Page 49 of All Mixed Up

This morning had been shaping up the same way—until now.

The elephant in the room had woken up. And insisted on sharpening his tusks right away. And aiming them right at my gut. And straight into my heart.

It was time to deal with the tough stuff. Probably past time. The honesty didn’t ease the agony at all—but maybe I could start out easy. “Personal coaching, hmmm?” I lifted my head and licked the lush cushion of his lower lip. “Well, I like the sound of that.”

Lucien opened up, flicking the tip of his tongue out. After touching it to mine, he husked, “Moi aussi, ma mignon. Me as well.” He lowered a soft kiss to my nose. “More than you can ever know.”

I hummed in silken pleasure as he continued the little nips up and across my forehead. “Maybe the training itinerary for the afternoon can consist of you trying.”

He continued his grazes into my hairline. “Now I like the sound of that.”

Succumbing to blissful temptation, I hooked a leg around the muscled taper of his waist. “It sure as hell beats the itinerary from last week.”

The words had spilled out more easily than I expected—but I regretted giving into them as soon as he jerked away by a few inches. “Aha.” Just like that, he’d flipped from all-flames to all-business. “So here we are.”

It was useless to even think about a protest, so I joined him in sitting up straighter. I twisted around to lean against the padded black satin headboard, dragging a pillow along with me to tuck against my chest. Oh yeah, I’d already noticed the dip of his gaze. I wasn’t blessed profusely by the tits fairies, but what I had was a constant source of fascination for the man. In certain circumstances, that was a pretty fun thing. In other instances, it was one—make that two—distractions we didn’t need. Instances like this.

Instance?

Yeah, probably a huge understatement. The elephant in the room, now parking his backside on top of my senses, agreed in full.

“Yeah,” I quietly stated. “Here we are.” I cocked my head, but kept my gaze firm and strong. “Not a destination you sound too shocked about.”

Lucien reached for one of my hands. Brushed his lips across my knuckles. His beard tickled the sensitive skin there, sending tingles through my whole torso…especially the two peaks now being teased by the fluffy pillows too. “It was confusing for you, last week, n’est-ce pas? I am sorry, Juliette. Truly.”

His confession jabbed the center of my heart. The conflict made its way to my twisting lips. “I just wondered if the apology should’ve been mine.”

His brows crunched so hard, they nearly met. “The hell?” he spat. “Pourquoi? Why?”

I shifted a little, if only to ease the pressure of the pillow on my newly erect nipples. “Things got…well, weird…between us after we were together on the river cruise.” I looked away. I’d never get this out if he kept wrapping me in the dark silk of his stare. “After I fell apart on you like a teenager who’d just lost her virginity.” The rain on the windows didn’t help my confidence level. “Turns out it was probably just a piece of my mind.” I tried punctuating with a laugh, only to learn levity wouldn’t help either. “Anyhow, it was intense, and I’m sorry if it freaked you out.”

All right, no levity—but apparently, some higher power chuckled at getting to freak me out now. His reaction, while instant, was beyond what I expected—yet more than I dared yearn for.

After surging forward as if to kiss me again, he backed off as if halted by a force field. But the next second, with the barrier seemingly shattered, the kiss came after all—once more to my knuckles. This buss was different. No more gallant prince behavior. He pressed his lips to my flesh with harsh fervor, as if needing to prove a point—though the confusion in his eyes didn’t expose a single clue about that point.

“All right,” he finally said. “I was ‘freaked out’—but not as you are intending it.”

I tightened my hold on the pillow, my gratitude tripling for the cushiony anchor. I hoped it hid the acid roller coasters now colliding tracks in my stomach. Was he trying to reassure me, or set me up for a poetic kiss-off after purging me from his system with twelve hours of C-4 level sex? My senses supplied a thousand possible answers, and none of them felt right. Worse? None of them were less terrifying.

“And how…am I ‘intending it?’” I ended it on a swallow, not ashamed of my defensive bite No more hiding, Lucien. This is what you asked for. And yeah, it was what I’d willingly agreed to—in a woodsy bower, on an orgasm high. Guess I had the rights to claim he’d taken advantage of a weak spot, but why? Truth or pretense; it didn’t matter. Like every other path I’d skipped down with a man, this one was leading to the same concluding fork—and the same direction he’d pick. Not mine.

Didn’t mean I had to make it easy for him.

You want goodbye here, buddy? Great. Ball’s in your court. Bounce away.

I just prayed to end the game with my dignity intact.

I started prepping my mind for it. Where had I tossed my clothes last night? And how fast could I get back into them before the tears hit with full fury? I’d been wearing runners, so I’d have to simply stuff those in my purse and carry them out. Soaked feet would be a paltry price to pay for a speedy exit. I’d be a wet mess anyway, as soon as the heartache set in. With any luck, everyone on the Metro would ignore the weeping girl in the bike shorts in the corner…

The man himself wasn’t going to make a shred of this any easier. Damn it, now more than ever he looked like Lucifer in the most juicy and carnal form possible. His dark stubble shaped his noble jaw, and the sheets were wrapped around the ridges of his abdomen as if a fashion editor had spent an hour tucking them “just so.” And there was still the issue about his death grip on my hand…

“Juliette.” Great. And now he scooped up the other hand too. “Your tears were—and are—the greatest gifts to me. They ‘freak me out’ because…they fill my heart.”

My brain stuttered.

No, literally. Every neuron in my cranium froze in place. Then backtracked. Then reexamined every one of his words—so not the ones I’d braced for—and scrambled to grasp the reality of the new agenda here. “Wait.” A bizarre grunt pushed up from my throat. “Huh?”

His lips curled up. As if he’d also commanded the universe to contribute to the moment, a shaft of light unfurled through the clouds, streamed through the sliders, and angled perfectly across his sculpted face. “That night…on the boat…” he paused to shake his head. “Clearly, you and I remember things differently.”