Page 41 of All Mixed Up

I didn’t have a clue about the rhetorical worth of that. I’d never done anything like this in my life. Pax had hated surprises, and I’d found out why the hard way. Why I never questioned his behavior, always looking over one shoulder wherever we went, was a humiliation I’d always live with. There was some small comfort in knowing I wasn’t the first or the only he’d scammed. God only knew how many other rackets and schemes he’d been a part of. I’d probably throw up if I ever did find out. Gee; just what the squirrels needed.

There was a flutter of activity at the building’s sleek glass doors.

I pushed away from the tree. My heart raced into OMG-OMG-OMG mode as Lucien left the building. He was still in conversation with another man. They were both dressed like something out of a designer fashion spread for men, trendy but elegant in their fitted suits. Lucien was wearing the same dark tie as the day we’d first seen each other, when he’d stepped out of the Avanti shadows—and my hottest fantasies—and into every sense I possessed.

Today, the effect was even more violent.

Today, he wasn’t just a fantasy anymore.

I knew exactly what it felt like to be beneath that long-limbed body. The tingles those long fingers could inspire on my face and skin. The heat they incited when he thrust them up into my sex…and how deeply his dark passion could drown me once they were ther.

Most of all, exactly how much I reveled in it.

God, I wanted it all back.

Damn, this had to work.

I waited as he said goodbye to his colleague, admiring the grace with which he leaned into their handshake. I’d first compared him to a demigod of Olympus and here he was, fulfilling that vision once more to the inch—only with more power than ever because it was paired with the man I now knew: the person who adored his parents, addressed waiters across the city by their first names, and had asked how I took my coffee just once in two weeks, because he’d remembered it perfectly thereafter. The guy who did things like slide secretive smiles down at his phone, as if the woman sending him the text on it could see him doing it. In this instance, he was in luck. And ohhhh yes, how I was too.

To: Lucien Paget

From: Juliette Darienne

Hi there, hot stuff.

To: Juliette Darienne

From: Lucien Paget

Bonjour, mon reve.

To: Lucien Paget

From: Juliette Darienne

What are you doing?

To: Juliette Darienne

From: Lucien Paget

Lunch appointment. They were supposed to send transportation. Waiting.

To: Lucien Paget

From: Juliette Darienne

Hmmm. Perhaps I can help.

I stifled a giggle while watching him succumb to a curious frown. Though my stomach was still a mosh pit of butterflies, they were excited ones now. Gigi was right. This surprise tactic could be kind of fun.

To: Juliette Darienne

From: Lucien Paget

I do not understand.

To: Lucien Paget