To Win His Heart

by Rebecca Winters

  She pounded on it with the flat of her hand.

  By now Piper had joined her on the seat. “Stop the car! We want to get out!” she shouted.

  Suddenly an interior light went on while the limo was still moving. Classical music began to play softly in the background. A panel lifted on one side of the car to reveal a magnum of champagne on ice and two glasses.

  “Good evening, earthwomen. My name is Cog.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  COG?

  Olivia’s world reeled on its axis.

  “Oh my gosh—there really are UFOs!” Piper cried out in absolute panic. “We’re being abducted and taken to an alien spaceship.”

  “Hardly,” Olivia mocked after she’d had a few seconds to recover. But her heart was beating so fast with excitement, her body was literally shaking. “Did you ever hear of an alien who spoke with a French accent? A mad scientist maybe, but not an alien.

  “And this particular madman just got his driving privileges back so he has gone berserk!”

  As recognition dawned, Piper’s expression underwent a fundamental change. “You say his name is Cog?” she played along. “What does it stand for? Creature of Godzilla?”

  “Close. Literally Cog means he’s the subordinate brainchild of his deranged creator, trained to do necessary but minor tasks.”

  “You mean like pour us a glass of that champagne?”

  “All you had to do was ask,” Cog spoke again.

  Like magic a cork remover appeared and they heard a pop. When it disappeared, a clamp shot out around the neck of the bottle, lifted it and poured champagne into both glasses without spilling a drop. Then it put the bottle back in the bucket and disappeared.

  Delighted, Olivia reached for the glasses and handed one to Piper.

  “Cog? My sister’s starving because Signore Tozetti didn’t show up for dinner. By the way, just how much did your mad creator pay him to lure us across the ocean?”

  “I know nothing about my master’s private business. What does your sister require?”

  “What have you got?”

  A panel on the other side of the car went up to expose a plate with half a dozen roll-ups in individual napkins. “What are they?”

  “Spanish tortillas.”

  Piper handed her one because she was closest. It was hot. Olivia bit into it. Um. “Not bad, Cog.”

  After her sister took one and started munching, the panel closed.

  “So where are you taking us?”

  “To the mother ship.”

  “Why?”

  “To talk of new possibilities.”

  At this point her heart had jumped to her throat. “It’s too late for that. Your master destroyed the world I live in.”

  “There are other worlds.”

  “I’m talking about the human world. The only one I want. You know. Emotions. Hearts. Souls. Flesh. Blood. Guts. Tears. All that good stuff.”

  “My master made a mistake in judgment.”

  “I thought the masters of your universe couldn’t calculate incorrectly. It just goes to show you everything I ever believed in is a myth.”

  “He wants another chance to restore your faith.”

  “Faith? Such a word isn’t part of that madman’s vocabulary. He’s just a robot like you.”

  “Cog does not know what robot means. Please explain.”

  “Take a good look at your master and you’ll have your answer.”

  “I only obey him. He has ordered me to bring you to him.”

  “That’s too bad. I’m not going.”

  “I must produce you.”

  “What happens if you don’t?”

  “He will self destruct, and that will be the end of Cog.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re no great shakes. I know a robot that can drive two thousand miles through enemy lines delivering medicine.”

  “He said you would be difficult.”

  “Yeah, well he doesn’t know the half of it!”

  “Give in,” Piper whispered. “Can’t you see he’s dying?”

  Piper was such a romantic. That was because of her artistic genes. “You’re just like mother.”

  “That’s not such a bad thing you know,” Piper muttered in a hurt voice. “She had Daddy eating out of her hand.”

  “I’d rather be eating out of Cog’s hand. What do you have for dessert? I might be willing to negotiate a few terms if you’ve got something chocolate.”

  Another panel on Olivia’s side flew up to reveal a plate of them. She reached for a dark chocolate truffle and bit into it.

  “Hmm. That’s yummy. Here, Piper. This one’s milk chocolate.”

  “Do you wish anything else?”

  “Not for now, Cog.”

  The panel closed.

  She could feel them traveling down a slope and around several curves. Then the limo came to a full stop.

  “We have arrived at the ship.”

  Olivia’s heart was ready to burst from its cavity.

  “Please step out of the car.”

  The door flew open on her side to reveal a glorious stretch of beach. Trembling because she knew Luc was waiting for her, she got to her feet and climbed out, expecting him to pull her into his arms. She would put up an initial struggle, then cave.

  But to her surprise he was nowhere around. All she could see was a private pier and a sailboat.

  Good grief. Had the car actually driven them here by itself? Her legs started to buckle.

  “Piper?” she murmured.

  There was no answer.

  “Piper?” She cried and wheeled around.

  No one. Nothing. It was as if her sister had disappeared off the face of the earth. All she could see was dense foliage interspersed with gorgeous flowering trees of all kinds.

  “Luc?” She was starting to get nervous. “Luc?” she cried louder.

  “I’m over here.”

  Cog’s voice had been replaced by the real thing.

