Lucien (16 page)

“Okay. I’m just gonna rest my… eyes.”

Luc moved his arm and, lifting it around her, settled her more comfortably against him. He pulled his jacket down from the back of the couch and draped it around her. “Better?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she murmured and, kicking her shoes off, tucked her legs up on the couch.

She closed her eyes and sighed with pleasure as Luc combed her hair with his fingers. “That feels too good.” She yawned. “Don’t stop,” she whispered.

Five minutes later, Elise was fast asleep against her husband’s chest with the steady thudding of his heart lulling her into the best sleep she’d had since the first day of meeting Lucien Masters.

Luc’s eyes burned with exhaustion, but he refused to call it a night. It wasn’t that he was determined to find the group of purchase orders from the month of February. He didn’t want to disturb Elise and if he took her home now, he’d end up sleeping alone. Again, dammit.  

He sifted his hand through her hair and marveled at the silky softness of it. Her perfume surrounded him in a euphoric cloud and he inhaled deeply. Sweet jasmine. Luc doubted he’d ever be indifferent to that particular flower again. He caught himself before he lifted her long hair and buried his face in it.

Elise sighed and shifted, sliding her hand across his stomach to hug his waist. Damn, but he wanted her. He ached and throbbed. Damn his conscience. He should have sweet talked her into his bed weeks ago. Hell, months ago.

Ben groaned and stretched. “I’m beat.” He tossed the stack of papers in his hand onto the desk and flexed his shoulders. “Take her home, Luc.”

Luc hesitated to answer and Ben said, “Take her home and sleep in late tomorrow.” He pushed back his chair and stood up. “Damn, if I’m going to come in at eight.”

Luc set aside the orders he’d been staring at but not reading. “Does anyone use this office during the day?”

“Nope.” Ben closed his briefcase and clicked it shut. “No one but the cleaning crew comes in here.”

Luc nodded and slid out from underneath Elise.

“Poor little thing,” Ben murmured. “She’s exhausted.”

Elise moaned a sweet protest at being shifted and something in Luc’s chest tightened, squeezing his heart with tenderness. He couldn’t bear to wake her up.

“Don’t worry about your stuff, Luc. It’ll be safe.”

Luc tucked his jacket around her, then eased Elise up and into his arms. Her head settled in the crook of his neck and she sighed contentedly. “Grab my keys. They’re inside the briefcase.”

Ben snatched them up, then opened the door wider. “Is she as light as she looks?”

Luc chuckled and carried her easily towards the elevator. “Light as a feather.”

Ben pressed the button, calling the elevator. “And she doesn’t snore. You’re a lucky man, Luc. You could have ended up with a real bitch of a wife.”

The doors opened and Luc stepped inside with his precious cargo. “Don’t remind me.”

Elise stirred sleepily and lifted her arms, draping them over his shoulder and around his neck. “We going home now?”

“Yes. Go back to sleep, darlin’. We’ll be home soon.”

“Okay,” she murmured sleepily, dropping her head to his shoulder.

Ben swore softly. “You’re starting to make me jealous.”

Luc’s smile was grim. “Don’t be. This is all the affection I’m going to get tonight.” The doors opened on the ground floor and he stepped off the elevator.

Ben opened the front doors for Luc. “At least you’ve got someone to come home to. Having a lady like your wife waiting with the front porch light on beats the hell out of what I’ve got.”

“If my wife were awake she would probably mention something about your lack of a love life stemming from working long hours like tonight.”

“If I could find a female like Elise who understood the long hours, then I might not have such a sorry love life,” Ben muttered.

“What happened to Sara?”

“An emergency meeting of the board at Raine Corp.” Ben unlocked Luc’s rental car and opened the passenger door. “While I was fighting to save my company, Sara was writing me a long letter, detailing my failings as both a human being and a male.” He stepped aside so Luc could lower Elise into the seat. “Apparently, there was only one aspect of our short lived relationship which was not lacking.”

Luc slipped his hands out from under Elise and drew the seat belt around her, clicking it in place. “Let me guess. Your cooking.”

“No, that was what Jane said. Sara gave me kudos for my taste in music.”

Luc straightened and pushed the door firmly shut. “I just noticed something.”

“What?” Ben tossed Luc his keys.

“You date women with normal names.” Luc smirked. “Why don’t you try adding a little spice to your life and going out with a name as weird as yours?”

Ben laughed and turned around to unlock his door. “My name is not weird. Your wife called it unusual
and
she said it suited my personality.”

“Whatever. It’s still weird.”

“Go home. You’re starting to bug me,” Ben replied with a smirk.

Luc laughed and went around to the driver’s side. He climbed inside and fired up the engine, then, after waiting to make sure Ben’s started, pulled out for the short drive to the place Elise had found for them. The small house wasn’t a palace, but it was a helluvalot better than being cooped up in an apartment complex with neighbors above and below with stereo systems that thumped and boomed at four in the morning. The house was located on a sleepy street in the middle of a family neighborhood. Elise had already charmed the neighbors on either side of the house and received an invitation to the green beans which Thelma, in the little yellow house on the left, grew in her backyard. Pam, in the two story brick house on the right, had taken an instant liking to Elise and left an open invitation to use the small pool in her backyard. While Pam’s husband, Lyle, had extended the hand of friendship with a backyard barbecue and the promise of his award winning ribs.

