by Chloe Liese
Everyone sat around the table, howling at my expense while I scowled into my wine. Elodie’s warm hand slid up my thigh and stopped just south of tempting territory while giving me a gentle squeeze. It made things only marginally better.
I leveled Mum with a severe glare. “You really had to tell that one? The most embarrassing story of my childhood, the first time I bring Elodie around, per your demand, I might add—”
Mum snorted, pouring the last of the Sancerre in her and Elodie’s glasses. She’d taken one taste and told the rest of us to find something else—she and El were going to split it. “Lukey, she’s obviously special, she deserved a special story! You’re the first outside this family to ever hear that one,” she said conspiratorially to Elodie, bringing her wine to her lips.
Kai frowned. “Well, except for Soph—”
I kicked him furiously under the table, and he stifled a groan in his fist, staring at me like I’d gone mad.
Dad shook his head. “Would you two kindly act more mature? You’re grown men. Allegedly,” he added as an afterthought.
I reached for Elodie’s hand on my thigh while Kai glared at me.
“What is it?” Elodie glanced around tentatively.
Mum stood and began to stack plates. “She’s a nobody, dear. A horrible vestige of his past, and her name’s not to be spoken in my house, understood, Kai Graham?”
“Yes, Mum,” Kai grumbled into his wine.
“Besides,” Mum said as she scraped plates clean in the sink. “I never told her that story. She never proved to me that she deserved it.”
Elodie blushed and fiddled with her napkin in her lap. It was a bit awkward. My family clearly thought we were together—neither of us had disabused them of the notion—and both of my parents already liked Elodie ten times more than they’d ever seemed to care for Sophie.
Elodie and I’d spent the weekend fucking on every surface possible in my home but really hadn’t gotten around to discussing what that even meant. And I knew why—we were at an impasse. I wanted a timetable on this before things got messy, and Elodie wanted to boot me in the bollocks for having any such notion.
“Well, Kai’s is Graham. What’s your middle name?” she whispered.
It snapped me out of my thoughts. I leaned toward her and spoke quietly into her ear. “Percival.”
Elodie snorted and buried her head in my shoulder.
“I know, terrible isn’t it? It’s not even a family name. Mum thought it was jaunty.”
She had to cough to hide her laugh and brought her napkin to her face. Slowly, she lowered the napkin to her lap, features now composed.
“What’s yours?” I asked quietly.
“Josephine Marie,” she said.
Bloody hell, she even had a beautiful middle name. Beautiful head to toe, inside out. I was hopeless.
I smiled. “That’s quite lovely.”
“Yes.” She took a sip of her wine. “One of about three things my parents managed to get right with me.”
I squeezed her hand.
Dad stacked more plates for Mum and handed them to her. When he saw we’d stopped our private talk, which he probably misread for discussing the woman I refused to even think about, he directed himself to Elodie. “You’ll forgive our family bickering. Sometimes I wonder what I did to earn such disappointments—a retired footballer who’s taking over the business for me, a physician who actually cares about helping people, and a solicitor advocate daughter who’s always been an absolute angel—wasn’t even hellacious in her teen years.”
Kai and I snorted.
“Ah, revisionist history,” I said.
Kai knocked his glass with mine. “Cheers to that.”
Dad kept on directing himself to Elodie. “It’s terrible, isn’t it? What sad progeny I have to my name?”
“My sense of sarcasm isn’t always good in English, Jack,” she said. “Are you teasing me?”
Dad shook his head gravely, luring Elodie in, like I knew he would.
She leaned closer to him, puzzled. “What did you want them to be? Those all seem like worthy professions.”
Mum sighed from the kitchen. “Jack wanted us to be traveling troubadours. I’d play the guitar, Jack the fiddle, Sarah was going to sing, Kai would play the accordion, and Lucas was going to play…?”
I groaned. “The tuba.”
Kai dropped his head, shaking it in mortification.
“But no,” Dad said woefully. “Charli would have none of it. Said it wasn’t conducive to family life! No sense of adventure, these Farthingtons.”
