The Laws of Seduction: A French Kiss Novel (21 page)

He didn’t answer right away. He wanted her to stew in that awhile. He wanted her to feel a bit of his confusion and anger and hurt, even if he wasn’t confused or angry or hurt at all. He couldn’t be, not with her. Because when you felt like he did, you could forgive everything.

“I’m not angry with you,” he said, looking down on her. “I’m in love with you.”

Her eyes widened and she gasped, moving almost imperceptibly away. “You can’t be.”

“Are you telling me how I feel?” He wanted to laugh. “You can’t, Charlotte, because I am. This is one ruling you can’t challenge. The proof is irrefutable.”

“But . . .” She scratched her head, looking confused, like it was the last thing in the world she wanted to hear. “But I’m your attorney.”

That time he did laugh. Loud and rib-crackingly hard. “You must be joking,
ma belle
. As if that makes a difference. Honestly, is that the best you can do?”

“But Rex . . . I . . .” She had no answer, and that was hardly what he wanted to hear. He wanted her to say out loud she loved him, too. He wanted her to throw herself in his arms, kiss him all over his face. He wanted to feel the warm press of her body against his. He wanted to make love to her until neither of them could breathe. He wanted to . . .

“You love me now. In this warm little cocoon,” she said, as reasonably as she did most things, in lawyerly tones meant to convince. “But what happens when it’s time to go home? How will you feel about me then?” She came closer, her hand on his arm. “How will you feel when it’s time to step on the plane?”

He looked at her. She had a point. But he hadn’t thought it out that far. All he knew was what he felt now, looking at her through the lens of his heart. “I’ll know I’ll feel wretched.”

“You might,” she said, “but you’ll go.”

“Come here,” he said, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

She snuggled into him as they looked to the sea, its gray waves crested and angry. He could feel its spray or was it just the rain, intermittently pattering on the lightly flapping awning. She had called where they were a cocoon and maybe it was, but it didn’t feel like it. Not with the fresh air and the ocean off in the distance, a long expanse of open sky and sea and beach yawning before them. He couldn’t help seeing the analogy of its endless possibilities, hardly something as insular as she imagined. He could dream of something more expansive, couldn’t he? Because what was a cocoon besides an incubator?

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what will happen,” he finally said. “It’s all come to me so quickly. All I know is when they arrested me you’re the first person I thought of.” He looked down at her. “Now why do you think that was?”

“Because you were in Philly and I’m a lawyer,” she said. “It was a natural segue.”

“True,” he said. “But that all changed when you walked in that room.”

“How?”

“Because then you became much more than just my lawyer. You became
Charlotte.
”

She smiled, looking embarrassed. “You make me sound like such a formidable thing. I’m no one really.”

He kissed her temple. “You were formidable today with my
tante
. Especially since she intimidates everybody.” He smiled. “Except me, of course. But then I never really got to know her. She was just some abstract legal guardian, a gatekeeper, a name scrawled on my permission slips. Her own children avoid her, though André seems to be seeing more of her lately.”

“How is it your cousins don’t know about you?” she asked. “What’s the big secret?”

“André does, but then he’s twelve, thirteen years older than Marcel, and by the time Marcel was old enough to be told, I was already making my way in the world.”

He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it just comes down to the simple fact Viviane is incapable of loving anyone because she needs to own them, and who can stand for that? And Viviane’s jealousy couldn’t allow for her sister to love someone more than her, and then go off and leave her alone. So she married the first person who came along—André’s father—thinking she could punish her sister by moving far away. It didn’t work. Then when my father died and my mother committed suicide, she realized how precious the years are that you lose. But where most people would see the lesson in that and try to mend things, it only made her angrier and wanting to seek revenge. Because really, that’s all Marcel is—a revenge tactic for all the hate she felt toward the Merciers. She tried to play him against his own father, much like André’s father had come between his own son and Viviane, demanding André tell him which parent he loved more. Maybe she learned it from André’s dad, who knows. But it didn’t work with Marcel. Maybe it’s why he keeps his own daughter from her. It just keeps going on and on.”

“Maybe he’ll see the futility in that now that he’s married Dani,” Charlotte said. “But what’s that got to do with you? What would be the harm in his knowing who you are now?”

“I’ve wanted to tell him, really I have. But Marcel needs to find his footing or he’ll never live up to what he could be. If he knew I’m his mother’s nephew, he just might hate me for it, especially since André hired me. It would almost be like a vote of no-confidence.”

