Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 68688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I opened my clasp and pulled out the remaining bills that I hadn’t spent. “This is what was left over.”
He didn’t even look at it. “Keep it.”
“Bastien.” I continued to hold out the cash because all I wanted from him was him, not his money. I’d only bought these things because I had to. They would sit in my closet and probably never be worn again because I didn’t have the lifestyle to support it.
He gave a sigh before he took the cash and shoved it in the pocket behind the driver’s seat, probably because it was too thick to place in his wallet or he really just didn’t care about the money at all. His hand returned to my thigh, his fingers higher up my dress until he touched my panties underneath.
He looked out the window.
I watched the side of his face, studied the hardness of his jawline, the cords that popped in his neck, all the features that revved my engine louder than the SUV we rode in. His pretty eyes were a contradiction to the rest of him, the only softness he possessed. His jaw was clean because he shaved for the event, and he wore a black watch on his wrist, something I’d never seen him wear before.
“Any pointers?” I asked.
He turned back to look at me. “Just be yourself.”
“Then I’m going to be a dumb girl who doesn’t know shit about politics.”
He smirked. “I’m not bringing you to talk about politics.”
“Then why are you bringing me?”
His blue eyes continued to look into mine, to spear my soul with their subtle intensity. “Because you’re my woman.” Like everything else he said, he said it with confidence, not the least bit concerned that I would correct him.
I had been more than somebody’s woman once. I had been their wife—and they’d cheated on me for years. I’d trusted that man implicitly, wouldn’t have thought it for a second, didn’t find his late nights out remotely suspicious—and I’d been made a fool.
I didn’t want to be a fool ever again.
He seemed to read the hesitancy in my gaze because he followed it with, “I said what I said.”
We pulled up to Luxembourg Palace, a place I’d only seen from passing by in a cab, and Bastien got out first before he took my hand and helped me step out in the sky-high heels. Instead of moving his hand to the small of my back or not touching me at all, he continued to hold my hand as we crossed the pathway over the manicured lawn and approached the three-story palace made of stone.
We were ushered into the ballroom with a crowd of people, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling while waiters offered flutes of champagne and canapés. It was an enormous room, the perfect size to hold a wedding with five hundred guests. Tables were covered in champagne-pink tablecloths with enormous centerpieces filled with tall lilies. A four-piece quartet played music from the corner, and the men were dressed in tuxedos and the women in beautiful gowns.
But none of the men or women were as beautiful as Bastien. He was a towering man with his height, and he carried his muscular body with a stiffness that showed the hardness of his spine. His composure was relaxed, like he was in his element in a room full of the aristocracy. A waiter passed by, and he grabbed a flute of champagne for me.
“Thank you.” I took a drink and noticed he didn’t take one for himself.
It wasn’t long after that that the mingling began. Men who were obviously acquainted with Bastien came over for small talk, jokes about other people not in the vicinity, and a bit of politics.
Bastien kept his hand on the small of my back as he introduced me. “This is my woman, Fleur. Fleur, these are some of the members of the Senate.” He introduced each one of them by name, even remembering the names of their wives, who hardly said two words.
I’d told him I wanted to keep it casual, and just as I’d assumed, he basically disregarded what I’d requested. I was whisked away into a relationship that I hadn’t agreed to, and that meant there were expectations and a certain degree of trust, trust that I’d never consented to give. Bastien was a man of the shadows, a man who would always be committed to his work above everything else, a bad boy who killed people for a living. Adrien was a normal guy I’d thought I could trust, so Bastien was even less trustworthy.
How had I ended up exactly where I didn’t want to be?
We took our seats at a table, the seating chart on a big poster in the entryway, and we were surrounded by boring and pretentious men from the Senate and National Assembly—but Luca was also there with his date.