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For an instant they simply stared at each other, the room awash with memories of the previous night. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry, Grace. None of this should have happened. Last night—”
She stiffened. “Are you apologizing for last night?”
“No,” he instantly replied. “At least, not for taking you to bed. I guess I’m apologizing for the manner in which it happened. I’m apologizing because that moment had more to do with Toni than with us. And it shouldn’t have.”
She resurrected Office Grace, desperate for the protection her alter ego provided. “If it hadn’t been for Toni, I never would have ended up in your bed. You needed comfort. That’s all it was.”
Irritation stirred in his gaze and he tamped it down. “Listen well, Grace.” He snagged the lapels of her robe and reeled her in. “The next time I take you to bed—and there will be a next time—it won’t be so you can render comfort. It will be so I can make love to you. Are we clear on that point?”
She stared, wide-eyed. What did she say to that? She opened her mouth to argue. Instead, a single word escaped. “Clear.” Oops.
Luc nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now, get dressed, please. If we’re going to get Toni home tonight, we’ve got a list of chores a mile long to accomplish beforehand.”
First on his list turned out to be moving as many of her belongings as possible to his apartment. In no time, they’d practically stripped her place bare and filled his car with personal possessions.
Jingling the car keys in his pocket, he stood by her front door. “Ready?” he asked, obviously impatient to get to the second item on his list.
The marriage license.
“I’ll be right out,” she said, suddenly remembering her answering machine.
Who knew when she’d return to her apartment. She’d better check messages before she left. She didn’t doubt there’d be at least one from her father, considering that in all the confusion, she’d forgotten to recharge her cell phone. Well, at least she’d remembered the cord and could recharge it as soon as they returned to Luc’s apartment.
To her dismay, her machine showed three messages. The first was from her father, urging her to call home, that he had a surprise for her. Well, the surprise would have to wait until her situation returned to normal. Next came her ridiculous conversation with the fictitious William. Shooting a nervous glance over her shoulder, she deleted the nonsensical spiel. Immediately after her monologue came a message from Luc.
“Well, well,” he practically purred into the tape. “How very interesting.”
She stared at the machine in confusion. What in the world? Then she remembered the call he’d made in the study after her own. She didn’t have a single doubt he’d hit redial. Which meant right on the heels of her chat with her “fiancé,” Luc discovered she’d phoned her own apartment, not William.
She shut her eyes, horrified. No wonder he’d questioned the existence of any remaining roadblocks. With her disguise stripped away and his discovery that William didn’t exist, he must have figured the road was perfectly clear. Clear for seduction.
“Grace! Move it, will you?”
She jumped. How could she face him? What could she possibly say? “Coming!” she called.
She’d just muddle through the best she could. He’d left the message deliberately, so she’d know he knew. And now that she did . . . And he did . . . She groaned, covering her face. Maybe she could pretend she hadn’t listened to the messages. She could give him her most innocent look and pray her eyes didn’t go all cloudy or any other such nonsense. Yes. That’s what she’d do. Hadn’t she gotten rather good at these sorts of fibs?
“What the hell is taking so long?” Luc strode into the room.
Uh-oh.
His gaze moved from her answering machine to her bright red face and for the first time that day he grinned. “Something you forgot to tell me?”
“Not a thing,” she declared, leaping to her feet. “Shall we go?”
He stood in front of her, his arms folded across his chest. “Not until you admit there is no William.”
She lifted her chin. “Of course, there’s a William.” Whipping past him before he could stop her, she headed for the door. “I just don’t happen to be engaged to him.”
With a bark of laughter, Luc followed.
Chapter 8
The Great Lie