“Isn’t that what the board of directors have essentially given him?” Charlotte said.

“Exactly. Which is how his knowing who I am could only make it worse. The Merciers pay me well to help him find his way, and I’ve never minded doing it. They’ve been very good to me, and I can’t ever forget that.”

“But his apprenticeship has to end sooner or later, and you have to think about yourself.” She stood back, her gaze very stern. “Rex, you’re a natural leader and the strongest man I know. You shouldn’t let yourself be second to anyone.”

He laughed softly. “Maybe I’m not as strong as you think I am.” He wanted to pull her into his arms her, but he resisted the urge. “Not when you can bring me to my knees.”

“Oh Rex.” She sighed, going to him. He curled his arms around her, loving the way she fit against him. “Don’t think of me that way. Know for now you have my heart.”

“Then that’s enough.” He kissed the top of her head. “For now.”

“Let’s go back to bed,” she said, yawning expansively. “If I don’t get a few hours of sleep before we go to Philly, I think I’ll just end up babbling.”

He turned them toward the door. “That’s an invitation I can’t refuse.”

They crawled into bed, Rex spooning behind her, her body a warm press against his. Almost immediately he fell asleep, warm and comforted, for now.

A
FEW HOURS
later, Rex’s phone rang. Still half asleep, he reached for it. “
Allo?
”

“Oh, you’re so going down,” Lilith said.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sounds Like . . .

R
EX SAT UP,
Charlotte snuffling awake beside him. “I’m sorry, but did you have something to say to me, Lilith?”

“You may have thought you had me,” the congresswoman said, “but here’s the thing. You can’t go around being a bastard your whole life, then suddenly turn the white knight.”

Charlotte sat up, leaning into Rex.
Lilith?
she mouthed. He nodded, switching to speakerphone as he pulled her closer, his arm over her shoulder. “I think you have me confused with someone else, Lilith. I’m never tried to be a good example for anyone. All I’ve ever wanted to be was a credible threat.”

“Well, here’s one for you, except it stopped being a threat when you taped me talking. You’re being deported. I’m getting your L-1 visa canceled.”

“Seriously, Lilith? Is that the best you can do?”

“You won’t take it so lightly when you’re not allowed in the country anymore.”

“Now isn’t that a tad ungrateful? Especially when I had every intention of going to you and working things out.”

“As if I’d believe you, you son of a bitch. Gone are the days when you could hand me the tape and we could play like
Mission: Impossible
and it’d self-destruct in sixty seconds. For all I know whoever stole it sold it ten times over to someone before you got it back.”

“Lilith, why are you arguing over a recording when at the present, that seems to be the least of your problems?” Rex said.

Silence, then, “What the hell do you mean?”

“I know how Richette’s been buying your loyalty. And they’ve been rewarding you by filling your blind trust with their stock. How this thing with the lobbyist has been a setup by Richette to make me look bad. How you’ve been bought.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, with a distinct catch in her voice. “No one buys me.”

“The hope was to build a scandal around me, to make Mercier look bad, so our value would tank and the investors would flee, and make it so much easier for Richette to swallow us up. Which would make you and Hitchell rich in the process, now wouldn’t it?”

“Where are you getting this from?” she said, sounding a little desperate.

“From the source,” he said. “But blood will always be thicker than your bank account,
chérie.
It’s not going to work.”

Rex could hear her sputtering, cursing under her breath. “You son of a bitch—you took me for granted. You never cared about me. You just used me.”

“Arguably, but at least I’ve always been up front about it,” Rex said. “And I always paid for the privilege. You, on the other hand wanted things I could never give you.”

“All I really wanted was your heart,” she said, tears in her voice now.

“That never was for sale,” he said, holding Charlotte closer. “I would have given it away for free, had I wanted to.”

“You bastard, you’ll ruin me.” She was crying now. “My life is over.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Charlotte said, breaking in. “Use whatever influence you have with Hitchell or Richette to see that the girl recants. If you do that, Rex will make the tape go away.”

“For good,” he added.

“And how can I be sure of that,” Lilith said.

“Because you have my word as an honorable man,” Rex said. “Believe it or not, I am one. But if you don’t . . .” His voice turned hard and steely. “Don’t think I have anything against spilling my guts with what I know to the DA.”

“And go now,” Charlotte said. “We’re due in court tomorrow, and if those charges aren’t thrown out—”

“I still have a witness tucked away that’ll attest to your collaborating with Hitchell to buy up Richette stock,” Rex said.

