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“I’m very rich.”
“I’d rather go hungry than sell myself.”
He made a noise that was decidedly French. “Forget the metaphors and eat the damned eggs before they go cold.”
After they’d both taken a couple of bites, he said, “I’m never going to marry. Long-term dating, in the traditional sense, is a false promise I won’t make. Women come to me, come on to me, at a steady enough rate that I’ve never lacked for company.”
“I kind of prefer the not calling over this turn of conversation.” She flashed a humorless smile. “Just saying.”
“But if I expect a woman to make herself exclusive to me, I ought to provide something in return.”
“Your charm isn’t enough?” She blinked in fake shock.
“Have you heard of erotic spanking, Cinnia? Some women find it pleasurable and deliberately test a man’s patience with backchat, looking for a hot bottom.” He showed his teeth. “Just saying.”
Wicked, evil man. For one second, she thought about that. Started to blush, and told herself to smarten up.
“You want it straight, Henri?” she challenged, stomach twisting. “Not shaken nor stirred? Fine.”
She seemed to have no pride where he was concerned anyway. She dropped back in her chair and gave him a hate-filled glare for forcing her to bring up the pathetic mistakes of her past.
“I told you my father left his estate in a mess. We were in dire straits, actually. Really dire. Mum and my sisters have a hard time seeing it, especially Mum. She has this throwback notion that if one of us marries well, all our problems will be solved. You asked me last night what happened with my ex-boyfriend. That’s what happened.”
“He was rich and didn’t want to marry you?”
“Exactly. Except that we’d been poor together, struggling through school and scrambling for rent every month for a year when we moved here to the city. I was actually the one making more money for the first while. I thought we were in love and that we would get married. Then his folks sold a piece of property and said they were going to split the money between their children. It was a few hundred thousand each, enough to make a nice down payment on a good home. I honestly thought he was being cagey for the weeks following the sale because he was shopping for an engagement ring and planning how to propose.”
“Non?” He was holding on to a very neutral tone, betraying nothing of what he might be thinking.
“Hell, no! He was telling his parents to hold off doling out his portion so I couldn’t put a claim on it, then he siphoned off half of what was in our shared accounts and kicked me out of our flat the day we were supposed to renew the lease.”
She looked at her eggs and knew Avery had been dry, white toast at best while Henri was a mouthwatering croissant.
“I know my family is a handful. I know Mum came on strong when she learned his news. She was on the phone calling local churches that day. She flat out told him he should sink his money into her house and said we should move in with her. I never would have let that happen, though. I’ll never live with her again if I can help it. She makes me bananas.”
She crossed her legs and adjusted the fall of the robe, noting her hand was trembling. She was trying hard to keep a grip, but she still felt so stupid. She had thought Avery loved her and it had shaken her confidence in herself, in her belief that she could judge a character and even in her belief that she was lovable. Her voice quavered with old emotion and she couldn’t seem to steady it.
“Even though he had known me all that time, he wrote me off as only wanting his bank balance. He said I had always known his parents were sitting on that potential, that I had known money would come to him, and that everything I had done was a calculated investment in getting a piece of it. I did know about it. I had counseled his parents on whether it was better to sell the land before their death or leave it as part of their estate. Because he asked me to. And I didn’t charge them, by the way. Friends-and-family discount.” She picked up her fork and stabbed her egg and watched the yolk bleed out.
Henri reached for his phone and said very casually, “What is his name?”
“Jerkface McPants on Fire. Don’t bother ordering a hit. He’s not worth the bullet.”
He set down his phone again. “This is why you’re so sensitive about letting me buy you a meal or a dress?”
“Or a hotel room or a favor with my boss or a rental agreement as a mistress. I earn my keep, Henri. I refuse—I absolutely refuse—to become a kept woman. I’m aiming to start my own agency. I will not work my butt off to succeed only to have people say it’s because I was sleeping with a sexy French tycoon.”
“My sisters are constantly accused of succeeding with their design house because Sauveterre International underwrote it. Do you know how they respond to that accusation?”
“How?”
“By ignoring it. You do not owe explanations to anyone. You certainly don’t have to justify yourself to McFacey man. Stop worrying about what he thinks of you. As for opening an agency, I encourage you to send us a business plan regardless of the terms you and I negotiate for our personal partnership. Ramon and I are investors. We invested in Maison des Jumeaux because Trella wrote a solid plan that has exceeded all of our expectations. If yours shows promise, we may extend you a start-up loan. It won’t be nepotism. We do not offer friends-and-family discounts. When it comes to money, neither of us is influenced by sentiment or sexual infatuation. That’s why we’re rich.”
He was not joking.
