Page 22 of Pleasure Games

You want this?

“Yes.” The word was said on a gasp as she rubbed her clit with the pads of her fingers.

Oh, baby...another lick, another suck, You’ve got the sweetest pussy. I can’t get enough...

Jasmine lifted her hips off the bed as her fingers penetrated her slick channel. The man in her fantasy looked up from what he was doing. Dark hair. Dark brows. A week-old beard. The bluest eyes.

This wasn’t the man from her fantasy.

It was Luca.

Her orgasm hit her like a rogue asteroid, knocking her out of orbit, shattering her as she pressed one hand on top of the other between her legs lest she literally explode.

* * *

Luca stood outside the door. The woman was moaning. In pain? Should he go in? He put his hand on the doorknob and was about to turn the handle when she cried out.

Then everything went quiet.

That was not good. He didn’t want to walk in to find her passed out. Or worse. He waited a few seconds before knocking.

“Jasmine? Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” she called in a high-pitched voice.

“Bien. I’ll wake you around midnight, okay?”

“Yes. Okay. Perfect. That’s good. Thank you.”

Luca’s hands lingered on the door before he moved to the bathroom to wash up. It was early, yet, for him, only nine thirty, but he should try to rest if he was going to rouse the woman every four hours.

“What else do you have to do?” he asked his reflection. “You’ve got two more weeks to wait before returning to work. You should be glad for the distraction.”

Distraction was fine, but this distraction was a little too...distracting.

He dried his face, the image of Jasmine’s naked back burned into his irises.

“She’ll be gone tomorrow,” he muttered, then he hung up the towel and turned the light off.

On his way to the living room, he paused outside her door, listening. No more moans. No more sounds. He hoped that meant all was well. He moved past and settled his frame onto the sofa, reaching for the laptop that sat on the coffee table. Like every night for the past week, he navigated the web to the Legrand website.

When Myra Monte took over the estate’s publicity, she convinced Luca to auction off one of three remaining bottles of the Legrand Goût des Rubis. The exclusive rosé blend had been commissioned for the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier in 1956, and the bottle included a two-carat ruby in its label. While the bottles were meant to be passed down through the family, Luca had readily made the decision to give one up for the auction if it meant he could maintain control of the estate.

Already the international interest from collectors had been a distraction from Luca’s dishonor and prompted an uptick in champagne prices.

Luca entered a name into the search engine: Marcel Durand. He’d done the same thing every night for a week. Watching for any new article or item to show up. He creeped his social media pages and watched for any indication of the slimy eel Luca knew him to be. But, he had to admit, the guy knew how to keep his nose clean.

Luca could almost hear François’s voice telling him he could learn a thing or two from this young man.

Salaud! Bastard!

“Literally.” Luca ground his teeth.

He was just about to type in another search when he noticed something new. An announcement of Marcel’s engagement to Lydia Fournier—hmm...the name sounded familiar. Luca must have met her at one of the functions the company had held in the last eleven months. She was blonde and tall, almost as tall as Marcel, who stood beside her in the photo that had been posted in today’s paper. Luca skimmed the article, reading that she had been attending university in Madrid. Then he stopped reading.

So, Marcel was living a perfect life. That would end when Luca exposed him for what he was, though he still had no idea how to go about doing it.

Probably because it was difficult to make a move when he was in hiding, rarely going out during the day. Of course, today had been the exception. This morning, he’d gone for a long ride along the Loire River valley. Riding was the only thing that kept him sane.

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