Authors: Casey McMillin
"Am I in trouble for the gun?" Julien whispered. He looked at Nadine who quietly translated. The cop said something in French then Nadine looked at Julien. "He says they have enough evidence to believe he was coming here to kill me and then himself. He said
we'll all have to stick around and give statements, but he'll be able to take care of everything."
Julien held out a hand to the officer who smiled and shook it. The cop said something in French, and Nadine's expression turned serious before she turned to Julien.
"He told me to tell you,
looks like your book was right
," she said. She looked at Julien with an injured expression. "Is he talking about that same book, Julien?"
Julien took her into his
arms. "Yes," he said, "I'll tell you all about it."
They were at The Jenner Room for more than two hours after the incident took place. Everyone's story was the same, and Julien came off looking like a hero. They'd moved the party guests into the lobby while the crime scene detectives and the coroner did their thing. Pierre Bellard was dead as a doornail before the officers even arrived, and there'd been no attempt at reviving him. He was holding a loaded, semi-automatic weapon when he died, and his suicide letter contained apologies to both Nadine's family and his own.
The whole family was mostly silent on the ride back to Nadine's parents house. They were all thankful to
Julien for saving Nadine's life, but the evening had been a shocking, surreal experience for everyone. They showered and went to bed without saying much to each other.
For propriety's sake, Nadine's parents made arrangements for Julien to sleep in Pascal's old room. He was lying in the dark, feeling frustrated about not having the chance to explain everything to Nadine. He put his hands over his eyes and took a deep breath, reminding himself that things could have turned out much worse, considering. He'd just explain everything to Nadine in the morning.
He heard a scratching noise coming from his door, and he sat straight up and listened. Again, he heard the sound of gentle scratching on his door. Quietly, he walked to the door and opened it just a crack.
"Can I come in?"
Nadine asked.
His shoulders sank in relief, and he opened the door, reached out to grab her, and pulled her into his arms. She let out a surprised noise at being dragged across the threshold, and he reached up to cover her mouth with his big hand. "Shhhhh," he whispered playfully. "Are you trying to get us caught?"
Nadine whispered some cute, sexy phrase in French that sounded like she was trying to reprimand him. He grabbed her
, wrapped two big hands around the sides of her face and pulled her in to put a kiss on her lips. He pulled back to stare at her face, but it was so dark in there that he couldn't clearly see her. The only light was the dim remnants of the moon and streetlights that came in through the window. It was nearly pitch black in there, and neither of them made a move to change that.
She was shaken to her very core by everything that had transpired that evening. Julien's arms were the only things that provided her a sense of comfort
. Her eyes had adjusted, and she led him to the bed. She crawled in and patted the space next to her. "Come snuggle me," she said.
Julien got in without hesitation. He situated himself on his back with his arm tucked behind his head, and Nadine cuddled up next to him and put her head down on his chest.
"I don't think I ever told you thank you for what you did. I can't believe you saved my life. I can't believe he tried to kill me." Her voice was weak and vulnerable, and Julien's heart ached for her. It would be a terrible thing to learn that someone wanted to kill you. At least that scumbag was dead and gone and completely out of the picture. Julien couldn't avoid the topic of the book any longer. Nadine deserved to know what was going on, and besides, she was too smart and inquisitive to go much longer without demanding answers.
"That book I was telling you about,
" Julien said. "…that romance novel."
"Yes?"
"It stars a girl named Nadine, and in the book, she gets shot at her birthday party. That's why I flipped the other night when your sister told me you guys were having a party. In the book it happens in Louisiana, but I knew it was a possibility and I couldn't take that chance."
"
Are you serious? You knew to come because
that book
gave you a clue? You mean the girl in the book lives in Louisiana, gets shot on her birthday,
and
her name's Nadine just like me?"
"Yes," Julien said thoughtfully. He
was purposely keeping his answers short. She'd already been through enough that evening and the full story of the book would have been a lot to handle.
"Does she look like me too?" she asked in a teasing tone.
Julien thought she probably assumed he was joking about the whole thing, but he didn't correct her.
"She's not half as pretty," Julien said.
Nadine lifted up and looked at the shaded outlines of his face. "Can I download it tomorrow and check it out on the plane?" she asked.
"I don't see why not," Julien said. He was just glad her curiosity seemed to be satisfied for the moment, and relieved to get out of the conversation.
She stared at the dark outlines of his face. "I'm glad you're here," she said. "
I think it's a little peculiar how you knew to come, but I'm glad you're here."
"I'm glad I'm here too."
She rested her head on his chest and they stayed there for a few minutes in companionable silence before she ran her hand softly up the length of his abs and chest. He had a shirt on, but she could feel the muscular ridges as her fingertips moved over the fabric. He began moving his hand in a gentle stroking motion on her back, returning the feather-light embrace. Nadine raised her head from his chest and looked at him. Even in the darkness she could see his light eyes staring back at her. She put a gentle kiss on his jaw then a few more on his neck before moving down to the wonderful spot where his neck met his chest. She kissed his collarbone then stopped and looked at him when she reached the place where the neck of his T-shirt would stretch no further.
"Julien, I don't think I want our first time to be on a night where—"
"I know," Julien interrupted. He rubbed her back again.
"I still want to be near you," she said.
"I want to be near you too," he said.
"And I'll probably want to kiss you."
"I wasn't planning on giving you the option
not
to," he said.
"Is it insensitive of me to not ask you about your feelings?"
"My feelings about what?"
