Lucien (9 page)

“What and ruin their fun?” Elise laughed lightly. “You know as well as I do that the party they’re planning has nothing to do with us.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No. They’re giving your lucky pen a farewell party.”

Luc grinned. “You mean my staff of masculinity.”

Elise kept her face averted and blushed deeply. “How you managed to restructure the company without laying off a single person is beyond me.”

“Darlin’, they’ll need all their employees to fill the vacuum of your leaving.”

Elise glowed from his words. “Oh really?”

“Yes, really. Didn’t you notice the tear in Roger Dill’s eye when he heard about you leaving? Poor guy. His work hours have increased and his productivity has decreased since I stole you from him.”

“Which makes me wonder.”

“Wonder what?” he asked.

“If I helped increase Mr. Dill’s productivity and decrease his work hours, then why didn’t it work with you?”

“I think this would be a good time for me to ask for directions.”

Elise gave him the directions, then said, “Well? Why didn’t it work with you?”

“For a couple of reasons.”

Elise waited patiently for him to continue, but he didn’t. “Which reasons?”

He heaved a great sigh and pulled out into traffic. “One reason was… I preferred spending my nights in the office watching you suck on pens than doing anything—and I mean
anything
—with Margot.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widened at the implications of his statement.

“Another reason was… filing.”

“Filing?”

Luc slowed for a stop light and turned his head, his eyes rolling from the top of her head down to her legs. “Yeah. Filing.”

She caught his meaning and her cheeks went up in flames. “I should have known.”

He chuckled. “There are other reasons, but I’m not sure you’re ready to hear them.”

“I’m not?”

“Maybe I should rephrase that.” The light turned green and they resumed the trek to the garage. “I’m not sure I’m ready to admit them.”

“You’re not?”

“I’m not.” He glanced briefly at her, then turned his attention back to the road and smiled. “Have I mentioned how beautiful you look today?”

“No and you’re changing the subject.” But she radiated with pleasure.

“Am I?” Without taking his eyes from the road, he took her left hand and held it loosely in his hand. “Did I mention how good this ring looks on you?” His voice lowered into a husky, Southern drawl.

A horde of butterflies converged on her stomach and Elise swallowed. “You did not,” she replied, barely recognizing her own voice.

His thumb moved across her knuckles and the butterflies multiplied like rabbits. “Do you have any idea how you… wearing my ring affects me?”

Elise nearly groaned out loud. “Affects you?” How she managed to keep her voice from cracking she didn’t know and probably would never know. It must have been luck.

“Mmm.” He raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the ring. “It affects me more than I imagined,” he murmured against her skin.

“It… does?” Her voice nearly deserted her, but she had to ask, “How?”

They stopped for another red light and Luc gazed down at her hand. “What if there had been no ultimatum from my grandfather? What would have happened if whatever’s between us had progressed at a natural pace? Would you have found me worthy of your favors?”

“I… probably,” she answered in the barest of whispers.

He raised his head and regarded her intently. “I worked all those hours to be with you. I didn’t want the job at Andersen to end, because… of you.” His eyes darkened. “Seeing my ring on your finger affects me, Elise. Affects me more than I can say.”

The light turned green before she could motivate her tongue into replying. He took her hand and laid it on his thigh, then covered it with his and turned his attention back to the road.

“At least I’m not the only one.”

“It warms me to hear that, darlin’. So how about we play hooky for the rest of the day and you can tell me exactly how it affects you?” Luc chuckled softly and squeezed her hand. “Or better yet, you can show me.”

Elise laughed and tried half-heartedly to retrieve her hand, but he kept a firm hold on it. “Forget it, Lucien. If they went through all the trouble to plan us a surprise, then the least we can do is show up.”

“But we don’t have to stay the whole time.” He glanced at her. “Do we?”

Raven was waiting outside of Wyndemere’s house later that afternoon when Luc was finally given permission to flee for his life. The interview with Elise’s father and sadistic horror novelist could not have been termed as normal. But it’d been successful and that’s all that mattered.

Although he’d admit that there’d been a few moments when Luc had wondered if Wyndemere was going to suggest that he help him research the dissection scene on page seventeen, but Luc had successfully diverted her father’s attention with blatant praise of Wyndemere’s lesser known novels. It hadn’t taken long before Luc had realized that the lesser known novels were the ones Wyndemere was most proud of.

He made a mental note to thank Elise for loaning him the books before his dreaded meeting with her demented father.

“You survived better than the dork.”

Luc descended the front steps. “The dork?”

“Some punk Elise went out with in college.”

“Ah.” Luc stopped at the bottom of the porch steps. “I take it you’re ready to interrogate me?”

Raven’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “There’s a place a couple of streets over where we can talk. You’re buying the first round.”

