Lacybourne Manor by Kristen Ashley Page A

appeasingly and stumbled
back to his stool. “Pretty girls shouldn’t buy their own drinks,
thas all I’m sayin’,” he garbled.
    “I agree,” Colin murmured
distractedly as he watched five pints placed around Sibyl’s
drink.
    “That’ll be seventeen fifty,”
the bartender said.
    Sibyl fumbled in her purse for
money, still recovering from the shock of seeing Colin Morgan.
    She could not believe
that her dream madman was standing so close to her she could feel
his body against her back. She could also not believe he’d
witnessed her being semi-accosted by a drunk man and felt the need
to come to her rescue. She never expected, never dreamed she’d run into him in a club in Bristol. In fact, she had
hoped never to see him again for the rest of her natural life and
even throughout her unnatural one (if such a thing
existed).
    She made the immediate decision
to spend the rest of her days with old people, Jemma’s family or in
her Summer House Girlie Stuff Laboratory and never go out
socialising again.
    Ever.
    Then Colin leaned in and Sibyl
felt his hard chest pressing into her shoulder blade and watched as
he passed a twenty pound note to the bartender.
    At this gesture, she tried to
remain cool and collected, though, she had to admit, it was
difficult.
    “Mr. Morgan, please don’t pay
for the drinks. They’re –”
    “ For your date’s friends,
I know,” he interrupted her then continued. “Your date, I might
add, saw this gentleman…” Sibyl was not looking at him, couldn’t make herself look at him. She wasn’t even certain she
wished to believe he was actually there. She noticed from the
corners of her eyes that he jerked his head angrily in the
direction of the drunk man. “Begin to approach you and did nothing
about it.”
    She didn’t respond. There was
nothing to say.
    Steve, unfortunately, was a
jerk.
    The drunk man said something
though, straight into his nearly finished pint, “Criminal. Leave a
pretty girl in the clutches of a degenerate like me.” Then he
giggled to himself.
    Sibyl felt hysterical laughter
bubbling up her own throat but she chased it down with a gulp and
turned her mind to escape.
    Before she could Colin Morgan
remarked, “You made light work of that.”
    At this unusual comment, she
finally lifted her eyes to the hard planes of his face, having to
twist around and glance over her shoulder and she saw he was
looking over his own at Steve. He obviously recognised the
paramedic who’d come to his house.
    Again, she didn’t respond. He
was still standing so close to her that his chest was resting
lightly against her back.
    “Mr. Morgan, if you wouldn’t
mind moving away,” she whispered.
    He apparently did mind because
he didn’t move.
    “Jason,” his voice rang with
authority and the bartender, who was listening to the orders of
some patrons, turned his head immediately.
    “Yeah, Mr. Morgan?”
    “Get Shannon to take those
pints to the gentlemen over there,” Colin ordered, motioning to
Steve and his group with his head. “And get her to get the women
with them a drink for Christ’s sake.”
    “Yes, Mr. Morgan,” and Jason
jogged off obediently to find the unknown Shannon.
    Sibyl stared at Colin in
dismay.
    “ Do you,” Sibyl
hesitated, “ own this club?”
    His eyes finally dropped to her
and for some reason her breath caught when she felt the full force
of them on her face.
    “A third of it, yes,” he
answered.
    Sibyl looked around the place
for the first time.
    It was jam packed. There were
three bars she could see, two on the lower floor, one on a balcony
that wrapped around the club and all of them were surrounded by
people buying drinks.
    It was clearly a hip hotspot
for young, trendy people. Not the place she would expect Colin
Morgan to spend his time, unless he had a penchant for underfed,
under-clothed and nearly underage girls.
    Her face must have told him
what she was thinking for he said, “I was here for a meeting. It
ran long. I was