20. Julian
JULIAN
T he meeting with the donor started off rocky.
I was nervous as hell and shaken up from all that had happened in the prior twenty-four hours.
But once I got started on the tour of the various archives, my words started to come more smoothly.
I truly wanted this man to love the library the way I did, so I didn’t have to fake my enthusiasm.
When I finished the tour, I showed him some of the specific items in my archive, then the library director arrived, and I introduced them before they headed out to lunch.
The moment the door closed behind them, I sagged against my desk.
I was exhausted. I usually just ate lunch in the break room and came right back, but today I was contemplating taking a nap and letting Gwen cover for me.
When I looked up, I jumped. She was standing by my desk.
She studied me with narrowed eyes. “What’s up with you today?”
“What? Nothing I… um… I just didn’t sleep well.”
She peered at my face. “Are you wearing makeup?”
“What? No.” I’d been worried about the dark circles under my eyes from the long night, and Lance had insisted on making me look better. He’d sworn no one would notice.
“Yes, you are.”
“Fine. I looked awful from the lack of sleep. My eyes were… I just needed to look better for my meeting.”
“Since when do you know how to apply makeup or own any?”
Shit. Why did she have to ask so many questions? “I… um… I borrowed some from a friend.”
“At seven in the morning, you just called a friend and borrowed their makeup?” Her lips curved up into a wicked grin. “You spent the night with someone, didn’t you? Go, Julian.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like you think.” It was exactly like she thought. I had slept with Lance, and it had been amazing. That was part of the reason I’d had so little sleep, but that wasn’t all of it. “I don’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“I know I told you to get out more, hook up, and have fun, but I didn’t think you’d do it the night before a big meeting with a donor. You really are trying to find your wild side.”
“No. I’m really not.”
At that exact moment, the main library door swung open. Gwen and I both turned to see Lance striding across the library, staring at me like he wanted to eat me alive.
“Hold on,” Gwen said. “You aren’t just trying to bring out your wild side. You’ve fucking released it completely.”
“Shut up.”
“Is he as good as I think?”
I couldn’t stop my smile. “Better.”
The way Lance was looking at me had my heart banging against my chest. When he reached us, he turned to Gwen. “How are you this morning?”
“Not as good as Julian, sadly. I don’t suppose you have brothers or cousins or something.”
He laughed. “I’ve got plenty of those, but I couldn’t recommend most of them.”
She sighed.
“I’ll just have to live vicariously through Julian, then.”
She headed back to her desk, and I turned to Lance. “Is something wrong?”
He shook his head. “Our mission was successful.”
“You found the guy?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“We did. Dax is questioning him now.”
I didn’t want to think about what that meant. I doubted the man was going to give the information they wanted freely.
“Don’t you need to be there?”
“No, I’m too angry. I don’t have the patience to extract the information we need.”
I swallowed hard. That wasn’t a reality I wanted to face. They were going to kill the man when they were done with him. I was sure of that. “So… um… why are you here?”
“To take you to lunch. It is your lunch break now, right?”
I stared at him. “How did you know that?”
“I told you. I know a lot of things about you.”
“That’s creepy.”
“It’s necessary in my line of work, but also, the schedule’s posted in the break room. I saw it when I was checking the place out, making sure it was safe for you to come in this morning.”
I let out a breath. “Right. I guess there’s not some database of library employee lunch breaks your friendly neighborhood hacker could look into for you.”
“Our guy, Blackjack, can find out pretty much anything, but it’s not quite that straightforward. Now let’s go to lunch.”
I considered the offer. I was technically supposed to get an hour off. “Do you promise to bring me back?”
Lance hesitated.
“I have an hour for lunch, but I need to work this afternoon.”
“You met with your donor, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“What do you need to do this afternoon?”
Now I was the one who hesitated. “Nothing special, but?—”
He tugged on my hand, and, not wanting to make a scene, I let him tow me toward the entrance.
He stopped at Gwen’s desk. “I’m taking Julian to lunch. I’m not sure when we’ll be back. Can you manage without him?”
She grinned. “Absolutely. It’s never busy on Wednesday afternoons. We’ll be fine. Julian never takes any time off.”
“So I understand. I intend to work on that.”
