Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
But while the mansion had been maintained and modernized, the garden hadn’t had any attention in decades. The grass was knee high and wildflowers fought with roses in the flower beds. The trees had grown out of control, some of them twisting together until you couldn’t see where one stopped and another began. Ivy had engulfed one of the oaks, transforming it into a rearing dragon with shining green scales, while three more trees had fallen in storms and lay on their sides, gathering moss. Some of the walls were crumbling and the wooden benches had been bleached almost white by the sun.
It was insanely beautiful. The sun filtered through the trees casting dappled light on the ground and throwing shafts of gold onto old sundials and other abandoned treasures. The leaves had just finished their transition to the red and copper of fall and a gentle wind turned them into a rolling sea of vivid color. I could hear birdsong from high above and brightly-colored butterflies fluttered through the flower beds. And then, just as I started forward, a rabbit hopped out of the undergrowth and onto the path, looked at me, and hopped off into the grass.
I felt something inside me lift...and tears prickled at the corners of my eyes because I was suddenly aware of a deep, crushing ache that had been there ever since I left Wisconsin, a need I’d been pushing out of my mind all these years.
I ran into the garden and started exploring. I felt twigs catch and pull at my dress as I pushed through bushes. A stocking tore, scraped on rough bark as I climbed over logs. The heels of my shoes sank deep into the earth, the shining leather ruined forever. And I didn’t care about any of it. I was drunk on nature: there were birds and rabbits and hedgehogs and field mice...I wished I had my camera. It was the happiest I’d been in a long time.
Hours flew by. Then I heard something huge crashing through the undergrowth behind me. “Christina?”
I was getting used to the name, now. And hearing it in that accent...the silvery hiss of the is like a soft breath against my neck, then the hard t that was almost a kiss. It made me go shaky every single time. I turned to see him clamber over a fallen, mossy tree trunk.
“What are you doing?” He sounded genuinely bemused. “One of the guards said he saw you come out here hours ago.”
I looked around in wonder. “It’s amazing!”
He gazed around, bewildered. What is?
I was so blown away by the place that I forgot to be Christina. “Look around you! It’s wild, it’s like nature’s taken over!”
He shook his head. “It’s a mess.” He rubbed at his stubble. “We should get it all cut back. An assassin could use the undergrowth to sneak close to the house.”
I stared at him. “Do you have to see everything as a threat?”
He frowned at me, astonished. Everything is!
I sighed and moved closer. “Look! Just look at….” I turned a slow circle. There was so much to see, I couldn’t pick just one thing. “Everything!”
He frowned deeper, exasperated, and picked a leaf out of my hair. But he gamely turned his head and looked at the trees, the flowers, the butterflies…and nothing happened. His eyes didn’t light up. He didn’t see. Whatever had happened to him, it had made him narrow his worldview down to his empire: money and allies and enemies and threats.
“Can’t you see the beauty in anything?” I asked, looking up at him in desperation.
He slowly turned his head towards me. Then he looked down into my eyes. And that’s when I saw the gray flicker and soften, that tiny trace of blue slipping through. I swallowed, feeling my chest go light, feeling that helpless flutter. And the longer we held each other’s gaze, the more the battle in his eyes grew.
My breathing hitched. He took a step forward, awkward and halting. I saw his hands twitch. The mood was totally different to the airport, or at the bottom of the stairs. This was soft and romantic, everything he denied he could be. He was going to—
He leaned down. His finger lifted my chin, tilting my head back to meet him. His lips brushed mine….
And then he tore himself away, straightening up and cursing in Russian. For a moment, he wouldn’t look at me and I was left there stunned. I wanted him to. God, I really wanted him to. There was no way I could deny it, now. I was starting to have feelings for him...and I wanted him to have them for me. Am I falling for him? For someone I know is pure evil? Someone I know I’m going to betray?
I had to get out of there. I turned and stumbled off into the undergrowth, heading for a building I’d seen earlier but hadn’t explored yet.