Page 17 of A Life Imagined
She sat and poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher in the middle of the table.“Good morning, by the way.I hope you slept well.”
He’d slept like the dead.Rayan often had trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places, but he’d woken that morning feeling alarmingly refreshed.
“I did.And you?”
“Not exactly.I might have had one too many before bed last night.”She made a grimace and waved down a passing waiter for coffee.When the waiter returned with her drink, Elise reached for the small jug of milk and poured a generous serving into her cup.“How’s the buffet?”she asked, gesturing at his plate of bread and fruit.
“Decent.”
Elise took a scalding sip of coffee and cleared her throat.“I wanted to apologize for yesterday.I put you in a difficult position.”
Rayan had thought at length about the events of the previous evening.Beneath the shock of disbelief, he’d felt an overwhelming swell of elation at how Mathias had claimed him—the rightness of his arm around Rayan’s shoulders, coupled with the knowledge of just how far out of his comfort zone Mathias had ventured.The man had never been demonstrative.It wasn’t in his nature.
Rayan still remembered how careful they’d been in Montreal—an unspoken agreement sustained by little more than eye contact.When had that agreement changed?It was impossible to deny that things had shifted.The threat of danger that had overshadowed their relationship from the beginning had faded and something else had taken its place—a growing acceptance of what they were to each other.
“No,” Rayan said with a shrug.“Your friend was mistaken, that’s all.”
“He’s not a friend,” she said brusquely.“But I’m hoping that’s the end of it.”
Elise’s reluctance to talk about her reasons for leaving Paris, back at the museum, made more sense after yesterday’s unexpected confrontation.He recalled how she’d gripped his arm when Theo had approached them on the sidewalk outside the hotel.“I’m so sorry, Rayan,” she’d whispered in a panicked voice.Nothing about Theo had given Rayan cause for concern, yet his appearance had clearly frightened Elise.
“You’re hoping?”he asked.
“I know,” she corrected with a conviction that rang false.
But it wasn’t Rayan’s place to press.The woman’s life was none of his business.
“Do you want anything else while I’m up?”Elise asked, getting to her feet.
“No, thank you,” he said, and she continued to the buffet table.
While she was gone, Mathias appeared at the entrance to the restaurant.Rayan had left him sleeping in the room and had come downstairs to find something to eat.Mathias had never been much of a breakfast person.He walked over to the table and eyed Elise’s coffee cup before pulling out the chair to Rayan’s right and taking a seat.
“Interrupting something?”His tone was surly, and Rayan knew he’d have preferred another hour in bed.
Rayan shook his head, with a smile, and Mathias set about ordering coffee.
When Elise returned, she placed her plate down and greeted Mathias airily.“Don’t usually see you this early.”
“You look tired, Dumont,” Mathias baited.“Rough night?”
She busied herself with buttering a piece of bread, attempting to appear nonchalant.The waiter brought Mathias his coffee.
“So,” Elise said, setting down her knife.“When did you two—”
“No,” Mathias interjected, putting an end to the line of questioning before it began.He was much better at it than Rayan, who’d found himself outmaneuvered at the museum.She was skilled—he’d give her that.
“Okay, okay.”Elise picked up her fork to spear a slice of fruit on her plate.“I thought we could stop by the Sacré-Cœur on our way out of town,” she announced between bites of melon.“It has one of the best views in the city.”
“You do like to push,” Mathias said.“This isn’t a vacation.We’re here on business.And now that it’s done, we go home.”
“We’ve had this discussion before.”Elise glanced at Rayan.“He doesn’t see the glitter of Paris, only the grime.He’s immune to her charms.”
“And you’re too susceptible to them,” Mathias retorted.
“I’ve never been to Montreal, but I guarantee whatever charms it has could fit into a single neighborhood in Paris.”
She wasn’t wrong.From what Rayan had seen so far, the city was a marvel.There was something new to be found around every corner.He’d heard little about the time Mathias had spent here while at university, but he knew the man didn’t hold Paris in any special regard.
