Free Honeymoon in Paris by Juliette Sobanet

Like Fiona said, Nicolas is just a person. The piano sex wasn’t even real.
    But it looked so—
    “Charlotte?” Nicolas repeated.
    “Mm-hmm, yes of course!” I said, except I sounded more like a high-pitched squirrel. Suddenly I wished I hadn’t downed that cocktail so quickly.
    My steaming cheeks welcomed the cool night air that flittered past as Nicolas led me to a long black limo waiting at the corner. Apparently he was always riding in style.
    Thankfully our invasive paparazzi friends hadn’t found us yet. We slipped inside the dark limousine and Nicolas closed the door behind us.
    “Did you talk to Luc yet?” He wasn’t wasting any time getting to the point.
    I shook my head. “No, Luc had to go back to Lyon tonight. It’s Adeline, his daughter. She has a fever… or so he says,” I mumbled under my breath.
    Nicolas raised a brow. “You think he’s lying?”
    “What? No, of course not,” I covered as I gazed down at my shimmering stilettos and realized the sparkles were blurring in the darkness. Maybe I’d had a bit too much to drink.…
    “It’s just that Luc has never mentioned this
minor
tidbit about his father going to prison, and now I’m not sure what to believe.”
    “Tidbit?” Nicolas repeated in a thick French accent.
    “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was speaking English.”
    “Never mind, it is not important,” Nicolas continued in French. “I am really sorry, Charlotte. I never meant to cause any problems between you and Luc. I only want him to listen to what I have to say. Because the way things happened with our families, it was horrible. And if Luc only knew what I knew.…” Nicolas trailed off, gazing out the window at a group of young girls exiting the bar, but not seeming the least bit interested in them.
    “Yes?” I prodded.
    “It could change everything.”
    I looked Nicolas straight in the eye. “Listen, if you want me to admit to Luc that I’ve been talking to you and ask him to hear youout, I need to know what I’m getting myself into. What did Luc’s father go to prison for?”
    Nicolas shifted uncomfortably in his seat before finally spilling the beans. “When we were teenagers and our fathers were in business together, Luc’s dad was found guilty of embezzlement. When the company was audited, they discovered that he had embezzled the equivalent of two million euros from their company. He was sentenced to a year in prison, leaving his family devastated—both emotionally and financially. Luc’s parents got a divorce, and my father took that opportunity to swoop in and save the day.”
    Even in my semidrunken state, the sarcasm in Nicolas’ tone was not lost on me.
    “That’s awful. Why would Luc hide this from me?” I asked.
    Nicolas shook his head. “I’m not sure, but from what I remember of my friendship with Luc, he doesn’t play dirty. He’s an honest person. I don’t think he would hide this information from you unless he had a good reason.”
    “Luc
is
a good man,” I said. “I wonder though, do you think he’s trying to protect me from something—something
dangerous
?”
    Nicolas gazed back at me, perplexed. “Why would you think that?”
    “Just something I overheard him saying on the phone today got me thinking that this could be more complicated than I thought.”
    “Luc has been through a lot with his family, and now with Brigitte. He hasn’t had it easy at all, Charlotte. Maybe, like you said, he’s been keeping this information from you to protect you, to protect your relationship. Maybe he just doesn’t want his past to ruin your future together.”
    “Maybe, but he should’ve learned by now that our pasts will always catch up to us. The fact that I’m sitting in a limo with his former best friend and ex-step-brother, and that I had drinks with the lovely Brigitte and his ex-step-father—on what was supposed to be the last night of our honeymoon—is clear proof of that.”
    “True,” Nicolas conceded. “What