Jean-Luc merely nodded, his lips set in a grim line. He kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead, aware he was breaking the speed limit but not caring. All that mattered was getting to the château as soon as he could.
Ahead of them, a rabbit ran out and froze in the glare of the Citroën’s headlights. Jean-Luc swerved to avoid it, the car’s tires slithering in the gravel at the side of the road. Thoughts of Benoît’s accident filled his mind and he wrestled with the steering wheel, straightening the vehicle. So many times since Benoît’s crash he’d wondered whether his destiny would one day be to die on this road, too. It was one of the reasons why he’d chosen to give up driving, even though he knew he couldn’t try to cheat fate. But Ethan’s arrival had altered everything. He wanted—needed—to live, and not just so he could be with his new mate. Marcus and Thérèse were depending on him to make it home unscathed.
Please don’t let us be too late.
To distract himself from the thought that they wouldn’t make it in time, he turned his attention to Ethan. “You know, I meant what I said when we were leaving the restaurant. I really did have a good time with your friends tonight. I only regret I didn’t start getting to know them all sooner. I hope they can forgive me for the way I’ve behaved toward them.”
“I’m sure they don’t mind,” Ethan replied. “And Kim seemed pretty taken with you. Though you were doing an excellent job of disguising the fact I’m the one you’re interested in.”
More than interested. Can’t you see that, Ethan? If only I could find some way of stopping you from walking out of my life.
“For so long now, Marcus and Thérèse have been telling me I needed to move on. I was too stubborn to listen to them. I thought without Benoît there was no future for me. You’ve shown me I was wrong. Tonight I took my first steps out into the world once more and I’ve realized how much I missed it.”
“Are you sure Chef Georges’ cooking didn’t have something to do with that?”
Jean-Luc chuckled, able to raise a smile for the first time since he’d read Marcus’ message. “Good food and good company might have played their part, but really it’s all thanks to you. I didn’t want to change my ways. Being with you has shown me I have to. I never thought I’d find myself saying this but it’s what Benoît would have wanted.”
A signpost appeared, announcing they were about to pass through the village of Chouilly. Even though there were no lights on this stretch of highway to help guide his way apart from the twin beams of his headlamps, Jean-Luc kept his foot on the accelerator. At this time of night almost nothing in the way of traffic traveled in either direction. He half-hoped to see a police car in his rear-view mirror, following him out to the château, but the road behind him remained empty.
Almost on auto-pilot, he took the left turn that would lead him home. Beside him, Ethan had fallen silent and stared out of the window. Jean-Luc wondered what was going through his lover’s mind. He’d come so close to declaring the true depths of his feelings just now but something had held him back. If he came on too strong, he might blow any chance he had of persuading Ethan they could make a future together.
At last, the vine-dotted hills belonging to the LeBlanc estate came into view. Another couple of minutes and they’d be at the château. The beast within him stirred once more and he willed it to be silent.
As he brought the car to a halt before the main gates a thought occurred to him. There was no damage here, no signs of forced entry. Had Marcus unwittingly let his attackers onto the premises?
Jean-Luc got out of the vehicle then typed the access code into the keypad. Almost before the gates had opened fully, he drove the Citroën through them and up the long driveway. Still there were no signs of the police arriving. He had no choice but to confront the intruders himself.
Shooting a glance at Ethan, he saw his lover’s lips set in a grim line. It appeared the same thought had occurred to him.
“Let me take charge once we get inside,” Jean-Luc said. “Follow my lead but don’t run any unnecessary risks.”
Ethan nodded, already reaching to unfasten his seat belt.
A familiar red Fiat was parked before the imposing front door. Agathe’s car. It made no sense. She’d left early as her services wouldn’t be needed for once. So what was she doing back here?
He stepped inside the house and received his answer. Jean-Luc heard voices—one of them Marcus’, the other belonging to a man he didn’t recognize—coming from the passageway that led to the drawing room. Beckoning to Ethan to follow him, he dashed in that direction to be confronted by the sight of Marcus being hauled bodily along by some black-clad stranger. The man held a gun to Marcus’ neck.
Marcus had already taken at least one blow to the head, judging by the nasty-looking cut close to his right eye and the blood that matted his hair to his cheek. His gaze appeared cloudy and unfocused. Though that could be due to the fact he was fighting his urge to shift.
Jean-Luc could no longer keep his own, similar compulsions in check. Barely conscious of Ethan following behind, he kicked off his shoes then ran toward the little group, feeling the transformation into his shifter form begin as he did. His clothes were being ripped to shreds as his body reconfigured itself but he didn’t care. As his vocal cords lost the power to shape words he growled out his anger, hurling himself at the man who held Marcus. He fastened his teeth tight around the intruder’s arm.
