Caitlin Crews - Pure Princess, Bartered Wife by Anja

Author:Anja
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-04-01T09:34:26+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

GABRIELLE stood on the elegant terrace high over the city of San Francisco and watched as the last of the day sank over the horizon, the beautiful northern Californian city lighting up all around her as darkness claimed it fully. The sun took the warmth of the day with it, and Gabrielle shivered slightly as evening gathered around her. She pulled her silk wrap closer over her bare shoulders, but made no move to go inside.

She could hear Luc’s voice echo from behind her, inside the library in the luxurious penthouse suite into which he had retreated to make some business calls. She was just as happy to take a few moments to herself to try to process the past few weeks. To try to breathe.

Had it been only a month? It seemed like so much longer. But it had been nearly four full weeks since Luc had appeared at Cassandra’s front door in the Hollywood Hills and everything had changed. She felt changed. What worried her was that she couldn’t decide if she had changed in the way she had feared so much—what if she’d lost her ability to discern whether or not she had lost herself? Didn’t losing herself mean that she might not be able to tell?

Luc had arrived in such a fury, but the storm had passed during that long, exquisite first night. It was almost as if Luc had woken up the following morning a different man. He was not suddenly easygoing or relaxed, of course—he was still Luc Garnier, and Gabrielle imagined he could never be affable or pleasant as some men were—but he had changed. He had gone out of his way to be courteous—solicitous, even.

That same day he had swept Gabrielle off for an afternoon trip up the matchless California coast. He had taken her on a helicopter ride over pretty Catalina Island, then out to dinner in the charming town of Santa Barbara, with its mix of Spanish, Mediterranean and Moorish architecture that again reminded Gabrielle of her home in Miravakia. After a dinner of spicy Cajun food, a car had whisked them away, up into the foothills, to the luxurious San Ysidro Ranch, which managed somehow to be as unpretentious as it was elegant. Their exclusive and private cottage house had been a little gem, hidden away in the trees along one of the creek side paths on the ranch property.

And all the while, Luc had talked to Gabrielle as if she was a human being—his wife and not merely his newest business acquisition. Gabrielle had been in very real danger of being swept off her feet by this far more accessible version of Luc—until she’d discovered her own bags at the cottage.

“What is this?” she’d asked, momentarily confused by the sight of them.

“Why are my bags here?” It would have been one thing to find a single overnight bag—but she’d seen her entire suite of travel bags lined up neatly against the wall.

“I had everything sent ahead,” Luc had said, as if that should have been obvious.

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