Escaping The Beast: A Darkhills Romance (The Darkhills Series Book 2) by Elizabeth Greene (young adult books to read TXT) 📕

cold and empty. He needed to know why, the last thing he wanted was her to close herself off even further, she was guarded enough as it was.

He stormed out of his room and went to hers, he needed to apologise and check she was alright. When he got to her room he found a note left outside her door on a silver tray. He picked it up, thinking it was for him, only to be surprised when he found the short message of thanks addressed to Mr. Jones. Lucian cocked an eyebrow in surprise, her elegant hand had ended the note with a small kiss. It seemed she wasn’t argumentative with everyone.

The thought stung for a moment as he realised he was envious of that innocuous little cross on the paper.

Ignoring his foolish jealousy, Lucian entered her room and immediately skirted to the side of the door away from the crack of light that was coming through the slight opening in the drapes. His eyes stung fiercely as he almost blindly moved towards the curtains and pulled them closed, mindful to keep his hand out of the light. He breathed in the darkness that now surrounded him and kept his eyes shut while he allowed them a moment to recover from the damaging daylight. He wondered if he should consider having the same ultraviolet filters installed here as he had in his penthouse in the city.

After the pain had subsided, Lucian stood and looked about her room, she had already spread out her books and had her laptop set up on the small writing desk. He looked at the way her things were spread out and made a mental note to order her a larger desk, she didn’t have the space she needed for the way that she liked to work. He looked again at the cream coloured upholstered chair and frowned. It was most likely not comfortable enough for her to sit for long periods of time. He would order her a more suitable office chair, and a larger screen to connect to her laptop. Her studies were clearly extremely important to her and he would ensure she had everything she needed to be able to continue with them while she stayed at Tumbricane.

A pink sticky note caught his eye on the edge of her laptop screen. It appeared that she had a presentation to give next week. Lucian felt guilt weigh heavy in his stomach. She would want to go. He sighed. She hadn’t mentioned it to him, perhaps that was the main reason why she wanted to be able to return to the city, not just to collect her things. He couldn’t take the risk of letting her leave. If her father knew she was free from the contract, he would have no incentive to repay his debt.

Either Katherine would ask him again if she could leave, or she would try to run again. Lucian knew he was going to end up hurting her by denying her and he already dreaded the moment when she would slip further away from him. But there was nothing for it. He couldn’t bring it up with her now, in entering her room to apologise to her, he had inadvertently invaded her personal space, something that she clearly cherished highly and she would not be happy with him for doing so. Then again, she was already unhappy with him.

No, it was better that he wait for her to bring it up or make her move, he hoped she would trust him enough to speak with him about it. She had agreed to have dinner with him later, perhaps they could discuss it then. In the meantime he would do what he could to win her trust, perhaps with the right equipment she would be able to give her presentation by video link.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and quickly placed an order for the office equipment she would need. He paused and looked around the room once more, in case there was anything that he had missed, his eyes landed on the vase of white roses that he had left in her room before her arrival at Tumbricane. There, among the white were the single lavender and yellow roses that he had selected for her. Hope spread through him in a warm wave. Maybe she did hold some feelings for him, other than the obvious anger and lust. Tomorrow he would give her another white rose, for honesty. He had promised her that and he would stay true to his word.

As he left the room and closed the door behind him, he pulled out his phone and added another item to his next day's delivery. She had asked for a lock to her room, he would have Mr. Jones fit it for her tomorrow. Katherine’s note with its little kiss stared up at him from the ground, mockingly.

On second thoughts, he would fit it for her himself.

Chapter Eleven

Katherine

Katherine perused through her clothes, considering what was appropriate attire for dinner with the Lord of the Manor. She had showered after her much-needed run earlier and hung out in her bathrobe while she started working on her presentation. But now the sun had long set and her stomach was making its complaints. She had no idea what time Lucian intended for them to eat, but she was hungry so she had decided to sneak down to the kitchen to see if she couldn’t grab a quick snack from Mr. Jones before meeting with Lucian.

Going by the fact that she had only seen Lucian out of formal wear when he’d been sleeping, she guessed that leggings and a hoodie wouldn’t be suitable attire. The stubborn part of her wanted to act the slob just to stick the proverbial two fingers up at him, but her rational side also knew she needed to keep her cool. He riled her too easily and she needed to reclaim