LUCIEN: A Standalone Romance by Glenna Sinclair Page B

found him leaning over her.
    “Hey, lover,” she said, her words still slurring.
    “Cut it out, Lynn.”
    “Oh,” she said, her bottom lip puckering out in a big pout. “Are we playing this game again?”
    “You’re high.”
    “I know. It’s great, isn’t it?”
    “What are you taking?”
    She shrugged. “The better question would be, what am I not taking?” She started to giggle, but then she spotted me standing at the end of the bed. “Who the hell are you?”
    Lucien glanced at me, guilt drawing his eyes anywhere but to my face.
    “You need to sleep it off, Lynn,” he said to her. “Is Maria here?”
    “Why don’t you stay?” She managed to snag the bottom edge of his sports coat, tugging on it until he was forced to move close to the bed again. She pushed herself up a little, moving her grip from his coat to the front of his shirt. “We could have some fun,” she said with a knowing smile.
    “Get some sleep, Lynn,” he said, prying her fingers from his shirt.
    He came toward me, pressing his hand to my back to walk me out of the room. I walked quickly, moving ahead of him so that I didn’t have to feel his touch.
    I didn’t know what was going on here, but I was beginning to wonder whether Lucien was someone quite different from who I thought he was.
    He went in search of the maid while I stepped outside, tugging my cellphone out of that stupid purse again and looking up the number for a cab or an Uber or something. I was about to make the call when he came out the front door.
    “Let’s go,” he said, his words clearly a demand that he didn’t expect to be denied.
    “I’m going to get a cab.”
    “No. You’re coming with me.”
    “Yeah?” I looked at him, challenging him to push me. But if I’d expected him to back off, I was disappointed.
    “I’m paying your father a fucking hell of a lot of money for you to stay by my side and make sure nothing happens. You will get in that car, or I’ll call him and tell him that I no longer want to work with his agency anymore. Is that what you want?”
    And that was the cold water that was doused over my body, forcing me to remember that this wasn’t some lover’s spat. This was so much more complicated than that.
    I got into the car, my arms crossed over my chest as he climbed behind the wheel and tore out of that driveway much faster than he should have. It was a miracle he wasn’t pulled over as he pushed that luxury car to its limits, speeding around the expressway like it was a racetrack. When we pulled through the security gate behind which stood his house, I was about ready to explode.
    “I don’t need to be here if you have your own security.”
    “You of all people should know what a joke a gated community is.”
    “It’s all the security you probably need tonight.”
    He ignored that jab and climbed out of the car, leaving me there alone as he went into the house through the side door. I followed a minute later, realizing I really had no other option. I found him in the living room, pouring himself a healthy swig of vodka from a bottle on the bar at the back of the room.
    “When you hire a security team, you kind of need to tell them everything pertinent to your situation.”
    “I did.”
    “I don’t remember my father mentioning anything about the fact that you’ve been fucking your sister-in-law.”
    He turned and looked at me as he drank from the tumbler he’d just filled, but he didn’t acknowledge what I’d said.
    “It seems to me when someone’s threatening you and the threats can be traced back to your brother’s computer, information like that might be important.”
    “I’m not fucking her.”
    “Doesn’t sound that way to me.”
    “Sure you’re not allowing your own feelings to cloud your judgment?”
    My hands turned into little balls of fury at my sides. I turned slightly, in part because I didn’t want to look at him and, in part, because I wanted to find something nice and solid that I could