Page 24 of All Mixed Up

Well…shit. If he’d been even a little petulant about the challenge, instead of posing it like we were sitting in his boardroom and negotiating a contract, I could’ve gained strength from some righteous defense. Point for the man who already knew how well-done authority turned me on.

But now, all I had in my corner was total honesty.

You asked for it, pal.

“I know I don’t want a ‘thing’ with anyone right now.”

“A ‘thing’?”

“Romance. Magic. A Parisian fling. Whatever.” I jerked my head up, forcing my gaze to lock with his. No matter how entrancing the pull of his midnight irises, he’d get the point better if I did it this way. “This city wasn’t exactly on my life’s top destinations list. I wouldn’t even be here, if not—”

“For the money.” Aside from his head dip, responding to my clutch of surprise, he kept up the boardroom demeanor—for which I adored him and hated him at once. “I know what Milo paid to secure you, belle—and that most of it must have gone straight to paying off your sizable debts, thanks to Pax Halstead’s lying and thievery.”

Just like that, I felt naked again—and not in the good ways. Surprise? Shock? Screw both of those. The man might as well have taken out his fictional scissors and hacked off all my clothes with them. And then the skin over my heart too.

“H-how…do you…know about…” I stumbled back and fell into the large chair under the window. “Have you been…” But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. If I did, it would make it more real. More probable.

Thank God he didn’t make me wait long for his explanation. “Spying implies illegalities, Juliette. You signed documents that were entered into United States public record. They were foolish ones, though it is clear you are no fool. It took no subterfuge to backtrack details from there. Photos of you and Halstead are quite…public…to that point, as well.”

He openly winced at that last part, and I wondered why that made my heart hurt more—besides the remorse for the grand mistake that was Pax.

“I did not ‘vet’ you, ‘stalk’ you, or ‘check you out,” he went on. “I was simply—”

He cut in on himself with a hard twists of lips. And was that a flush of embarrassment beneath his stubble?

“I knew something had to be causing that pain in your eyes. And the shivers I felt beneath your fingers…” He gave up the grimace to a heavy huff. “I had to know what was causing your pain. That was all.”

For many long moments, I said nothing. The sounds of the city—bicycles clanging, taxis honking, people shouting—were a needed buffer from my reaction of feelings. Weird relief—he already knew about Pax. Abject confusion—then why was he still pursuing me?

But then…deep grief. Because neither his confession, nor the fresh space in my heart it had melted, altered anything.

“Well. Now you know,” I finally uttered. “I’m glad you understand things a little better, though it really doesn’t change much here.” I curled my knees against my chest. Allowed my gaze to soften as I tilted my head away from the street view and back to him. “I feel it all too, Lucien. And I know that what we’ve been given is special, even rare…but life sometimes has to be about steel, not gemstones. If everyone chased the pretty gems all the time, nothing would get built. I have to build right now. I can’t afford any more shiny side trips from responsibility.”

Lucien didn’t relent an inch of his posture. Still, it seemed like he absorbed what I said, and accepted it.

“What if you could?”

“What if I could…what?”

“Afford it.”

I gritted my teeth. “Afford what?”

“It. All of it.” One corner of his mouth quirked up. “A shiny side trip.

Annnd so much for the accuracy of my intuition this morning.

“I—I don’t follow.”

He dropped the smirk but jogged his head to the other side. The move was nearly imperceptible, a reflex that probably worked to his favor in swaying people during business meetings. It sure as hell was doing something similar to me. “You came to Paris for the money, n’est-ce pas? The business, and nothing else?” He squared his jaw. “Then let us do business. You need money. I happen to have that. And I need to see you again.” He spread his hands, ticking my gaze back down. Holy damn. The man seriously had a penis worthy of its own wing in the Louvre. Even semi-erect, it was a shaft of mesmerizing beauty—and every arrogant inch of his face showed it. I switched off between glowering at his stealthy stare, and licking my lips at his growing erection. Oh yeah, and wondering if I was seriously dreaming this whole thing. “Symbiotic supply and demand, ma belle.”

I added boosters to my glower. “Or as we call it in my country, a whore and her john.”

His black eyes narrowed. “Did I say I wanted sex?”

My sharp laugh felt good. “Because it won’t happen, after how we incinerated those sheets last night?”

“That is your choice to make.” He gave me one of those smooth and sexy head dips, leading the way for his whole upper body to follow. Dear holy hell. Lucien Paget, with his Tour de France legs and his River Styx stare and his global god confidence, was bowing to me. In the nude. “Those are your words to whisper in my ear again, Juliet. Your consent to give.”