Everyone laughed, except Henrik, who flashed his fangs.
Bene chuckled. “Seriously, man. You’ve got a choice of me or Clement.”
Marius hooted. “That, I have to see.”
“I guarantee you won’t,” Henrik snipped.
I wondered if Delphine, the prostitute, crossed his mind. But how would that work? Delphine was human. He was a vampire.
“All right, all right,” Mina cut in. “Enough of that, before you fight and threaten my grandmother’s china — again.”
“To our credit, we haven’t had a good fight inweeks,” Bene pointed out. “I feel like we’re due one.”
Mina shook her head firmly. “Not before we finish our toast.” She raised her glass again and nodded to Henrik.
“To the end of our contracts,” he said, as pleased as I’d ever seen him.
“And new beginnings.” Gen touched her glass to mine.
We clinked, getting lost in each other’s eyes before the others nudged us to clink with them too.
“See? Hopeless.” Marius shook his head at us.
I ignored him, kissing Gen. Her lips tasted like champagne, and the joy in her eyes made my heart flip.
“To new beginnings,” I whispered, letting everything but her fade from my vision.
Chapter Thirty-One
ROUX
One week later…
It was one of those rare fall days in Paris — sky a brilliant blue, air crisp, sun shining. Perfect for that date I’d been promising Gen.
We walked hand in hand along the Seine, a new experience for me. Not the Paris part, but walking hand in hand like a couple of happy lovers. Which I supposed we were.
Mates,my tiger growled.Even better.
We hadn’t made it official with a bite yet, but that wasn’t far off. And in the meantime…
“Wow. A whole day, just to enjoy ourselves,” Gen murmured, tilting her face toward the sun as we walked.
“Two days,” I reminded her.
“True, but yesterday felt a little more like work.”
“If that’s work, I’m happy to put in overtime,” I declared.
We’d spent the previous day rearranging her — er, our — apartment in the château and moving my things in, followed by a long afternoon walk through the surrounding fields, woods, and vineyards. A perfect day, as far as I was concerned.
The others had finally eased up on their teasing, and Bene had even helped me move my few things over to Gen’s.
The faster you move out, the sooner I get the west wing to myself,he’d said.The entire west wing, baby.
Don’t get too comfortable,Gen warned.We’ll be renting those rooms soon.
He shrugged.I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. And in the meantime, my own little kingdom.
