Royally Seduced

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Madame’s eyebrows shot up. “Today? Well, a true coup de foudre, right, Jacques?”

“Oh, what does that mean?” Lily asked him innocently.

He gave a strained smile. “A flash of lightning, something unexpected.” It also meant love at first sight.

“Yes, that’s true.” Lily smiled at Madame. “I bumped into him in the hostel lobby, tried practicing my French on him, and he responded in English because my French is obviously not very good. Then we started chatting, he took me to that park with butts in the name, and then he asked me to go to Provence with him. But I’m not going anywhere with a guy I met today because I don’t want to be one of those international stories that wind up on the twenty-four-hour news networks discussing, ‘Where could Lily Adams be?’” Lily wound down her worries, Madame nodding in agreement the whole time.

“I commend you for your sensibility. Unfortunately, Europe is full of handsome, unscrupulous young men.”

Jack made a noise of protest, but Lily ignored him, leaning in to peer at Madame. “That’s it exactly! I wasn’t planning to come by myself but my cousin is having a baby, after all, and she wants me to be very careful because I am alone.”

“You brave girl.” Madame was ignoring him now as well in a moment of female bonding. “Cads and bounders! Europe’s crawling with ’em these days. It’s a wonder girls don’t go missing by the trainloads considering the trash that dares walk the street.”

“Exactly!”

Jack didn’t see this going well for him. “But Madame—”

Madame was just warming up. “You should have seen the riffraff I encountered on my last trip. Utterly disgusting the way they act—”

“Madame, please!” Jack interrupted in desperation. “Lily is going to think I’m an axe murderer.”

Both women looked at him as if they’d forgotten his presence. Lily muffled a giggle and Madame frowned at him for his poor manners.

“Excuse me, Madame,” he apologized.

She sniffed but inclined her head in acceptance of his apology. “So, Mademoiselle Lily, despite the preponderance of dubious characters, my former student Jacques is not one of them. He is diligent, hard-working, courteous and of the highest moral fiber.”

“He did say he was a Boy Scout.”

“Oh, my, yes. Earned the highest award in the organization. If he has promised to show you around Provence, you can be assured that he will conduct himself with the utmost of gentlemanly qualities. No need to fear he would pounce on you like a panther.”

“Oh.” Was it his wishful thinking, or did Lily sound a tiny bit disappointed? She sat up straighter. “I’m glad you vouch for his character.”

“Absolutely.” Madame gave him a steely glare. “And I will give you my phone number. Please call me if you have any concerns. I have many friends in the south of France and they would be happy to come to your assistance.” Jack winced—he’d better behave himself. Madame’s friends in the south of France were all his own friends and employees, as well.

“That would be wonderful.” Lily pulled out her cell phone and entered not only Madame’s two phone numbers, but her email address and home address.

“There.” His former governess sat back in satisfaction. “You’re as safe as you would be with your cousin, my dear. Master Jacques will care for you as if you were his own sister.”

“Of course.” He gritted out a smile. He didn’t have any sisters, and he certainly didn’t consider Lily as one. But a promise was a promise.

“Wonderful!” Lily threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. “The south of France! Provence!”

Madame Finch grinned at him as she reached for her keyboard. “Bon voyage, you two. Lily, I am only a phone call away.” Jacques could have sworn he heard an evil-sounding chuckle as she terminated the web call.

Lily still had her arms around his neck, her smooth bare legs rubbing his, her thighs firm and tanned as her short skirt had crept up. “I can’t believe it—this is so exciting.”

He had to agree. Exciting, but damned inconvenient that his libido had come roaring back after being comatose for so long. And he’d promised to take the sexiest woman he’d met in years to the most romantic place on earth—and treat her as a sister.

Lovely. Lovely Lily, with sparkling green eyes and glossy peach lips begging for him to kiss them. For him to pull her into his lap and show her what real French kissing was about. But…no.

He patted her wrist and waved to the waiter for their check. She dropped her arms awkwardly and he pushed her wineglass toward her. “A toast to our trip.”

“Cheers.” She tapped her glass to his again. “When do we leave?”

“If we take the TGV high-speed train, we can leave early tomorrow and be in Avignon in under four hours.”

“Only four hours,” she breathed. “I won’t get a wink of sleep tonight.”

Jack gave her a dry smile. Neither would he, but for a different reason.

5

LILY COULDN’T HELP gawking at the TGV train, luxurious with comfortable red-and-gray seats. The seating arrangement in their car consisted of one seat on one side of the aisle and two seats on the other. There was the option of facing each other over a small table, which was what Jack had chosen when he’d booked their last-minute tickets.

They were on the upper level. Jack had called it a duplex, but Lily thought it was more like a double-decker bus, only with a roof, of course.

Lily handed Jack her suitcase and he tucked it into the bins at the end of the car. She took her purse and laptop with her, figuring the rest of her luggage was safe enough.

Jack settled into his seat across from her and was looking drowsy as the train pulled from the station. Lily was too excited to sleep.