What did that mean? Lance seemed to imply he was going to have influence over me past the time I needed protection.
That didn’t seem realistic. Surely he’d want someone more exciting by then.
Lance didn’t seem like a man who was interested in a long-term relationship anyway, though I wouldn’t have thought that of his brothers either, and apparently, they were both engaged.
We dropped Tony off at Lance’s apartment, then he took me to Emile’s, a tiny restaurant a block away.
It didn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it smelled amazing.
I noted they’d kept the architectural details of the old building intact: the ceiling, the wood floor, the bar that looked like it must be original to the structure.
The servers were all dressed in black pants and white shirts. Ours brought us glasses of water, introduced herself, and asked if we’d like something else to drink. “Do you have any more bottles of the Chateau Bourgneuf Pomerol?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Please bring us a bottle.”
“Of course. I’ll be back in a moment, sir.”
What was he doing? “I can’t drink wine and go back to work.”
“Then don’t go back.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re absolutely outrageous.”
“No, I’m determined to teach you to have some fun, and since when can you not have a nice glass of wine at lunch?”
“It’s against the rules.”
“No, that is outrageous. We’re in Louisiana. We’re all supposed to drink like fish.”
“The library doesn’t seem concerned with that.”
“The wine will complement the food perfectly.”
He really was used to always getting his way. “I suppose you’re going to order my food for me as well?”
“Trust me,” Lance said.
There were plenty of things I wasn’t ready to trust him with, but I’d trusted him with my body last night. It had been all I could do not to give him my very soul. This was just lunch.
Okay.
The server brought bread-and-butter along with our bottle of wine. Lance tasted it and deemed it perfect.
“Go on. Try it,” Lance insisted when she poured a glass for each of us. I did. It was smooth with dark berry flavors, not too tannic or heavy.
“You like it, don’t you?”
“I do. Thank you.” He pushed the bread plate toward me, and I took a piece along with some of the herbed butter. It tasted like a buttery cloud. After my second bite, I realized Lance was watching me instead of eating. “What?”
“You.”
“I’m just eating bread.”
“You’re eating bread like it feels almost as good as what we did last night.”
I felt myself blush. “It’s delicious but not quite the same.”
Lance took a piece of bread for himself. Silence stretched between us, and it hit me that this was like a date. When he’d said he would take me to lunch, I thought we would just pick something up or eat a sandwich somewhere quickly. I hadn’t expected all of this. Why had he brought me here?
Because he likes you.
Lance laid his arm on the table and wiggled his fingers. I reached for him, and he pulled my hand into his. “What are you thinking about?”
I marveled at how he could go from demanding to tender so easily. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me. I brought you here to bring you joy, but you look sad or confused or something.”
“I was just thinking about how this is like a date, and I… I am confused.”
“About what?”
“Why would you bring me here? I mean, you already know I…” My words trailed off as his expression tightened.
“Please tell me you didn’t think you owed that to me last night. You said?—”
I shook my head frantically. “No, that’s not what I meant. I don’t know why you’d”—I waved my hand around—“think you’d need this whole seduction routine.”
“This isn’t a seduction routine. This is me wanting to give you something nice, wanting to show you there’s more to life than work. I enjoy being with you.”
I stared at him for a few moments. “I thought you were with me because I needed protection.”
“That’s part of it.”
“What’s the other part?”
“Is it that hard to imagine I might want to keep you?”
“Keep me like a pet? Like Tony?”
“No, though most people would be thrilled to live the pampered life Tony has.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Yes, it is hard to understand. You didn’t seem to like me much when we first met.”
“I didn’t like that you wouldn’t give me what I wanted, but I thought you were sexy as hell.”
I stared at him, open-mouthed. “What?”
“Julian—”
The server came back then. It was all I could do to summon a polite expression. Could her timing be any worse?
Lance ordered a few small plates for us to share. After our server walked away, I turned to him. “What were you going to say?”
“I don’t remember.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes, so I was sure he was lying. Lance really was a puzzle. I fiddled with my napkin, finished my bread, and then before the tension grew so thick it choked me, I spoke. “What’s going to happen to the necklace?”
Lance glanced around, and I realized I needed to be cautious. “Most likely we will have to give it back.”
