Chapter 17 #2
I looked to Luca so he could answer.
Luca continued to stare at him like he hated the guy.
“Excellent.” Bastien’s hand went to Fleur’s back. “Sweetheart, sit with Luca. He likes you more than me.”
Fleur moved into the seat beside Luca and Bastien took the seat beside me.
It was an awkward pause, Luca staring at Bastien and Bastien staring back. Fleur glanced back and forth between them then grabbed the menu. “Think I’m gonna get the sweet stack.”
The waiter came over with my coffee, and he seemed to know Bastien too. “Second time this week.”
“Fleur likes this place even more than I do,” Bastien said. “And it’s our first double date. Should be fun.”
I guess I knew Luca well at this point because I could feel his palpable irritation.
“We’ll take two coffees,” Bastien said before he looked at Luca again. “You guys ready to order?”
“I am,” I said.
“Let’s do it.” Bastien fired off his order, ordering for both himself and his wife. Then he turned to me. “What about you?”
“I’ll have what Fleur is having,” I said. “The sweet stack with a side of hash browns.”
Bastien looked at Luca.
“Savory stack.” That was all Luca said, staring at his friend like an enemy rather than a brother.
The waiter walked off, and we were left alone together.
One big, happy family.
Nothing was said. Absolutely nothing.
The coffees were brought, and Fleur added lots of cream to hers.
Bastien sat with his elbows on the table and turned to me. “Tell me about yourself, Aliénor.”
I felt bad that Luca was so annoyed Bastien was there. I didn’t understand why he was so affronted by it. “I’ve lived in Paris my whole life. Just moved in to a new apartment. And a new job at Diamant. Literally just got hired like an hour ago.”
“That’s cool,” Fleur said. “What position?”
“Fashion merchandiser,” I said. “I applied for an unpaid internship, but they gave me this instead…totally out of the blue, but I’m not going to question it. Gotta put food on the table. And I need money to use toward the discount they’re giving me on their clothes.”
Bastien looked at Luca, and they seemed to have a silent conversation across the table. Then Bastien quietly chuckled, apparently to himself, and took a drink of his coffee.
Like Luca used to be when I first met him, he didn’t say a word. I was glad to meet his friends, but I missed the man I had cultivated like a garden, the one who had grown from the little seed I planted.
“What about you?” I asked. “I know you used to work with Luca.”
“The wife and I are enjoying my retirement,” Bastien said. “We did some traveling. Might visit a few other places before we do the kid thing.”
“I hate it when you call it that,” Fleur said.
“Have a family,” Bastien quickly corrected.
“Well, congratulations to you both,” I said.
Bastien took a drink of his coffee.
It was clear that this was a one-sided dream.
Bastien seemed like a committed husband who loved his wife with everything he had, but he didn’t seem excited about the prospect of children.
Then again, most other men didn’t seem excited about it either.
I imagined Luca felt the same way. “You miss the job?” I asked.
“Sometimes.” He was honest about it, right in front of his wife. “But you can’t have it all, at least not at the same time.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Well, there’s a lot of shit that comes with—”
Luca gave him a hard stare.
Bastien quickly redirected his words mid-sentence. “With working nights and long hours, it’s not ideal for our relationship. It’s not easy being married to a vampire who’s awake all night and sleeps all day.”
I knew something had transpired between the men, but I couldn’t guess what it was. I just knew it was something Luca didn’t want me to know about.
“Luca said the Oath was after you?” Bastien asked.
“Yeah.” I still wasn’t used to the freedom that blessed me. To be able to go anywhere at any time and not be scared was a godsend. A gift that only someone like Luca could grant me. “It’s still hard to believe that this is real. That I got my life back.”
“Then it sounds like you’re acquainted with our world.”
“Distantly, I suppose,” I said. “I’m honestly not sure what happened. I was eighteen when everything went down, blissfully ignorant to the real world and the consequences of poor decisions. I still don’t know exactly what my father did, but he crossed the wrong person.”