She was crushed by his reduction of her to a sexual infatuation, but suffered an immediate urge to knock his socks off with her business acumen, wanting to secure a loan from him simply for the achievement of it.
She murmured, “I’ll think about it,” and returned to eating.
He made short work of his plate and freshened their coffee.
“I like the idea of you working for yourself,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because I have a very busy life. It would be hard to find time to be together if you had a strict workweek.”
“I love the way you talk like I’m going to agree to be your—oh!” She leaned forward with mock delight. “Let’s use the French term, shall we? Courtisane.”
He gave her a flat look that grew into a considering one.
“An educated woman who values herself and her time? One who is not ashamed of her sex drive? Is that you, Cinnia?”
She sat back. “You’re trying to make it sound like that’s all it is. It’s not.”
“No, it’s potentially quite complicated. But seeing as you are so smart, walk through this with me. I am based in Paris, but I travel to New York at least once a month. I have an office here in London. I could work some of my time out of it, perhaps one week a month. Ramon and I would like to expand into Asia, but we’re already stretched thin. And I occasionally drop everything to fly home to Spain if my sister needs me. Tell me how much time we’ll have together unless you come with me for some of that travel.”
“Presuming I want to spend time with you,” she said tartly.
“Look at me,” he commanded in such a stern voice her heart stalled and her gaze flashed up to his. “Were you there last night? The bed is a pile of ashes, we set it so completely on fire. If you don’t want to do that again, fine. Get dressed and leave. I’ll never bother you again.”
His words spiked through her heart and she found herself pushing to her feet in a rush of pique, catching the wild flare of something in his eyes before she turned away and—
She halted, unable to make herself take another step.
Something hooked sharp and fierce behind her breastbone. Tears slammed into her eyes. She brought her fists up and pushed the heels of her hands into her clenched lids, catching a shattered breath. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t walk away from him.
“Idiot,” he said behind her, chair scraping before he pulled her back against his chest, strong arms encasing her, but in a way that felt secure and reassuring.
“I don’t want to feel this way,” she said in a whisper, voice breaking. All of her breaking. She was self-reliant. She didn’t need anything from a man.
But she needed him. This man. Who offered things, not his heart.
“How do you feel? Hmm?” One hand stole into the front of her robe and he cupped her bare breast, flicked her nipple.
She made a noise of pleasure-pain, instantly catapulted into memory and desire, but her nipples were so tender she covered his hand and stilled his caress.
“Sore?” he asked against her ear, nibbling in a way that sent shivers down her nape, all the way to the small of her back.
She arched, pushing her bottom into the hardness at his loins.
“You’re going to kill me, Henri. I ache all over and I don’t care. I want you anyway.”
“Ah, chérie. You’re hurting like this because you don’t want our time to end. I feel the same.” His mouth opened on the side of her neck, delicately sucking a mark into her skin. “But I will be very, very careful with you, I promise.”
His free hand went in below the belt and found her naked and slippery, already responding to being close to him. “You like that?”
“You know I do,” she breathed, tilting her head to the side so his kisses could reach all down the side of her neck. “But I don’t think I can.”
“Come here.” He backed up, bringing her with him.
She heard him unzip his pants and turned to see him putting on a condom. He sat in the chair and drew her to straddle him.
“Gently,” he murmured, taking it slow as he drew her down.
Even though she was tender, she breathed a sigh of relief when she was seated on him, full of his turgid heat and completely possessed by this terribly wicked sorcerer of a man.
He opened her belt and spread the robe, looking down at her breasts. His hands moved on her thighs and buttocks, caressing without urging her to move. Then he kissed her, gently and sweetly. Slowly and languorously.
“See?” he breathed against her lips. “We don’t have to be greedy if we know we have time.”
She was greedy anyway, running her hands across his chest to spread his shirt, then placing kisses there, pinching his nipples and feeling his response inside her. She smiled with secretive joy.
And she began to move instinctively, riding him in an abbreviated rock. She was so tender and sensitive she was gasping in moments, squeezing him with her powerful orgasm.
“Magnifique.” He stroked her hair back from her face, set light kisses on her cheekbone and brow and the tip of her nose. His eyes were bright green with arousal. “Do you want to stop? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You didn’t finish,” she said in an urge for him to do so, nerve endings coming alive under the fresh stimulation. She was nearly in tears because it was such an intense sensation.
“I will later, when you’re feeling better.” He cupped her face, thumbs coming together in the center of her lips, then parting to rest in the corners.
“You’re shameless, aren’t you?” she said on a trembling breath, frightened by his assumption she would be there for him later today and every day from now on. Maybe she would. Right in this second, she wanted to be whatever he needed her to be. “Don’t manipulate me through my body’s response to yours.”
“Now you won’t even accept an orgasm given freely? You are a difficult woman to please.”
