Unfortunately, after a long, hot shower with Lucien, I had nothing in reserve.
I pulled on his tee, crawled in bed and slept.
This brought me to now. It was dark in the room but there was light coming around the not entirely closed door to the sitting room.
I felt rested but again starved. Tossing back the covers, I listened to his murmurings as I hit the bathroom. It was bigger than the living room in my old condo.
Wow. Really, this suite was it. I wanted to live there.
I did my thing, wandered out through the bedroom and to the door.
Before I got the door open, I knew Lucien’s eyes were on it. I knew this because when the door was open they were on me. He was sitting in the chair at the desk. His cell held to his ear, he lifted up his chin to me then gestured with his hand to his lap.
I wandered his way, pushing up the sleeves of his tee.
When I got within reaching distance, Lucien reached. Then my ass was in his lap and his arm was wrapped around me.
“No, I’ll do it,” he said into the phone as I settled in, cheek to his shoulder, my forehead pressed to his neck. His arm got tighter. “I understand,” he went on. “But it will be me who hunts him.”
I sighed.
Lucien’s arm got tighter.
Then his voice was quiet when he continued, “Julian, I know this attack was perpetrated on the family. And yes, normally you would be correct that every member of the family is within their rights to exact vengeance. And you know I appreciate your and Bel’s show of loyalty. You both can be there when I deal with him. But it will be me and only me who hunts Etienne.”
Well, the good part of that was that Julian and Isobel had their father and my backs and clearly thought of me as family.
The bad part was that Lucien was intending to hunt down his father. I wasn’t entirely surprised by this. He loved me and I loved that he loved me. I was certain it was partly about that. But his father had touched me, scared me and was just plain old mean to me. I knew Lucien enough that I knew he wouldn’t let that be.
I didn’t like Etienne. He scared the beejeezus out of me. Still, hunting him down, torturing and burning him was pretty extreme.
“Right,” Lucien continued. “Leah is up, she needs to eat then I need to feed. I’m turning my cell off now. I want no further interruptions tonight. I’ll phone you tomorrow.”
He needed to feed and he wanted no further interruptions.
I liked this idea.
“Goodnight, Julian. My love to Bel,” he muttered, I heard a beep then I saw his phone clatter on the desk.
I lifted my head to look at him.
“Is it time to talk?” I asked.
“No,” he answered, reached out to the hotel phone on the desk, grabbed the receiver and put it to his ear. Then he stated, “We’re ready to order dinner.”
Then, without another word, he put it down.
“That was kind of abrupt,” I told him.
“I don’t have the time or inclination to befriend a man I’ll see occasionally the length of our stay here and never see again. You’re rested. Your color is back. You’re sitting in my lap with no underwear on. We were separated for nine days and reunited for one, the vast majority of which you’ve been sleeping. I want you fed and you’ll eat sitting next to me not wearing any underwear. Then I want to feed and do it while I’m inside you. You need your strength. That, at the moment, is all I have time for.”
I was blinking at him, half turned on (okay, fully turned on) when out of nowhere a man wearing a spiffy hotel uniform walked into the room.
Lucien wrapped me tight in both arms and looked up at him.
“Dinner, sir?” he prompted.
“Thank you,” Lucien replied then launched into it. “A French baton. Pâté fois gras with truffles. Two fillet mignons rare with béarnaise sauce. Sautéed potatoes. Fine greens. Rolls. A bottle of red, a Bordeaux. This followed with two chocolate crème brûlées and a bottle of Moët.”
It seemed while I was sleeping that Lucien had familiarized himself with the menu and it was clear he was in the mood for French food. This was good since all that sounded great.
“Yes sir,” the hotel butler murmured.
“Bring the crème brûlées and Moët half an hour after you serve the main and then don’t disturb us for the rest of the night.”
He nodded, muttering, “As you wish,” then moved out of the room.
Okay, that was still abrupt but one could not say this presidential suite business wasn’t totally cool.
On that thought we were up, me held in Lucien’s arms and he was striding across the room. I barely got my arms around his shoulders when we were down again. Me on my back in the couch, Lucien partially on me, partially with his side in the seat. His head was up, his eyes on me and he lifted a hand, trailed a finger down the side of my face then curled all of them around my neck.
“You remembered the béarnaise sauce,” I whispered.
“Of course,” he whispered back. “We’ve something to celebrate if belatedly.”
I felt my nose begin to sting.
Then I whispered, “They’ll probably make it better than me.”
“Undoubtedly.”
I grinned then it faded and I ordered, “Tell me you love me.”
His hand slid up my neck, my jaw to cup my cheek as his head dipped closer.
“I love you, sweetling.”
Dinner sounded great.
But those words sounded better than anything.
I sighed, my arm moving around him and I turned to my side. Lucien shifted with me so we were face-to-face and in each other’s arms.
“Why didn’t you say it before?” I asked.
“Because I couldn’t,” he answered immediately. “Because I hadn’t admitted it to myself. Not when you gave that to me. Not before. Not for twenty years. If I admitted it to myself twenty years ago, I wouldn’t allow myself to have you because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t let you go. When I had you, I wouldn’t admit it again because I wouldn’t let you go. I was already flying in the face of the rules of The Dominion with what I would allow us to have. They were going to accept that, I knew. They owe me. But they’d never allow me to take you as mate. We could do it but they would hunt us, eventually find us and we’d be given The Sentence. I had to protect you from that.” His eyes went strange and I knew why when he finished, “But it seems I failed at protecting you from everything.”
“It worked out in the end,” I whispered reassuringly on an arm squeeze.