“Who was your father?”
“Claude Badeaux.”
It didn’t seem to be instantly familiar to either of them. Because that legacy was long gone now. Everyone I’d ever been related to had been killed. I was the sole survivor of my line.
Bastien sat in silence for a while. “That rings a bell.” He stared at Luca.
Luca stared back and didn’t blink.
Then it seemed to click for Bastien. “Your family made their fortune in the Loire Valley, right? Wine?”
“Yes,” I said, surprised he’d figured that out.
“My family is distantly related to Marie Antoinette, which is how we had so much land that had been passed down through the generations. My father was also involved in luxury textile production and other things. I don’t know the full extent of his businesses because my sisters and I were never a part of that.
But he crossed someone, and that was the end. ”
Luca didn’t seem angry anymore. He stared at me instead of Bastien, absorbed in the tale.
“This was before the Fifth Republic. During what we call the modern dark ages, where crime was rampant and out of control, fueled by wars between the various gangs, the attacks on innocents, executing people in broad daylight like it was the French Revolution. It was borderline anarchy.”
“It was a different time,” Bastien said. “Expected someone to pull out the guillotine again. Godric was running amok and even had President Martin’s predecessor assassinated. Shit was bad. I was twenty-six at the time.”
Luca nodded in agreement, like he remembered the time just as vividly.
“And the Oath honored their contract and continued to hunt me…for eight years.” Eight years of anxiety.
Eight years of horror. “Until Luca stopped it.” I looked at him across the table, a man who had meant nothing to me and now meant the world to me.
The only person who had my back. The only person who… I had at all.
Fleur looked at Luca at her side, a gentle smile on her lips.
Luca didn’t look at either of them, just stared at me across the table, a little light coming back to his eyes.
“Luca’s a good guy,” Bastien finally said. “To a select few.”
When we finished breakfast, we said goodbye on the sidewalk outside.
Bastien and Luca did one of those hand-grabs that guys did. “We’ll talk about this later,” Bastien said.
All Luca did was nod.
Fleur hugged Luca and gave him a hard squeeze.
Luca was affectionate back, giving her a squeeze with one arm before he let her go.
The blacked-out SUV pulled up, and they hopped inside before it left.
Luca pulled out his phone and texted his driver.
I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest and tried to stay warm. It was overcast with a forecast of rain. I was in a dress and heels because of my job interview, looking cute but cold as hell.
Luca moved closer to me and pulled me into his chest, like he knew I was cold and gave me his body for heat. If he were wearing a jacket, I knew he would have given it to me. But Luca’s body was warm like a blanket in front of the fire.
His big arms locked around me, and he held me close, making me feel like I was in a warm bed.
He said nothing, just stood there and waited for his driver to pull up.
The car came a moment later, pulling up to the curb with the blacked-out windows.
Luca opened the door and helped me inside, and we headed to my apartment across town.
He cranked up the heater inside and pointed the vents at me.
Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at my apartment, and Luca walked me all the way inside and up the stairs to my front door.
“You’re welcome to come in, but I’m sure you’re tired after your long night.”
He didn’t seem like he intended to stay because he never crossed the threshold. His thick arms were at his sides. “Pack a bag. My driver will pick you up at seven.”
I blinked because he’d never invited me to sleep over before.
I hadn’t been to his house since the night I’d said goodbye and never expected to see him again.
Anytime I’d been in his bed, I got out the second the fun was over and never let myself get comfortable.
But now, he wanted me to bring my things like he wanted me to stay.
He didn’t ask, but I liked that he didn’t. “Okay.”
He hesitated before he left. He stepped toward me, came close, his dark eyes looking into mine, and then he kissed me. A quick kiss on the lips the way couples said goodbye, as if he was making an effort to treat me like we were a set. “Bye.”
It wasn’t much, but from Luca, it was the world. “Bye.”