“No,” Mum laughed, setting on the kettle and pulling out dessert. “I said it wasn’t conducive to financial solvency.”
“Alas, yes. That too.” Dad stared off, looking melancholy. “So, I settled for taking over her family’s lucrative business and an existence of domestic bliss, never to know the perils and thrills of a life on the road with a family band.”
Elodie stared at him, biting her lip as her mouth twitched. I knew by then that meant she was struggling not to laugh. Dad caught her out of the corner of his eyes and pursed his lips, fighting it as well. Mum’s shoulders shook as she cut pie, and Kai set a fist in front of his mouth.
Then like a firework in the night, Elodie’s bright laughter pierced the air, the first spark that began the grand finale. Dad guffawed, Kai snorted, and Mum cackled. I felt the unfamiliar joy of a belly laugh rumble up my throat and join them.
Elodie’s eyes met mine on another peal of laughter, and I wanted to remember that moment forever.
Once our laughter died down, Mum passed around dessert, then dropped to her seat with a cup of coffee and a sigh.
“So you see, Elodie,” Mum said. “To Jack, we are all disappointments.”
Elodie wiped tears from her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Jack. Disappointments indeed.”
Mum kissed Dad’s cheek and patted his hand. “He would take the life of a wanderer and be content, simply to have his loves with him always, under the stars.”
As Mum said it, Elodie’s eyes met mine. “A simple life under the stars with those dearest to you sounds rather wonderful, doesn’t it?”
I squeezed her hand under the table. “For a certain type of fellow, I suppose.”
She squeezed my hand back and grinned as she slipped her fork’s tines into her pie.
Kai watched us carefully and gave me a face. I avoided answering him by cutting into dessert myself. He’d badger me later, but for now I wasn’t speaking sibling facial expressions to tell him what was between Elodie and me.
“You really wanted that, Dad?” Kai asked instead. “You’d have been content, penniless, with a family to scavenge for, constantly in transit?”
Dad glanced at Mum. “Well, I never did it, so I can’t say for sure, but the idea held true appeal for me. A simplicity to life, focus on daily existence, present to those I loved. Ultimately, of course, I wanted the life that gave me your mother. When it came to it, I found I could still envision what I wanted—a balance between adventure and domesticity, work and play—and have your mother too.”
Mum smiled at Dad.
“Now what about you, Elodie?” Mum asked. “What’s your family like?”
Elodie’s hand stiffened in mine but she remained otherwise completely composed. “Oh, well, my parents are very…entrepreneurial. I grew up going to boarding school and seeing them on holidays, so we’re not very close. But…they love me, in their way.”
Grand fucking gesture right there. I would have dragged my parents’ character through the mud if they’d done to me what they’d done to her. But Elodie was gracious and also deeply practical; she knew there was nothing to be gained to maligning others. I knew this too, even as I raged internally on her behalf. It was best to simply leave toxic people behind you and never look back. I had plenty of experience with that, thanks to Sophie.
Mum gasped. “They only saw you on holidays? I’d die.”
“Charli,” Dad sighed wearily. �
�Did you not catch her name? Bertrand? Bertrand Enterprise?”
Mom frowned. “I pulled my head out of that world the moment I gave it to you, Jack. I hated it. But you don’t seem to mind it one bit,” she said to Elodie, “do you, love? Perhaps at least they gave you that?”
Elodie nodded as she swallowed. “I think I got plenty from them. Some good, some not so good. Like any parent-child relationship, no?”
Mum seemed to sense the sadness beneath Elodie’s polite words. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry for prying,” Mum said. “I forget that not everybody is quite so totally enmeshed as us.”
“No, no,” Elodie said. “I hope I haven’t made you uncomfortable with my answer. You weren’t prying in asking, my answer was just an uncomfortable truth. There’s a difference.”
“Hear, hear,” Dad said.
Mum smiled in relief. “Well, all the same, I hope so long as you’re here you’ll consider us family. And I expect to see you much more than just during holidays. My goodness.”
