Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TAMSYN
“A surprise for me? Well, thank God,” I say with a startled laugh as I gesture at the entire romantic scene. “I haven’t had nearly enough surprises since I’ve been at Ackerley. And I’ve been treated so poorly since you and I got together.”
“You’re joking, but I plan to spoil you. Like I said.”
“You can spoil me by giving me a daily orgasm. How’s that?”
“Only one?” he says, smirking.
This generates an embarrassing simper in me. “ Lucien . Now you’re getting cocky.”
“Maybe, but I don’t consider your sexual pleasure to be a luxury extra.” His voice hums with that silky tone he gets whenever the subject turns to sex, the one that makes my panties wet every time. “It’s a divine right, as far as I’m concerned.”
My grin widens. “I like how you think.”
“Good. Do you want your gift or not?”
“I mean…I’ll take a look at it if you’ve gone to all this trouble.”
He laughs and opens the box with a tiny creak. Whereupon my heart slams to a stop. Inside is a collection of rainbow-colored jewels that glitters like pirates’ booty in the candlelight. I’m not kidding you. There are diamond, emerald, sapphire and ruby earrings. Assorted rings and bracelets. Bright coral necklaces. Several gold watches, including a Cartier and a Rolex with a diamond face. There are also a couple of opal things. Oh, and pearls. It’s a truly astonishing array.
“Oh my God.” I can only imagine what Mrs. Hooper would say if she saw all this. The thought of her astonishment makes me laugh as I clap my hands to the sides of my face. “Please don’t tell me you keep all this lying around the house.”
“Of course not.” He laughs again, gesturing over his shoulder. “I keep them in the safe.”
I glance over, but all I see is a stretch of blank stone wall. “There’s no safe over there.”
Without a word, he gets up and goes over to the wall in question, where he presses his thumb to a tiny panel that I hadn’t noticed before. And suddenly half the wall swings open with the kind of dramatic flourish that makes you wonder if James Bond is nearby. Lights blink on. The next thing I know, I’m looking at the well-lit interior of a safe the size of your standard walk-in closet. I can’t see everything that’s inside from this angle, but I do see several more stacked velvet boxes along with some stacks of cash, paintings and a couple of vases and statues.
“Are you kidding me?” My voice pitches higher. I’m beyond even trying to hide my tinge of hysteria. “Who lives like this?”
“We have to put our valuables somewhere,” he says, seeming very pleased with himself.
“It’s like the inner sanctum at Tiffany.”
“And my mom kept half of Tiffany in there,” he says with a wry smile as he shuts the safe door and returns to his seat at the table. “I’ll have to show you her important pieces some other time.”
“ Important pieces? ” I cry, nearly choking on the words. “What do you call this ?”
“This is the stuff she wore every day.”
“It’s amazing.” By now, my head is spinning. I reach out to touch one of the fierier ruby rings, but I snatch my hand back at the last minute. What if I left a fingerprint on it? My father would rise from his grave to chastise my poor manners. But then I catch sight of a heavy gold ring and can’t resist reaching for it. It’s surprisingly heavy, with intricate whorls on the sides. “Oh, look . It’s the signet ring your father’s wearing in the portrait in the foyer.”
He shakes his head and pulls back a bit, eyes wide. “It is. How, ah, how do you know that?”
“Because I have eyes. Why don’t you wear it? It’s such a beautiful piece. Or did he leave it to Roman?”
“No.” He blinks and frowns down at it, seemingly recovering from his surprise. “It’s mine. I don’t know. It makes me sad to see it, I guess.”
“Yet you gave me a necklace to make me happy when I think of my father,” I say, touching the necklace in question before rolling my eyes and reaching for his right hand. “Hypocrite, much? Let’s see if it fits.” He submits, watching me as I slide it on his pinky. It makes me ridiculously happy to see it there, and I feel like it would make his father happy as well. “What do you know? A perfect fit.”
