~ End ~
LUCIEN
Chapter 1
Lucien
“I need a fucking drink,” I said as I joined my brother at a table in the hottest bar in town, Tandem Lines. Jacob looked up, amusement dancing in his dark eyes.
“Hard day?”
“Aren’t they all?”
Jacob picked up the glass of seltzer he’d been nursing all night. I didn’t have to be here to know it was his first and that he wouldn’t finish it. Jacob wasn’t a drinker, and he balked at the outrageous prices a place like this charged for something as simple as seltzer. It was a personality quirk that annoyed most people, but that I found amusing. Imagine, the son of one of the most well-known oil barons in the country groaning about having to pay five dollars for a glass of fancy water.
I gestured to the waitress in the tight black skirt. She came over, a big smile on her brightly painted lips.
“What can I get for you gentlemen?” she asked, her eyes on me only.
“Vodka and cranberry juice.”
Her smile widened slightly. “You strike me as more of a scotch and water sort of guy.”
“Do I?”
Her eyes moved slowly over the expensive suit, lingering on the silk tie.
“Definitely,” she said.
“Well, tonight, I’d kind of like cranberry juice, if you don’t mind.”
“No problem.”
She gave me another onceover then walked away, moving her hips in a lovely roll that I’m sure was mostly for my benefit. As I watched her walk away, I caught sight of a beautiful woman with jet black hair sitting at the bar. She was wearing a simple wrap dress with just the smallest hint of cleavage. She turned in her stool as I watched, crossing her legs in that seductive way some women have, moving her bare calves over one another like they were covered in silk. She definitely had it.
“Look at that,” I said, nudging Jacob. “Isn’t that something to look at?”
“There’re lots of good looking women here tonight.”
“Yeah, but that one in the wrap dress is really something.”
Jacob looked again, his eyes moving slowly over the length of her. “She’s pretty.”
“Not just pretty. Sexy as hell.”
Jacob lifted his drink again, sipping at the flavorless bubbles.
“I thought we came here to talk about the meeting with JDRF.”
I dragged my eyes away from the dark beauty long enough to focus on Jacob again.
“What did you think? Do you think they guessed what we were fishing for?”
Jacob shrugged. “I think they’re excited about anything that might make living with diabetes easier. But I also think they’re under the impression that we’re just working on another type of pump. And that’s not terribly impressive anymore.”
“We can’t exactly tell them what we really have until the patent comes through next week. If word got out, do you realize how many people would be threatened by what we’ve done? We’re ten steps ahead of everyone else working on the artificial pancreas.”
“I don’t suppose it matters. We’ll have the patent soon.”
“We’ve got everything in this new device. If anything goes wrong—”
“You’re paranoid, brother,” Jacob said. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.”
The waitress returned with my drink. I slipped a twenty into her hand and winked, but forgot about her the moment she walked away. Business was all I’d been thinking about lately, and it still weighed heavily on my thoughts. When Jacob suggested we start a biomedical company as partners five years ago, the idea had been to focus on developing new medications for some of the biggest offenders of public health in the modern world—Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Jacob had a degree in biochemistry. But my degree was in both business and technology. So it only seemed natural that we’d go in two different directions while working toward the same purpose. He oversaw the development of new drugs. I oversaw the development of smart phone apps, games, and computer software designed to help patients understand and keep track of their diseases. And various medical devices. We’d begun developing a new generation of pace makers, a device that, when implanted in the brain, can help reduce the tremors that come with Parkinson’s. We were looking at creating devices that can infuse chemotherapy at home, at a slower rate, to reduce side effects.
And we had the artificial pancreas. This was my pet project, something that had the potential to radically alter the way in which diabetes is treated, especially in newly diagnosed children. There were already several models in the works from rival companies, but their pancreas required the use of three different devices: two insulin pumps and a constant glucose monitor. Mine was consolidated into one device that performed the duties of their three. Once we had the patent, we could go public.
There was a lot riding on this. Success was the only option.
Maybe Jacob was right. Maybe I was paranoid. But, as the saying goes, just because I was paranoid didn’t mean someone wasn’t out to get me. Or, in this case, my device.
I downed half my drink in one swallow, then stood.
“I think I deserve a treat,” I said.
Jacob’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything as I wandered over to the dark beauty at the bar.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
It wasn’t the most original line and not one I might have used under other circumstances, but it seemed appropriate here. She looked up, a soft smile parting her full lips nicely. She had amazing blue eyes that seemed to look through me for a moment. But then they settled politely on my face.
“That’s nice of you,” she said, her voice just the right kind of husky, “but I just received a fresh one.”
“Then can I buy the next?”
A soft laugh, her eyes moving over me in a way similar to the way the waitress had looked at me, but with a little less raw hunger. This lady was subtler. More of a lady.
“How much do you think I drink?”
“I don’t judge.”
