Claimed by Tara Crescent Read Free Book Online

late. “But some of them were already dead and the only thing we could do for them was to tell their family and friends and provide closure. But though Claire Bectell was dead, we could never locate her loved ones. We knew nothing about her.”
    I linked my hand in hers. She could have pulled away, but she didn’t. She looked at our entwined fingers silently for a second before continuing. “Why is Lucien after you?” she asked aloud. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
    But even as she spoke, I could see her make connections in her mind. “There was a conversation we had once,” she remembered. “While I was your submissive, I’d go into a café to check in with Lucien.” She blushed. “My mission was to kill Dylan, you knew that?”
    I nodded. That much had been clear the instant Daniel Schneider had revealed who she really was.
    “I’d told him you were taking me to Hanoi,” she said. “His voice had broken. He asked me if there was any way he could come with me.” She looked pensive. “I killed Dylan. It seems that Lucien has now found a different target to focus on, a different way to put his own demons to rest.”
    Again, she twisted a strand of hair around her fingers. “There are some boundaries that should never be crossed. Lucien has forgotten that.” Her expression hardened. “You weren’t responsible for what happened to his sister.”  
    She hadn’t been able to kill Daniel Schneider in Hanoi. She’d told Jean-Luc she had to draw the line somewhere. This was where she drew it.
    “How did you know I was working with Lucien?” she asked me.
    “He came up when we probed your cover story,” I responded. “You already know that Lori asked me to bid on you to keep an eye on you at the auction.” I reached up to caress her cheek and she leaned towards me, her lips parted, her entire body telegraphing need. “We figured out soon enough that your story was fake, that Jenny Fullerton’s identity had been stolen and that there was no dying sister. But when we tried to uncover who you were working with, all we could come up with was a first name. Lucien .” I smiled, remembering Jean-Luc’s thwarted expression. “Jean-Luc was very frustrated.”
    “Poor Jean-Luc,” she said dryly. “So you knew all along that I was planning something. Did you ever wonder if you were the target?”
    “The first week, I wasn’t sure who you were after, but as time went on, while I didn’t know who you were taking aim at, I knew it wasn’t me. You aren’t capable of being that deceitful and your body has never lied.”
    ***
    Ellie:
    I listened to the words he spoke, to the faith in his voice. We had so much more to say to each other. I was still not happy that he’d sent me away. I wasn’t a child; he shouldn’t have made my decision for me then.
    But as I spoke, my heart was still digesting his words. He would walk into danger for me. Sacrifice himself for me. He’d brought me here to keep me from harm. I was pouting about something that had happened eighteen months ago.
    I closed my eyes. I’d missed Alexander; I’d ached for him. There had been so many nights when I cried myself to sleep, mornings when I woke up to find my pillow damp with the tears I’d shed. I didn’t want any more falsehoods and half-truths to create new distance between us. I was done with that. I never wanted to lie to him again and I never wanted him to lie to me.
    He’d got up at some point, detaching his hand from mine, to pace the area in front of me. Silence hung in the air for a few instants and I realized I had to put an end to this right now. I reached up and took his hand, the one that didn’t clutch at a wine glass. “Sit,” I invited. “Please? I don’t want things to be complicated.”
    His expression softened. He sat next to me, this time so close that I could feel the heat emanate from his body. His strong hands lifted my legs and draped them over his thighs. I was dressed casually, jeans, a t-shirt and