Read Save Me for Free Online

of trying to keep his mind off what lay underneath those layers. God, picking out underwear alone had him breaking out in a cold sweat, so he’d kept it as simple as possible. From what he understood about women, which wasn’t much at all, they liked pretty, frilly things. She didn’t have any of that in her wardrobe. Collecting any article of clothing she’d had while with Grgur was a non-starter. Maybe they could start here; letting her pick out her own things. Besides, he found he was burning with curiosity to see what she would pick out for herself now she was coming into her own.
    Anything at all was better than thinking of taking her with him when he went to see Nadir. Perhaps he could even find a way out of it while observing her.
    “Tomorrow we will shop for you, ja ?” he heard himself blurt out with awkward enthusiasm. There had to be a more eloquent way to say that, but he couldn’t think of it. Anything beyond barking out orders or succinct, to-the-point statements of facts seemed odd to him, so he was used to keeping silent for the most part. But with Alicia, it felt so very wrong to engage in stilted conversations. There seemed to be a lot of words missing from his vocabulary he desperately wanted to find when he spoke to her. “That is, if that would please you.”
    That was bad. All of it sounded wrong. But of course she responded the exact opposite from what he thought she might. Instead of looking at him like he was some strange oaf, she giggled at his discomfort. He knew she was giggling at how out of his depth he was by the way she was looking at him. Spending two years in a confined spaced allowed a man to really get to know a person.
    “Wouldn’t Paris be a better choice for a shopping spree?” She actually poked him with her dainty little finger as she laughed. And damn, he should’ve known that. His face grew unbearably hot, which made her giggle even harder.
    Strange how her merriment at his expense didn’t piss him off, but instead warmed him down his bones. After all, he was being something of a clod. A smile tugged at his own lips in the face of her very real glee [KK1]   . And as usual, she seemed to sense the chagrin he felt at not thinking of shopping in Paris rather than Berlin.
    “Claus, it’s okay,” she managed to compose herself enough to choke out between peals of laughter. “Really, I’ve always wanted to shop in all the world’s great capitals. It will be fun. Well, for me.”
    It would? Not once had she given any indication she wanted to shop, or do anything else. How long had she wanted to get out of the cabin? Why had he assumed that because she hadn’t wanted to go to New York, she hadn’t wanted to go anywhere? He was just an idiot! New York held nothing but bad memories for her. Why hadn’t he thought of travel before now?
    “Why didn’t you say anything?” he blurted out, completely flummoxed. “If you wanted to go somewhere, I would’ve taken you. You didn’t have to stay in the cabin all the time. I thought you wanted to be there.”
    “Oh, Claus, don’t you think you’ve done more than enough for me already?” The gentle smile coupled with the sadness in her deep brown gaze broke him down. God, he hated to see her sadness. It hurt. “I didn’t want to go anywhere; didn’t even think about it. But thinking of asking you to take me shopping never crossed my mind. You’ve given me enough, don’t you think?”
    “No.” Not nearly enough. If he could slay the demons that lived inside her head, he would. There was no such thing as doing enough.
    So if Alicia wanted to shop in every capital in the world, he would make sure that happened. As many as possible without placing her in unnecessary danger, anyway. He had to learn to start reading between the lines better. This whole trying to figure out women thing was frustrating as hell.
    ***
    It was incredibly cruel to tease Claus. Well, maybe just a little cruel. God, but it felt wondrous to try on