She laughed again as she turned back to the bar, lifting the clearly full glass of red wine to her lips. “You’re funny,” she said, as though she was surprised by that.
“If you think that’s funny, you should get to know me a little better. I can be an absolute riot.”
“I was actually just on my way out the door.”
“Oh, don’t do that,” I said, pressing a hand to my chest. “You’ll break my heart.”
She turned my direction again, but her eyes moved to the table where Jacob waited alone.
“It looked to me like you already had some company.”
“Him?” I glanced over my shoulder. “That’s just my brother.”
“Brother?” She studied Jacob a minute, then focused on me again. “You don’t look that much alike.”
“It’s an interesting story. If you want to hear it, you should come join us.”
I bowed, making a show of it that caught the attention of a couple of other people around the bar. A group of women laughed, one of them saying, “What a gentleman.” A group of guys on the other side just shook their heads, clearly deciding it was a failed come on. I wasn’t so sure. If I hadn’t gotten her attention, I’d surely gotten the attention of a couple of the other women.
I wouldn’t be going home alone tonight.
I walked back over to Jacob’s table and threw myself into my chair like a petulant child.
“Strike out?”
I shrugged. “Can’t win them all.”
Jacob pushed a fresh vodka and cranberry juice toward me. “The waitress is a sure thing, I think. She brought this over a moment ago and said it was on the house.”
“That was nice of her.”
“I don’t know how you get all this attention. You and your ugly mug…”
I just sipped at my drink, not rising to the bait. Jacob had teased me about my looks almost from the moment we met, claiming the
only reason women found me interesting was that they felt pity for me. It was a running joke. I think the truth ran more in the realm of jealousy, but I’d never bothered to explore that idea. No point in causing tension.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jacob muttered.
“What?”
I looked up, and the dark beauty from the bar was coming our way. And beauty…damn, she was beautiful. A little petite for my taste, but she had curves that didn’t stop. Full breasts, a tight little waist, round hips. She was the kind of girl guys drooled over in high school and stabbed each other in the back for as adults. And that dark hair against her fair skin, and those blue eyes… It was a combination that made me want to simply stare at her for hours and hours.
“She’s gorgeous,” Jacob whispered.
I just nodded.
I stood and pulled out a chair for her. She slid her hand over her ass, collecting her skirt so that it wouldn’t get terribly wrinkled as she sat on it. Then she leaned forward slightly and held a polite hand to Jacob.
“Adrienne.”
“Jacob,” he said, hesitating just a second before taking her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jacob.”
He inclined his head, a little color rising on his face.
“I’m Lucien, by the way,” I said as I took a seat next to her.
“Lucien. That’s an interesting name.”
“It’s French. My mother grew up in France.”
“Oh, wow. That’s impressive.”
“Her father was in the military. They were stationed there until she was a teenager. Then she ended up in New Jersey for a while.”
“Talk about culture shock.”
Jacob snorted. “She does. All the time.”
“Ignore him,” I said, leaning a little closer to the dark beauty. “He’s in a foul mood.”
“Oh? Bad day?”
“No. He’s just like that all the time.”
Surprise made her eyes round. And then she laughed a little, her eyes sliding over Jacob as she did. “Sorry,” she said.
“Don’t listen to him,” Jacob said. “He’s just trying to impress you.”
“Is that right?” Her eyes came back to mine, and there seemed to be an interested glow in them. “Why would you want to impress me? You know nothing about me.”
“Perhaps because I’d like to get to know you better.”
That smile was back, and it made my heart do a funny little flip. I sat back a little, thinking that maybe I should slow down just a bit. I like women. I flirt quite often. But it’d been a while since I’d met a woman who truly interested me. This one… There was definitely something about her that intrigued me.
“So, you said your relationship was an interesting story.”
Jacob glared at me even as he shook his head. “Are you using that again?”
“If it works…”
Jacob lifted his glass to his lips, draining the last few tablespoons of his seltzer water.
“It isn’t as interesting as he makes it out to be,” he said, setting it back down.
“Speak for yourself,” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder even as I moved closer to Adrienne and took her hands in mine. “I think it’s very fascinating.”
“Why don’t you tell me, and I’ll let you know what I think?”
Jacob groaned.
“You want to tell it?” I asked.
“Go for it,” he said, waving his hand at me.
I focused on Adrienne, running my thumbs over the tops of her soft hands. “So, my father was a salesman. He moved from job to job, dragging my mom and me all over the country. When I was four, he got a job with an oil company down in Houston. My mom… Oh, she hated the idea of moving down to the Gulf of Mexico. She was about two seconds away from calling it quits and taking me back to New Jersey. If she hadn’t hated New Jersey as much as she hated Houston, she probably would have done it sooner.”
“And where would we all be then?” Jacob asked.
I ignored him and continued. “So, my dad starts this job. He’s working in the human resources department, having lied on his application about his experience. He’s doing background checks on people, calling up references and schools, using his salesman experience to sweet talk people into giving up the dirt on the applicants. For the first time, he’s found a job he’s actually pretty good at.”