I glance up, feeling very pleased with myself, but freeze when I see that he’s not looking at the ring at all. He’s gone perfectly still, his stunned eyes locked in on my face. And I realize, way too late, that the imagery of his girlfriend slipping a ring on his finger is probably enough to give any man a mild case of the hives.
So I hastily drop his hand, clear my throat and try to ignore my burning cheeks. “I’ve never seen anything like this except in a jewelry store. Mrs. Hooper would die if she saw all this. It puts her collection to shame. Thank you for showing me.”
He recovers quickly and gives me a strange look. “ Showing it to you? I’m giving you a piece. Pick something.”
Giving me a piece? The very idea makes my heart contract hard enough for me to press a hand to my chest as I shake my head. Lucien has always been extremely generous to me, but this is next level. And I can only imagine how precious these things are to him. “I can’t?—”
“You can and you will.” His expression seems trapped somewhere between amusement and aggravation, with a healthy dose of affection thrown in, but he’s put even more bass in his voice, which lets me know how serious he is. “You’re already on thin ice for making me talk about my parents. You don’t want to upset me by refusing a gift, Ms. Scott.”
“But…”
“Do not try my patience.”
“Okay.” I take a deep breath and fight back a sudden wave of emotion. Then I duck my head and hastily wipe away a tear, dazzled by my good fortune. This wonderful man loves me enough to give me a precious piece of his beloved late mother’s jewelry. What a stunning gesture. The jewelry itself only comes in a distant second in terms of importance. “What should I choose?”
His gaze is steady now. Direct. Adoring. “Anything you want.”
I study the pieces, overwhelmed by the choices. At least until an intrusive thought weasels its way into the party.
Ravenna probably wore this jewelry.
There she is again. She’s always there.
I’ll always be with you, Tamsyn.
I frown, wishing I could crack my skull open and use some sort of a medical-grade bleach to scrub away all thoughts and memories of her. But I fear they’re embedded far too deep inside me. Still, I don’t want her here with us. Not now. Not ever. But I need to know. “Did Ravenna?—”
“ No . I never gave her any. It never felt right. I bought her her own pieces.” A pause. “Which I sold when she died.”
“Thank God,” I say with a relieved laugh. My attention snags and stays on a pair of sparkling diamond studs that are about a carat and a half each, bypassing other pairs that are larger. These are classic and perfect for every day. I select them and quickly put them on, wondering why he didn’t remove the diamond rings from the selection before he presented it to me. Poor Lucien. I’m sure he would’ve spat out his champagne if I’d selected a diamond ring and put it on my ring finger.
I touch my ears, striking a pose for him when I’ve got them safely screwed on. “I love them. Thank you. I’ve always wanted a pair like this— What’s wrong?” He’s got this wide-eyed look that makes me think he’s glimpsed the transparent figure of his mother hovering over me and frowning. “I can pick something else if you don’t want me to?—”
“It’s fine,” he says, but his blink rate has gone way up and he’s swallowing hard. “That’s the, ah, pair she bought the day she died. She never wore them.”
“Oh.” I didn’t think anything could possibly make this gift more meaningful to me, but that does. I kinda feel as though she bought them for me. Not that she had any idea that I was out there waiting to swoop into her son’s future. It’s just that now I have a direct connection to her even though I’ll never meet her. And now we’re united through our love for Lucien. The earrings can serve as a daily reminder for me to love him a little extra, since she can’t. And I will. I swear I will. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah,” he says, quickly wiping the back of his hand over his eyes. “It’s okay.”
“I know how precious they are to you. I’ll take good care of them.”
A passing laugh as he shakes his head. “Only one thing is precious to me. In the whole world. Know what that is?”
I try to keep my tone light even though my heart is now in my throat. “Nope.”
“You, Tamsyn,” he says, his smile slowly fading. “Only you .” We stare at each other across the length of the short table, the air heating until it reaches the sizzling point and the distance between us suddenly seems far too great. He reaches for me. “Come here.”
