The Wealthy Frenchman's Proposition (6 page)

In that moment when they’d heard her scream, he’d felt fear for another person for the first time in eight years. And the fact that he’d wanted to first protect her and then rip apart the photographers who had threatened her, had been a warning Tristan couldn’t ignore.

Despite the fact that he knew Gui was right and the only way to protect Sheri was to keep her by his side, another part of him—the man who’d experienced the crushing blow of losing the only woman he’d ever loved—wanted her far away from him.

“Have you been to Paris before?” Gui asked Sheri.

“No, never. This trip to Mykonos was the first time I’ve been out of the U.S.”

“You should travel more,” Gui said. “Tristan, you should make sure that Sheri has the opportunity to see the world. Do you know she still lives in the same brownstone that she was raised in?”

Since he wasn’t deaf and the corporate jet wasn’t a jumbo one, he’d heard the details of her life as Gui pried into her past. He knew it was Gui’s way, but he hated the attention that his friend was giving to Sheri. And hated even more the way she soaked it up. She was hungry for a man to talk to her.

“I heard.”

“It’s in Brooklyn.”

“Thanks, Gui. I know where my assistant lives,” he said.

Sheri flushed and he saw her sink deeper into her chair. He’d crossed a line with that comment. He didn’t need to put her back into the employee role at this moment.

Gui gave him a sharp look and turned back to Sheri, telling her about his latest escapade with one of his cousins who was at the Spanish royal court.

She laughed, but the sound was hollow and he knew he’d done that. Taken away her joy by being a complete ass. He should apologize but, when she was ignoring him, he knew that they were both moving apart. The way they needed to.

But dammit to hell, if Gui didn’t move away from her, he was going to leap across the aisle and strangle his friend. “Sheri, when you have a moment I’d like to discuss a few things with you.”

“What about?”

“Work. Our delay in returning to the office will mean rescheduling some appointments.”

“Of course. I didn’t bring my laptop with me….”

“You can log in on mine,” he said.

“Surely that can wait,” Gui said.

Sheri patted Gui on the arm. “No, it can’t. I don’t mind working. It’ll give me something to occupy my mind.”

Sheri moved across the aisle so that she was sitting in one of the captain’s chairs and she turned it to face him. He turned his laptop around on the built-in desk. She leaned forward, a lock of her hair slipping free and brushing against her face.

She concentrated on typing her log-in to the network and then her password.

He leaned back in his leather chair and watched her work. Since this was the corporate jet owned by Seconds, there were three distinct areas. Gui’s area, where Sheri had been sitting, was decorated in a classic style very much befitting an aristocrat. There was something quite traditional about Gui underneath his rebel exterior.

Christos’s area was modern and sleek. Eschewing anything traditional due to a severe disagreement with his father when he was eighteen, Christos always chose things that wouldn’t fit the traditional Greek way of life that his father, Ari, wanted for him.

Tristan’s area was a blend of modern and classical. His desk had been handed down to him by his grandfather. It was old, though well polished, and except for two marks, looked to be in perfect condition. There was a small ink stain near the hole where an inkwell was once kept, and under the blotter was a series of initials. Each Sabina who inherited it added theirs to the line.

For all that he was a second son, he wasn’t like Christos, who hated his family’s traditions. He liked knowing his place in the Sabina line. But then, he had sisters and a large pool of cousins. Christos had recently lost his only brother in a plane crash.

“When do you anticipate being back in Manhattan? You have two video conferences scheduled this week. Rene could handle them in your place.”

“I saw those e-mails, too. I think we need to get Maurice on the phone to talk through the book for
Global Traveler.
The new layout is supposed to start in the next issue, and I’m still not satisfied with the changes.”

Sheri typed as he talked. He knew she was jotting down notes. He did like how efficient she was. Even before they’d been lovers, he’d liked watching her work. Her fingers were long and elegant. He would have said they were the most attractive part of her, before he’d seen her last night.

