He was going to make it a priority to help her relax, second only to his priority to keep his hands and his lips off her.
That would be a tough one, because every time Meg opened her mouth…or smiled…or laughed…or just existed, he wanted to kiss her.
Meg was thinking fast. Tomorrow was the anniversary of the day Etienne had lost his wife and child three years ago. She probably shouldn’t have asked to see his home. No matter what he had said, there had to be some residual melancholy lingering about the place, memories of things gone by that could never come again because the key players were gone.
When she had first discovered that he was going to be running Fieldman’s she had done an Internet search on his background and discovered that his reclamation business had grown much more intense after the tragedy of his wife and child. Even though he hadn’t said so, she had seen firsthand how Etienne threw himself into work when something was bothering him. She also knew that he had arranged this two day lull before the demands of the expo so she would have time to rest up after the flight and have time to relax and prep herself.
But what was good for her was probably the exact opposite of what was good for Etienne at this moment. He needed activity, something to take his mind off things, a distraction.
“Well, I’ve certainly been called that more than once in my lifetime,” Meg muttered to herself. And not necessarily in a good way, either, but for the first time ever, she was glad of that.
For the next two days she was going to devote herself to making sure that Etienne had no time to dwell on his sorrows, no time even to think, and no reason at all to regret that he had taken Meg on as a project.
She was going to do her darnedest to distract the man and to keep him busy, even if he ended up sorry that he had ever met her. She was pretty darn sure that he would spend at least some of the next two days beating up on himself if he had time to think about the past, so she was just going to have to deal with the fact that a sacrifice was needed here. There was no one around to care about Etienne’s state of mind but her, and…she cared. A great deal.
So, that night, Meg sat down and made a list of places she intended to drag Etienne to, things she intended to ask him to show her, questions she intended to ask him, even general points of conversation to pursue should she need a desperation move.
She was a woman on a mission.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ETIENNE had chosen not to drive today. Instead he’d had Carl bring the limo to the hotel, so he and Meg were seated next to each other when they came over the rise and first caught a glimpse of Mont Gavard.
It had been a long time since he’d seen it, and the familiar rolling lush green fields, followed by the double rows of trees forming a canopy over the long driveway had him sitting up straighter. When the limo emerged from the tunnel of trees, the familiar pink brick of the L-shaped three story house with its white stone trim and cupola was revealed.
“It’s…Oh, my, it’s beautiful and so much larger than I had envisioned it,” Meg said. “And…did you say that there was a skeleton crew taking care of the place? Because those shrubberies are perfect, there’s not a weed in sight, and the flower beds, what I can see of them, are spectacular.”
“It’s an excellent crew,” Etienne conceded with a smile.
“I can tell. Can I meet them? And…will you show me the rest of the gardens? And…”
She glanced down at something in her hand. “And isn’t there a pond? I looked up Mont Gavard on the Internet and it said there was a pond.”
Without a thought, Etienne reached over and took the piece of paper from her.
“Don’t,” she said.
But it was too late. He had already looked. “Meg,” he said gently. “Don’t you trust me to show you everything?”
She nodded. “Yes, yes I do.”
“Then why the list?”
That adorable chin rose just a touch. He could tell she was going to get stubborn on him. “I just…like lists.”
“Nothing wrong with lists,” he agreed, “but this one seems incredibly long. I’m pretty sure that even if we had a month we wouldn’t be able to do everything on it.”
“Not everything on the list is a thing to do. Some of them are talking points.”
He laughed out loud. “Meg, have you and I ever run out of things to say to each other?” No, they hadn’t, he thought. “Don’t you think I’m capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation with you? Especially about the place where I lived for most of my life?”
Her brown eyes opened wide. “Of course. I would never insult you by insinuating that you couldn’t carry on a conversation with me. I love talking with you.”
Warmth slipped right through him. “Then, Meg…”
“I just want to keep you busy today. And tomorrow,” she said. “To distract you. That’s all.”
“Ah, I see.”
“You weren’t supposed to see. I was supposed to be talkative and demanding.”
“Oh, I like that,” he said. “Especially the demanding part. Go ahead. Demand something of me, Meg,” he coaxed.
And suddenly, his talkative Meg seemed to have nothing to say. She simply…looked at him. “I can’t. I can’t…even think.”
He slid his hand beneath her hair, curling his palm around her neck. “Then don’t think,” he said. “I know what day it is, but don’t try to distract me. Don’t feel you have to be my keeper today. Let’s just be. The two of us. We’ll take it slow. I’ll show you my favorite places. We’ll talk when we like and we won’t talk when we don’t want to. You don’t have to worry about me, Meg. I like spending time with you. You’re already distraction enough. Come on, we’re here. Walk with me.”
She nodded. When they left the limo, she took his hand, and he led her around this place where he had spent so many years. Meg, his boisterous, talkative, sometimes outrageous Meg was very quiet.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She frowned. “That was supposed to be my job. Asking you that…or not asking you that. I didn’t want to remind you, and look at this…I had barely arrived when you got me to blurt out the whole truth. I’m hopeless where you’re concerned.”