Elodie smiled and blinked rapidly. Even in profile, I could see unshed tears glisten in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m honored.”
“And this, my dears, is why I don’t regret my choice for a moment,” Dad said. “If I hadn’t settled down for the girl who knocked me on my arse the first time I met her, who made me swallow my prideful agenda and demanded a partner in her life, where would we be? Certainly not together, here at this table. With my two knuckleheaded sons and this dear young woman. Nor with my dearest one, my Charli.”
Mum kissed Dad’s cheek. “You said you’d rather be a fool for my love than a wise man without me.”
“Because, that’s love for you,” Dad said, raising his glass to her. “Though I amend my statement. Love works both ways, not exclusively. It humbles and elevates us. It makes both fools and wise men of us, doesn’t it?”
I raised my glass. That it most certainly did.
Fourteen
Lucas
Humming happily in the car, I sped us along the bridge toward Canary Wharf, feeling like the luckiest bloke in England. Elodie Bertrand sat in my car, after sleeping in my bed, after riding my cock so long this morning that she’d left me in no doubt that the woman might be a retired professional athlete, but her stamina hadn’t dipped one bit.
Elodie stared quietly out the window, hands folded primly on her lap. She looked smashing, and it was killing me, this ridiculous rule that we couldn’t have sex at work. I had a bloody en suite in my office, for Christ’s sake, complete with a single bed, a bathroom, and a closet with a few spare suits, shirts, and ties. And you’d better believe I’d had Regina pick up a few duplicates of Elodie’s skirt suits and dresses too.
Her hair was pulled back in a tight chignon that somewhat reined in her wild curls. Her dress and blazer were a rich navy blue that made her eyes pop, and her lips looked alluring with some kind of gloss on them. She wore delicate gold chains on her wrists and a necklace that she never took off, as well as tiny gold posts in her ears. Her always tan skin glowed, and she looked like a fucking dream.
“You’re staring Lucas. Eyes on the road.” She blinked over at me and smiled sweetly.
“Right.” I cleared my throat and turned onto our building’s street.
Her soft warm hand reached for mine. “I’m a little nervous, Loulou,” Elodie whispered.
“Why, darling?”
She bit her lip. Using my thumb, I freed it from her teeth. “You’re going to nibble it to shreds. Please don’t. I fancy your lips far too much.” I threw the car in park and turned to face her, waving off the valet when he came by and leaving my blinkers on. “You’re nervous about the presentation today?”
She nodded. “It’s a really big one. What if I mess it up?”
So far, I’d presented Elodie’s part, though she’d done all the writing for it. She’d said she wanted some time to observe how I engaged clients and fielded questions. To make sure she felt confident that her English was up to snuff. That was a month ago. Yes, a whole glorious month of nights together spent sleeping much less than we should, days working long hours, then late dinners. Morning runs and evening cuddles.
The weeks had flown by in an intoxicating blur of professional adrenaline and sex-soaked endorphins, none of which I wanted to change one bit, but this one thing I was putting to a halt—letting Elodie shortchange herself at work. Thus I’d told her Gorgon—a potential client that would be huge business for us—was hers.
“You won’t, Elodie. You know this information so well you could recite it in your sleep. These are your ideas, your insight, your recommendations. You’ll kill it.”
Elodie nodded, breathing deeply. “Okay, yes, you’re right. Let’s murder this.”
Her bloody idiomatic flubs were wrecking my heart. I smiled and kissed her hard. “Let’s.”
Popping out of the car, I tossed my keys to the valet and jogged over to Elodie’s side. She swung her legs around, ankles locked in ladylike fashion as she stood tall. Men’s eyes snapped to her as they passed on the street while Elodie fixed herself, oblivious to their stares. As she smoothed her dress and hitched her purse on her arm, I glared at every single one of the bastards and set my hand good and low on her back, right above her round arse, so every one of them knew she was mine. Mine, mine, all bloody mine.
“You’re snarling, Lucas.”
We strode through the lobby to the lift, Elodie’s heels clicking smartly along the floor. God, those heels were sinful—alligator skin and frightfully high.
