Page 38 of Catching Trouble

“With a scowl?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that’s his love language. You know—stern and dominating.”

I chuckled. “Most of the time, he looks like he’d ratherincinerate me than be in the same room with me. If that’s a love language, send me an interpreter.”

She laughed and I ran my fingers over the bedcover, enjoying the feel of what I suspected was Egyptian cotton. A vision of a naked Maxime wrapped in its folds crashed into my mind.

Wonderful! Not only had I begun dreaming about my boss—now I was having full-blown daytime fantasies.

In last night’s dream, he tied my wrist again, only tighter this time. And then he pulled my bound hand behind my back and kissed me so hard that I dropped to my knees at his feet.

My belly pulled as I played the vision back in my mind. I never considered myself as being kinky outside of a bit of dirty talk from time to time. But there was something about the knot that left me in a needy mess around dawn. So, I’d indulged, touching myself under the covers, imagining my fingers were his.

“Well, I’ll be able to judge for myself soon enough,” she said, shocking me back to the conversation.

“What?” I hadn’t heard half of what she said.

“I’ll be able to give you my own honest assessment of Maxime’scharms.”

All the moisture left my mouth. “How?”

“It’s August. Esmé and Luc’s birthdays are coming up.”

I’d forgotten they shared a birthday.

“We’re all planning on coming to the coast to celebrate at the club.”

I glanced around Maxime’s room, then out to the garden beyond. The lavender loomed right outside his window. “If you’re coming to stay, you might have to pitch tents in the garden.”

And wear a beekeeper’s suit.

Iris erupted into laughter. “Can you imagine Luc camping? I’d be game, but he’s grown up with silver spoons andsilk sheets. I don’t think he’d know a mallet from a mosquito net.”

I giggled. Oh, the trials of growing up as a billionaire.

“No, we’ll stay in Nice. There’s an amazing hotel that has beds as big as tennis courts. I thought I could play some doubles with my husband.”

“And Maxime knows you’re all coming?” He’d said nothing to me.

“Not yet. Luc was going to send him a message. Do you think your crabby boss will give you the night off?”

I thought of him, standing on the bow of his boat, scowling into the depths, and my lips lifted. “I’ll mutiny if he doesn’t.”

“Sorry?”

A crash made its way through the open window, followed by a high-pitched scream.

“What the hell? I better go. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Make sure you do. I want a full update on King Neptune.”

With my pulse picking up, I ended the call before Iris could finish her goodbyes.

Closing Maxime’s door, I headed to the kitchen. It was empty, the only sound a faint buzzfrom the fridge. I poked my head out of the open French doors and into the pool area.

The late morning heat clung to the tiles, hitting me like a wave full in the face.

“Sophie?”