“And it won’t even matter whether or not it’s legal,” Charlotte said.

“Because it’ll make you look like you’re in Richette’s pocket, and that’s never good.”

“What—are you two finishing each other’s sentences now?” Lilith grunted derisively. “What a pair of sharks.”

“Thank you,” they said simultaneously.

“You go to hell,” Lilith said. “Both of you.”

“Fine,” Charlotte said. “As long as you get that girl to the DA first.”

Rex hung up. “So what happens now?”

“If the girl goes to the DA—which I’m sure she will once Lilith gets ahold of her—they’ll have to throw out the charges against you due to lack of evidence.”

“Which only solves one of my problems.” He sighed, sliding his phone to the nightstand. “This whole mess is making the board of directors lose confidence, and that doesn’t look good for Marcel. Did you know the way our company is set up he can be replaced if he doesn’t perform?”

“And what does that mean?”

“They can ask André to step back in.”

“Do you honestly think he would?”

Rex tossed his hand. “I don’t know. But what I do know is I’m getting awfully tired of all this corporate intrigue. It all seems a bit pointless.”

“Why Mr. Renaud, you shock me.” Charlotte slid down into the sheets, turning toward him. “I thought you loved this business. Loved the competition and the spreadsheets and”—she glided her hand down his leg, grinning wickedly—“that sharp, clean scent of money.”

“Which only goes toward making more.”

She made a face at him. “Some capitalist you are.”

He lifted his chin. “I have nothing against making money. I think I’m pretty good at it. All I’m saying is there has to be more to life than that.” His hand fell to her back and he rubbed it. Charlotte groaned with contentment, laying her head on his thigh.

“It’s you who’s made me see that,” he said. “You and your causes and those crazy women who think you walk on water.”

“Who throw bricks through my window and threaten me with bombings?”

He laughed slightly. “
Oui
. They’re passionate about you, Charlotte. They’d put themselves out on the line not only for what you stand for, but for
you
. Now who would get that passionate over a corporate executive made ridiculous by a twenty-two-year-old lobbyist? Who would get that excited over me?”

“What are you saying?” Charlotte said, eyeing him wryly. “You want me to toss a bomb at your house?”

“You already have,” he said, slinking down to her. “Or you’ve at least done the damage. Charlotte,” he said, kissing her lightly. “Do you have any idea how you wreck me?”

“Oh, Rex,” she said, “I don’t know how to . . .”

She didn’t continue, and perhaps she couldn’t. She simply slid down further and took him down her throat.

“
Mon Dieu
—oh Charlotte,” he choked out, sprawling back against the pillows as Charlotte worked her way up and down him. She took it slow, torturously so, alternately licking and sucking, almost lovingly, he liked to think. As she did, her hands roamed across his belly, slid around his thigh and hip, stroking, exploring in tender caresses, teasing every pore to life where her hands passed. This time it was altogether different than the time she’d had him in the shower. This wasn’t any Cosmo girl version of fellatio. This was a long way from mechanical. He could be wrong, and chances were damned good that he was, but he couldn’t help thinking this was her way of telling him how she felt about him. This was her way of saying that she loved him. At least he could imagine it was. At least that’s the way it felt.

“Charlotte,” he murmured, his fingers threading through her hair as she weighed his
couilles
in her hand, her fingers wavering under them. Her tongue trailed down and down, her lips parting to take them into her mouth, her hand wrapped around his shaft, gently sliding up and down. What he felt was beyond description though he tried—pleasure, comfort, intimacy. He wanted her to go on and on, but he also wanted more. He wanted to give her some of what he felt. He wanted her to feel as he did, only more so.

He wanted to give her everything.

“Come here,” he said, his hands at her shoulders. “I want to be inside you.”

Her mouth trailed back to his shaft and she swallowed him again, her tongue teasing the tip of his cock until a groan escaped from deep within him. Then she let go and pulled herself up, sliding her leg over him. He groaned again, sinking himself deep inside her, his hands over her breasts, holding her up.

“Charlotte,” he whispered, “
qu’est-ce que je ferais sans toi?
J’ai envie de toi, si mal
. . .”

“I’m right here,” she said, falling forward, her lips over his. “I’m right here . . .” she murmured, kissing him.