I dipped my head to her, breathed in her jasmine perfume. “You don’t understand how men work, Elodie. We’re foul, base creatures, and a good pissing around your woman’s really the only way to go about sending the message that she’s to be left alone, loud and clear.”
Elodie snorted, shaking her head while rummaging in her purse. “That’s what you were doing, fondling my arse on the street and growling like a bear?”
“Quite,” I muttered, pressing her forward when the lift opened. As always, we walked toward the very back. I leaned against the wall and looked her over. I really didn’t understand the compulsion for her heels—they had to be excruciatingly painful to wear—but I did like that they put us at much of a closer height, so I could savor looking into those midnight blues. “You sure you won’t rethink your…policy?”
How I’d managed a month respecting it was beyond me.
The neckline of her dress was square, revealing her collarbones and the faintest shadow of cleavage. The saturated blue contrasted with her golden skin, and I couldn’t stop thinking about licking along the border while I dragged the zipper down her back and watched it flutter to the floor.
She shook her head resolutely, glancing at me out of the side of her eyes. “Lucas, please. You promised, and today is a very important day for me.”
I dropped my head back. “Are you at least wearing knickers?” I whispered.
Elodie smiled coyly, eyes ahead as the car stopped at our floor. She stepped out of the lift and I followed, grumbling to myself. Briefcase in front of me, I made a quick adjustment and strode behind her, the torturous view of her swaying arse ensuring that this was going to be a very long, painful sort of day.
“Regina!” I bellowed, searching madly over my desk. I had a call in five minutes with one of our biggest clients, and I couldn’t find the fucking draft numbers we were going over.
Regina came tumbling into the office, looking petrified. “Yes, sir?”
“Gina, please don’t look so frightened. I yell not because I’m angry, but because I send you every which way in this place, and I never know where you are. Please don’t take it personally, okay?”
She nodded quickly and relaxed a little. “What can I do for you, Mr. Edwards?”
“Where are the Avery numbers? I asked that they be printed up this morning, and not in font size eight, remember?”
Tears fill her eyes. “I thought you said Haybury,” she whispered.
I glanc
ed at the clock, seeing I now had only three minutes until the call. I could hardly see the numbers on my computer screen unless I zoomed in, but then I was constantly scrolling around, and I lost track of what line I was in. I was useless without a large printout.
Fighting a growl of frustration, I pinched the bridge of my nose and breathed deeply. “Not to worry, it’s a misunderstanding. Just call Philip at Avery and tell him I’m running—”
“Late?” Elodie burst in, flying past Gina and striding to my desk. “Absolutely not. Here are the numbers, Lucas. Sit down.” She scooped my mess off the desk and straight into her arms, replacing it with a single presentation in large bold font. It was almost comically big, but damn, was it easy to see. Gina frowned curiously at it, glancing at me and then Elodie. Elodie quickly cut off her line of sight.
“Regina, please get Philip on the line, and block off one hour after this for you and me to meet.” She glanced over her shoulder at me, then waved at me to focus on my presentation.
Gina stumbled on her words. “Y-yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry again, sir—”
“Enough now, no need to be sorry, we’re all learning,” Elodie said, guiding her out the door by the elbow and starting to pull the door shut. She leaned out and kept talking. “We’ll discuss it further after this, but for now, Avery on the phone immediately, Gina.”
“Bloody hell, Elodie, that was—”
The phone beeped, alerting me that the call was ready to start. Elodie smiled, gesturing to the phone that was flickering. “Time for you to knock their shoes off,” she whispered.
Christ, she was perfect. I smiled as my heart ached with gratitude and love.
Love.
No. No, that wouldn’t do. I shook it off as the phone rang and demanded my fully present mind.
For the next ninety minutes, we combed through every corner of the report—market insights, baseline financial assessment and their projections, as well as our forecasted profits if they took our advice and went for this small target company. Elodie’s realm wasn’t at play this early in the process—pre-acquisition—but if Avery ended up buying the company, she’d be brimming with work.