Page 27 of Seize the Night

“Morning already?” she asked, pulling the covers over her breasts and sitting up.

“Unfortunately,” he said. In nothing but his pale blue boxer shorts, he walked over to the bed and leaned in for a kiss. “Good morning.”

“Morning breath,” she said.

“Don’t care,” he said and kissed her hard and deep before pulling back and smiling at her. “I woke up without my stupid virginity hanging over my head. You think a little morning breath is going to bother me?”

“Your virginity was hanging over your head?” Remi asked. “And I thought hymens were weird.”

Julien laughed and pulled her into his arms. Remi sighed, deeply contented despite the lingering worry in the back of her mind. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Julien, and yet she could only stay in Paris so long before everyone back home got dangerously suspicious.

“Thank you for last night,” he said, kissing her neck and her shoulders.

“I should thank you. That was amazing,” she said. “It might have been your first time, but it was my best time.”

“Best time? Are we talking sex or races?”

She laughed again. “Sorry. Hard to get my head out of the business.”

“You really run things at Arden, don’t you?” Julien stretched out next to her in bed. He slid his hand under the sheets and rubbed her hips and thighs.

“I do. At least I thought I did before all this mess. Mom and Dad have been running the show behind my back. I’m more than a little pissed off about that.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “I’m pretty pissed too. I don’t know how bad this could get, but I know when there’s gambling and race-fixing and professional sports involved, it can be…”

“A disaster,” she completed for him. “Pete Rose banned from baseball. Lance Armstrong stripped of his medals and jerseys. Reggie Bush giving back the Heisman.”

“You know so much more about sports than I do.”

“You’re not a typical guy, are you, Julien?” Remi asked.

“In the hospital, the nurses would hang out in my room with me longer if I had soap operas on. And my sisters would visit and that’s what they wanted to watch. That and Grey’s Anatomy. I put my foot down over that one. I had enough hospital drama in my own life.”

Remi almost smiled, but she saw Julien wasn’t joking.

“That must have been lonely,” she said. “Being in the hospital all the time.”

“Mom and Dad worked their asses off with the farm. My sisters were in school. I don’t blame them. They loved me and visited me every chance they got. But still I was alone a lot. My brain was my best company.”

Remi wrapped her legs around him.

“If I had known you were in the hospital by yourself, I would have visited you every day,” she said and meant it. “I would have hung out with you and watched sports with you and made sure you never ever had to watchGeneral Hospital. I don’t care what my parents would have said about it, I would have been there for you.”

“You were there for me. Sort of,” he said, and Remi noticed a faint blush on his cheeks.

He got out of bed and walked to the window seat. When he came back to the bed he held a magazine in his hand.

“That’s aHorse & Houndmagazine, Julien,” she said. “You are doing porn the wrong way. Let me get you aPlayboysubscription, please. Or introduce you to the Internet.”

Julien grinned and flipped through the worn and wrinkled pages.

“Mom brought me her old magazines to read in the hospital. Remember this issue?”

Remi glanced at the cover. It did look familiar to her.

“Yeah, I did dressage for years. I won a medal when I was twenty-two.”

“And you and your team got a photo spread in Horse & Hound,” Julien said. “Look at that.”

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