Lucien(50)

Luc frowned at her and mouthed, “Who?”



“Would you be there if Luc hadn’t offered to take care of Moonbeam’s problem?”



“Raven,” Elise said patiently and her husband smirked, moving around the arm chair to come up behind her. “You know me. Would I have married Luc just for his money?”



Luc nuzzled the side of her neck. “I thought you married me for my body,” he asked loud enough for Raven to hear.



“My brother is having doubts,” Elise replied, turning her face up for a quick kiss.



Luc fitted his hands to her thighs and slid them underneath her skirt, all the while nibbling on her neck. “Raven, marriage to your sister is bliss. She’s delicious and… so good for me. To me. On me. Under me.”



Raven chuckled.



Luc tugged her skirt up to watch as he played with her. “Mmm, darlin’, you are so firm and we—”



“Lucien,” Elise shrieked.



“Okay, I get the picture. Go play with your husband,” Raven said.



“She thanks you and she will. Bye, Raven.”



“Bye, Luc.”



“Hang up the phone, darlin’. You’ve got duties to perform.”



Elise said goodbye to her brother, then ended the call.



Her husband moved around the chair and crouched down in front of her. Luc lifted one leg to unhook her garter and roll down her stockings. “Why is your brother hung up on the love issue?”



Elise set the phone on a side table, then brushed back a thick lock on his forehead. “Because Raven is a hopeless romantic and our parents didn’t love each other.”



Luc finished with one leg, dropped a kiss on the inside of her knee, then turned to work the other one. “My parents didn’t love each other. They liked each other well enough to get four children.” The other stocking disappeared over his shoulder and he bent his head to kiss the other knee. “My father left soon after Eleanor and I were born.”



Elise frowned. “You didn’t know your father?”



“Not like you know your father.” Luc paused in the act of pressing butterfly kisses up her legs. His smile was wry and bitter. “I went down to the islands to find out why he filed for divorce the day after I was born.”



“The day after you were born,” Elise breathed. “Oh, Luc, that is horrible. Why would he do such a thing?”



“Because, in his words, he could.” He shrugged and went back to kissing her legs, massaging her thighs. “Are you as hopelessly romantic as your brother?”



“Maybe.” Elise shivered as his thumbs moved higher up her leg, teasing her into admitting the truth. “Yes.” She couldn’t think when he touched her like this. Later she would ask him more on the subject of his parents but for now….



Luc smiled against her skin then nipped at her flesh. “Then if we hadn’t married, I would have had to make you love me in order to make love to you?”



She threaded her fingers through his thick hair. “No. You would’ve had to do a lot more than that.”



“Like what?” His tongue snaked out, tracing a path up and down her leg. “Delicious.”



“Like a… commitment of your love.”



Luc turned his attention to her other thigh. “I don’t know if I could have done that.”



“Why not,” she asked breathlessly.



“Because… what is love? Does it exist? Is it something the poet’s invented to purify lust? A love for a relative I understand, but love for… a lover?”



Elise smiled as she urged him to look up at her. “You want a definition of love.”



“And you have one?”



Elise considered his question carefully then shook her head. Her wits slowly returned and she answered, “Love is a complex, yet simple emotion. All I can say is… when you feel it, you’ll know.”



“How?” He gazed at her as if he truly wanted to understand.



She smoothed her thumb across the stubble on his cheek. “When you find a woman who complements you—completes you—it will happen. You’ll respect her, care for her… tell her everything. She’ll be the first one you call with good news and with whom you share your burdens. She’ll accept you as you are. Faults and all.”



Luc turned his face into her hand, kissing her palm. “I have no faults.”



Elise smiled. “And when you realize that you can survive without her, but with her… you can live? Then you’ll know.”



“Is that all?”



“Oh no, there’s more. Much, much more. But you’ll have to figure out the rest on your own.” Elise patted his cheek. “Don’t worry, Lucien. You’ve got good instincts. When you find her, you’ll know. Until then….” Elise leaned forward and pushed Luc back on the floor. “I have something I need to discuss with you.”