11. Julian
JULIAN
I stared at the necklace that now lay on the table in front of Lance. “Oh my God. Is that…” It looked just like the necklace that was stolen from the Musée des Trésors, but it had to be a reproduction. There was no way the necklace was here.
“I think it is,” Lance said.
“We need to call the police.” Lance had his hand around my wrist before I could get my phone from my pocket.
“No police.”
“Lance, that necklace is worth thirty million dollars.”
He picked it up and examined it, studying each of the gems carefully. He held a few of them against his face.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“They’re cool against my skin, so they’re quite possibly real. It could be an expensive reproduction, but it’s not costume jewelry.”
“How did you…”
“Do you have a jeweler’s loop?”
“I’ve got a strong magnifier and a microscope.”
“Bring them over here.” His tone was still as demanding as ever, but I could tell he was shaken.
“That’s not what you expected to find, is it?”
“No. I just expected information about the theft. If I’d expected the necklace itself, I would’ve made sure you were distracted while I looked for it. Fuck. I knew something wasn’t right about this.”
I started to ask what he meant, but obviously part of the problem was that he was in possession of a treasured necklace stolen from a museum. I should go call the police instead of getting him the microscope.
Would I really turn Lance in?
He could leave before the police arrived, but what if I were implicated? No, that was absurd. I’d not been anywhere near the museum, and yet… How would I explain the necklace being at the library?
I’d assumed Lance was up to something nefarious, but I’d never thought it would be on this scale. The theft was big news. I worried that feds in black suits would burst in at any moment, shine a spotlight in our eyes, and arrest us both.
“We have to call this in.”
Lance shook his head. “No, that’s a hell of a lot more dangerous.”
“Why?”
“The people who stole this will want revenge. If they learn who has it, then you, me, and the rest of my family are in big trouble.”
I stared at him, not knowing what to say.
“Please bring me the microscope.”
I did, and after he studied the necklace, he determined it was the real thing.
“Come on,” he said, rising from his seat. “We need to put everything back and leave no trace that we’ve been here tonight.”
“What are we going to do with the necklace?” He was still holding it.
I didn’t know how he dared. I couldn’t have touched it without gloves on.
Thirty million dollars. That was more money than I could imagine, but if his family was as rich as I guessed, maybe that didn’t sound like all that much to Lance.
Lance slipped the necklace into his jacket pocket. “It can stay right here. We need to wipe down every surface we touched, so get me something to do that with, then put the newspapers away.”
He obviously expected me to do whatever he said. Was I really going to let him walk out with that necklace? It belonged in a museum, not with the Theriot family. “We’re not doing this.”
He turned and held my gaze. Why did his smile have to be so fucking charming? “Yes, we are.”
“No. The necklace needs to be returned.”
I reached for my phone again, but he pulled me to him.
I stumbled and ended up flush against his body.
I tried to pull away, but he held my wrists behind my back.
It was too much like what had happened in my fantasy.
I’d been right, one of his hands was plenty large enough to hold me in place like this.
He wrapped his other hand around my waist and held me tightly. I absolutely refused to like it or to think about the solid wall of his chest or the hardness I felt against my hip. I also absolutely would not look at his full lips that I wanted on mine or really anywhere on my body.
This was crazy. If I got caught with this necklace, even as just an accessory to the theft, I would go to jail for years. The library would fall apart. My father’s legacy would turn to nothing, and… “Please don’t do this.”
Lance’s expression softened. “Stop fighting me, and I’ll let you go.”
“No.”
“You don’t want me to let you go? I do like having you close like this.”
“No. I’m not going to stop fighting for the necklace to be returned to the museum. I won’t help you with this. I won’t be part of whatever this is. I’m not a criminal.”
“Surely you break the law occasionally.”
I gave a mirthless laugh. “No, I really don’t.”
“You don’t speed or run through a stop sign in your neighborhood when there’s no one coming or?—”
“Of course I do that, but this is a long way from a speeding ticket.”
He laughed. “Not too far in my world.”
“I don’t want to be part of your world.”
Something flashed in Lance’s eyes that almost made me think my words had hurt him, but that didn’t make any sense. What difference did it make to him if I wanted to be the goody-two-shoes librarian everyone expected me to be?
“Julian, I didn’t mean to involve you in this.”
“So that’s why you broke into my home? That’s why you tried to bribe me, and?—”
“I needed your help to get into the archive, but if you’d let me in yesterday?—”
“Don’t you dare blame me for this.” I struggled against his hold. I was not going to let this man seduce me.
“Stop fighting me, Julian. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then let me go.”
“No, because no matter how angry you are right now, no matter how much you want to get away, if I let you run out of here and tell someone about this necklace, your life will be in danger. How much do you know about my family?”
Enough. “Fine. I won’t run away if you just—” He loosened his hold on my waist and let go of my wrists. He took each hand in turn and kissed the marks his fingers had left. “I’m sorry.”
I wasn’t really upset he’d been holding me. In a different context, like the one in my fantasy, I would’ve loved seeing the evidence of how he’d restrained me. But right now, I was scared, not of him hurting me, but of the consequences of coming here with him.
