“No, thank you. I couldn’t.”
Their meal was coming to an end. The drive was coming up. That’s when she planned to tell him about her heart condition, but she was nervous.
“Before we leave, I have a little gift for you.” He pulled it out of his breast pocket and put it on the table above her plate.
She shook her head. “No more. You’ve done too much already. I couldn’t accept it.”
“Not even to commemorate you’re being taken on at Gaillard’s?”
Cami took a deep breath. She assumed it was chocolate and was so small it couldn’t be too expensive. She didn’t want to appear impolite so she picked it up and unwrapped it. To her surprise it was a weightless, three-by-four-inch black box with a lovely purple violet on the lid and the name Gaillard printed below it. Not understanding, she lifted it.
Inside the tissue she counted twelve exquisite, individual violet heads of petals that glistened with sugar crystals. She shot him a questioning glance.
“Today Gaillard’s is famous for its chocolate. What few people know is that five hundred years ago the first Gaillard concocted a recipe for sugared violets that eventually grew to other kinds of sugared flowers. They became the first candy company in Provence enjoyed by kings and queens from all over Europe before the product was discontinued and chocolate took over.”
Cami was astounded.
“Since you’re going to be working for them, I thought you might like to taste the first product they ever made. Your coworkers will be impressed that you have knowledge of something that isn’t generally known.
“In fact, I venture to guess that no one working there today has ever eaten one. Other companies make them, but they came later and never could replicate the original. I had this especially ordered for you because it’s a secret recipe and no longer available except for a select few clients who have an in with the man at the top.”
Meaning Raoul himself.
Cami looked down, aware of tears stinging her eyelids. She loved him so terribly, and had already found out Raoul was an amazingly generous man. But for him to do this expressly for her in honor of her new job left her touched...speechless.
“Thank you. I—I can’t wait to try one,” she stammered. But the whole time that her gaze was fastened on the box of sugared violets, she was thinking about all he’d done for her and knew she’d fallen madly in love with him. But it frightened her.
Suddenly Cami couldn’t handle this any longer. “Raoul—why have you done all this for me? I don’t mean just the violets. I’m talking about everything since the day I came to clean for you—the flowers, the dinners out, your kindness to my mother. You must know I’m overwhelmed by all you’ve done.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“THEN LET ME EXPLAIN,” he said in a thick-toned voice. “I’d been in hell for a long time before I found out I had a son. I’ve wanted to make everything perfect for him. When I saw an attractive woman up on the ladder cleaning my son’s room with such care, I didn’t realize I’d startled you. It would have been my fault if you’d had a bad accident.
“After you fell in my arms, I found myself staring into a pair of incredible eyes. Blame their color. You had me mesmerized. The truth is, I found myself wanting to get to know you better.”
“I still don’t understand why.”
“I guess you’d have to be a man to understand.”
“Please tell me the real truth.” She refused to be put off.
One black brow lifted. “That is the real truth,” he came back with force.
Cami sat back in the chair, appearing haunted by his remark. “How often does this kind of thing happen to you? Everything that’s happening seems too good to be true.”
He finished the rest of his coffee. “That’s a fair question. You have every right to ask it. The answer is, it has only happened to me one other time in my life. In truth it was on the night I met Alain’s mother at a bistro near the vineyard three years ago.
“She taught elementary school and had come in with friends one night. I had been checking the wine inventory and was so drawn to her from that first moment, I approached her to have a drink with me. We fell in love that night.”
“But then you stopped seeing her and got married. Do I have that right?”
Raoul nodded. “Before I ever met Antoinette, my parents gave a lavish party where I was introduced to Sabine Murat. I soon discovered that her parents and mine had been plotting to arrange a marriage between us for a long time. I admit I found her attractive and intelligent, but the more I spent time wi
th her, the more I realized the essential ingredient I needed to feel was missing.”
Cami nodded. “As I told you, after a month of marriage I felt the same way, Raoul. Only I’d already taken vows.”
“Understood,” Raoul murmured. “Like a fool, I slept with her once. It was wrong, but I thought maybe that would change the way I felt about her. But it didn’t. I wasn’t in love and I broke it off with her because it wasn’t fair to either of us. I’d had relationships with several women over the years, but I’d never been in love. I began to believe love was out of my reach.