She ducked her head out of his hands and tucked her forehead against his throat, nose to his collarbone so his scent filled her head.
“You won’t ever marry me.” She didn’t know if it was a refusal, an accusation, or merely a statement of terms.
He tensed, but said firmly, “Oui. I will never marry you.”
She waited for some kind of repugnance to arrive and prompt her to reject him. All she could think was that at least she would have this, him, for a little while. She closed her eyes, still swimming in the high of orgasm while tendrils of fresh arousal wound around her. He was offering a sensual, sexual contract of association, that was all, but it would be such a pleasurable one.
“I want to marry and have children. Someday. I’m not going to give you all of my best years and wonder what happened when you throw me over for a younger model.”
His fingers were under the fall of her hair, working upward in a comb to the back of her skull.
“I’ll let you go when you’re ready for that. You’re not searching for those things today, are you? Be with me until you are.”
A half sob pressed out of her. Was she really going to agree to this?
“If either of us was willing to give this up, chérie, you would have left in the middle of the night.”
“I know,” she said on a sob of surrender. “Please don’t be smug.”
“It’s not comfortable for me to be this taken by you.” He massaged her scalp, holding her in compassionate, irrevocable intimacy. “I am yielding, too.”
It didn’t feel like it. He was still hard inside her. She moved restlessly, drawing back to nip his chin, then looked into his eyes. “I bet I’ll get there before you do.”
“I bet I’ll make sure of it.” He threw himself forward, swooping her to the floor beneath him, sending them both soaring with the masterful thrust of his hips.
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_2a555195-25d9-53e6-86a4-211950a50f8f)
Present day…
“KILLIAN.” HENRI STOOD and rounded his desk to greet the owner of Tec-Sec Industries as he was shown into Henri’s Paris office. They shook hands and Henri asked, “How are Melodie and the baby?”
“Well. Thank you.”
Henri wasn’t surprised by Killian’s succinct reply. Cinnia had summed it up nicely when she had first met the man who was an international security specialist and held the contract for the Sauveterre family’s safety. Did you meet at reticence school? He doesn’t care for small talk, does he?
They had met eight years ago, when Killian had come to Sauveterre International seeking investment capital to expand his global security outfit. Underwriting Killian’s ambitions had been one of the first really big risks Henri and Ramon had taken with their father’s money after their initial power struggles with the board. A year into watching Killian skyrocket with his business model and suite of military-grade services, they had hired him themselves.
That had been another type of gamble, a move Henri had not made without a great deal of reflection. Ramon operated on gut instinct while Henri was more fact driven. Killian had a good track record, but not a long one.
Ramon had left the final decision to Henri, after making a very good case for the change. “But we both have to believe in this. If you don’t like it, we won’t do it,” his brother had said.
Which had left the massive responsibility for any muck-ups squarely on Henri’s shoulders—where the weight still sat. Heavily.
Fortunately, Killian was a brilliant mind hidden behind an impassive face. Nothing escaped him. Aside from the occasional blip of overly exercised caution, they hadn’t had one security incident since signing contracts with him.
Not that Henri planned to become complacent as a result, but he felt he and his family were in very good hands. Even marriage and the arrival of his first child hadn’t thrown Killian off his focus on business.
“Coffee? Something stronger?” Henri offered.
“I won’t be here long,” Killian said with a wave of his hand and hitched his pants to sit.
Henri was relieved Killian was so reserved, not trying to bend Henri’s ear about the wonders of fatherhood. Henri didn’t need to hear what he was missing. Not when he was still stinging over Cinnia’s departure for that very reason.
The recollection jabbed like a rapier into his gut, swift and unexpected. She had left him to find the man who would give her the family she craved. Thinking of it sent a reverberation of frustrated agony through him every time he thought of it, so he refused to think of it and quickly pushed aside the temptation to brood today.
He took the chair opposite, distracting himself by getting to business. “You said it wasn’t an emergency. I assume it’s a price increase?”
“No, although there will be one at the end of the year to go with a system upgrade. The briefing for that will come through regular channels. No, this is something I thought was best dealt with promptly and face-to-face. One of my guards—I should say, one of the Sauveterre guards—brought me an ethical dilemma.” Killian braced his elbows on the chair’s arms and steepled his fingers. “In performing regular duties, this guard became aware of a situation that will be of interest to you, but the guard couldn’t come to you without compromising the privacy of your sibling.”
Henri frowned. “Which one?”
Killian canted his head. “I work for all of you, Henri. I won’t betray the trust of one to another. You’d fire me yourself if I did. This guard was reluctant to say anything, but brought it to me because Tec-Sec is charged with protecting the entire Sauveterre family. We take that responsibility very seriously.”
