just wasn’t in it. There was one deal in particular that was weighing on him.
For over a year he and Shamus had been persuading Labex to move their green energy plant into the
care of Patras Industries. The site was ready, blueprints drawn, and the nearer the deal came to
closing, the more he wanted it done. There was a ton of money and man-hours at stake, and everyone
was getting anxious the longer the preliminaries dragged out.
His phone buzzed again, and he carefully slipped from the bed and found it in the pocket of his
pants. Climbing back into bed, he ignored his call log and texted Dugan.
Go to the apartment on Cypress. Take Manuel and Frank. I want all of her stuff packed up and
brought back to the penthouse.
The phone vibrated a moment later.
What of the small apartment on the boulevard?
Lucian pursed his lips. That was her place. He couldn’t touch her stuff without her permission. It irritated him that he not only had one apartment to consider, but two. In the past month, Evelyn had
lived in four different places. The most he could do was take care of the apartment he’d rented for her.
That was a mistake he’d be happy to never revisit again.
Just the one on Cypress for now.
He stayed in bed all morning, simply holding her. Around noon, she became restless and he sensed
her waking up. His lips pressed into her temple. She sighed and stretched.
“Hi.”
He smiled down at her. “Hi. Did you have a nice nap?”
“Very nice. I thought it was all a dream.”
“Nope. It’s real.” He took her hand and brought it to his growing cock. “This is very real.”
“You’re gonna have to give me a minute. I’m out of practice and a little sore.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“No. My body forgot what it feels like to be thoroughly loved.”
He was silent for a moment, hesitation caused by his knowledge that he’d never let certain things go
and that his question may totally destroy the peace of their morning.
“What is it?” she asked, snuggling closer.
“Will you tell me?”
Her brow crinkled. “Tell you what?”
“What happened when I was in Paris?”
Her expression shuttered, locking those secrets away tight. His need to know what happened with
Hughes ate at him every day. Did he touch her? Fuck her? She said she hadn’t been with anyone else
that way, but what if she was lying?
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said, rolling away.
He caught her hip and stilled her escape. “Fine. We’ll put it away. For now.”
“Forever, Lucian,” she said sternly. “Bringing it up is only going to make us fight.”
True, but his curiosity was tormenting him. He automatically imagined the worst. When he’d
returned from Paris and gone to the apartment on Cypress and found nothing but empty pantries and
her key on the counter, he feared he’d lost her forever.
The only worse thing than that fear was finding her in Hughes’s bedroom half dressed, knowing he
might be too late. He’d beaten the living shit out of that fucker and wanted to do it all over again every time his imagination played games with him.
He gritted his teeth. Now wasn’t the time. Their reconciliation was still new and delicate and he
didn’t want to push her too hard. “How about a bath?”
She smiled. “A bath sounds lovely.”
***
His knees pressed into the porcelain walls. Evelyn’s back weighed lightly on his chest as he soaped
her breasts with a sea sponge. “Where are you working, Evelyn?”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
He stilled. “Why?”
“Because it’s always a fight, me working. I like my job and I intend to keep it.”
“I don’t have a problem with you working.”
She snorted and turned, the water lapping at the walls of the tub. Her breasts swayed as she faced
him, tiny droplets laced with suds traveling over her curves, gravity pulling them back to the water’s
surface. “Since when?”
“A lot has changed. Someday . . .” He drew in a breath, preparing for her opposition. “Someday, I’d
like you not to work, to be at home, our home, taking care of our children.”
Her smile melted away to a blank expression. “Lucian . . .”
He held up a hand. “I know. I’m not talking about tomorrow or even next month. I’m talking about
the future, our future. It will happen, Evelyn.”
“And what if I don’t want children?”
He frowned. “Of course you do.”
“Why? Because other women my age do? I’m not like them, Lucian. Children need good parents.
Otherwise it isn’t fair to bring them into this world.”
“Are you saying I wouldn’t be a good father?”
Her lashes lowered. They were spiked from the humid air. “No. I was talking about me,” she quietly
admitted.
He grabbed her chin and tilted her face until she met his gaze. “Hey. You are not Pearl. You would
make a wonderful mother.”
“I’m very single-minded.”
“That’s because you’ve spent your entire life trying to survive. In time, you’ll learn that you can