“I commandeered one of the yachts that belongs to the Grimaldi Trust to take her from Monaco to Genoa—”
“Ayacht?”Dree asked.
“Yeah.”
“A boat.You were ona boat.”
“It was the most expedient way to get her out of Monaco without being seen,” he sighed.
He’d forced himself onto a boat to rescue Simone. Oh, jeez, the poor guy. He did have a Galahad complex. “Keep going.”
“On the way from Monaco to Genoa, we were on the yacht for a couple of hours. I was just generally making sure she was okay, and—there was a lot of adrenaline. She had been scared, but then we were safe for a while. She was pregnant, and you know how those hormones mess with a woman’s body and probably her judgment. She came on to me. I didn’t stop to think, ‘Hey, I might meet the love of my life at a bar in Paris tomorrow night. Maybe I shouldsavemyself.’ Soyeah,I slept with her.”
Dree rolled her eyes. “I don’t care that you slept with her. I hope it was really good for both of you. Not quite as good for you as when you’re with me, but still very good.”
Maxence stared at her. “Then why are we having this conversation?”
“Humor me.”
“I need a cold shower or something,” he grumbled.
“And then what happened?”
Maxence heaved a long sigh. “I took Simone to Genoa and put her on a plane for Mauritius, which is where her family is. They’ll take care of her there. She texted me and told me she got there, so I know she’s safe. Estebe—that’s her husband—threatened to cut off my head and feed it to the sharks, and his goons nearly grabbed me in Genoa. They would have gotten me except that Arthur and Caz had come looking for me and dragged me onto a different yacht.”
Another yacht. Two boats. And an attempted kidnapping.“Did it,um,get kind of rough?”
“It was before I met you!”
“It’s not that. Just—did it?”
“She was a bit pregnant. I wouldn’t get rough like that with a woman who’s carrying. It might not be safe.”
So, he hadn’t gotten what he’d needed from Simone, and then he’d met Dree, and they’d— “Oh, Maxence.”
Maxence scooted on the bed so that he was leaning up against one of the thick pillars on the corners. He drew his legs up and rested his forearms on his knees. “Why are we having this conversation?”
“I went to lunch with Mairearad today, and she brought some things up.”
Maxence’s jaw went slack, and his eyes widened with utter shock. “You talked toMairearad,and she talked toyou?”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. I thought she wasyour tattoo artist.And also, she’s the only person I know of on this whole continent who’s from Phoenix and I can talk to about how the pavement gets squishy in August and where to get the best salsa. I don’t want to go back, but I just wanted somebody to talk to about it.”
Maxence dropped his head into his hands. “But you weren’t talking about the goddamn salsa,were you?”Without waiting for her to answer, Maxence twisted and rolled off the bed, striding away toward the bathroom.
Dree bounced over to the edge of the bed and followed him to the bathroom, calling after him, “Don’t you get mad at Mairearad, anddon’t you fire her!It’s all my fault. I didn’t mean to, but I think I got her a little drunk. I encouraged her to talk too much because I didn’trealizewho she was.I seriously thought she was your tattoo artist,and I wanted to hear her side of the story.”
“She’s not a tattoo artist,” he growled without turning around.
“Well, I know thatnow.I didn’t actually ask her if she was a tattoo artist, but everything she said made sense if she were, right up until it stopped making sense and I realizedwhatshe was talking about.”
“You don’t know what she is.”
“I know she worked at a place called The Devilhouse, and I think it was a BDSM club or other type of place.”
“Dammit,”he muttered.
“I’mnotjudging you at all.Not at all.I wouldn’t have asked her about it if I’d known. I thought we were just talking about your tattoo.”
