Chapter 27 Luca #2
She shrugged as she picked up her glass. “I grew up around it.”
Because her father owned so much land in Loire Valley. I remembered that now. I wondered what had come of it after he died. She was unable to claim it as next of kin, so the estate may have already been dissolved by the government. She had no inheritance.
“So, is this serious?” Dominic asked bluntly.
She flashed him an angry stare.
“Just curious,” he said innocently.
At first glance, I wouldn’t have thought he was gay. His voice was deep like mine, and he carried himself with a straight spine. But the content of his words and his interests made it more apparent. “Define serious.”
“Ignore him,” she said, putting her hand on my thigh under the table.
A single touch, light and innocent, but it was enough to make me feel shit. The public affection and ownership.
“You know…” Dominic shrugged. “This is going somewhere.”
“Dominic,” she said, slightly raising her voice. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but stop doing it.”
“I don’t know where it’s going,” I said honestly.
“But I’ll follow whatever direction it takes.
” I wouldn’t swim upstream. I wouldn’t sail against the wind.
When I’d pursued Aliénor, I didn’t have an endgame in mind.
Didn’t think about marriage or kids or any of that bullshit.
All I thought about was now. And right now, I enjoyed her and this relationship.
Dominic seemed to like that answer because he exchanged a quick look with Aliénor.
I walked her inside her apartment.
She set her purse on the counter then removed her long coat, revealing the little black dress she wore and heels, the outfit she must have worn to work. She had gold earrings in her lobes, something I’d never seen her wear before.
I gave her a quick once-over because I hadn’t been able to get a good look at the bar.
She was so beautiful, and she didn’t even fucking know it.
“I’m sorry about Dominic.” She turned back to me, her hair pushed behind one shoulder, her green eyes slightly withdrawn in uncertainty.
I stared at her for a second or two, forgetting that she had spoken.
Thankfully, she continued on without my having to ask for clarification. “I think he’s just excited for me. And honestly, he’s the only friend I have, so…”
“It didn’t bother me.”
“It didn’t?” she asked, her voice growing quiet.
“It was just a question.”
“Well, I know it’s early days, and I don’t want unnecessary pressure.”
“I don’t mind pressure.” I was always under pressure, every single day, in every single conversation. Without it, I wouldn’t know who I was.
She stilled as she looked at me, and then her hard stare softened before a quiet chuckle left her lips.
The light that came in through the windows struck her face so perfectly. She looked like an oil painting in one of the shops downstairs. “What?”
“Nothing.” She came toward me, her heels tapping against the hardwood.
“I answered his question. Now, answer mine.”
Whatever playfulness she had evaporated. “You’re so different that…it’s hard to believe you’re the same man I met that night.” Her eyes slightly shifted back and forth between mine as she tried to pierce my exterior, as she tried to see the stars and galaxies hidden behind my eyes.
“Because I’m not the same man.” I felt no distinct attraction the first time I met her.
I’d been with a lot of women, and the women of this city were the most beautiful on earth.
I was unimpressed, but then one moment changed everything, and now every other woman blended in with the buildings and the cobblestones, and she was a pink rose in the sea of gray. “Not with you.”
Her stare continued, poignant and deep, and then she moved closer into me, six inches taller in her high heels, her forehead still barely reaching my chin.
Her slender hand cupped my face, and she dragged her thumb along my jawline, her nails painted maroon.
Instead of kissing me, she just looked at me, gazing at me in a way she never had before.
“I’m falling for you, Luca Fournier. So hard. And so fucking fast…”
That was the moment I should have felt the suction of her tentacles as she gripped me like an octopus. I should have felt the painful suffocation before death. I should have felt the adrenaline and the fear and the ick.
But instead, I felt…something else.
And I smiled. Felt my mouth widen on its own. Felt a reaction that happened so naturally I didn’t even realize it was happening until it already had.
Her eyes changed at the sight of me, growing in their intensity before they brightened like a full moon on a clear night. “You’re so handsome, and when you smile…my god.” Her hand moved into my hair, and she guided my mouth to hers.
My hand scooped under her ass, and I lifted her into me before I kissed her, not wanting to bend my neck down for our mouths to meet.
Her dress automatically rose to her hips, and my fingers kneaded her ass as I held her there, kissing her in the kitchen area, the lights and hustle of Paris outside the windows.
