?”
But then Gemma laughed, Theo’s gaze snapped to her like a magnet, and I knew.
“Have fun with your new personal babysitter.” Gemma waved airy fingers over her shoulder, her laugh disappearing down the polished halls.
All at once he dropped me.