Lucien (4 page)

“Why?” he asked as she planted her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself up off the floor. A touch of her perfume lingered around him. It reminded him of summer nights, jasmine, and what he’d like to do with Elise on a summer night underneath a full Southern moon with jasmine blooming all around them. He halted that train of thought before it could produce a more visible response than he already had.

Elise folded her arms over her chest, pushing up her breasts in a way he’d gladly do for her, and scowled down at him. “Why? Because your fiancée thinks that you and I were on the floor doing goodness knows what and if you don’t get yourself after her, she’s going to call off the wedding. That is why.”

“Ah.” He nodded in understanding.

“Ah? Is that all you can say? Ah,” she scoffed.

Luc watched as Elise spotted the engagement ring and snatched it off the desk then thrust it in his face. “Take this and go. Beg if you have to, but chase her down and explain that we were not playing kinky office games.”

He thought about it for half a second, then said, “No.”

“Fine. If you won’t, then I’ll do it.” Elise turned on her heel and started to walk away from him. “I’ll cram it down her throat and proclaim your undying love for her. I’ll even let the bean pole call me short and fat, but if she calls me a—”

Luc frowned. “You’re not fat.” Definitely not fat. Luscious and curvy, but not fat. In fact, he’d call her perfect.

“And I’m not short, either. I’m petite,” she told him angrily. “I don’t spend all those hours doing exercises for nothing. And while we’re on the subject, I am not a play thing you can—”

Luc stood up. “Elise.”

“What?” She glared up at him. Wisps of hair fluttered around her flushed face and her dark blue eyes crackled with energy.

He held out his hand. “Give me the ring.” She dropped it into his palm and his hand closed around it. The reality of the situation started to sink in and his mood darkened. “Go get your things. I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Don’t worry about me. She’s got a head start on you. Your legs are longer—not by much with her in those heels—but you can still catch her.”

He sighed and, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, stepped over a pile of papers. “I’m not going after Margot. Get your things. We’re leaving.” He thrust the ring into his pocket and caught her by the elbow.  

“But, Luc,” she stammered breathlessly. “You have to. She thinks we were doing kinky things underneath the desk. She thinks I’m a home wrecker.”

He halted by her charred desk and opened the bottom drawer where he knew she kept her personal effects, then removed her purse and handed it to her. His fingers wrapped around her arm and he hauled her through the maze of cubicles.

Elise dug in her heels. “Luc, you have to go find Margot and—”

He stopped and towered over her. “Listen to me, Elise. I am not running after Margot. I’m taking you to your car then I’m finding the closest bar and spending the rest of the night getting well and truly drunk. Now, move,” he snapped.

“Oh, Luc,” she sighed. Compassion and sorrow filled her eyes and she bit her bottom lip. “I’m so sorry. This wouldn’t have happened if—”

He advanced on her pinning her against the wall without touching her. “If you apologize for one more thing, I’m going to—”

Her chin lifted rebelliously. “What? You’ll do what? Order them to fire me?” Tears welled in her eyes, but she held his gaze. “I’ve had the worst day of my life and it’s only going to get worse. You don’t have to come up with thirty thousand dollars in two weeks.” She sniffled. “And Raven’s going to sell Aphrodite and he’ll never be the same and… oh, would you get out of my way?” She shoved at his chest.

He didn’t move. He’d never seen Elise this upset and he’d seen her in plenty of moods since coming to work with him, but nothing like this. She was… crying? “Well, damn.” Concern overpowered his absorption with his own problems and he caught her chin, tilting her face up. “Why do you need thirty thousand dollars?”

“B-because my m-mother didn’t pay her taxes and she’s gonna go to jail if…,” she trailed off with a choked sob.

“Come here, darlin’,” he whispered, then without thinking gathered her into his arms.

Elise came to him willingly, wrapping an arm around his waist and holding on. She pressed her face against his chest and cried. “And then the computer… and the fire and you were mad and Margot and—”

“Shh,” he whispered against her hair. He held her tight against him. His problems most likely paled in comparison to hers and he felt like a heel keeping her at work this late for a project he could easily finish himself. Granted, it would take three times as long without her help, but he could finish it on his own.

She pulled back after a few minutes and swiped at her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I hate it when I get like this. But I can handle it.” She gave a watery chuckle. “Well, I will be able to once I get something to eat and some much needed sleep.”

He cursed himself. He’d forgotten all about dinner. He may be an inconsiderate bastard, but he’d make it up to her. He whipped a handkerchief out of the breast pocket of his jacket and pressed it into her hand. “Dry your eyes.”

“Thank you,” she murmured.

He draped his arm around her slender shoulders and guided her towards the exit. “Come on. I’m buying dinner.” When she started to protest he squeezed her closer. “You can tell me all about Moonbeam’s latest fiasco and your brother’s sacrifice to Mother Nature.”

She looked up at him. “And you’ll tell me why you let Margot believe we were doing what she thought we were doing?”

