Page 52 of Right With You
“Are you okay? I’m fine, really. I knew he wasn’t approving of us,” I said, a little breathless in my efforts to keep up with him as he took giant strides to get us out of the lounge as fast as possible.
He whipped around and his intense gaze was full of stormy emotion. “He has the gall to say such things directly to your face, but he won’t speak to me. He tried the other night but I shut it down and I’d foolishly hoped he’d heard me. And now this, this… this vitriol disguised as concern.” He paced away a few steps, then returned a second later. “I don’t know how you’ll ever forgive me.”
His frustration with his grandfather made perfect sense, but I didn’t need his outrage on my behalf. I’d felt small at first, but something clicked when he asked about my degree. I didn’t need the credentials of a master’s degree to give me value and I couldn’t manufacture a past with pedigree or old money or links to royalty or whatever it was that man wanted to see in the match for his progeny.
I was fine, and I wanted Luc to know this, so I grabbed his face and pressed our foreheads together, taking a large, deep breath before saying, “I promise you I’m fine.”
His gaze searched mine like he thought I might be hiding something from him, but after a few seconds, he shut his eyes and deflated, just a touch. “Thank goodness.”
A soft smile grew on my lips because he really was as sweet as I thought, and now I knew all the more what to do.
I was fine. I liked him. And I wanted one thing in this moment. Somehow recognizing howfineI was, whatever happened here, gave me the boldness to say, “I need you to do something for me, though.”
“Anything,” he said instantly, not a millisecond of hesitation.
“Kiss me.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Luc
The words chimed through me like they were on a different frequency, or like my body and mind understood them on every plane of existence.
My hands found her waist and something in me yelled,here’s where we live the dreamas I jumped in right as her arms locked around my neck. I pulled back for a moment to make sure I hadn’t imagined the words, but when I saw her expression—the desire and request written plain as day—I leaned in.
All worry about the risk fell away. The implications evaporated from my mind. All that was left was the pure desire to do exactly as she asked. No more fake or real. No more putting on a show. Simply her wish as my command.
The first press of our lips was soft, so soft. It held all the care she deserved, every bit of tenderness I feared she’d never experienced. The second was a consolation, a gentle meeting. The third something longer, slightly more. I would take everything she would give but nothing she didn’t want me to have, and in as much asIwanted to kissher, she had to lead. She had to show me what I could have.
The fourth kiss gave way—it broke past something in me when she opened to me, inviting me into more depth, more warmth, more heaven right here in this dimly lit hallway.
The soft carpet underneath me was what ultimately had me pulling back. I would kiss Elise Cordero until the sun came up, but it just didn’t fit. Not here, and not after what we’d just gone through.
Not with this needle of fear reminding me what happened to people who fell in love weaving its way into my side, begging for attention I wouldn’t give it.
She seemed to understand as I broke the connection between us, her wonderous dark eyes a little hazy and her focus soft.
“Home?” she asked, as though it was the most natural thing.
As though the two of us going home together was always what came next on nights like these. As though this wasn’t all a ruse, as proved by the kiss we’d shared. As though we both belonged there.
And so we went.
* * *
It might’ve seemed a simple thing to take one’s fiancée home, but the complexity hit in real time when we walked in the door. The wired energy coursing through my veins in the wake of our kiss had calmed only slightly on the drive home.
Home to where we were not only staying together, but would sleep side by side. Aurelie and Michele would likely take their time before they arrived, managing Grand-père and being as genial to Odette as possible before making their way here. God bless them.
Because we needed time—to more fully discuss what’d happened and to talk about that kiss.
It hadn’t been for practice, and it hadn’t been platonic or anything but a molten beginning of something I wanted more of. I hoped she felt the same.
And yet, the thought she might was utterly terrifying. Because that would open up a possibility I’d shut down for so, so long. I knew how to navigate this whole thing when it was fake. Not when it became all too real.
Did it mean I’d forgotten all of this was only temporary? A fake solution to a problem?
No. I hadn’t forgotten. But I’d start to wonder… what if?