I carried her into her bedroom and laid her down before I slipped off her heels. I’d taken her this exact same way so many times, but now, it felt different. More intense but also more relaxed. There was more on the line, but the burden somehow felt lighter than air.
I undressed her and pulled off her panties before I dropped my clothes and boots at the foot of the bed. Her thighs opened for me when my knees hit the mattress. Her eyes reached for me with an invisible pull. When her hands felt me, she held on with an undying grip.
I didn’t have to fold her because she folded herself, giving herself to me and silently begging me to take her.
With my eyes on hers, I licked my fingers then swiped them over the head of my dick before I pushed inside her, quickly sealed by the warm velvet paradise.
Whenever I sank inside her, it felt like coming home after a long day, the place I never wanted to leave, the calm and the quiet and the peace.
She moaned as her nails dropped like anchors into my flesh.
Squeezed between her soft thighs with my dick buried in treasure, I dipped my head and kissed her.
She kissed me back with the hungriest lips I’d ever felt.
I rocked into her, unsure what I wanted more, her mouth or her body.
We rocked and moved, our lips staying together but slowly breaking apart as the breaths and moans filled the room. As sweat covered our bodies, we ached for the release we could both feel on the horizon.
She said my name not once or twice, but over and over. Not to claim me as hers, but to tell me I was hers, completely and utterly. She held me tighter, looked me in the eye when our kiss was broken, beautiful on the pillow with her hair splayed out on the rose gold silk.
I waited like a man, kept the bullet in the barrel with sheer determination, but my finger squeezed the trigger the second I saw her slip away.
Watched her eyes moisten and then grow dazed as the euphoria rushed over her.
With her tightness sealed around me, I pumped into her, giving her all I had while she took it with a begging hand.
I didn’t pull away. Chose to stay buried inside her, locked in her warmth and her slickness, my dick still hard because a buffet of her felt like a canapé.
I’d done long nights with women I couldn’t remember, but remaining hard after a wave of satisfaction had never happened to me before, let alone so consistently.
But every hit of her was an increase in the dose of my addiction.
There was no actual satisfaction, just another craving, and that was why we were still here a month later, and why we would still be here months and years into the future.
Her hand cupped my face, and she kissed me again, turned on because she felt my heavy load inside her. She gripped my arm and tugged slightly, like her patience had expired in just a mere second. “Luca…”
“Bringing Aliénor on Saturday?” Carvel approached me at the table near the fireplace at headquarters.
“Bringing her where?” I asked without taking my eyes off the computer.
“That charity gala. Is it a charity gala? Or is it President Martin’s birthday?
I can’t remember. Can’t keep track of all that shit.
The name socialite is well deserved because that’s all they fucking do…
socialize.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled back through emails or texts. “Yeah, it’s his birthday.”
I must have forgotten. Didn’t have all the time in the world to plan parties and make public appearances because I was keeping this city safe for women and innocent people every hour of every fucking day.
“So, you going?”
“I guess.”
“And are you bringing—”
“Yes.”
“Wow, it’s finally happening.”
I didn’t care for these schoolboy taunts, but it took a lot to get under my skin, and this shit didn’t make the cut.
I turned away from my laptop and sent a text to Aliénor.
We have a work party on Saturday night. I wanted to let her know now, just in case she made other plans with Dominic or had some kind of work dinner.
It was still early in the night, so she texted back. Sorry, who’s we? You and your boys, or are you asking me?
Was I unclear? I was really bad at this shit. You and me.
Oh, okay. What time?
I don’t know.
Do you even want to go to this thing? I could hear her playfulness even through a text.
Not really.
Okay, I’ll keep you company. She sent a bunch of emojis. Kissing emoji. Heart emoji. A girl dancing emoji. “Do I gotta get him a gift?”
“I don’t know,” Carvel said. “I know I’m not.”
“Bastien going?”
“Probably. He and Martin are still close.”
At least he’d be there. I would say a couple things to President Martin and then we’d do our own thing. “Who are you bringing?”
“Dunno.” Carvel took the seat across from me.
“What about that girl you brought last time?”
“Eh. It’s run its course.”
“Well, you better find a new girl quick. Only got a couple days.”
“I might ask one of the girls at Maxine’s. Women on the clock don’t talk as much—and they fuck good.”
“Problem solved.”