Her handsome devil obviously didn't like Philippe encroaching on what he considered his territory, hence the not-so-subtle public declaration of ownership. A sneaky move, Fleur mentally acknowledged, but since she also knew she herself wouldn't hesitate to be sneaky if it meant keeping the man she loved away from women wanting to snatch him away...who was she to complain?
Midway to his class, Julian noticed Fleur busily noting down every mistletoe she saw on her iPhone.
"Is that a map for us?" he asked in amusement.
Fleur rolled her eyes. "As if I'd be around long enough to take advantage of this."
The indirect reminder of just how many days were left in their contract caught Julian off guard, and he barely heard Fleur explaining how he should use the map to keep other women from kissing him.
"Our contract's very, very clear on exclusivity—-"
Julian suddenly halted in his tracks, and Fleur barely managed to skid into a stop.
"Julian?"
He stared at Fleur broodingly even as the sound of his name on her lips still made pleasure ripple through his body. He had never paid attention to how his former lovers had uttered his name, but as it always seemed to be, everything seemed different with Fleur.
Why she was different, he was now smart enough to avoid pondering, but...
"What if we extended our contract?" Julian heard himself ask. "After all..."
Fleur wondered if it was time to get her hopes up. Was this it? Was this really it?
"You still need more time to turn yourself into a sex goddess."
And there went her hopes for a romantic happy ever after.
Gone in sixty seconds?
More like six.
Dammit.
Fleur gazed up at Julian searchingly, but even though his expression had turned rather brooding, there was no other clue she could find that would help her understand where he was coming from.
"Is this about Philippe?" she asked uncertainly. "You know there's really nothing going on between us, right?"
"Perhaps on your side there is none," Julian said moodily, "but you also know that you cannot say the same for DeRose."
"So it is about him then?"
Julian was beginning to regret opening this particular can of worms. With only minutes to spare before his lecture started, he knew he didn't have enough time to convince Fleur why it was essential for them to extend their contract.
"My class starts in five minutes," he said reluctantly. "Can we talk more about this later?"
"Oh, sure, yes." Fleur was visibly relieved, and Julian tried not to feel disgruntled. Was the idea of being with him longer that bad?
The thought was more than enough to make Julian feel rather grim, but when Fleur blew him her now-trademark-kiss as they reached his class, his irritation vanished and he could only watch with an amused shake of his head as she sashayed her way up to the back of the room.
God, she was hot.
He loved watching the way her hips swayed, loved the way her breasts jiggled, and most of all, he loved knowing how none of it was deliberate, which of course made his little flower all the hotter.
Fleur was every man's wet dream come true without even trying, and it was why, Julian thought darkly, he had known he was taking advantage of her innocence when he had signed the contract.
Fleur had mistakenly thought that a woman's sexual attractiveness was proportionate to her experience in the bedroom. She had been wrong, of course, but as Julian was no saint, he had let her go on thinking that since the contract was the perfect way for him to fuck her exclusively but without any emotional entanglements.
Although it had seemed like a foolproof idea at the start, Julian couldn't help feeling right now that his plan would soon bite him in the ass. How or why, he had no fucking idea, but either way, it didn't matter.
Fleur was his, and she would stay his, contract be damned.
Fleur was secretly glad when the first few minutes of Julian's class were spent on a roll call of his students. It gave her much needed time to mentally chew on Julian's sudden desire to extend the contract, which she had so far deduced to mean one of two things.
Best case scenario: Julian finally realized he had feelings for her, and he wanted to extend the contract to further explore the possibility that he could be in love with her.
Worst case scenario: Julian had realized she was just another itch to scratch, and he had decided that he only needed a few extra days to scratch it real good before dumping her.
A feasibility study, Fleur decided, was the only way to know which scenario was more likely, and after making a mental note to make this tonight's top priority...
Fleur eagerly set aside all worries to concentrate on Julian, who had finally begun his lecture, and oh...my...gosh....it was so unfair!