  Her eyes swerved back to the pier. There he stood. Tall and rock solid. You would never know he’d had to rely on a cane for so many months.

  “Come aboard the Olivier.”

  That was the name he called her in French. His compelling male voice had her walking to the pier. She stopped a few feet short of him. In well-worn denims and a white crew neck cotton sweater, his powerful male body was so appealing, she averted her hungry eyes.

  “I—it kind of looks like the Gabbiano,” she faltered.

  “It is the Gabbiano. But when you sailed her, you made her your own, so I bought it from Giovanni to give to you.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “I would have thought this was a brand-new sailboat. I love the blue color.”

  “It matches your eyes.”

  Luc—

  “Someone did a beautiful job restoring it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You?” she cried.

  He gave an elegant shrug of his broad shoulders. “I had help. It’s my peace offering to you. The first step in delicate negotiations.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “To see if we can’t find a new starting point.”

  Pain knifed through her once more. “That would be impossible. I’m your brother’s pit babe, remember? Because if you don’t, I can give you chapter and verse of every cruel thing you ever said to me.”

  “Don’t, Olivia,” he begged. Incredibly when she looked in his eyes, she saw pain and pleading.

  “Don’t what?” her voice shook. “Have you any idea what it’s like to be compared to a piece of fruit everyone has picked over? A fruit rotten at its core?”

  She could see his throat working. “You know I never meant any of those things, mon amour. You’ve got to hear me out.” The pleading in his voice was a revelation to Olivia. “I had a long talk with Cesar.”

  “For his sake I’m thankful—” she blurted, unable to hold back after so much suffering. “He deserved to be let out of the prison you put him in when you
wouldn’t let him explain anything. If anyone understands what that feels like, I do.”

  “There are different kinds of prisons. I’d like the chance to tell you about mine while we take the Olivier out for a sail. This will be her maiden voyage under her new name and colors.”

  Oh, Luc.

  He could make her do anything. Greer would tell her she had no spine. But like the pushover she was, she let him help her into the boat. Before jumping in after her with an agility he hadn’t been able to demonstrate before now, he untied the ropes.

  She put on the life jacket he handed her. Soon he revved the motor and they made their way to open water.

  “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked after cutting the engine.

  She walked over to the mast and released the sail. The night breeze filled it.

  “Oh—” she cried softly when she saw the stylized design, against the white, of a graceful olive tree whose branches reached out in every direction.

  Luc—

  He came to stand by her. They guided the sail together. “While I was at that robotics seminar at M.I.T., I noticed a message from Genevieve on my voice mail that said she’d been at the hospital and wanted me to come home quick.

  “I couldn’t imagine what had happened, and she’d turned off her phone. I flew back to Nice and drove straight to her apartment only to learn that she’d had a miscarriage.”

  Olivia moaned.

  “It came as a tremendous shock because I’d taken precautions and didn’t have a clue she was pregnant. She admitted it wasn’t mine. Then she confessed to having had a secret affair with Cesar before getting engaged to me.

  “She knew it was his baby and had gone to see him since he needed to be told the truth before she broke her engagement to me. According to her story, Cesar wanted nothing to do with her and said it was her problem. His rejection brought on her miscarriage.”

  “And you believed her over the brother you’d known all your life?” Olivia cried.

  “No. Not until the hospital did a follow-up call while I was there to make certain she had someone taking care of her. Apparently she lost a lot of blood. When I asked the attending physician the age of the fetus, he told me ten weeks.

  “I’d only started having relations with her after our engagement a month earlier. That meant it couldn’t be mine. I walked away from her and never looked back. But I still couldn’t believe it was Cesar’s child. If he’d been interested in her, I would have known about it before she came to my office looking for a job.

  “Because I was so certain she’d lied about my brother’s involvement with her, I sent a friend to the garage to learn what he could. Mechanics love to gossip. All it took was a few glasses of wine for Etienne to admit Cesar and Genevieve had been a hot item for a while. The date for the baby’s conception fit.”

  Now it was Olivia who was feeling sick.

  Luc’s eyes grew bleak. “That began a nightmare from which I never awakened until you forced me to rethink the situation. Olivia,” he whispered. His hands slid up her arms. She could hear his shallow breathing, feel it together with the wind on her lips.

  “If you hadn’t provoked me, I would never have gone to my brother to learn the truth. I heard some of it from Bianca, then he repeated to me exactly what he told you, and a lot more.”

  “A lot more?” she asked emotionally.

  “Yes.” His hands tightened on shoulders. “I found out he toyed with you about an engagement ring to test your love for me.”

  “Yes, darling.” Her eyes filled. “He loves you that much. He’s an amazing brother.”

  “He is.” Olivia heard him clear his throat. “After we’d made our peace, we confronted Etienne.”

  “The mechanic you thought I was after,” she said in a wounded voice.

  “I didn’t really believe it, Olivia. I swear to you I didn’t, but I was in so much pain over you I became the madman you accused me of being.”

  She wiped her eyes. “Did Etienne admit he’d lied about Cesar’s affair with your fiancée?”

