Nights in Black Lace by Noelle Mack

Author:Noelle Mack [Noelle Mack]
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2008-01-06T07:00:00+00:00

Just that she’d asked that question rankled him. Bryan walked through the streets of the neighborhood around her atelier, looking for a cheap place to eat.

The internet café he’d stopped into before didn’t serve sandwiches, so that was out. He needed protein before he tackled the airline reservation problem. As in round, ground cow slathered in ketchup, topped and bottomed with a toasted bun.

Where was the diner he’d been to with her?

Somewhere east of the river and west of his hotel. Meaning he had no idea. And speaking of the hotel, he was going to have to check out of it.

They could hold his duffel and backpack hostage if they wanted to. He hadn’t brought a laptop or anything of value. Bryan was a big believer in traveling light.

He’d blown it. Getting involved with a woman like Odette Gaillard meant beaucoup de emotional baggage he wasn’t sure he wanted to claim.

The sound of running feet behind him made him turn his head to get out of the jogger’s way. But it wasn’t a jogger. It was Marc, Odette’s male assistant.

“You walk fast,” Marc panted.

“Yeah, I do. You all right? I didn’t know you were trying to catch up with me.”

The other man took huge, gulping breaths. “I detest exercise.”

Marc didn’t look like he needed it. He was lithe and lean, but he was completely out of breath. “Sorry,” Bryan said.

Marc took a pack of Gauloises out of his pants pocket and fired one up. “Do you mind?”

“Nah. Smoke one for me.”

The assistant grinned, holding the end of his cigarette in his teeth, squinting his eyes against the smoke. “Do you believe we French are no longer allowed to smoke wherever we want?” He held the end near his lips with his fingertips and took a deep drag. “First they banned smoking in restaurants and now bars and cafés. It is an outrage.”

“It’s the way the world is going.”

“Pah. Me, I believe in liberté, égalité, and tobacco.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Marc. So why were you chasing after me?”

The other man eyed a guy who looked just like him, only Latin, and didn’t respond for a second. “My apologies. What a distraction.” He coughed and waved the cigarette he’d taken out of his mouth, making Bryan cough too.

“It’s okay.”

“I wanted to make sure,” Marc began again, “that you were not going to disappear. Odette is crushed on you.”

“Do you mean she has a crush on me or that she is crushed by me?”

“English is a stupid language,” he sighed. “I mean that she thinks you are hot.”

“The first, then.”

Marc threw his half-smoked cigarette into the gutter. “She is not wrong. But I suspect that—ah—perhaps the subject is a delicate one.”

“Spit it out,” Bryan said, not delicately.

“You don’t have a dime. Is that the right word? Dimes are the little coins, yes?”

Bryan thrust his hands in his pockets and walked a little faster. He was, in fact, dimeless. “Uh-huh. Easy to lose.”

“I thought so.”

Bryan shot him a look. “Do I look poor to you? I mean, most Americans wear jeans and tops.

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