Rex’s arms flew around her, holding her so close his heart beat next to hers. He kissed her deeply like he’d drown in her, the taste of her so exquisite it made him dizzy. He pushed himself up, turning her until he was on top of her, lowering himself.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes as clear as day, his own, black as night. The irony wasn’t lost on him, and never had he felt more undeserving. His life had been open-ended until he met her, and now that he had, for the first time he could imagine it complete, if only she were beside him.

“
Je t’aime
,” he whispered, kissing her. “With all my heart. Please believe me and know that I mean it.”

She sighed, laying her head in the crook of his as he drove himself deeper inside her. “I know, Rex, you’ve told me and I do believe you. But it’s been so fast, I can’t . . .”

“I know,” he said, kissing her again, stilling as he caressed her cheek. “I know what I am. Believe me, I understand. If I were you, I would feel the same way. But just know that I do love you and you’re everything to me.
Tu es l’amour de ma vie
.”

“Oh Rex . . .” she said, arching against him, her hands at his hips as he began to move again, pulling him closer until there was no space between them at all. “I wish I could say what you want to hear, as there’s no one else I’ve ever really wanted to say it to. But I just can’t, Rex. I can’t. I’m so sorry, but I just can’t.”

“
Je t’aime
,” he said, over and over and over, until he couldn’t breathe and all words were gone, Rex taking them over the edge, his heart breaking as they fell.

A
FEW HOURS
later Charlotte awoke to find herself alone. A state, it surprised her to discover, she was beginning to find a bit foreign. “Rex?”

He didn’t answer, and suddenly she panicked, scrambling out of bed and into her robe. Then she spied him on the little porch outside the room, sitting in one of the chairs at the table, his phone atop it. She went to him.

“Rex?” she said.

He looked up and smiled, holding his hand out to her. She took it, curling into his lap and his bare chest. For such a cool and cloudy day he was surprisingly warm.

“I’m sorry,” she said, the tears falling.

“
C’est bon, calmez-tu
,” he said, holding her close. “The last thing I want to do is push myself on you. I understand. My reputation leaves a lot to be desired and you are perfectly right to feel wary.”

“No,” she said, pulling back. “It’s not you, really it isn’t.” He stroked his cheek. “You’re wonderful. I’ve never met anyone like you. And to tell the truth, no one is more surprised than me that you can love me. The fact is . . .” She swiped her eyes, snuffling. “I’d come to believe I was unlovable and suddenly there’s you, telling me I’m not.”

“Unlovable? You?” He laughed. “See? That’s why we’re perfect for each other. You thought you were unlovable, and I thought I couldn’t ever love anyone. Then I met you and I suddenly knew why.” He kissed her. “I was just waiting for you to show up.”

“Oh, Rex.” She started crying again, snuffling against her hand.

“Jesus.” He reached into his pocket. “Here,” he said, producing a handkerchief. “Blow your nose before you drench us both.”

She eyed the linen square, taking it. “There are men who still carry these?”

“Real men do,” he said. “Tissues are for mama’s boys.”

“No,” she said, blowing again. “I suppose I really don’t know much about men after all.”

He held her close. “The only man you need to know anything about is right here,” he said. “And he loves you enough to wait for as long as it takes.”

“That’s good to know,” she said, curling against him again. “What are you doing out here besides freezing to death?”

He looked at her. “Do I look like I’m freezing?”

“You
feel
like a furnace. But answer my question.”

He glanced to his phone. “I got a phone call, so I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Marcel, I’ll bet.”

“
Oui
. He said they’re bringing the
Esther Reed
into Penn’s Landing this afternoon, and he wants to talk to me.” He thought a moment. “And Jesus, do we have a lot to talk about.”

“I can drop you there. What time?”

“You’re not dropping me anywhere,” he said. “You’re going with me.”

She bolted upright. “Oh no. There’s no way I’m doing that. Dani’s okay, but Marcel hates me. He sees I’m with you and—”

“He already knows you’re with me.”

“You told him I’m you’re lawyer?”

“
Oui
.” He grasped her by the shoulders, holding her out. “But I made it plain you’re much more than that.”

“Why’d you do that? Why should he know? What business is it of his?”

“Because I took a punch from him in Boston over a crack I made about Dani. And if he thinks I’m going to tolerate any remarks from him about you . . .” He flexed his fist. “Then he can expect the same thing out of me. And let me tell you, I pack a mean left hook.”

She smiled. “Talk about a real man.”

“No shit.” He stood her up, patting her behind. “Now let’s get dressed,
belle.
We have business back to Philly.”