Luc nodded and walked to his car, then followed Raven to a small bar. Five minutes later, they were seated at a table in the corner. A waitress brought their drinks, then left. 

Luc took a swallow then lowered the bottle to the table. “Before you begin the interrogation, mind if I ask a question?”

Raven looked slightly amused. “You want to know how Elise turned out normal when she had two parents as unique as Wyndemere and Moonbeam. Right?”

Luc nodded.

Raven saluted Luc with his beer. “That was my doing.”

“I figured as much.”

“Don’t get me wrong. Wyndemere and Mom were great parents to my baby sister, but they each had their own idea of what constitutes good parenting. When Elise was little, she went with the flow. Then when she got older and started questioning things, I stepped in and… made things easier for her.”

“Whatever you did, you did it well.”

“Thanks.” Raven glanced down at the bottle in his hands then looked Luc in the eye. “That spiel Elise used on Moonbeam about refusing to have an affair… was it the truth?”

Luc met his gaze without blinking. “You of all people should know that your sister isn’t the type to indulge in an affair.”

“Then your feelings for Elise are… how did she put it? Pure and deep felt?”

Luc shifted in his chair and leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table. “I could sit here all day describing the multitude of feelings your sister has inspired in me during the last six months and you probably still wouldn’t be satisfied.”

Raven arched a brow and waited for Luc to continue.

“Your sister means a lot to me and I hate to see her upset.”

“She told you about the taxes,” Raven guessed.

“She was crying.”

Raven grimaced. “I never should have told her.”

Luc took another swallow of beer. “She would have figured it out sooner or later. Elise isn’t happy with your decision to sell your bike tomorrow.”

“I’m not too thrilled with it myself,” Raven muttered.

“Like I said, I hate to see Elise upset. So I’ve made arrangements for the best tax attorney I know of to help and I’ll be paying whatever it takes to keep Moonbeam out of jail until a settlement is worked out.”

Raven’s bottle banged against the table. “Mind runnin’ that by me again.”

“My sister, Cindi, is a tax attorney and has agreed to take Moonbeam’s case. It’ll cost me, but you get to keep your bike and Elise is no longer upset. And everyone’s happy.”

Raven shook his head. “As much as I’d like to take your money and run, I don’t take charity.”

Luc nodded at Raven’s words. “I knew you’d say that.”

“I’ll take a loan, but not—”

“Enough. In six days, I’m marrying your sister and I’d rather not spend my honeymoon watching Elise worry about how you’re holding up after selling Aphrodite. There are a few other things I’d prefer her to be preoccupied with. I’m selfish that way.”

“Do you realize how much money we’re talking?”

“More than a fifty grand, knowing my sister’s hourly rate, but probably less than half a million,” Luc answered.

“You say that as if you have that kind of cash lying around.”

Luc didn’t feel the need to respond to that statement. Raven would find out soon enough that Elise wasn’t marrying a pauper.

“All right. You win. I’ll let you pay for the attorney and fork over whatever ungodly amount the tax police decide Moonbeam owes.”

Luc relaxed.

Raven watched him with a thoughtful gaze. “You imply that you’re doing this for selfish reasons, but you’re not.” When Luc didn’t respond, Raven continued, “That’s all right. I understand.”

“You do?” Luc didn’t have a clue what Raven was talking about.

“Yeah. It’s a side effect of hanging around Elise.” Raven took a swallow of his beer then asked, “Did you know that my sister doesn’t find silver linings in clouds?”

“She doesn’t?”

“Afraid not. Elise has the uncanny ability to find gold lining in the clouds.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“It’s not a matter of believing, but understanding,” Luc said.

Raven laughed. “You don’t now, but you will.” He finished his beer then pushed his chair back from the table. “My sister can make a man want to do things he wouldn’t do for any other woman.”

“Such as…?”

“Such as dishing out thousands of dollars to appease his conscience.” Raven stood and looked down on Luc. “You claim that Elise means a lot to you, but you don’t say that you love her, which leads me to believe that you asked her to marry you for some ulterior motive.”

“Your sister is well aware of my motives,” Luc assured him.

“Yeah, but are you aware of hers?” Raven picked up his helmet. “Until next time.” He started to leave then stopped. “Nothing personal, Luc, but… if you hurt her, I
will
kill you.”

The transformation in Raven’s expression from good natured, concerned brother into deadly serious borderline psychopath of an overprotective brother was amazing. No wonder Wyndemere had chosen Raven as the role model for his blade carrying hero-slash-villain Dexter Quimby.

Luc blinked and idly wondered if that’s what he looked like when anyone threatened his sisters and their happiness. It was a sobering, interesting thought and one he’d delve into later. Familiar with the protocol, Luc nodded indicating that the threat had been received and clearly understood.