Something about that very fact and the way she said it turned Etienne warm inside.
“You’re not hopeless. You’re adorable.”
“You have so got to be kidding.”
“I have so not got to be kidding, Meg.” He kissed her nose, only allowing himself that much. “Adorable. Now, come on, I want to show you what I used to do when I needed to be alone.”
He took her hand and led her down the path, past the patio where his parents had first told him that his father wasn’t going to live much longer and all that would be expected of him. This was the place where he had dashed his mother’s hopes of him ever fulfilling the Gavard legacy. His chest tightened as he thought of those times, but he concentrated on Meg. He squeezed her hand and she looked up at him with a smile that made him forget everything but her. Had the woman really had some plan to keep him so busy that he wouldn’t have time to think about Louisa and his child? That was so…so very Meg.
She was so giving, amazing, vulnerable. If he hurt her…ever…
He wouldn’t. It wasn’t allowed.
Instead he led her to the water and a small boat that was kept there. “It’s a shallow pond,” he told her. “Are you game?”
“Is Paris in France?” she asked, climbing into the boat. She had worn slacks and a vivid red blouse. Now, perched in the small boat, she was like a brilliant, beautiful poppy that had been cast on the water.
He rowed around to the back side of the small island in the middle of the pond. Willow trees lined the shore here, their fronds trailing in the water. It was peaceful, quiet, secluded.
“I liked this place because no one ever looked for me here. Despite having a pond, my parents weren’t fond of water. Now,” he said. “You were going to distract me. Tell me all the things you were going to do
.”
She gave him a look. “I’m not ashamed of any of them.”
“Good. You shouldn’t be. I’m moved that you would make such an effort for me.”
Meg shook her head. “You’ve certainly gone out of your way for me. That means so much to me.”
Her voice dropped and he wanted nothing more than to lean forward and kiss her. Instead he tried to distract himself.
“So what was on the list?”
“I was going to ask you to give me a tour of the house and a tour of the grounds. If necessary, I was going to have you ask your cook to give me a list of your favorite recipes. I thought that might take a while. If necessary, I would have had you introduce me to all the staff here, take me to the nearest town, introduce me to the townspeople, and if worse came to worse, I was willing to go so far as to ask to see your stable of cars. I hear there’s a very well stocked garage here.”
“You have an interest in cars?”
“Not a bit, but if you do, that’s all that matters.”
“And I stopped you from doing all those things. That’s probably a good thing, especially because you’re not even interested in cars,” he teased. “Meg?”
She looked up, waiting.
“This,” he said, gesturing to the boat. “You wouldn’t have lied to me and expressed an interest in going out on the boat with me if you really had no interest, would you?”
She took a deep breath. “Ordinarily, no, but today I would have done pretty much anything.”
“So, you don’t like boats much, do you?”
“I don’t swim very well, but I like this boat.”
“What makes this boat different?”
Without even seeming to think, she looked straight up in his eyes. “You’re in this boat.”
And that was all it took. “I’m sorry, Meg,” Etienne said, “but I just have to kiss you now.” And bracing his hands on the sides of the boat, bracketing her body with his hands, Etienne leaned forward and laid his lips on Meg’s.
She was sweet, ripe, and twisting to meet him, totally involved in the kiss, so much so that Etienne’s heart began to pound, his hands began to sweat, his body ached with the need to do more.
But they were in a small boat and she didn’t swim well.
He would die before he would let her fall out, but there was just no denying that this wasn’t a very good place to kiss a woman.
Which was a good thing, his head told him. But his body told him something different.
Slowly he leaned back. He smiled at her. “Meg?”
“Yes?” Her voice was low and soft, her eyes were languorous.
“That was a wonderful distraction. Let’s do it again. Somewhere else next time.”
His comment had been meant to break the tension and make Meg laugh. Only no one was laughing.
And now all he was thinking about was how many more hours he had with her. And how he would manage to keep his mind off of her when she went home.
It had been a mistake, after all, to touch her again. Now he wanted her even more, but touching her…An honorable man didn’t love a woman like Meg and then send her away. If he couldn’t keep her—and he couldn’t—he shouldn’t even consider touching her.
But all he could think about when he looked at Meg was how much he wanted to hold her in his arms.
The time was slipping away and she was letting it happen, Meg thought the next morning. Ever since Etienne had kissed her and made that comment in the boat, the minutes and the march toward goodbye had seemed to fly faster and faster.
He’d shown her the rest of Mont Gavard, they’d dined beneath the stars at Le Pre Catelan. Now there was just one last day before the expo and her return home.
“I want this to be memorable for you,” Etienne said when he picked her up outside her door at the hotel where the expo would be held.
Meg laughed. “Etienne, it’s Paris. It’s memorable just by definition. It’s the trip of a lifetime.”
“All right, then, let’s fit a lifetime into one day,” he said.
They tried. They strolled along the Seine and the Champs-Elysées. They visited Sainte-Chapelle, Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and the Jardin des Tuileries.
