Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Luc
A s I brushed my teeth with a little more vigor than was healthy, I relived the last twenty minutes like a movie in my mind.
Elise taking my hand and standing, her hair in a ponytail that accentuated the delicate curve of her neck and the handful of freckles I’d had the utter need to press my lips to. I’d resisted.
Something had shifted in her gaze, and I could’ve sworn she was about to tell me to kiss her, when my phone rang. And if it was ringing through, it was someone from work. Anything else would’ve been silenced.
They needed me two hours early as Jenna’s plane was landing at six instead of eight tomorrow morning. I’d need to head in before five to prep. And that meant I had to get to bed since it was already almost eleven.
After finishing up in the bathroom, I slipped into my bedroom— our bedroom—and my heart nearly stopped seeing her sitting up in my bed.
Our bed.
Shaking off that thought, I went to the opposite side and grabbed my book. The weight of Elise’s gaze drew my attention—she was watching my every move. Thankfully, I sensed no fear coming from her, but there was something. Nervous energy perhaps, which was certainly what I was feeling, too. And I needed to tell her my plan so she could relax.
“I figured since Aurelie isn’t here tonight I’d sleep on the couch. That way, I won’t wake you when I go.” Why did a dull ache begin as I said that?
“Oh, okay. Are you sure? I could take the couch. You should get some good rest since you’re working such a long day.” She instantly started moving, gathering her things.
“No, no. It’ll be fine. I’ll be in here tomorrow.” I swallowed hard, the thought of climbing into bed next to her a temptation and fantasy wrapped in one.
“Right,” she said, gaze glued to her ereader.
“I can take the floor, Elise. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. None of this matters that much.”
Her head snapped up and her throat worked. “I’ll be fine. I’m surprised to say it, but I’m fine.”
“I don’t want you to dread going to sleep these next few nights,” I said, wanting to get this resolved now so we wouldn’t have to deal with it when we had an audience in the bedroom next door.
Finally, she looked at me. The fire in her eyes when she let me see it stole my breath, as did her words when she said, “I promise you I won’t dread it.”
Unable to find the right response, I simply nodded and left with a quick goodnight. Once settled in on the couch, I realized a stark reality.
The woman had taken over my life. Yes, I’d created this situation, but thoughts of her—how she was feeling about things, how her business was going, if her ex had showed his face again, what she thought about me—had taken over.
And now she was in my house. We’d had dinner together, laughed together. I’d shared what few people knew about my work with her.
It didn’t matter where I spent the night. I wouldn’t be sleeping much at all.
* * *
The day with Jenna had been a good one. She seemed lighter on this visit than she had in the fall. Since Beast and Pop had taken down a famous producer who’d harassed and assaulted a bunch of women including her, I wondered if knowing that man was behind bars had given her some peace. He wasn’t the only person who’d caused her pain, but I liked knowing at least one less person who’d hurt her was out there.
The day flew, and before I knew it, I was off shift. Thanks to her generous offer, I changed in one of the spare rooms in Jenna’s suite, and right on time, was walking down to the lounge to meet Elise.
A woman hustled in the door, her dark waves rustling around her face and shoulders as she waved at someone behind the lobby Reception desk, then fiddled with a small purse before finally looking up to see me.
“Hello, fiancée,” I said, voice a little rough at the sight of all that beauty and energy coming at me.
Her face burst into a grin. “Hello to you.” Then she reached out and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, hugging me close.
I drew her in, relishing the heat of her body where my hand pressed in at her lower back and the other on the smooth skin of her upper arm. Tonight, she wore a black cocktail dress with short sleeves and a fitted bodice that tucked in at her waist, then flared out and landed just above the knees. Demure and stylish. Understated.
Mouthwatering.
“You are incredibly beautiful,” I said, my lips brushing against the shell of her ear.
“Thank you. You cleaned up nicely,” she returned, the apple of her cheek grazing my jaw.
After another moment of connection, we pulled away. Maybe I’d imagined it, but I could’ve sworn there was as much reluctance in her movements as there was in mine.
She glanced toward the doors of the lounge where we’d be meeting my family and shifted on her feet. I’d avoided any anxiety over the evening until right this moment when I saw her nerves creeping in.