I’m already on my way. There’s no question about either of our intentions as I pause to kick off my sandals and wiggle my way out of my panties while he scoots his chair back from the table and makes short work of his belt and zipper. The next thing I know, I’m straddling him—the chair’s cushion is wide enough to accommodate my knees on either side of him, thank God—and sinking slowly down on his heavy girth.
No foreplay offered. None required.
We both cry out as we face each other. He clamps his hands on my bare ass, digging his fingers in. I nip his delicious lower lip before sweeping my tongue deep into his mouth. Then we begin to move.
The pleasure spirals inside me, forcing me to break the kiss because I can’t moan and kiss him at the same time. There’s too much pleasure building inside me. I have to let it all out.
“This can’t be right,” I say, gasping as I find my rhythm and grind against him.
His glittering gray eyes, mostly closed now, focus in on me. “What, angel?”
“Wanting you this much. Needing you this much,” I croon as the pleasure spirals lower. “It can’t be good for me.”
A frown from Lucien. “You don’t want it?”
The suggestion makes me laugh, quickly followed by another moan. “Oh, I want it. Don’t get confused.”
His dimples make a fleeting appearance. “That’s what I thought.”
That’s all it takes. The ecstasy rolls over me, generating spasms in my belly and between my legs and making me shout nonsense. So easy. So exquisite . We kiss again, and he swallows my remaining cries. Until he stiffens and breaks the kiss because he needs his mouth free to cry out my name. I watch as his features scrunch and his head falls back, reveling in his enjoyment of me until I really feel as though my heart is bursting. I press my face to the strong column of his neck, exhausted and happy as I wallow in his woodsy scent.
Happy.
When the sensual haze recedes enough for me to focus again, I lift my head. He’s as breathless as I am. And he looks exactly as shell-shocked as I feel.
“You know what your superpower is?” he says, smoothing my hair away from my temple with the gentlest possible touch.
“No,” I say, startled to discover at this late date that I have one. “What?”
“It’s making me feel like the whole rest of the world could fall off a cliff and I’ll be just fine.” He pauses. “As long as I can come home and stare at your eyes for a minute or two at the end of the day.”
He says the most beautiful things to me. I’ll never get over it. “You make my heart hurt sometimes.”
“You make mine sing.”
I pull him closer, and we linger there for another minute or two, wrapped up in each other and the moment, until my knees begin to protest, forcing me to reluctantly disengage and stand. He passes me a napkin, and I use it to wipe between my legs before finding my panties.
“Horseback riding day after tomorrow? Roman and I’ve got more meetings in the morning,” he says behind me as I slip them on.
I’d meant to tell him a bit later and not spring it on him like this, but now I have no choice. “Sorry, I can’t. I meant to tell you. I’m taking the subway into the city. I’ve got my orientation at the hospital. And then I’m having lunch with one of my new roommates. I’m really excited to meet her.”
He was in the middle of wiping himself off and redoing his pants. But now he stiffens slightly. And is he avoiding eye contact as he keeps his face lowered and takes forever to respond? “I see.”
I can’t fight the feeling that I’ve ruined the whole vibe. I know he’s not wild about my going into Manhattan by myself on the subway. He’s probably much less thrilled about it with Ravenna out there in the wild and the paparazzi lurking outside the gates. But he knows I plan to retain my independence, so he’ll get over it. He’ll have to. And I desperately want the rest of our evening to be fun, so I keep my tone upbeat as I try to make it up to him. “What about the day after that? Could that work?”
I fully expect him to lodge a protest of some sort. Or maybe offer me the helicopter to get to the Starbucks where I plan to meet my new roommate. But he surprises me. “Sounds good,” he says easily.
The quick acquiescence seems too good to be true, but I’ll take it if I can get it. “Really?” I say, brightening.
“Really. Let’s eat,” he says, and if his responsive smile seems a little strained, it’s easy enough for me to pretend I don’t notice.