“Back to the museum?”
Lance shook his head. “Back to the men who took it.”
“But that’s not?—”
Lance shook his head. “This isn’t the place to talk about it, but my family, all of us, are worth more than the necklace. I’m not putting my life on the line just to have it back on display.”
“Wouldn’t you be an accessory to the theft or something?”
Lance smiled. “That would be so far down on the list of things I could be convicted of it would hardly be worth pursuing.”
I studied him for a moment. Like this—sitting in a nice restaurant with delicious food on the way, just the two of us—it was hard to remember who he really was and what he could do.
Our first plate of food came then, and Lance described it to me. It was tournedos of beef on top of a leek and parmesan cake with bordelaise sauce, and it was beyond delicious.
After we’d both sampled it, Lance said, “I’m sure you have some interests outside the library. Talk to me. Tell me about who Julian is.”
“You’ll just think it’s all as ridiculous as me caring so much about the archives.”
Lance shook his head. “I want to know what you’re passionate about.”
You . Thank God I didn’t say that out loud.
“I like history and art and learning the origins of things, not just fancy things, small things like letters written from a farmer’s wife to her friend who had moved to the city or letters from a telephone operator who was only sixteen to her sisters back home.
Things like that are glimpses into people’s lives. It’s fascinating.”
Lance nodded. “I’d enjoy those things too.”
“Really?”
He reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Yes.”
“I’m sure it’s not a surprise that I like watching documentaries and…”
“And what?”
“I like cars, okay? I know you wouldn’t know it seeing mine, but that’s because libraries don’t pay enough for their staff members to drive fancy cars.”
“So you really did like riding with me?”
“I did.”
“Have you ever had a fun car?”
I took another bite before answering. “My father had a 1968 Corvette. He rarely let me drive it, but I got to ride in it with him.”
“What happened to it?”
“We sold it to pay his medical bills. He refused to allow me to dip into the savings I would inherit. He wanted to know I’d be okay without him. Along with my salary from the library, it’s enough to keep me comfortable.”
Lance reached for my hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. I’m in a much better place about losing him now.”
After a drink of wine, he had another question. “What kind of cars are your favorite?”
“Other than the Corvette, I love the Porsche 911, the Lamborghini Huracan, and 1960s Mustangs. I’ve built models of all those.” I paused and shook my head. “I’m just making this worse. You’re trying to find something about me that’s not nerdy, and I’m telling you I build model cars.”
“Julian, I want to know about you. I don’t want to make you into something you’re not.”
“You…”
“I’m interested in you.”
I nearly choked on my wine. “But… I thought…”
“Do you think I have a problem with the fact that you’re a nerdy librarian? That was obvious from the get-go, and honestly, it totally turns me on. I didn’t even know I had a thing for nerds, but I have a thing for you.”
I shook my head. “See? You confuse me.”
“Babe, I confuse everyone.”
After our next dish arrived, I told Lance it was his turn. I wanted to know more about him. “How long have you had Tony, and what made you want a pet monkey?”
“I’ve had him for fourteen months, and the story of how I acquired him… that’s classified.”
“That’s not fair.”
“The only people who know are Remington and my father.”
“Seriously? Not even Corbin?”
He shook his head. “I might tell you eventually. It depends on how intimate our friendship becomes.”
“After last night, I would think…”
“There’s so much more I want to do to you.”
Heat filled my cheeks. I needed to change the course of the conversation. “Tell me more about you.”
“I like hiking. I’m a hell of a tracker. I like anything that involves danger, including nice cars. I’m no good at sitting still unless I have something—or someone—to amuse me.”
“You also have no filter and expect to get exactly what you want.”
He grinned. “That too.”
“And you like monkeys.”
“I like Tony. He’s special.”
Everything Lance ordered for us, including the bananas foster we finished at the end of the meal, was incredible.
Lance looked at his phone as he pulled out his wallet to pay the check. “We’ve been here longer than I thought. Tony is going to be furious.”
I was wondering what the little creature did to express his anger when the rest of his words hit me. “How long have we been here?” I glanced at the time and realized I was half an hour late already. “I need to get back to the library.”
“Gwen said they’d be fine without you.”
“I know she did, but that’s not?—”