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“I’m not dead,” he said and laughed as if he’d made a joke. “So I’m good. You?”
“Great. Good. Also not dead.”
“You’re a little far from home, aren’t you?” Julien asked.
“I could say the same to you,” Remi said as she finally stood up and walked over to him. “Merrick said you’d moved to Paris and I thought-”
“Paris, Kentucky,” he said. “How do you think I tricked my family into letting me move here?”
“Smart,” she said.
He smiled again and held out his hand to her.
Remi took it and a slight tremor passed through her body when her hand met his. The last time she’d touched him had been far more intimate than a handshake.
“I’m really sorry to show up on your doorstep,” she said, Julien’s hand still in hers. She was strangely reluctant to let it go.
“I’m not sorry at all. Mom said you’re Arden’s manager now?”
“Your mother told you about my promotion?”
“Oh yeah,” Julien said as Salena appeared in the doorway behind him. She put her hand on his hip to indicate she needed to pass by him, and he shifted the necessary six inches. The subtle gesture spoke of an intimacy between them, Salena touching his hip like that and his instant understanding that she needed him to move out of the way for her. Maybe Salena and Julien were more than mere employer/employee. Remi didn’t like that thought. “Mom keeps me up on all the Bluegrass gossip whether I want to know it or not. I know about your promotion. I know that your parents bought a satellite farm outside Versailles. I know that’s your assistant Merrick Dearborn sitting on my couch staring at Salena. You went to Harvard?” he asked Merrick.
“I did. How did you know?” Merrick asked.
“Mom told me that Remi had hired some Harvard computer genius who knew nothing about horses to be her assistant. And that he creeped everyone out because he wore black sunglasses all the time and was weird. Although two of my three sisters like you for some reason,” Julien said.
“Your sisters are saints. Also I’ve never met them. I didn’t even know you had sisters. Sisters? Where?” Merrick whistled and looked around the apartment.. “Oh, and no one likes me. They must have been speaking of another Merrick Dearborn.”
“I like you,” Salena said, sitting in the chair by Merrick.
“I lick you too,” Merrick said, taking Salena’s hand and half-kissing, half-licking the back of it. Remi sighed.
“I apologize for my assistant,” Remi said to Julien. “We’ll be out of your hair soon. I wanted to talk to you for about ten minutes, and then we’ll leave you alone.”
“You really don’t have to leave me alone,” Julien said. “But if you get topless again, please make sure the door’s locked this time.”
“Lesson learned.” Remi laughed, and she knew she was blushing like a teenager in love. Luckily Julien was polite enough not to mention the blush. Unluckily Merrick wasn’t.
“Stop blushing, Boss. You’re the December in the May/December, remember?” Merrick said. “Wait. That rhymed.”
“Merrick, you’re fired,” Remi said.
“Is that code for ‘Merrick, please call the hotel and extend our reservations?’”
“Yes, please,” Remi said.
“Thought so.” Merrick fished his phone out of his pocket. She hadn’t planned on spending more than a weekend in Paris but looking at Julien right now, it seemed the most appropriate course of action.
“Let’s go to the office.” Julien, slightly blushing too, inclined his head at the door. “We can talk there. Alone.” He glanced at Salena who waved her hand to shoo him from the room.
Remi followed Julien through the doorway. Behind her she heard Merrick trying to flirt with Salena.
“You married?” Merrick asked Salena
“My family disowned me after I refused to submit to an arranged marriage,” Salena said.
“Too bad. My family disowned me too,” Merrick confessed.
