Page 43 of Dagger’s Shield

“So that was enough for you?”

“Oui.”

I raised my chin when he studied me.

Several seconds passed with neither of us speaking. Finally, he stood. “If that’s true, know this. If I ever touch you again outside of what’s required for this mission, it will be for one reason only.”

I folded my arms in front of me and looked up at him. “What reason would that be?”

“If you beg me to.”

I scoffed. “That will never happen.”

When he stalked out of the room, I stayed on the bed and put my head in my hands.

I didn’t believe things would be any different for us than they had been for every other woman he’d fucked. I couldn’t. I had no doubt my mother believed every word my father said when he was seducing her. Once they were married, he moved on to his next conquest. What I didn’t know was why he’d wanted to marry her in the first place. Perhaps even then he worried about an heir to carry on the Valais family legacy.

If that were the case, the joke was on him. Their only child was a girl, and while she—I—would inherit the property and everything on it, the man who would be in control of the domaine had already been born. Rémy was the son my father never had.

For years, I told myself I didn’t resent him for it. That it wasn’t his fault. But being here at Valais after such a long absence, I felt things I’d never allowed myself to before. The vineyards and wine business my ancestors held stewardship for were as much mine to manage as they were Rémy’s. And while I’d never allowed myself to imagine spending my life here before, I was starting to.

What made the fantasy all the more ridiculous was that, when I closed my eyes and pictured where I’d be ten years from now, Dagger was the man by my side.

The foolishness of it would make me laugh if the regret didn’t hurt so much.

I’d lied when I told him I wanted to get my notes together before I briefed him. The truth was there was nothing in the invoices, deposits, or payment records that linked Valais to Géraud. At least nothing apparent.

My search had been cut short when Rémy returned far earlier than anticipated.

I’d heard the car stop on the driveway near the building and had the drawer closed before he was through the door.

“What are you doing in here?” he’d asked.

“I thought I’d get a start on learning more about the business. What about you? You said you’d be gone until dinner.”

“My meeting ran shorter than I anticipated.”

“By several hours?” I pressed.

“It happens,” he said with a shrug.

“I used to spend hours in this office with my father. He didn’t think I understood anything about the business of running a winery, but I paid far more attention than he realized.” I put my hand on the binders on the shelf beside me. “For example, the invoices from vendors are still kept in the same place they’ve always been. I see we have a new cork supplier. We’ve had the same one for at least two hundred years. Why the change?”

“We still have the original supplier. Given the shortage of cork around the world, we decided it was prudent to have more than one source.”

“That makes sense,” I said. It did. I wrote the name of the second supplier down anyway.

I’d left him in the office and was about to return to the house when he asked me to join him in the tasting room. Moments later, my father and Dagger arrived, and now, here I was, sitting in my childhood bedroom, not knowing what to do about any of what was happening around me.

My father was somehow connected to Géraud, but figuring out how wouldn’t be as easy as I thought.

My precious mother had a life-threatening illness and had been putting off the treatment she needed to survive. What would have happened if I hadn’t come? I couldn’t allow myself to think about it. I was here, and that was what mattered.

And then there was Dagger. I’d been drawn to him since the first time I saw him. How could I not be? He was better looking than any man I’d ever known, with a body that exuded power. And when he looked into my eyes, it took every ounce of strength I possessed to keep from lusting after him like the two women in the tasting room earlier.

Thankfully, it hadn’t taken long for him to show his true colors. He flirted with every woman who set foot in Minerva and had bedded most of them. I soon learned his reach went far beyond our headquarters. Women in Lausanne asked where he was when a few of us went out for dinner. I recognized the dreamy look in their eyes when they said his name, and knew, without question, he’d had sex with them too.

My father had aged since I last saw him, but when they weren’t looking at Dagger, every woman in the Caveau stared at him. I watched as he made his way through the crowd, kissing ladies’ hands, being the charming and delightful French winemaker I’d seen him be all my life.