CALIXTE ENDED THE CALLand slipped his phone back into his pocket.
The garden was quiet at this hour, the twins long asleep in the nursery with Pluto standing guard at the foot of their cribs. Moonlight silvered the landscaped hedges and turned the fountain into something out of a fairy tale.
He stood there for a moment, processing what Zacharie had just told him.
Comme c’est intéressant.
Eden was curled up on the sofa when he walked back inside, a cup of tea growing cold in her hands, her gaze lifting to meet his the moment he appeared in the doorway.
“Is everything alright?”
“That depends.” He crossed to her side and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “How do you feel about a short trip to Los Angeles with the boys?”
“That also depends.”
“On?”
“Two things.”
“Name them.”
“How important is it?”
“About several layers’ worth of lacquer would be peeled off.”
Eden’s face softened. “Let’s go then.”
“I’d still like to know what your second condition is.”
“It’s not important.”
Her husband cupped her chin, and Eden’s heart skipped a beat.
“Humor me anyway.”
Calixte watched a sheepish smile form over her wife’s lips, and as impossible as it seemed, he found himself falling for her even more at that moment.
“I was wondering—”
“Consider it done.”
“—if we could take the dogs with us?” Eden was laughing as she finished, with how her husband had already agreed without even knowing what he was agreeing to.
He swept her up in his arms, and as she cupped her husband’s cheeks, she found herself thinking how life had changed so, so much.
Once upon a time, this man existed solely in the shadows, feared as the Prince of Killers.
But what he was now...was what she prayed Zacharie could be, if the right girl would stay long enough to peel all the layers away to show him that he was neither weak nor evil.
Never had been.
And didn’t ever have to be.
