Page 89 of Close Protection

‘Such a little smart-mouth.’ He chuckles, crashing his lips down to mine. One of his hands comes to the nape of my neck, angling my head, while the other bears down on my hip. His tongue is punishing as it dominates my mouth, so much so I have to grab his shoulders for stability.

‘Yes, but I’m your smart-mouth,’ I whisper against his lips, my breathing slightly laboured.

He pulls back a fraction. ‘I guess you are.’

My hands trail along the breadth of his shoulders as Idrop my mouth to his jaw and start placing kisses along it.

‘So, I was wondering…’ He pauses for a moment when I nip at his earlobe, his heady sigh filling the room.

‘Hmm?’

‘I was… wondering if you could teach me some sign language?’

I pause on his neck. ‘You want me to do what?’ I raise my head to meet his gaze.

‘I want you to teach me sign language.’ His hand relaxes on my hip as his thumb traces lazy circles on it. ‘It was beautiful watching you sign at the gala, but it also made me realize there’s a whole group of people I’m unable to communicate with, one of them being someone who means a lot to you, so I wanna learn. Well, that and the fact that talking without speaking is pretty cool.’

I stare at him for a moment, at a complete loss for words. ‘You want to learn sign language to be able to speak to my cousin better?’

‘If it’s important to you, it’s important to me.’

‘Well, all right then.’ I smile. ‘Let’s start with the alphabet. Once you learn this, if you ever get stuck on a word you can just spell it out.’

For the next hour I teach him the alphabet and the basic words, pancakes completely forgotten until my stomach starts to grumble.

‘Let me make you some breakfast,’ Milosh suggests.

‘Okay, I’ll go have a shower, then after I can start teaching you the days of the week.’

He places a sweet kiss on my cheek and walks out of the room.

I grab all my shower bits out of my bag, along with another clean dress and some underwear, and head up to the bathroom, smiling to myself. He bought me a watch for my scrubs and asked to learn sign language so he can talk to my cousin better. He’s crossing off all the love languages faster than I thought possible.

My shower is quick, and as I moisturize I can smell a delicious waft of bacon which spurs me to get ready faster so I can eat. I untie my hair, letting it cascade down my back and pick up my perfume with haste to give myself a few spritzes.

I pause when I hear a light clinking noise. Lifting the bottle up again, I turn it upside down and squint to see if anything moves. The liquid is quite dark and the bottle has a slight tinge to it, but I can just about make out a floating object.

Walking to the window I hold it up to the light, and sure enough my mother’s necklace is inside my new perfume bottle.

Of course it is.

Because that’s a fantastic place to hide something.

I think about how the Daveeno boys completely trashed my room and how many times they must’ve unknowingly walked past the thing they tore my whole house apart to find.

And now I have it.

I have the very thing people are willing to kill over.

I feel sick.

But also slightly powerful.

I know something they don’t.

I slip my clothes on and hurry downstairs, bottle in hand.

‘Yeah, I’ll keep you updated… All right… mm hmm… bye.’