“I think I’ll take that as a compliment.” He winked and stepped away as the bathroom door opened and Luis emerged.
“It’s all yours,” Luis said and flopped on the couch.
“Goodnight, Luis,” Amelie said. She grabbed Maurice’s hand and dragged him into the room with her, closing the door behind her.
“Think he noticed?” Maurice whispered with a teasing grin.
“Yes, I noticed,” Luis called out from the other room. “I’m not a kid. What you do in your own bedroom is not my business. Just keep it down. Some of us don’t have a significant other at this time.”
Amelie laughed and whispered very softly in Maurice’s ear. “The shower will drown out some noise.” She reached for the condom between her breasts and held it up. Then she walked backward into the bathroom.
Maurice followed.
* * *
After making love in the shower, Maurice spooned Amelie’s naked body as she fell asleep. For him, sleep didn’t come easily. Breaking the code of the numbers on the watch was just the beginning. Where else would they find the rest of the clues?
They were on the right track. They just didn’t know where it was headed.
Armand had left so little behind. Had Luis donated a critical item that contained the rest of the clues leading to the location of the Monet?
Maurice stared up at the ceiling well into the night, making no headway on discovering anything of use or a new angle to pursue.
He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, Amelie’s alarm went off.
She silenced it quickly and started to ease out of the bed.
Maurice’s arm tightened around her long enough to steal a kiss.
She sighed and kissed him back. “You’re a bad influence,” she whispered.
“How so?”
“This is the first time since I opened the bakery that I haven’t wanted to get up and go to work.”
“Hmmm. I’d say that’s the best kind of bad,” he said and nuzzled her neck.
“It is.” Amelie draped her leg over his and rubbed her sex against his thigh. “How quiet can we be?”
“Instead of hard and fast, we could aim for slow and sensuous,” he suggested.
Amelie reached into the nightstand. “I have to be downstairs in fifteen minutes. Let’s do this.”
Slow and sensuous proved to be as good as hard and fast. It just took a lot more control. But it was worth it.
They were fully dressed and tiptoeing out the door with a minute to spare.
Luis didn’t budge from his position sprawled across the couch, sound asleep with his mouth open.
Maurice paused on his way past the coffee table and picked up the watch, the recipe book and the photos. He was convinced they were missing something.
While Amelie was busy baking, he’d give it another shot.
In between helping Amelie move trays of dough from the refrigerator into the ovens and out of the ovens to cooling racks, Maurice drank coffee and studied the photos, the watch and the recipe book.
Several times, Amelie would stop in passing and look over his shoulder for a few moments before a timer beeped and she was back at it. By the time the freshly baked pastries and bread were glazed, sprinkled and filled with cream, the sun had begun to rise.
Maurice moved the photos from the kitchen to the counter behind the display case and laid the watch beside them.