I could feel Jacob rolling his eyes behind me. He hates the way I tell this story because I go out of my way to make it sound more romantic than it really was. And, I suppose, it rubs the raw edges of a painful time for him.
“Every summer, the company has this big picnic. All employees are invited, even their families. The company goes all out, sometimes renting an amusement park, sometimes bringing in big musical acts. At the same time my dad takes this new job, the CEO of the company is going through his second divorce. And his son,” I gesture back at Jacob, “is acting up. He’s thirteen and thinks he can do whatever he wants because his mom is off in the Bahamas with her latest love interest and his dad is too busy with work to pay much attention.”
“You make it sound like I was a juvenile delinquent. I was just failing a math class.”
“There’s no telling what might have happened if you’d failed,” I said, glancing at him. “You might not be the man you are now.”
Adrienne laughed as Jacob rolled his eyes. Again.
“We’re all at this picnic,” I say, rubbing my thumbs over her hands still, looking her directly in the eye to make sure I have her full attention, “and Jacob purposely spills a glass of punch on my mom. His father comes rushing over, apologizing all over the place. My father is horrified to have drawn attention on themselves. But my mom… Jacob’s dad is so charming and so kind that she’s just swept away.”
Adrienne’s eyes widen. “They had an affair.”
“No.” Jacob was very quick in his denial. “My father is a lot of things, but a cheater isn’t one of them.”
I glanced at him and mouthed that he should chill. He shook his head and turned away, gesturing to a passing waitress to bring the bill.
“Ignore the sourpuss,” I said, focusing on Adrienne again.
“What happened next?”
“Jacob’s dad gave my mother his card. Told her to call him when she knew how much the dry cleaning would be on her white blouse. Instead, she called and just talked to him, and they became friends. He mentioned to my mother once about Jacob failing math, and she volunteered to tutor him. So then she started taking me over to their house, where she and Jacob would sit at the table for hours discussing multiplication tables and I would play quietly on the floor.”
“That sounds…interesting.”
I could see I was losing her. I glanced back at Jacob and caught him tapping his credit card impatiently on the table. Hell, I was going to lose them both.
“About three months into this little arrangement, my father had a heart attack.”
A surprisingly powerful sadness came into Adrienne’s eyes. I immediately wanted to ask her where it came from, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. I tugged at her hands, pulling them onto my knee, running my fingers over her palm and the tender skin of her wrist. A gentle smile touched her lips.
“He survived the initial attack, but my mom had to stop tutoring Jacob in order to take care of him. Jacob’s father, Karl, stopped by a couple of times to check in on them. The way my mom tells it, he even offered to hire a private nurse so that she could keep working with Jacob.”
“That’s sweet, I suppose,” Adrienne said. “A little self-serving.”
“But, you see, he was already in love with her,” I said, running my hands over her lower arms. She touched me, too, gripping my forearms so that we were holding each other in an odd sort of way. “A few months after the first, my father suffered a second heart attack and died.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” she said, lifting a hand to her mouth.
I tugged her hand away from her mouth. �
��I was very young. I don’t really remember him that well.”
“But, still, he was your father.”
“He was a bit of a loser,” Jacob said. “He was probably better off without him.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened.
I glanced back at Jacob. “A bit harsh,” I said in a loud whisper.
Jacob just shrugged.
“Anyway, Karl pays for the funeral without asking. Telling my mom that he was a good employee and he felt it was the least the company could do. And then he started sending us money every month, claiming it was part of some life insurance thing the company had. But my mom knew it was really from him personally. But she couldn’t afford to turn it down, so she kept careful account of every penny, determined to pay him back when she didn’t need it anymore. But they also stayed close, talking on the phone late at night. He helped my mom get a job at a department store, and she went back to helping Jacob with his math.”
Adrienne glanced at Jacob. “Did you like her?”
He shrugged. “Everyone likes Elizabeth.”
I leaned close and whispered near her ear, “I think he had a crush on her.”
She smiled, her eyes moving over my jaw, my throat, as I pulled back. There was definite interest there; I could feel it. I was definitely not going home alone tonight.
“Then what happened?” she asked.
“I got sick.”
Jacob groaned. “He always tells it like it was him getting sick that brought them together. But, really, I think it would have happened anyway. In fact, I’m pretty sure I nearly walked in on them making out a couple of times months before he got sick. They would have gotten together anyway.”
“Yeah, but Karl might not have asked her to marry him over my hospital bed if not for the fact that I got sick.”
“Maybe. Maybe he would have done it somewhere much more romantic.”
“Either way,” I said, falling into Adrienne’s eyes, “he proposed over my hospital bed, she said yes, and they were married three months later. And they’ve been married ever since.”
“Twenty years next month,” Jacob said. And even he seemed to have a little awe in his voice.
DONOVAN: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) Page 35