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“What’s done is done,” he said in English.
He left and the warmth seeped slowly back into my bones. I turned to Duran and he slid his arm around my waist and bent to kiss my mouth. The kiss was brief, but it made me feel a lot better.
“Come on, I’m sure they’ve already brought our things up,” he said.
He led me up the opulent stairway to a large, comfortable bedroom at one end of the second floor hallway. We passed by a series of doors, all shut. I couldn’t keep from gawking at everything.
“Where is your room?” I asked.
His gaze flickered behind us. “It was a few doors down from Lucien’s.”
“But you moved out when Olivia moved into his room?” I asked.
“Olivia sleeps on the far side, not with him,” Duran said.
A little bit of guilt wormed its way through me.
“So…they’re waiting?” I whispered, setting my purse down on the bed. I sank onto the edge and looked up at him.
He sighed. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“So tell me.”
When he dragged his dark gaze up to mine, there was pain in it. For a moment, I wished I wasn’t so curious because I had a feeling he was about to tell me something awful.
“It’s because of what the boss, Carlo Romano, did to him. A long time ago, his daughter accused Lucien of getting her pregnant,” Duran said, his voice low. Like he was afraid we’d be overhead.
“Oh,” I said. “Did he?”
“No, he’s never fucked her,” Duran said. “I was there the night in question, it was during a party at the Romano house. We went outside and had a smoke and left early. But Romano was furious and he tried to force Lucien to marry his daughter to make things right.”
Duran took a beat, his eyes averted.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” I whispered.
“No, you should probably know,” he said, sinking down beside me. “Lucien refused unless he had a paternity test. Romano put him in a cell and tortured him…tore the skin off his back in chunks. It was horrifying. I tried defending him, but I didn’t have any sway.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth.
“Romano’s daughter couldn’t take the guilt and she confessed. She’d been knocked up by one of Romano’s soldiers. Lucien was set free, but he hasn’t slept with anyone in years.”
“That’s awful,” I whispered.
“He and Olivia are celibate, as far as I can tell,” Duran said, his voice strained. “But it’s not because they’re religious people. I think he’s terrified he’ll get her pregnant.”
I thought back to the coldness of Lucien and for the first time I felt a spark of empathy for him. No one deserved that. I ran a hand over my face and took a deep breath.
“What did Lucien say in French downstairs?” I asked.
Duran sighed, rising and crossing the room to the bathroom doorway. “He said that he knew how religious your parents were and he asked if I had…deflowered you, is the term he used. Not my words.”
My jaw dropped.
“I said he was a few days too late if he wanted to return you untouched.”
“Was he mad? I can’t read his face.”
“Oh, furious probably,” Duran said, yawning. “But like he said, what’s done is done.”