  Luc’s body hardened. “He admitted far more. Genevieve was a fortune-hunting groupie. Unbeknownst to Cesar or me, she gave Etienne her favors to get information on the Falcon family before she entered our lives.

  “Genevieve’s plan was to go after me because she thought I had more money. But her plans backfired because she discovered she was pregnant with Etienne’s baby.”

  “What?”

  “It gets ugly. When she told Etienne she was carrying his child and was afraid I would find out because the dates were wrong, he told her to get rid of it. She refused and decided to play up to Cesar, hoping that if they slept together one time, she could pin it on him and he would marry her in the end.”

  “That’s ghastly! Now I’m beginning to understand your venom. How could a woman do that?”

  His eyes glittered silver. “It happens. But as you know, Cesar sent her packing and told her that if she didn’t tell me she’d approached him, he would tell me himself.

  “When nothing worked out as she’d planned, she turned on Etienne and blackmailed him into giving her money to get rid of the baby, or she’d tell his wife. There were complications from the procedure and she ended up at the hospital.”

  “It’s a horror story.” Her hands slid up to his face. “I hope they both suffer agony for what they did to you and Cesar.”

  He covered her hands with his own. “Etienne no longer has a job with Cesar of course. But my brother’s the best man I know. He doesn’t want Etienne’s family to suffer, so he gave him a good recommendation for finding another mechanic’s job.”

  “I love Cesar for that.”

  “So do I. As for Genevieve, what goes around, comes around. The point is, my brother and I are closer than ever. It’s all because of you.”

  He shook his dark, handsome head. “I loved you from the beginning, and that love grew while you fought for our love. You do love me.” He shook her gently. “I know you do, mon coeur.”

  “So much it’s killing me. Oh, Luc—when I returned to the boat with Nic and found you’d gone for good, I thought I was going to die.”

  His lips roamed over her face. “I had to leave and take care of my past. How else could I offer you a future.”

  “I know that now.”

  Unable to suppress her needs any longer, she gave him her mouth. They clung fiercely, forgetting everything in the joy of being together without strife as a constant companion.

  She drowned in rapture as his mouth began devouring hers. Neither of them could get close enough. After that terrible day in Cannes when she thought her world had come to an end, she never dreamed Luc had gone off in search of the truth.

  Olivia was still having a hard time believing the war was over, that she was claiming the spoils of victory and Luc was helping her with a possessive eagerness.

  “Whoa—” she cried and laughed at the same time as the boat started to list to the other side sending salt spray over them.

  Luc grasped her tighter while he grabbed hold of the sail. “It’s time to take the boat back to shore.”

  “But we just came out here!”

  “There’s something else we have to do first. Then we’ll take off and let the wind blow us wherever it will.”

  “I’d love that, but what could be more important than being together right now?”

  “Getting married first,” he whispered against her lips before giving her a deep, salty kiss.

  When he finally let her go she blurted, “You mean now? Tonight?” Her voice came out with a definite squeak.

  He smiled the smile she lived for, making her heart race. “Am I to presume that was a happy ‘yes’ coming out of the unexpected and astounding Duchess of Kingston?”

  Though he’d said it teasingly, she detected the tiniest trace of anxiety in the question. Her darling Luc was having equal trouble believing their pain was behind them.

  “Yes!” She threw her arms around his neck and gave
him another long, passionate kiss. “Yes, yes, yes. I want to marry you this instant, but we need a church and a priest. Mother and Daddy were very insistent on that.”

  “I happen to be insistent on it myself.” A mysterious gleam had entered his eyes. “All we have to do is get in the limo and drive to the Pastrana family chapel where Father Torres is waiting. Then I’m taking you away with me.”

  “How long a drive is it?”

  “About one minute.”

  “One minute? That doesn’t give me time to make myself presentable. Darling—I really like your mother and I know it will hurt her horribly if she and your father don’t get to see you married.”

  “They’ll live.”

  She bit her lip. “There’s another problem.”

  “What’s that?” He kissed the end of her proud Duchess nose.

  “Cesar might feel left out to miss his only brother’s nuptials.”

  “He’ll live, too.”

  “Luc—I—I’m afraid Greer and Piper will never forgive me if I exclude them.”

  His eyes flashed silver fire. “So that’s what your hesitation is all about. Max was right. You three really are joined at the mind, heart and hip.”

  “Only for the important occasions. Weddings, births an—”

  His mouth crushed hers before she could say anything else. “Do you love me?” he finally asked.

  “You know I do!”

  “Then trust me.”

  Trust.

  There was something in the way he said it that told her he was going to make her every wish come true. Lucien de Falcon was that kind of man.

  “I’ll trust if you’ll tell me one thing honestly.”

  “Anything for my bride-to-be.”

  “Were you at the wheel during the drive from Granada?”

  He threw his dark head back and laughed. It was the most beautiful sound in the world.

  “Was that a ‘yes’?”

  “When I’m your husband, then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” With her clasped in his arms, he brought the boat around and they headed for shore, breathlessly awaiting their future.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7826-8