Page 43 of Lucas

That’s it? He’s not going to object? To fight back? Strange.

We finish the first course in strained silence, the only sounds the scrape of cutlery on plates and the occasional clink of a glass being set down. When Hugo enters to clear the dishes, it’s a relief.

“Tell Lilibeth that I very much enjoyed the salad,” Lucas says to Hugo as he hands over his empty plate, ignoring my existence.

So that’s how it’s going to be? The silent treatment?

I lean back in my chair, sipping my wine, as Hugo places the main course in front of Lucas with a flourish. “Roast pork loin with lavender honey-glazed apricots, sir,” he announces.

I hide a smile behind my glass, watching Lucas from beneath lowered lashes. If only he knew.

He brings his head close to the plate, inhaling deeply, appreciation flickering across his face before he can hide it. “Something new?” he muses, picking up his knife and fork. “The food smells wonderful. I can’t wait to taste it.”

Oh, it has more than a wonderful aroma. It also has awonderful taste. I should know. I tasted it at every stage of preparation, adjusting the seasonings until it was perfect. But I’m sure if Lucas even suspected that I made the food, he’d spit it out and declare it inedible, accusing me of trying to poison him.

Now there’s an idea. I should have slipped some arsenic into the honey glaze and ended this farce of a marriage before it really got started. Although poison would direct the blame straight to me. Using poison is feminine.

I watch, my heart in my throat, as Lucas takes a bite. A low, almost obscene moan rises from his throat, his eyes fluttering closed in bliss. “Mmm...this is excellent. What’s in it? Apricot?”

A traitorous pulse of heat throbs between my legs at the sound, at the sight of his pink tongue darting out to catch a stray drop of glaze at the corner of his mouth. I shift in my seat, pressing my thighs together, furious at my body’s reaction. I need to get a grip on myself, this is getting ridiculous.I don’t even like him, for God’s sake.

“Apricot in honey and lavender,” I say.

Lucas’s eyes narrow, his gaze sharpening on my face. “How do you know?” he asks, suspicion threading through his tone. “Don’t tell me you’re an expert on gourmet cuisine as well.”

I lift one shoulder in a shrug, going for nonchalance even as my heart picks up tempo. “I know my way around a kitchen. Is that so hard to believe?”

He scoffs, letting out a harsh, ugly sound. “If you’re as skilled at cooking as you are at running a business, it’s a miracle you haven’t burned your house down.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I spit, shoving back from the tableso hard my chair screeches across the polished floor. I’m on my feet and striding toward the door before I can think better of it, my vision blurred with furious tears.

I definitely should have poisoned him.

Bastard.

I understand business. I understand it better than he ever will. I’m breaking my back, sacrificing everything I have to keep Gant Construction afloat. I even sold myself to preserve the legacy my father built before his mistakes brought it crumbling down around us. I have nothing else to give.

Yes, Father screwed up. He made a few bad calls, but that doesn’t make him—make us—the villains of this piece. It just makes us human. Fallible.

And Lucas Valeur is the last person who gets to throw stones, with all the blood and dirt on his own hands.

I don’t intend to see him beyond what the contract requires.

Tomorrow I’m going back to the office, and the shared dinners are over.

Chapter Thirteen

AVA

Iwake up early to get ready to return to the office. I’m not happy about the fact that now I have to get up two hours earlier to drive to the city, but it is what it is.

I put on a cream wrap dress and a thin gold belt, the fabric hugging my curves, and slip into gold high heels that glint in the morning light. Pearl earrings and a delicate necklace complete the look, adding a touch of elegance.

Over the past two weeks, the offices of Gant Construction were moved to the Valeur building, and today I’m starting my first day in the new place. It’s hard to say I’m looking forward to it when every time Lucas and I are in the same room together, we can’t even exchange three words without exploding into a heated argument.

Ready, I stride to the front door, where Lucas stops me, his tall frame blocking my path. He’s dressed in a tailored suitwith a blue tie that accentuates his piercing eyes. His dark hair is still damp from the shower, and he looks like sin incarnate.

Fucking sin that I don’t want to know.