Our gazes met, and my breath caught. There was so much emotion in his eyes. He lifted my wrist toward his lips, and it seemed time had slowed.
I gasped when his lips brushed over the marks his fingers had made. I felt alive in a way I hadn’t in years, maybe ever. He lifted my other hand and kissed that wrist as well, flicking the tip of his tongue over my pulse point and making my cock react.
This was wrong, so wrong. I needed to get away from Lance. I needed to get away from this whole situation. What if someone else came looking for the necklace or if the man who’d been here returned?
Lance cupped my cheek. Instead of pulling away, I leaned into his touch.
“I need you to trust me.”
I stared at him. It was crazy to give him my trust. He’d acted like a lunatic the first time we’d met.
He’d stalked me and broken into my house, and now he was mixing me up in something I didn’t quite understand but I knew was very illegal.
Something to do with his mafia family. So why the hell did I want to say yes? “You don’t make that easy.”
“Haven’t I kept my word to you from the start?”
“I told you not to come back to the library, but you did.”
“I never promised you I wouldn’t.”
“You promised me you wouldn’t hurt me, that you weren’t dangerous, but you are.”
“I’m very dangerous.” He rubbed his thumb along my cheek bone. “But something tells me you like that.”
Oh God. Did he know? Could he see that deep inside me? I thought of how I’d gotten off thinking of him, and heat filled my face.
“I’m going to protect you.”
“Whether I trust you or not?”
“Yes. That’s how it has to be, but I’d prefer if you trusted me. This will be a lot easier if you go along with what I say.”
“Are you like this with everyone?”
“Like what?”
“Demanding, outrageous.” Charming as fuck.
His smile weakened my knees. “More or less.”
“Protective.”
“I reserve that for adorable, uptight librarians that don’t want to let me into their… collections.”
Fuck. I’d let him plunder my collection. There was no way in hell I’d say no to anything he wanted from me.
Maybe I’d officially lost my mind. Gwen had been warning me about the effects of too much stress. I looked into Lance’s warm, dark eyes and decided if this was insanity, I was just going to give into it.
Once we had erased all traces of our presence, we headed for Lance’s car. As he opened the door for me, I had a terrible realization. I grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?
“The security cameras. We’ll be on them.”
He covered my hand with his. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that.”
“What does that mean? How?”
“Trust me. I’ll handle it.”
How much power did this man have? “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t like it either.”
“But you’re… This is what you do, isn’t it?”
“I live a… colorful life, but this situation feels off. It’s not what I expected, and I don’t like that.”
I let him usher me into the passenger seat. A few minutes after he started driving, I realized he wasn’t going in the right direction to take me home. “Where are we going?”
“To Remington’s house and then to mine.”
I’d known better. Lance had told me who he was, and I’d still gotten in his car, and now… “Take me home.”
“Julian—”
“I’ve put up with a lot of shit from you. I don’t want to be involved in this anymore. I don’t want to be where that necklace is.”
“I can set you up to leave town if that’s what you really want, but?—”
“Leave town? I have a job.”
He shook his head. “Your workplace isn’t safe right now.”
“Lance, stop the car right now. I mean it.” He didn’t. I hadn’t really expected him to. “You’re in possession of a stolen artifact. Do you really want to add kidnapping to your potential charges?”
“I didn’t steal the necklace.”
Did I know that for sure? “Maybe not, but you’re not attempting to return it.”
“And I’m not kidnapping you. I’m keeping you safe.”
“I want to go home.”
He shook his head. “That’s not an option.”
“Because I know you have the necklace?”
He glanced quickly at me, then back at the road. “No, because I want to protect you.”
“I wouldn’t need protecting if you hadn’t?—”
“Yes, you would. Someone came into the archive and hid that necklace, someone you let in.”
Anger burned through me. “You are not going to blame me for this.”
“Cher, I didn’t say you were to blame. I said the person talked to you. They can identify you as the one that let them into the archive, and they know there’s a chance you saw what they did.”
Fuck.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. It’s my fault—or my family’s fault—that you’re in this situation.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow.”
Lancelot let out a long, slow breath. “We’ll see how we can work that out.”
Would he really prevent me from going to the library? “This isn’t… I’m not bargaining with you.”
“Sweetheart, you really don’t have a choice. I’m not letting you go. I’m not even going to let you out of my sight unless I know you’re protected by someone I trust.”
“This is insane. You’re insane.” I pulled out my phone, and he grabbed it from me without even looking away from the road.
“Julian, this is for your own good.”
“Calling the police about this would be for my own good.”
“Do you honestly think the police would be any match for the people behind this theft?”
Was I being naive? “Police catch jewel thieves. That’s not impossible.”
“Sometimes they do, but the people behind this theft make my family look like the Brady Bunch.”
I’d let myself be lured in by Lance’s charm. I’d started to believe in my fantasy, but this was real. I was under his control, and he wasn’t going to let me go. Maybe once we got to Remington’s house I’d have more options for escape.
What if he’s right? What if I am in danger? If he’d wanted to hurt me earlier, he could have. He had found me easily, and he was right, anyone else could too.
What the fuck was I going to do? “I really can’t afford to lose my job.”