Her body was exquisitely formed with generous curves, but not overblown. And she’d been—

“Tristan?”

“Hmm?”

“I asked if a conference call will be fine? We can get the book scanned into a PDF and have it available this afternoon.”

“Yes, that is fine,” he said, and turned his attention to work. It was the one safe thing they had between them, and he knew that, when they landed at Le Bourget airport in Paris, he’d once more be focusing on the woman and not his executive assistant.

“
Bonjour,
Tristan,” Blanche said, embracing him. She continued speaking in French, which Sheri couldn’t follow at all when the speaker was talking as quickly as Blanche was.

It was clear from her tone that she was upset with Tristan and reading him the riot act. Sheri stood in the shadows and watched the two interact. She saw the affection beneath the lecture.

And Tristan smiled down at his sister indulgently. Sheri watched the two of them longingly. She’d always wanted a big family. Not necessarily blood relatives, but a network of people who cared deeply for her and let her do the same for them. It was clear that Tristan had that.

Watching him with Gui and Christos over the last week had given her a glimpse into that world. Seeing him with his sister added another dimension.

“Why are you hiding over here?” Tristan asked, coming back to get her. “Blanche wants to meet you.”

She took a deep breath. “I wasn’t hiding. I wanted to give you a moment alone with your sister.”

“I appreciate that.”

“It looked like she was lecturing you. I didn’t think you’d tolerate that from anyone,” Sheri said, without really thinking.

Tristan smiled, and for the first time she realized that he usually had a practiced smile for business, because this one lit up his eyes. He loved his family, she thought. She couldn’t help smiling back at him.

“She’s eleven months older than I am and thinks she can boss me around.”

“Not many people can do that because of your arrogant attitude.”

“Arrogant?”

“Um…I think you know what I mean,” she said, blushing a little because she’d never meant to say that out loud.

“I really do not know. Explain it to me.”

She shook her. “I’m not myself today. I didn’t mean to say that.”

Tristan tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. She tried not to react to his touch. But everything feminine in her came to attention. She almost sighed, but that would have been too revealing. So instead she took a deep breath.

“Looks like she does a fairly good job at it. Bossing you around that is,” Sheri said.

“Well, she is not the only one,” Tristan said, arching one eyebrow at her as he led her across the tarmac toward the waiting car.

“I would never try to boss you around,” she said.

“I might let you in bed,” he said, and they were at Blanche’s side before she could respond.

“Blanche, this is Sheri Donnelly. Sheri this is my sister, Blanche Sabina-Christophe.”

Sheri held her hand out to the other woman but Blanche leaned forward and air-kissed her cheek. Sheri did the same but felt kind of silly. Blanche smiled kindly at her.

“Your name is familiar to me. Have we met before?”

“She works for me in the New York office,” Tristan said.

Blanche’s eyes narrowed as she glared up at Tristan. Sheri took a step back as the affable woman of just seconds before was replaced by someone who definitely resembled Tristan when he was angry.

“I don’t think we’ve had the chance to meet before, Mrs. Sabina-Christophe.”

“Please, call me Blanche.”

Sheri nodded. There was renewed tension between brother and sister and she had no idea what to say to break it. As Tristan’s assistant she was used to stepping in and smoothing over awkward situations but this…there was no way she could interfere.

“Um…I guess you saw the tabloids.”

“
Oui.
The entire family is gathering to discuss it.”

Sheri took a step backward, longing to hide back on the jet. Even more, she yearned for her small, comforting brownstone. The one place in the world that had always been her constant. The one place in the world where she felt safe.

“Can you give us a moment, Blanche?”

“Certainly.”

“Why don’t Blanche and I take the second car and give you and Sheri some time alone on the drive to your parents’ house?” Gui said.

“I need to talk to Tristan about some family business,” Blanche said.

“I don’t mind riding with Gui,” Sheri said, thinking that would be the easiest solution.

“I would mind. Blanche can go with him. We need to talk.”

Sheri realized that his indulgent attitude toward his sister only lasted for so long. The commanding man Tristan normally was had come back to the surface.

