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Dammit. Why?!

I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the study. “What the hell are you doing here?!” I hissed.

“Attending dinner with my family,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here!”

“Mystery solved, then.”

“No. Mystery not solved. You can’t be here right now.”

“I’m just as surprised as you are.” He paused, then scanned the quiet study. “But since we’re here…”

I jabbed a finger. “You cut that out right now.”

“Cut what out?”

“You know exactly what you’re doing, and you need to stop. They can’t find out we know each other.”

“Why not?”

“Because my mother will murder us both, and our families will never forge better ties, or whatever the hell my father always says.”

A pause. “Yeah, I get that.” Lucien shook his head. “My father’s a hard ass too, and he’ll probably kill me if I mess this up as well. You wouldn’t believe the talking to I got before we got here.”

“If it was anything like mine, then we’re both in bad spots. Sneaking off like this probably hasn’t helped.”

Lucien checked over his shoulder. “Do you think they suspect?”

“That we know each other? I mean, we don’t know each other. But… you know what I mean.”

He gave me his eyes again. “Maybe we should fix that, then.”

“Fix what?”

He extended his hand. “Hi,” he said, “My name is Lucien. What’s yours?”

I stared at it for a moment, but then I took it, and shook it. “Beatrice,” I said, a slight smile curling along the corners of my mouth.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

A trickle of warm excitement moved through me. “Likewise...” I said, trailing off. “We should probably get back, right?”

Lucien nodded. “At different times, though.”

“Right. I’ll go first.”

I let go of Lucien’s hand and walked around him to get back to the main hall. I thought about glancing at him before leaving, but I didn’t. Though I had been horrified to see him walk through the front door to my house, I couldn’t help but feel a little… better, now.

We had finally been introduced, we had more in common than I thought, and we hadn’t been gone long enough for anyone to suspect something dodgy had gone on between us.

Tonight, might just turn out alright.

Chapter

Seven

Islinked quietly back into the dining room, interrupting a conversation about classic cars my father and Mason were having. Business talk had clearly been put aside between courses. Sitting down, I returned to my soup. A moment later, I caught sight of Lucien coming back to his seat.