“It’s okay. I told you I’m not good at this.”
“I think you’re better than you realize.” I came close and moved my hands to the crooks of his arms, my favorite place to grab, the bulges of muscle. I leaned in and kissed him.
He kissed me back, and when I pulled away, the tension had disappeared from his face.
“Luca, you’ve got to try this.” Bastien was back at the table, taking the canapés off the tray.
Fleur smirked like she was amused. “Men and food.”
Luca walked back over and took one of the bacon-wrapped scallops. He ate it in one bite. “Damn, that is good. Baby, try this.” He grabbed one and held it out for me.
Bastien was behind him and out of Luca’s line of sight, and he exchanged a knowing smirk with Fleur.
I let him feed it to me. I didn’t care for seafood, but I wanted to participate. As I chewed, he swiped his thumb over the corner of my mouth to catch a crumb that got stuck there. “It’s definitely a winner.”
I went to the bar to get another glass of wine while Luca chatted with people he knew.
Bastien appeared beside me. “I’ve known Luca awhile now, and I’ve never seen him like this.” He turned to the bartender and ordered his drink. “Scotch on the rocks. Make sure it’s not a double. Wife wants me to cut back.” He turned back and looked at me like he’d just asked me a question.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Fucking happy.”
“You just saw us have a fight.”
“Come on, that wasn’t a fight. More like a misunderstanding.” He turned to the bartender and watched her continue to make the drink. “And I see the way you look at him.” He turned back to me and waggled his eyebrows. “I mean, he’s one fine piece of man, right?”
I burst out laughing because it was the last thing I expected someone like Bastien, a six-foot-something beast covered in tattoos, to say.
“Come on, you know I’m all in with my wife, but I appreciate a good-looking man.”
“Yes, he’sverygood-looking. Actually, good-looking is an understatement.”
The bartender handed him his drink.
He left a hundred-euro bill on the table as a tip.
“Why does Fleur want you to cut back?”
“Because she wants me to live,” he said before he took a drink. “All those years of not giving a fuck really caught up to me.” The bartender handed me my glass of wine, and then Bastien left the counter. “Come with me.”
I followed him a few steps away, into a room full of large round tables with a stage erected at the front of the space. There were statues and paintings everywhere. History surrounding the modern-day French aristocracy.
“Between us, is this the real deal for you?” He confronted me head on and bluntly asked the question.
“Um…”
He continued to stare me down, inherently threatening even when he didn’t mean to be.
“Confide in me like a goddamn priest,” he said. “I don’t share secrets.”
“I think Luca knows how I feel about him.”
“Unless you outright tell him, don’t make assumptions.”
I’d told him I was falling so damn hard, and he smiled…and that smile was permanently etched into my mind. One of the happiest memories I’d ever had. “Why are you asking?”
“He’s a grown man who can take care of himself. But he’s my boy, you know? Just want to make sure that whatever he feels is reciprocated. Because if it’s not, I’d ask you to cut him loose.”