“Tristan—”

“Blanche, this is not open to discussion.”

She shrugged in a way that Sheri thought was distinctly French and turned to Gui. “I suppose that will be fine. You must be on your best behavior, Gui.”

He lifted Blanche’s hand to his mouth and brushed his lips across the back. “With you that will be easy.”

“I’d be flattered if I didn’t know you were always trying to charm anyone female.”

Gui laughed and said, “You always say the nicest things.”

“Your ego can stand it.”

“Indeed,” Gui said, leading her away.

Tristan led Sheri to the car, and she slid inside. She started to move across the seat to make room for him, but he closed the door behind her and walked around toward the other side. She sat there for a moment feeling as if she’d stepped into someone else’s life. And realized that she wanted it.

His
grandmère
had been a famous actress in Europe, and his
grandpère,
a director twenty years her senior. They’d had a scandalous love affair that had resulted in a marriage that lasted for fifty years, until his
grandpère’s
death. And the paparazzi had hounded them all their lives.

Tristan’s mother had grown up with the photographers following her and the world being interested in everything she did. Tristan and his siblings had done the same.

They were used to the attention, but there were times like this when he resented it.

“Are you okay?” Tristan asked, looking at Sheri.

She’d be so easy to care for. Hell, he already cared more for her than he should. But he had to keep his focus, his distance from her, because he knew that she was barely holding herself together and a full-blown affair with him wasn’t going to help her.

“I’m fine,” she said, but she was clutching her purse to her stomach and staring out the window.

“Sheri, look at me.”

“Not now, Tristan.”

“Yes, now.”

She shook her head and turned her body away from his as if to emphasize her determination.

He simply took her chin in his hand and turned her toward him. She had that wounded look in her big doe eyes again and he felt the impact all the way to his cold and lonely heart. She kept her gaze fixed at his chest.

“What is wrong now?”

“Um…I work for you. Everyone in the world knows I slept with you. Figure it out.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. There was the sassy girl he knew. The one that he’d been attracted to and hadn’t understood why.

But now it all made sense. There was a real fire and passion in Sheri that she kept deeply buried.

“What happens between us is our business,
ma petite.
”

“That’s easy for you to say. Guys will slap you on the back and say, go, you. But everyone will look at me and think…”

“Sheri, please look at me.”

She turned to face him fully and lifted those beautiful brown eyes of hers to meet his gaze.

“You are never going to be able to control what anyone thinks about you but you can control how you feel about what happened. Do you regret becoming my lover?” he asked.

She nibbled her lower lip and then sighed. “No. I don’t. Being in your arms was incredible.”

“Then don’t worry about the photos or the press or any of it.”

She arched one eyebrow at him. “That’d be a little easier to do if I hadn’t met that lot head-on this morning. It was a little scary.”

“It is irritating. I will install you at my parents’ house and then take care of the paparazzi.”

“You keep saying that. And I don’t like it.”

“What don’t you like?”

“You taking care of everything. I’m not some doormat. Despite how I might act at the office.”

“You’re borderline insubordinate at the office.” He smiled to show that he was joking.

“Only borderline? I’ll have to work on that,” she said, and he saw the spark of her personality peeking through the sadness that had engulfed her for most of the day.

He knew it was a mistake to want to cheer her up. To care so much about her happiness, and about seeing her smile, but he did. He wasn’t going to be able to offer her anything else, so his protection and her happiness were it.

“I’m not above using discipline to keep you in line.”

“Like what? You going to spank me?” She shook her head and covered her mouth with her hands. “I can’t believe I said that.”

Immediately he had a vivid image of her sweet, bare ass as she lay over his lap. He hardened, then shifted to relieve some of the pressure at his inseam.

She flushed, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his hands off her. He wanted her again. If he’d been able to distance himself in Mykonos, take her to the airport and put her on a commercial flight, it would have been different but now…he was going to have her again.

He needed to get her out of his system.