Read Online Nights In Black Lace by Noelle Mack - Free Book Online Page A

locked up in a vault, as far as she was concerned.
    â€œWe hardly know each other,” she said after a while. “But it is true—there are feelings—” She met his gaze with a calm look. “They are hard to define,” she said.
    Bryan looked disappointed. “Guess I shouldn’t rush you.”
    â€œNot when you are leaving France in two days.”
    â€œOh, right. Forgot about that. You could make me forget a lot of things, Odette.”
    â€œPah.” She waved at the tray. “Eat something. Food is better than romance.”
    â€œIs it?” He gave her a disbelieving look.
    Odette tore off a piece of fresh brioche, dabbed it with strawberry jam, and put it to his lips. Bryan ate it with a look of dawning bliss.
    â€œHmm. You could be right.” He did the same thing for her, but the piece was bigger and the jam dripped. He caught it with a finger and put it in her mouth. Odette licked it up. “So where are you off to? Back to the panty palace?”
    â€œDo you mean the showroom? No.”
    â€œNot working today?”
    â€œI am trying to think of a valid excuse to not go in.”
    â€œDo they need you around all the time?” he asked.
    Odette made a vague gesture with her hand. “Usually.”
    â€œI guess someone has to fold the underwear,” he mused. “I mean, I never go into that kind of store, outside of the occasional Valentine’s Day run.”
    â€œDo you want some outfits to take home?” she asked lightly.
    â€œNow, that is a leading question if ever I heard one,” he said. He claimed the last chunk of sweet, soft, buttery brioche since she didn’t seem to want it. “I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment.”
    â€œAh.”
    He sat up straighter, the tan skin of his muscular arms heightened by the white sheet. “Are you going to ask why?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI travel too much, that’s why,” he sighed. “But at heart, I’m a one-woman man.” He made a face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk like a country-and-western song.”
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œThere has to be a country song about a one-woman man sick of one-night stands, but I’m damned if I can remember it.”
    â€œThat is probably a good thing.” She didn’t know or care about country music, but she was miffed by the reference to one-night stands.
    Bryan folded his arms behind his head, finished with the coffee and the brioche. She picked at the fruit.
    â€œWhat’s on your mind?”
    â€œNothing,” she said, nibbling on a piece of cut pineapple. It was much too acid and she put it to one side on the tray. “I will take this away if you are done.”
    He reached out and took her wrist. “Hey, I didn’t say thank you. Breakfast in bed—I can’t remember the last time someone did that for me.”
    She hated whoever had, sight unseen.
    â€œIt was delicious,” he was saying. “And if you’re not doing anything today, can I have the honor of taking you somewhere in Paris? You have to tell me where you want to go—I’d probably take you to some tourist trap.”
    He meant well, but Odette was still miffed. Mornings after were always tricky. But then she almost never brought a lover home. In someone’s else apartment, one had the option of leaving before daybreak.
    At home—well, here she was with a virile young American who had gotten closer to her in twenty-four hours than any other man she’d ever known.
    That was probably because he was going away, she told herself. She’d let down her guard, knowing she would not have to see him again after Friday. Which had helped her dodge the issue of telling him who she really was: not a stylist, but the multimillionaire owner of an international lingerie company.
    â€œLet me call Lucie at the office,” she said. She glanced at the bedside clock. “