Chapter 12
ROSE
“Mrs. Sullivan.” The border officer glances at my passport that appeared as if snatched from thin air.
He nods and hands it back to me and glances quickly at Julius’s before saying with a curt, “Welcome to France, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan. Enjoy your stay.”
Julius nods and grasps my hand, and we head toward the car that is waiting. He takes the keys from a man hovering nearby and, without another look at the jet waiting patiently to leave, he guides me into the passenger seat before taking his position behind the wheel.
As the engine roars into life, he wastes no time in heading for the exit, and I don’t believe we utter one word until the airport is a speck in the distance.
I gaze out at the unfamiliar scenery and, despite myself, take pleasure in the wide open spaces and nature’s beauty. Julius was right; this is freedom, as we appear to be the only ones around in a land that time apparently forgot.
“Are you okay, baby?”
His husky whisper cuts through the silence, and I nod, smiling as I return my attention to him.
“I am. Thank you for asking.”
He chuckles. “You are so polite, Rose. I wonder if you ever lose your temper. I would be fascinated to witness that.”
“I don’t have a temper.” I giggle. “Okay, maybe that’s a lie.”
“Rose!” He appears shocked, and only the subtle tug on his lips reveals he is messing with me.
“Your first sin and we’ve just left the airport. I must keep an eye on you.”
“You don’t know a thing about me, Julius. I wasn’t born in the convent.”
Now I hold his interest, and I shrug slightly. “I have two sisters, and growing up with only each other for company, we inevitably fought—a lot.”
“I get that.” He groans. “My three brothers are just like me.”
“You win.” I roll my eyes, causing him to chuckle.
After a pause, he asks, “Have you ever shot anything?”
“No.”
I’m shocked, and he grins. “Hit another person in a fight?”
“Of course not.”
“What about stealing?”
“Definitely not, unless borrowing one of my sister’s dresses counts.”
“Not even close, baby girl.”
His wicked grin curls like a warm blanket around my heart, and I wonder why I am drawn like a moth to the light to an obviously wicked soul.
“I doubt you’ve killed anything, animal or human.”
“Never.”
I can’t believe he is even asking, and he shakes his head.
“You are not a sinner, Rose.”
“But you are.”
My voice shakes, and he nods. “All my life. Perhaps I should be the one knocking on the convent door to save me from myself.”
His tone is light, and I shake my head, wishing it weren’t this easy to smile around him. He is bad for me, extremely off limits, and yet that is part of the attraction. He fascinates me in every way and is the most interesting person I’ve ever met.
The most devastatingly attractive, sinful man I’ve ever met.
“So, it appears that we are husband and wife now. Obviously there was a wedding on that plane that I must have slept through.”
“Idiot.”
I glance at the bare finger where a wedding ring should be right now, and a strange flutter to my heart tells me I would love it to be his ring.
I’m a little shocked at that because I decided a long time ago that I would marry God and not a man and yet since meeting Julius Ravera, those thoughts are blurred.
“What happens next?”
I attempt to divert my lustful thoughts concerning this man because I can’t even begin to allow them to creep inside my mind.
“We head to the nearest town and equip ourselves with clothes, food and the necessities.”
“What town? We appear to be in the middle of nowhere.”
“It’s programmed into the sat nav and–” He peers at the screen. “We will be there in thirty minutes.”
He adds, “There was a closer town to the airfield, but it was heading in the wrong direction. Spain, apparently, is this way.”
“Spain?”
A shiver of excitement reminds me of the adventure we’re on, and he remarks, “I’ve never been to Spain. What about you?”
I cast my mind back to a childhood that involved traveling to many places, Spain being one of them.
“Our father had a house there. It was off the coast near Barcelona.”
“Did you go there a lot?”
“Several times a year. To be honest, we traveled a lot. He had many business dealings around the world, and we went with him, along with our tutor.”
“So you never attended a normal school?”
“Not until Canton House.”
I shiver at the memories that name drags up, and Julius says softly, “Tell me about that.”
I shiver as the hard lesson of discovering that not everyone is nice comes racing back.
“We were outcasts, I told you that. The other girls liked to have a target to deflect the heat away from them, and we were easy ones. We attempted to stay out of trouble, though, because the idea of going back home to that woman made enduring the bullying the easier option.”
“Tell me about your stepmother.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather not.”
I turn away and stare out of the window and take a deep breath because I will not visit the place in my mind where Morgan Sorcusi lives.
Julius falls silent, and I regret the mention of her name because our easy conversation has stilted.
Instead, I focus on the glory of nature as we travel through unfamiliar territory toward an uncertain future.