Page 8 of Julien (Confessions 2)

“Hmm?” Julien said, but his attention was now focused on what Robbie was doing, not saying.

“What did you just say?” Robbie repeated. “You’re supposed to be teaching me.”

Julien raised those green eyes back to his then, and when they collided with Robbie’s, his breath caught.

Julien’s eyes were dark now, like glittering gems, as he said, “God, you’re beautiful.”

The awe in Julien’s voice was as evident in English as it had been in French, and when he moved back up to Robbie and took his face between his hands, he whispered, “So beautiful. I’m not sure that I deserve you.”

As Julien leaned in to take Robbie’s mouth, Robbie halted him with a palm on his chest, confused by that last sentence.

What does he mean by that? Those words were so sad, so unexpected given what they were doing, and as Robbie ran his eyes over Julien’s face, he said, “Why would you think that?”

This close, it was easy to spot the torment that flashed into Julien’s eyes before he plastered a smile on his mouth and shook his head. “It was just a comment, that’s all. I should’ve phrased it differently, perhaps.”

Robbie studied Julien closely, not believing that for a second. But when Julien moved away and held a hand out to him, Robbie knew the subject was over for now, and he needed to let it go.

“Why don’t we go and get ready, d’accord?”

Robbie retied his—well, Priest’s—robe, and then slipped his hand into Julien’s. “All right. But Jules?” Robbie said, the nickname he’d started to use now rolling off his tongue easily. “When you’re ready, I’d like to know what just happened here. I know there’s more to it than the wrong choice of words. You speak English as well as I do.”

Julien brought Robbie’s hand up to his lips, and as he kissed the back of it, he nodded.

“Okay, then,” Robbie said. “I don’t know about you, but I need to go and shower. Because hello, I am not setting foot in your restaurant—open or not—looking like a hot mess.”

PRIEST HELD HIS hand out as the doors to one of the elevators up to Mitchell & Madison began to slide shut, and as it stopped midway and reopened, the dozen or so people inside glared out at him, no doubt pissed that he’d held their morning up by less than a minute.

Unaffected by their obvious annoyance, Priest walked inside and up the middle of the crowd to the back, where he spotted Logan Mitchell, standing with a briefcase in his hand and a coffee in the other.

Great. Logan was the last person Priest wanted to deal with this morning, even though he’d used him as an excuse to leave the house today.

The main reason he’d decided to come into work was because he wanted to get upstairs and see if he could find out any more information on Jimmy’s rumored release. He also wanted to call Henri back, and he’d wanted to do that in private to not alarm Julien with whatever he found out. Julien was already dealing with enough with Jacquelyn’s anniversary approaching, and Priest’s screwed-up family was the last thing he needed to be thinking about.

Really, this was all such horrid fucking timing.

“Mitchell,” Priest said, as he took the spot beside Logan and the doors began to shut.

“Priest.” Logan inclined his head, and then took a sip of his coffee.

As the elevator began its ascent, the tension between the two of them was palpable and frustrating. Even after Robbie had tried to smooth things over the day before, things still felt awkward, and Priest told himself yet again, This is why I keep my private life private.

“Look,” Logan finally said, as the elevator stopped at one of the floors and someone got off. “About yesterday.”

Kill me now, Priest thought, but turned to look at Logan. “Forget it. You apologized. It’s done. I’ve forgotten about it.”

Logan’s brilliant blue eyes studied him from behind his dark hipster frames. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Okay,” Priest said, deciding that if Logan wanted to elaborate, then he would.

“I know we agreed to put everything behind us and be civil,” Logan said, as the elevator started up again.

“We did,” Priest agreed as he silently willed the ride up to their office to be over already.

“And I plan to hold true to that,” Logan said at the next stop, as everyone except them and a lady up ahead got out.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Priest then stood there offering no more conversation until the elevator finally reached their destination. He stepped out on the management floor of Mitchell & Madison and said, “Well, if that’s all?” and was close to running to his office when he felt a hand on his arm and turned to see a frown now on Logan’s handsome face.

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