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“Just so you know, girl lost in an erotic dream, that man who thinks you’re the next great thing to a cinnamon bun just happens to be the owner of the club. He’s very single and considered the most eligible bachelor in town. He’s forty-one, never married. No children and he owns houses in Key West, Barbados, and a fabulous seven thousand square foot estate right here in New Orleans.”
I’d been gone from the city where I was born for so long that I had no clue who anyone was any longer. “It’s fascinating that you know his entire life history,” I teased. “Does that make him safe?”
“If you can call alligators in the wild safe,” Miley offered, huffing afterwards. “Sure, he’s gorgeous but he’s also mafia, or so say the rumors, but there isn’t a woman in town who wouldn’t offerherself to the gorgeous man on a silver platter if he asked. Except this girl. Nope.”
“Liar. You’d drape your body over him if you could. That’s what you told me the last time we were here,” Carrie chastised.
I found myself moving further into the light, trying to make out his features, another set of even stranger tickling sensations washing over me.
Mafia.
Another cold chill drifted all the way to my toes. I certainly knew of a powerful mafia family, but they hadn’t owned nightclubs before. Or had they? “What’s his name?” When neither girl responded right away, I raised my voice. “What is his name?”
“Good God, I didn’t think you were interested,” Carrie snapped back. “Francois Thibodeaux. Why?”
I took a deep breath, holding it. My luck was… strange.
“Oh, no reason,” I mused, although there were a million reasons to walk out of this club right now.
Not only did I know him, but he was also definitely considered off limits. If I dared consider touching him, my father would kill me. They’d once been very close. Sadly, the last I’d heard their relationship had become strained. That wouldn’t make good dinner conversation. Neither would the reality of who I was.
But I had to admit, the man was safe, at least to me. In fact, he’d just as soon kill any man who looked at me cross-eyed, his oath to my father one that would last until the end of time. He was also a completely alpha male, even dressed in a ten-thousand-dollar suit. Tingles of excitement tore through me, the thought of tasting the forbidden fruit almost too much to resist.The man was the epitome of control, ruthless beyond anyone’s imagination and even from where I was standing, likely the most gorgeous man I’d laid eyes on.
Perhaps in my last act of resolve, I remained in the shadows, determined to walk away before it was too late, and I crossed a line that could never be recrossed.
But a girl could dream about what didn’t belong to her at least for one night.
Besides, the last words we’d spoken to each other had been terse, his glare as if I was something abhorrent that had crawled from the center of the earth, a slug or something worse. And I’d allowed myself to hate him, just like I’d been taught to do, the reason for my mother dragging me halfway across the country.
Hate was in my blood, my parents’ bitter divorce tainting the relationship with my father to the point I hadn’t talked to him in almost three years. That’s why returning home under the cloak of darkness had been a stupid idea, but it was the only other place I felt safe.
Safe.
Was there really any truth to that word? The honest truth was as long as I was under the brutal man’s roof, I would be safer than anywhere else in the country. At least I might as well enjoy myself.
As another trickle of the electricity I’d felt before tingled my entire system, I realized I had to be a terrible person for hungering what was considered taboo. At least after leaving here tonight, I’d never put myself in another awkward position of running into Francois again.
“Are you okay?” Carrie asked, touching my arm. For all her pushing, she was worried and terrified for me.
I took a deep breath, lifting my glass. “I’m perfectly fine. Let’s dance the night away.”
She continued studying me for a full minute. Then a mischievous smile crossed her face. “You’re on, girlfriend. Come on. Let your ambassadors for the night show you around the place. There are all kinds of hidden gems inside this defunct bank turned nightclub, delicious little treasures. And who knows, you might find a tasty treat for the night so I can get you off my couch.” She laughed and I smacked her on the arm before stealing another glance at the balcony from my protected shadows.
The man I’d once adored was nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER 5
Delaney
An hour later and I hadn’t seen Francois again, which had allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief. Granted, the building was huge, the partying continuing on all six floors, various smaller rooms leading to promises of sin and fulfillment of the darkest fantasies. Getting lost in the place would be easy, which was my fallback plan to avoid him.
Even if the longing to take a walk on the wild side continued to play out in my mind. I could still do that, just not with the selection of choice.
Damn it.
Miley had even told me there was a secure area on the bottom floor where the actual vault had been left, used only for very special parties and private functions.
By invitation only.