Meg was usually the one who talked a mile a minute, but today it was Etienne, trying to fit as much into her day as possible. But the day was coming to a close. Standing by the water next to the pyramid at the Louvre, the sun began to sink as it always did. The sky put on a master performance and decked itself out in silver and red and gold and purple. There was a family nearby, a father playing with his two children, the mother looking on. The whole scene of Paris, the sunset, this gorgeous setting, the family was just…beautiful. Meg looked at the family lost in their own world and their own happiness and her throat closed up. She thought, that could be us.
But it couldn’t be.
She looked up into Etienne’s eyes. “Thank you. For showing me all this and for Mont Gavard,” she said.
“I wish there had been more time. It wasn’t enough.”
She raised her hand and allowed herself the pleasure of touching his cheek. She ran her palm over his jaw. “It was more than I ever expected. I wasn’t on the path to Paris when I met you.”
He slowly pulled her close and gathered her in his arms. He kissed her hair. “Don’t try to make it sound as if I’m the one who made this happen. I’ve never brought anyone else to Paris.”
She pulled back and looked at him. “Why not?”
“Because you’re special. Don’t make me say it again.”
She didn’t. Instead she rose on her toes and kissed him on the nose. He tilted his head and returned the kiss…on the lips, on that little scarred spot. Etienne groaned and kissed her there again, then dipped his head and kissed her throat.
Meg nearly fainted with pleasure.
A child coughed. Meg froze. “There are children nearby,” she whispered.
Immediately Etienne released her. He took her hand. “I’ll take you back,” he said.
But when they made it to her hotel room door and she had the door open, Meg turned and faced Etienne. “There are no children nearby now,” she said.
He laughed. He covered her mouth with his and tasted her. His hands went to her waist and climbed higher.
Heat flashed through Meg’s body. She plunged her hands into his hair and gave kiss for kiss. “Come inside.”
Etienne stopped kissing her. “Meg,” he said. “I want you, but I don’t want to be like Alan. I don’t want to use you.” His eyes were sad. He was like a piece of granite, unmoving when she tugged.
She stopped. Doubts assailed her. She had thought—
“You don’t want me?”
Etienne’s eyes opened wide, a shocked expression deepening their silver-blue. “I’m afraid of hurting you, but I’m not completely insane, Meg. I want you so much that it’s killing me to stand here.”
Meg stopped tugging. “You could never be like Alan, Etienne. Alan wouldn’t have cared about hurting me. But you’re right. I don’t want to hurt you, either. I don’t want to force you. I don’t want this to end on an unhappy note or ask you to do something you’ll regret later. I don’t want you to feel obligated to entertain me beyond the normal sightseeing or think that I expect kisses or more or—”
But she had barely got the last word out when Etienne scooped her up, carried her inside, kicked the door shut and dropped her on the bed. He came down on top of her, his arms braced so that his body wasn’t touching hers. Much.
“Are you trying to manipulate me, Meg?”
She looked up into those glittering, gorgeous eyes, but she wasn’t even vaguely afraid. Etienne might be frustrated but he would never intentionally hurt her. Still, she had goaded him into this and as much as she wanted him…
“I…Yes,” she answered. “That is…not exactly, but…yes. Maybe. I don’t really know. I wasn’t even thinking straight. I just…want you, but I don’t want to use you, either. I want our last days togeth
er to be happy. I want you to make love to me, but I also want you willingly, and if that can’t happen and you’re only here on this bed with me because I manipulated you here, then I would like a do-over, please. I would like to change my mind.”
She couldn’t keep the sad, sorry note out of her voice, and she absolutely hated that. What a pathetic woman. She tried to sit up.
Etienne didn’t budge. “Meg, this suggestion of yours for a do-over intrigues me. Does that mean you no longer want me, mon petit lapin?” he whispered, dipping his head to nuzzle her neck.
Flames shot through Meg’s body. When Etienne stopped his nuzzling and looked into her eyes again, some part of her that had survived the inferno managed to register that he was waiting for an answer. “I don’t know what mon petit lapin means,” she whispered.
He smiled and kissed her nose. “It’s an affectionate term that roughly translates to my little rabbit.”
She smiled slowly. “Affectionate?”
“Of course. Would I curse a woman who makes me as crazy to touch her as you do?”
“One wouldn’t think so, Etienne, but…my little rabbit? That doesn’t sound very sexy at all.” She reached up and began to unbutton his shirt. Slowly.
Etienne took a deep, visible breath, his nostrils flaring slightly. “The term doesn’t have to be sexy,” he said, his voice raspy. “Because you are. Incredibly.” He ran his palms down her body. She arched against him.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time, Etienne,” she said, continuing to release his buttons. “I want us to end on the right note. I don’t want you to have any regrets, and I don’t want to have any regrets, either, so I’m getting you out of my system—completely—tonight. All right?”
He paused and gazed down into her eyes. “Promise me,” he said. “Promise me that after I’m gone, you won’t be sorry you let me touch you.”
“I couldn’t be sorry,” she promised.
“Good. Because if you couldn’t tell me that, I would have to stop, and…Meg…”
The Frenchman's Plain-Jane Project Page 13