Page 21 of Get Lost

Chapter Nine

Few revelers remained, their laughter flowing out from inside the main hall of the estate where the stragglers continued the celebration with whatever members of the wedding party were staying at the estate. Having checked on them one final time for the evening, making sure there were plenty of drinks in the fully-stocked bar, an assortment of late-night snacks available for those midnight munchies, and confirming everyone knew where the water bottles were, Kelsey was done with her event planning responsibilities for the night. She’d even provided the best man with a box of condoms, just in case—keeping a couple for herself, also just in case—and now she was making her way back to her car so she could drive to her hotel.

Her feet ached, so she slipped her heels off, walking in the cool grass between the guests’ quarters and the main house, breathing in the damp air, and looking up at the sky filled with so many stars she couldn’t even believe this was the same sky she lived beneath in the city.

“Une belle nuit.” Jean-Luc’s deep voice broke the silence, bringing Kelsey’s feet to a stop as her body awakened to his presence and the exhaustion consuming her just moments ago slunk off into the grass at her feet.

Kelsey lowered her gaze from the sky, smiling as she looked him over.

Shirtless in the moonlight, his dress slacks unbuttoned at the top and sitting low on his hips, Jean-Luc was even more devastating now, relaxed and barefoot, looking like the sweetest sin.

What was he doing out here looking like that? Was he staying at the estate with the wedding party?

Did it matter?

Not when he smiled languidly, and said, “Bonsoir,” in a tone that meant so much more thangood evening.

They stood like that for a long moment, a few yards apart, locked in one another’s gazes. Kelsey wasn’t done with the job—the gig wasn’t over until after brunch tomorrow—but she couldn’t fight this attraction any longer.

Fine, she didn’twantto.

He stood here before her now, promising to quench the thirst she’d been fighting since she’d met him… yesterday? Good grief, was that only justyesterdaymorning? It seemed like so much longer than that, so many torturous tantalizing moments had passed between them since their first interaction.

Whenever Kelsey had this type of blind attraction to someone, she acted on it. Which was probably why she wanted Jean-Luc so badly now; she hadn’t allowed herself to act on her lust. Which made him all the more alluring. Jean-Luc was Kelsey’s forbidden fruit.

But that was bullshit, wasn’t it? They were both adults. Both professionals. And they’d worked damn hard to provide the Winchesters with the wedding of their daughter’s dreams. Even that cake, hideous as it was, had been exactly what the bride had asked for. Kelsey’s tastes were clearly quite different than the bride’s tastes, and yet, by the grace of the wedding gods themselves, once the cake—Oscar, as Kelsey had deemed it— was completed and displayed at the reception site, it matched everything Kelsey had created perfectly. It was outside the box, for sure, just enough to be unique and different, but still somehow tied into the other colors of the event. Kelsey was blown away by the way Chef Jean-Luc had made something beautiful out of something she’d originally thought was quite hideous. The wedding cake was a work of art.

And so was the man who created it.

As he finally stalked toward her, dragging out each painfully measured step, Kelsey admired the way his muscles moved in his abs, the way the moonlight deepened the shadows mapping his torso, every ridge and valley defined dramatically.

He stopped in front of her and Kelsey was desperate to close that final foot between them, but instead, she waited. What was one more minute after the torture she’d endured over the last thirty-some-odd hours?

He reached out, sliding one fingertip between her skin and the thin spaghetti strap of her dress, then slid the strap off her shoulder. She inhaled a deep breath as he moved to the other side and slipped that strap off her other shoulder, loosing the dress from her arms so it sank slowly down her body, exposing her in just her black strapless bra and matching seamless thong in the moonlight.

A tiny, bothersome voice in the back of Kelsey’s mind told her this was not just inappropriate, but pretty damn dangerous—being caught naked out here between the main house and the guests’ quarters could tank her career with just one Yelp review—but when Jean-Luc’s gaze travelled down her body in slow, agonizing appreciation, she couldn’t remember what that voice had just said.

“Vous êtes exquis,” Jean-Luc whispered.

When he met her gaze again, his eyes were dark with need, and her body clenched in response. He stepped toward her, then surprised her by picking her up and cradling her in his arms. She shrieked, but the laughter was quickly replaced by fascination as she ran her hand over his hard chest and looked into his dark eyes. He carried her inside the kitchen, closing the door behind him with his ass, then reaching quickly to lock it. He strode toward the island in the middle of the room, then set her bare rump on the cold steel. She gasped, but he stepped between her legs, quickly silencing her with a trail of soft, tender kisses across her collar bone.

He gripped her hips and tugged her forward, eliciting a soft gasp as he lined up the softness of her body with the hardness of his. Jean-Luc’s eyes darkened with desire, then he leaned forward and claimed her mouth, sliding one hand into her hair to grip the back of her neck while the other hand tightened on one of her ass cheeks, holding her in place against his hard length.

The kiss morphed quickly from sexy to hard, demanding, needy.

Kelsey’s hands travelled over his shoulders, his neck, down his back, skittering over the hard ridges of his muscles, touching him everywhere she could reach, then she pushed her hands into the waist of his slacks and down over the hard mounds of his ass, gripping tightly.

She moved her hands to his front, rubbing over his erection, sending his eyes rolling toward the back of his head, then he slammed a hand over hers. “Wait.”

He took a step backwards, breathing heavily as if separating their bodies caused him as much pain as it caused her, then he walked to the large refrigerator and retrieved a metal bowl. “I want you to try this.”

Kelsey’s eyebrows rose. Again, his English dripped with a heavy accent, but it was perfectly delivered. “You can speak English.”

“I told you, oui. Un petite peu.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, “I mean that you canreallyspeak English, can’t you?”

“Peut-être.”

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