He almost said no, but he lost himself in the troubled depths of her red rimmed eyes. Luc sighed. He felt like a complete bastard. She was exhausted and he worked her harder than he did himself. “Yeah, I’ll tell you.”

“So that is why I need thirty thousand dollars,” Elise finished with a depressed sigh.

Luc leaned back in his chair and rotated the longneck bottle between his hands. “That’s some story.” He lifted the bottle, motioned for the waitress to bring another round, then polished off the beer. He was going to need another drink to explain to Elise why he hadn’t chased Margot through the building and proclaimed his nonexistent ‘undying love’.

Elise stirred her whiskey sour with the straw, rattling the ice, and pushed her plate to the side. “Right now, Moonbeam and the head priestess are probably working their super-duper, whammy of a money spell. I hope it works. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle Raven once Aphrodite is gone.”

Luc nodded. “Aphrodite sounds like a helluva bike.” He looked across the table at her and his chest tightened at the defeated light in her eyes. He knew what he had to do. “If Raven ends up selling her, let me know. I’ll give him the price he wants.”

Her head lifted and her face showed her surprise. “Luc, you can’t do that. I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but—”

His beer arrived and he picked it up. “Tell Raven anytime he wants to ride Aphrodite all he has to do is ask.”

“But—”

“Not buts, Elise. Without your help, the Andersen job would have taken me a year I don’t have.” He held the bottle up to his mouth and, before turning it up, said, “Tell your brother.”

Acquiescence crossed her features and she nodded. “I will. Thank you, Luc. It will make a world of difference for him to know that she’ll be taken care of.” She took a long swallow from her drink. “Now, why didn’t you chase Margot?”

Luc waited for the waitress to clear the table then said, “Because I didn’t want to marry her and I still don’t want to marry her.”

He watched Elise digest that little bit of information then she opened her mouth only to snap it shut.

He shifted in his seat and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “It’s a long story.”

Her brow furrowed and she waved him closer. “Do you love her?”

“No,” he answered without the slightest hesitation.

She nodded once. “Did you ever love her?”

“No.”

“I see.” Elise leaned back and regarded him thoughtfully. “Lucien, would you mind telling me why you were going to marry Margot when you didn’t and don’t love her?”

“Maybe we should wait. You look—”

“Lucien,” she warned in a no-nonsense tone he knew meant she wouldn’t let it go.

He ran a hand through his hair and debated the best way to begin—starting with all the ways he could manipulate the truth, but in the end gave Elise the short version to a long, complicated story. “If I don’t get married by the time I turn thirty, my grandfather will disown my sisters.”

Elise gasped.

He grimaced. “It wouldn’t be so bad if my sisters hadn’t been sheltered by my grandfather. Sheltered such that they’ve never held a job in their lives. They live for shopping and organizing charity benefits.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth. “But that’s not all. During my last argument with the old man, he threw down the gauntlet and said if I don’t follow through and get married, then he’s downsizing more and cutting my mother’s purse strings, too.” He toasted her with his beer then turned it up at the mouth.

“Of all the horrible, despicable… he manipulated you and… ohmiword, that’s blackmail!”

Luc agreed.

“But Luc, can’t you hire your sisters? They could work for you.”

“Elisabeth, you and your sweet, little self can do more in one day than all three of my sisters and they’re combined resources can accomplish in a month.”

She blushed and waved aside his comment. “You could teach them and—”

“And what? Elise, I make a good living. But I can’t afford to hire three granddaughters of a billionaire. Which reminds me,” he said belatedly. “I was going to make the offer after the final meeting with Andersen, but why wait? When this job is done, I could use your help with a new one.”

“What,” she asked, confused.

He peeled at the label on the bottle. “You heard me. A buddy of mine needs me down in Texas to give him my expert opinion on a company he wants to purchase. And I’d like for you to come with me.”

“Texas? But… what about my job here?”

He thought about answering her with a smartaleck comment then changed his mind. “Ben has assured me that the company—Intrinsic Incorporated—is worse off than Andersen.”

“Ben?”

“My friend.”

Elise didn’t look like she’d heard him. “Where would I live?”

He smirked and wanted to say, “You can live with me. I’ll—” He stopped abruptly. Elise. Damn. Why hadn’t he thought of it before?

“And… how much does it pay?”

“What,” he asked, distracted with his own thoughts. She was the answer to his problems. She needed money to save her mother and he needed a wife. It was the perfect solution. If she agreed.

“How much will it pay?”

He whipped out his lucky pen and calculated how much of his money she’d get after fulfilling his grandfather’s demands. “That’s a roundabout figure. It’s all dependent upon the market—”

Elise squeaked, gripping her drink with white knuckles. “That is an awful lot of money. Luc, you can take care of your sisters with that kind of money. You don’t need to let your grandfather jerk you around. Wow. I could live for twenty years off of that amount. If that’s what you’re gonna pay me, I’ll do it.”