AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At the front desk, I struggled through why I was there in my broken, pathetic Czech. The woman I was speaking to, and the other women behind the counter, seemed amused, but after a few years of living here, I was used to amusing people when I spoke. I would have been more fluent by now if it wasn’t for the fact that almost everyone on set spoke English. Not only had it made me lazy about learning the language, I wasn’t exposed to Czech all that much. Even when I went out to shop, it seemed like there was always someone around who spoke at least some English.
I really needed to take the time to learn it.
Of course, today no one working could understand me—just to make this all a little more embarrassing in front of Loïc, who seemed captivated by every word I said. I should have insisted on him staying in the vehicle, but I’d been too busy lusting after him to think straight.
Loïc gave me an apologetic smile and rattled off several long sentences in what sounded like flawless Czech. The clinic employees looked relieved to be spared my mixture of stilted words and ambiguous hand gestures.
The woman I’d been speaking to started typing on her computer.
“You didn’t tell me you spoke Czech.”
“I speak several languages, but my Czech is rusty.”
“It’s a hell of a lot better than mine. I speak an embarrassingly small amount of Czech, considering how long I’ve been living here.”
“I think that’s relatively common for people born in America. Europeans are expected to be multilingual.”
The way he said the word multilingual had me staring shamelessly at his mouth and thinking about how much I’d enjoy having it between my thighs.
“You told her I have an appointment?”
“Yes.”
The woman kept speaking directly to Loïc, and although I should have been more insistent on her speaking to me, I gladly let him take over. When he was around, he had a way of making my life easier, and it was far too convenient to simply…let him.
We took a seat.
Two of the women behind the counter were whispering to each other and sending covert looks our way. Was it because they were checking out Loïc, or had they recognized me? Our show wasn’t super popular in the area, but there were some fans. At least it wasn’t like when I went to LA to see Valor. It was reaching the point where I had to pull out a baseball cap and sunglasses if I didn’t want to chance being stopped once or twicewhen I went out there.
When they called my name, Loïc rose and helped me to my feet. His manners were impeccable—old-fashioned and sweet. It was disconcerting, but also flattering. He followed behind me as though he had every right to be there. We were shown into an exam room. Thank goodness I didn’t need to get a physical done because I had the impression he would insist on standing next to the doctor and holding the light, or maybe just doing the procedure himself.
He held my purse and phone for me, but thankfully he didn’t need to translate because the doctor spoke English. He poked around the room while I discussed things with the doctor. The world seemed to be full of curiosities, as far as Loïc Leduc was concerned.
When the nurse left to ready my injection, Loïc excused himself. I breathed a sigh of relief at having him out from under foot. Maybe the doctor’s long look had finally given him the hint that he should give me some privacy.
When my appointment was done, Loïc was standing in the waiting room, holding my purse and phone out to me.
“Thanks.” I took my things from him, and he helped me hook my purse over my shoulder.
“Is my girl all set?” He looped a possessive arm around me, careful not to squeeze my sore arm, and we headed to the door. It felt strange having him be so familiar, but as he’d said earlier, it wasn’t as though we hadn’t had sex before. It would be weird for me to get upset about an innocent PDA. The French people I’d met since I’d moved to Europe tended to be more demonstrative.
We stepped out into the sunshine.
“Sorry that took so long.”
“To be honest, that was the most exciting date I’ve ever been on.” His head was inclined toward me, his smile dazzling.
“That’s pretty sad.” I grinned back at him.
“Where to?”
“I need to go home and run lines for a while.”
“That sounds like a horrible idea.”
“It’s part of my job.”
“What about self-care?” His brows were raised in disapproval. “You got an injection. You deserve ice cream.”