Luc stopped at an intersection and rubbed his eyes. Damn, but he was tired. He smoothed his hand down his face and massaged his jaw, then drove the last leg of the journey home. The first thing he noticed pulling in to the driveway was… Elise had left a light on in the living room. It was a little thing. Something he wouldn’t have done. It was but one act that marriage to Elise had brought him.

They’d been in the house for over three weeks and already she had a small window garden started in the kitchen. He didn’t ask her to wash his clothes, but she did and they always smelled fresh off the line. Hell, she even ironed his shirts. When Elise found the time to iron, he didn’t have a clue, but he knew she did. She went out of her way to make sure he ate right. Something he never paid any attention to before. The dishes were always clean and put away. There were towels in the bathroom when he needed them. His jacket, which he usually tossed onto the couch when he walked through the door, magically appeared on a hanger the next day. 

It amazed and astounded him that she did those things for him. He glanced over at her, curled up in the passenger seat smiling at something in her dreams. No wonder she was exhausted. Elise took care of him at work and at home. He’d never heard her once complain about it. Well, she griped occasionally about his work habits, but that wasn’t the same. She deserved a vacation. Or better yet, a real honeymoon.

“Think about something else, Masters,” he muttered to himself. Being alone at night with his wife was hell enough without having to think about the garter belt underneath her short skirt.

Luc groaned as he pulled into the driveway and parked. “Another sleepless night for the sexually deprived,” he mumbled as he climbed out and went up to unlock the front door. Leaving it open, Luc went back to get Elise. He carried her inside, kicked the door closed behind him, then walked down the hall to her bedroom. He knelt on the bed and gently laid her down.

Elise sighed and turned her head into the pillow, frowning at something in her dreams.

Luc brushed back a golden lock from her forehead and a wave of tenderness clogged in his chest. “I’d give anything to know what it would take to win your favors,” he whispered.

He sucked in a ragged breath, then glanced down at her fully clothed body and suffered the debate of the century. Let her sleep in her clothes or torture himself by undressing her?

Luc loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt then undid the cuffs. “I don’t want to wake you up, darlin’, but I don’t think I can be enough of a gentleman to undress you without succumbing.” He waved a hand over her slender legs. “Hell, Elise, you’re wearing a garter belt. Don’t you know how much that turns me on?”

Her answer was to rub her legs together and shift restlessly.

Luc swallowed hard. “Elise. Wake up,” he whispered. His fingers itched to touch her, but he didn’t dare risk it. He should just let her sleep in the skirt. But Luc knew he wouldn’t sleep. Ten minutes ago he’d been exhausted, but now his body was wide awake and throbbing. “Elise, darlin’, you have to help me. I’m thinking impure thoughts. I want you so bad I can’t see straight,” he admitted so softly he barely heard himself.

She emitted a purely feminine noise which nearly did him in.

He sucked in a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair. The woman wasn’t cooperating. She wasn’t supposed to torment him me like this. She was supposed to wake up, give him the Mother Superior look, and order him out of her room. Damn. She wasn’t going to wake up. “Okay, wife, you leave me no choice. I’ll undress you, but if I can’t keep my hands off you it’s your fault. I gave you plenty of chances.”

Watching her face, Luc cautiously extended his fingers towards the zipper on the side of her skirt. “If you’re going to wake up, darlin’, do it now.” She didn’t wake up. “Damn. Then at least do me the favor of not making that noise again. Hell, this is worse than being a horny teenager.” He caught the zipper with trembling fingers and tugged it down. “No, on second thought keep your eyes closed.” Shaking with a hunger which bordered on ravenous was bad enough, but letting her know how much she affected him? Elise would have too much power over him then. As if she didn’t already have power over him. Twice she’d stopped him killing the Bingleys.

Luc pulled her shirt up and carefully worked her skirt down. “Sweet Heaven above have mercy on me,” he breathed. The woman was shameless. Skimpy silk underwear and a black garter belt. He shuddered with need. “Damn. All those months you were hiding this.” He grimaced against the aching pain in his pants which no amount of cold showers would be able to erase. She was beautiful. Firm. Soft. Curvy. And all his. She belonged to him.

Well, in name only, but still… it was enough to make his head spin. She was perfect.

She was also asleep.

Luc tore his gaze away from her legs. He was in the throes of the most powerful lust he’d ever felt and the woman was asleep. He mentally reviewed every curse he’d ever heard, then went to work on unhooking her stockings from the garter.

That’s when he felt it. The brush of her fingertips across his forehead followed by a soft and sleepy, “Lucien.”

Damn. Busted.

His fingers froze and he slowly raised his guilty gaze up to her face. Elise’s eyes were open and her lips parted. She reached out and caught the ends of his tie, then, smiling with sweet promises of torture, pulled.

Luc went willingly. “Uh, Elise, I was just—”

“Kiss me, Lucien.” She tugged him down on top of her and arched her lithe body against him.