He yawned and closed his eyes as the train gathered speed, passing through the Parisian suburbs.

Lily gasped as the train emerged from a tunnel into the countryside. It didn’t seem as if they were going about two hundred miles an hour—unless of course you looked directly at the trees and bushes close to the line. They were a green blur. “Look at that!” But he was sound asleep. He really had overextended himself with that hike yesterday—no walk in the park for him. Typical man, refusing to admit any weakness.

Lily could sympathize. How many times had she put on the infamous stiff upper lip during a difficult situation? Sometimes best to grit your teeth and soldier on. But now wasn’t the time for that. She opened her laptop and began making notes for an entry for their train trip.

After an hour or so, she decided to stretch her legs and stepped into the narrow aisle, nodding to a stylish young Frenchwoman who’d had the same idea. She found the restroom, bought a snack from the bar between first and second class and then made her way back. She was walking at almost two hundred miles an hour—and her old gym teacher said she was slow—ha!

Right before she got back to her seat, she passed the Frenchwoman again. “Excuse me,” she said in English.

“Of course. American?”

“Of course,” Lily parroted back to her, feeling a tinge of jealousy at the dark-haired woman’s overall ease. Ease in English, ease in how her hair fell onto her shoulders, how her clothes were fashionable but comfortable. And how in the world did she keep linen pants from wrinkling on a train ride?

But Lily wanted to be a better person than that. “You have a lovely country.”

“Thank you. I have been to New York. Parts of it are nice.”

Damned by faint praise. “As are parts of Paris.”

But her return crack went over the woman’s head because she was staring at Jack. “Your lover is very handsome.” She was right—not about the lover part, but about him being handsome. Jack did look particularly gorgeous, almost like a Renaissance painting of a sleeping shepherd boy with his pale skin and reddish-brown hair, which curled slightly around his ears and neck.

Lily’s hackles rose and she gave her a tight smile. She was about to say he wasn’t her lover, but then realized, why give Frenchie an opportunity? “He is, isn’t he?” A little devil made her say, “And wonderful in the bedroom, as well. So inventive.” She fought back a blush.

“Frenchmen usually are, unlike American men.” Touché. But Lily wasn’t about to defend the lovemaking abilities of her country’s male population, especially since she pretty much agreed.

“But he looks familiar.” The Frenchwoman wrinkled her perfect brow as she examined the sleeping Jack.

Nice try, sister, she’d heard that before. “I don’t think so. Now if you would excuse me…” She slipped into her chair and deliberately opened her laptop, typing words like skhjaldhfkjhioeurio and dkoiasuejndkjfioadioufi in an attempt to look busy. She peered at her screen. Geez, the mess looked like a cross between Greek and Old Norse. She backspaced until the nonsense syllables were gone.

Jack had fortunately slept through her bragging on his sexual prowess. She didn’t know what had made her do that.

Yes, she did. Her face started burning. She’d been wondering about his sexual prowess ever since he’d turned up sexy and clean-shaven and she’d accidentally rubbed her thigh all over his.

She quickly opened a new document and began a blog post on travelling the TGV—Train à Grande Vitesse, the Train of Great Speediness. Like most things, it sounded better in French.

Like her name, Lily. Your average flower that showed up every Easter at the grocery store, like it or not. But it sounded better in French—Lee-lee. And even Jack’s full name, Jacques. Exotic and adventurous, or was she reminded of old Jacques Cousteau specials on the nature channel?

“Jacques,” she whispered his name, just to hear it from her own mouth.

He bolted upright, his eyes wide and staring. “Quoi? Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?”

“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry.” She grabbed his hand. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“What?” He turned to her, his eyes coming back into focus. “Are you all right?”

“Fine.” She patted his hand. “Go back to sleep. We still have a couple hours left.”

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “No, I’m awake now. I thought I heard someone calling me.”

Cringe. “I was chatting with this woman. Maybe you overheard us.”

“Maybe. Do you have anything to drink? My mouth is very dry.” She passed him a water bottle and he drained it.

“I’ll get another.” He stood and stretched, his shoulders filling out his thin pale green cotton T-shirt. “Do you need anything?”

Yeah, a cold shower for her libido and a bar of soap to wash her mouth out for lying. But since those weren’t options…“How about an orangeade?”

JACK STOOD IN a quiet corner of the train’s bar, sipping his own orangeade as he checked his voice mail. Four frantic messages from his maman, despite the fact he’d called her after leaving to apologize again for the ruins of her well-meaning, if not well-thought-out, party. He’d made it clear he and Nadine were permanently over, but her romantic soul probably thought they’d had a lovers’ tiff. Not one voice mail or text from Nadine. Good. She’d gotten his message, then.

A voicemail from Frank in Portugal and a text from George—who knew where George was? He was traveling frequently back and forth to New York to spend time with his fiancée, Renata, a wedding-dress designer who specialized in vintage styles. Apparently Stevie was wearing one of her creations, and that was how she and George had met.