"Well, uh, you sort of killed a guy tonight."
"I kill guys all the time." He sounded completely serious and Nadine's head whipped up to look at his face—or what she could see of it in the dark room. His chest rumbled with silent laughter. "I'm kidding. And, no, you're not being insensitive. Maybe I'm in shock or something, but I actually don't feel like I need to get anything off my chest."
"Would you do it all again?"
He took her by the sides of the face, and spoke intently to her shadowed face. "In a heartbeat."
He could feel her cheeks
move as she smiled.
"Well, as long as you don't need therapy or anything, I'm okay with doing our best to forget any of this ever happened."
"Already forgotten," he agreed.
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you for coming here, and for coming to my rescue. Thank you for
everything. I never dreamed any of this would happen."
"Me neither," Julien said, "and you're welcome. I'm so thankful your sister mentioned the party. I don't know what I would have done if something would have happened to you."
"Because you like me?"
"Yes, I
like
you." He gave her a squeeze. "I just found you and I'm not prepared to give you up, or see you hurt, or anything that involves extended time apart from you."
"Julien Breaux,
are you my beau?"
"Well, that's understood. I was just making sure you knew protecting you
wasn't something you need to be thankful for. Wanting to protect you is beyond my control. It's what I'm made to do."
She rewarded him with a kiss directly on his mouth. Her lips rested on his, and for a few long seconds,
she remained still, just taking in the feel of him. They breathed in unison and Nadine felt utterly weak at the thought of sharing breath with this beautiful, fierce creature.
She wanted him so badly it scared her. She wanted to rip his clothes off and have him inside of her
right that instant. She knew she would really regret it if she made love with Julien for the first time on this messed-up night, but it took every ounce of self-restraint she had not to kiss him like mad and seduce him. What made it even harder was that she knew she could have him if she wanted. She could hear the way his breathing changed when her lips touched his.
She bent and licked his earlobe gently before whispering in his ear. "Just so you know
, I want you really bad."
He pulled her closer to him with a strong arm, loving the feel of her whisper.
"When we get home and we've forgotten about all this, I'm going to pounce on you like a tiger," she whispered.
Julien thought he remembered the book referring to her as a tiger, but obviously didn't say anything.
"You should be warned that I have lion taming skills," he said instead. He wasn't speaking much louder than a whisper, but his voice was so low she could feel it shake his chest.
"But I said I would be a
tiger
."
"Lion tamin
g skills apply to tigers."
"You think so?" she said,
laying
on the French accent.
"Don't fool yourself," he said. "I'm clearly the big cat in this scenario."
"You're a big cat all right." She stroked the side of his head where his black hair was cropped close enough to see the skin and birthmark underneath. "You're more like a panther, though."
"Panthers are too small. I can't be a panther if you're a tiger. That doesn't fit."
"Well I'm definitely not a house cat," she said.
"What about a bobcat?"
"What's a bobcat?"
"It's smaller than a tiger but bigger than a house cat."
"I think I'll stick with tiger," she said. "You'll just be a
giant
panther."
"A giant panther, huh?"
"Why not?"
He laughed. "I gu
ess I'm okay with giant panther," he said.
"None of it will matter anyway because when it comes down to it, I'll be Nadine and you'll be Julien
and we'll be perfect."
He rubbed her back again. "You're perfect."
"I was just thinking the same thing about you," she said.
He surprised her with the next words that came from his mouth. "Your mom's hilarious," he said.
"You must have told her I swooped in to save the day, because she said the word
swooped
about twenty times to me in English. She was otherwise speaking French, but every once in a while, she'd say the word
swooped
, and I knew she meant it in English because she accompanied it with a swooping motion with her hand."
Nadine started giggling. "I saw her do that a couple of times," she said. "I was wondering what she was doing.
"
"She was telling me how I swooped in," Julien said. "But that was literally the
only
word I could understand."
"
I'm sorry you got stuck talking to my parents," she said. "Their English is not very good at all. I was hoping Emile or Eric would look out for you while I was talking to the police."
"I really wasn't talking to her for very long, and I didn't mind at all. At least I understood the swooping part. It was really sweet how she used her hand as a bird and swooped down real big to show me what she was talking about."
Julien used his hand to demonstrate, and Nadine shook with quiet giggles.
"Oh
my, I totally saw her doing that."
Julien smiled at the memory. He loved Ms. Jolene's enthusiastic attitude, and saw many of her attributes and facia
l expressions in her daughter.
"I like your mom," he said.
"She likes you too. She was already a fan before you saved my life, but now she's the president of your fan club."
"It's about time I got some leadership," he said. "The emails are piling up and I need someone to answer them for me."
"Really?"
"No," he said, smiling. "I don't get letters. I got two or three when the book hit big right at first, but all that died down pretty quick when the girls who expected me to be Julien St. James saw that I was just a normal guy."
"Was that your name in the book? I searched that name and saw the cover of
Julien's Book
. The guy on the cover looks just like you."
"That's because it
is
me."
"
I wondered! I just can't believe it. It's you? You're on the cover of a book?"
"Yeah, the lady who wrote it goes to our gym."
"Are you serious? Wait, I think you mentioned something about that, but I—"
"She said you met her at the fights. She was sitting with Christina."
"That lady Shea? I remember you mentioning that name when we first met, but I didn't put two and two together at the fights. Nadine thought back to the fights and tried with no avail to recall the author's face. "Do you care if I get my iPad and look it up?" she asked.