That’s when I slipped the small item from its box in my jacket pocket.
“I have a little something for you,” I said quietly, taking her left hand in mine and sliding the ring onto her finger. I should’ve gotten it before the first dinner, but if the question came up, I could say it was being resized at the time.
She searched my face, then looked down to see me settling the ring into place, and her mouth fell open.
“That is… that’s too much, Luc. I can’t wear this.” Her eyes grew wide, and she was just staring at it like she’d never seen anything more impressive.
Honestly, it was a beautiful ring. Perhaps a bit ostentatious in that it was a three-carat round-cut diamond with smaller rose diamonds surrounding it. It was as much like a donut as I could get, and it reminded me of her.
“You can wear it. I bought it for you.”
“No, like, I can’t wear this. It’s huge. And just like, wow. Like there it is. ” She held it out to me like I hadn’t seen it.
“I know, and I hope you’ll wear it proudly to let everyone know you’re mine.”
Her eyes snapped up to meet my gaze, and something shifted in me at either her expression or the feeling of her hand still in mine.
Or maybe it was calling her mine while she stood there looking so beautiful and wearing a ring I’d just put on her finger.
But she’s only yours for a few more days.
I heard the voice and instead of running from it and the feeling lacing through me that screamed, “Let’s do this for real!” I decided to lean into it. Something had shifted when I bought that ring. I couldn’t explain exactly what, but it slackened twine that’d been pulled tight around a part of me and now it was loosening. Easing.
While we were here, we might as well fully play the parts, right?
Dropping my head low so no one could overhear, I spoke softly. “I know it’s a lot, but would you wear it for me? It will help them all know you’re taken, and I’m taken, and soon, you can take it off and never look at it again if you want.”
I wouldn’t tell her I hoped she’d keep it. Maybe not wear it as my fiancée because I wasn’t fool enough to want let alone hope for such a thing, but certainly keep it for herself. Sell it, even, if she wanted to.
She nodded, glancing at her now-shaking hand, and sighed. “Okay. I mean, yes, of course I will. I—I’ll probably have to take it off when I’m at work, though.”
“Ah. Of course. I did wonder how cumbersome this might be.” As a man who had spent years working with his hands in one way or another, I’d wondered if it would bother her while she shaped her donuts or… whatever that process looked like. From the inside breast pocket of my suit jacket, I pulled out a delicate platinum chain. “I thought maybe you could wear it on this when at work.”
“You thought of everything.” Her words were slow and surprised.
“I thought of you,” I admitted, because I had. Selecting an engagement ring hadn’t been something I’d imagined doing, but the process of it had been fun. I’d bought one girlfriend a necklace when I was a teen and still basking in the ease of my identity as a Devereaux, before my mother passed, and having a romantic connection felt like a risk I couldn’t bring myself to take.
This was different.
She turned and held her hair off her neck.
“You don’t have to wear this if it’s not?—”
“Please put it on me, Luc.”
I wouldn’t deny her the request since an odd drive in me wanted to drape her in all kinds of jewelry from me like it made her more mine than if she didn’t wear any at all.
I slipped the tiny chain around her neck and fastened it, then rested it against her skin and indulged the impulse to drag my fingers away a little more overtly than I would’ve if she hadn’t captured me so completely tonight.
Right. Just tonight, huh?
She turned back around and her dark gaze found mine again, her expression simultaneously soft and full of need.
My stomach bottomed out and I swallowed, watching her lips as she said, “I think… Before we go in there, I need to say, I think I’d like you to kiss me.”
I straightened, the words a bolt of lightning to my system. “Here? Now?”
She huffed out a laugh and smiled. “No, not now standing a few paces away from your family. I don’t really want an audience for our first time.”
Our first time.
Our first time.
Our first time…
Grasping, clutching, aching need hit me, and a world of possibilities rippled out from her words.
“Maybe after? When you take me home?”
When I took her home. To the house we’d share, and the bed we’d share now that Michele and Aurelie had moved their bags to the house and settled into the guest room while Elise and I had both been working.
There was only one possible answer.
“Alright, Elise. I’ll kiss you when we get home.”