Page 10 of Save You
As I look at the nameless faces greeting Oliver’s mother and father at the front entrance, I hear a gentle tapping coming from the bathroom. At first, I take no notice of it, my mind being too preoccupied with the parade of guests coming to gawk at me, all because I am a relation of the great Carl Steele and being forced to marry his protégé, Oliver Lawrence.
“Psst!”
The sound of someone expelling air in the bathroom makes me leap to my feet and practically gallop toward it to see who it is. When I get there, it takes a while for me to register what I’m seeing, or rather,whoI’m seeing.
“Hey, water baby!” Bodhi’s happy smiling head is comically popping up from the bottom of the bathroom window with a giant grin on his face. His hairy exterior, in complete contrast to the ridiculously lavish surroundings, has me smiling at him with the widest, toothiest grin I’ve ever given anyone.
As though the wolves are literally at my back, I run over to his floating head, only stopping halfway to throw my ridiculous shoes over my shoulder before I break my neck on them. I grip his beautiful, smiling head between my hands and begin kissing him all over, with tears of joy and relief running freely over my cheeks.
“Oh my God! You’ve saved my life!”
“Of course, baby,” he laughs as I continue kissing him, “and as much as I’m enjoying having a sexy gal in a red dress kiss me all over, we need to make a move, like, now!”
When I finally pull back to look out the window, I notice he’s currently stood at the top of a ladder that stands all the way from the ground and up to this very window.
“How the hell did you get hold of that?” I whisper shout as I begin climbing out while he descends the ladder. The rungs feel odd underneath my bare feet, but that’s not what I’m worried about at all. Not when I can hear shouting coming from what I assume, is the western side of the property. “And what exactly was the distraction you pulled?”
“Your friend, the doc, bribed one of the gardeners,” he says between breaths, “and I kind of had a few, not-so-legal fireworks left over from New Year.”
As soon as his feet reach the safety of the ground, he reaches up and pulls me down from the ladder. My feet hit the soft, cool grass and it feels like freedom. I glance up at the lit window we just escaped from, and it makes my nerves jump up a notch, knowing how very differently this might have played out had Bodhi not come to my rescue.
“Come on, water baby,” he whispers and throws a black cover over me, shrouding my bright red dress in darkness so we can sprint across to the bushes unnoticed. I take his outstretched hand and let him pull me across as fast as my legs will allow.
Once inside the bushes that border the perimeter, I spot Bodhi’s old wrangler bike. As always, it looks like it’s seen better days, but it’s kept him going for years, or so he tells me. I just hope it doesn’t decide to give up the ghost tonight, mid-getaway and surrounded by Oliver’s beefy guards. He chucks the spare helmet over and gestures for me to get on behind him.
I huff in panicked exasperation when my ridiculous red dress prevents me from lifting my leg over. Seeing as I can hardly breathe in the damn thing, I should have suspected this before I even tried. I make a frustrated growl of a noise before reaching up the split and tearing the lower half away, thus completely annihilating the priceless dress as a final up yours to my betrothed. Bodhi looks at the ragged bottom half and chuckles to himself.
“I think it looks even better!”
“Wait!” I gasp just when he’s kicked our getaway steed into life. He looks over to see what the problem is while I take my hand away from his waist, retrieve the engagement ring from my finger, and throw it across the lawn. “Ok, go, go, go!”
Seconds later, I’m clinging onto him for dear life as he speeds along the fenced perimeter and out a back entrance where a couple of waiters are having a smoke before all the craziness begins. They dart to their feet in shocked surprise when we rev out the gate and onto the dusty road. Freedom hits me with a rush, though I pray we don’t come off, thinking of the life now growing inside of my belly. As we fly down the road, it suddenly dawns on me that I now have this whole new responsibility to worry about.