Agathe appeared in the corridor, giving off the air of a woman who didn’t consider herself to be in any danger. Her composure quickly faltered as she looked at Jean-Luc. She yelled out, “
Mon dieu
, please, someone get that beast away from him!”
She launched herself at Jean-Luc, trying ineffectively to pull him off Marcus’ attacker. Jean-Luc raised one big paw and swatted her aside as if she weighed no more than a fly. Agathe sobbed, attempting to scramble to her feet again.
Blood, rich and coppery, filled Jean-Luc’s mouth. The scent of fear in the air only increased his savagery. Primal instincts had taken over, banishing rational actions.
His fangs ground down as all thoughts fled from his mind apart from the need to protect his family. Marcus, Thérèse… He wouldn’t let anyone hurt them.
“Jean-Luc, stop. You’re gonna kill him.”
The anguished voice belonged to Ethan, the man he knew he needed to keep safe above all. But blood lust had taken over and even thoughts of his lover couldn’t sway him. He growled between clenched teeth as he shook the intruder’s body and tried to force him to the ground so he could rip his throat out.
The man cried out in obvious agony. The gun went spinning out of his hand. Agathe pounced to pick it up, aimed the barrel between Jean-Luc’s eyes then pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I still can’t believe it,” Ethan said. “Agathe. What a way to go. Killed by her own gun.”
He shuddered. When he closed his eyes he could still see the moment when the weapon had exploded in her face as she’d fired it, piercing her left eye with a vicious shard of metal. The image, he feared, would haunt his dreams for a long time to come, replacing the nightmare moment when he’d thought Agathe would shoot Jean-Luc dead.
“The police said that revolver probably hadn’t been used since the end of the Second World War,” Ethan explained to Jean-Luc. “It certainly hadn’t been cleaned or maintained in any way. They reckon it had been kept as a souvenir and Olivier just brought it along for show. After all, he wasn’t expecting anyone to be at home when he and his friends came to commit the robbery. It was very nearly the perfect plan.”
Two
gendarmes
from the local force had made their appearance a good five minutes after Agathe had been fatally injured to find Ethan doing his best to staunch the flow of blood from Olivier’s mangled arm. Jean-Luc, back in human form and wearing Thomas’ freshly laundered chef’s jacket and trousers, which he’d retrieved from the kitchen, had gone with Marcus to make sure Thérèse had not been hurt. Jacques, confronted by the two men, had obviously realized the odds were against him and surrendered without putting up any kind of fight. That had only left the fourth member of the gang, Florent. He’d still been chiseling away at the wall in the cellar when the police had found him, oblivious to everything that had occurred upstairs.
An ambulance had been dispatched to take Olivier and Marcus, who appeared to have suffered a broken wrist in addition to his head injury, to the hospital in Épernay. It had arrived moments after the
Spirit Seekers
crew, who’d walked into the château to discover a scene of utter mayhem.
Ethan had given his friends a selectively edited version of events, feeling there were some things it was wiser for them not to know. Fortunately, they’d seemed more relieved to learn he and Jean-Luc were unhurt than anything else. Now he sat in Jean-Luc’s bedroom, sipping from a mug of hot, sweet tea—the best cure for shock.
“So at least we have an explanation for everything that happened in the cellar,” he said. “Things being moved around, the dislodged bricks, the odd banging noises… It wasn’t some ghostly manifestation but an attempt to find those missing paintings.”
Jean-Luc stopped pacing the floor. He nodded. “You know what I think? Agathe must have been down there a couple of times herself before the rest of the gang joined in. It’s what I would have done in her position, if I thought I could get my hands on a fortune.”
“If that is the case, no wonder she clammed up when we were trying to find out if anything had spooked her. Sounds like she was the one spooking everyone else.”
“What I can’t understand is that she was willing to hand over the access codes to the estate…” He looked at Ethan with sadness in his eyes. “How could she do a thing like that? She seemed so plausible when I originally employed her. I trusted her.”
“Well, you had no reason to believe she’d betray you. Maybe she never came here with any intention of helping to co-ordinate a break-in. But then greed makes people do stupid things.”
“That’s true, though I’m sure she didn’t think she’d pay for her stupidity with her life. What’s luckier for me is that the police seem prepared to believe the injuries to Olivier’s arm were also caused by the gun exploding. Though I have no idea how they’ll react if he tells them he was attacked by a lion.”
“I’m sure they’ll put it down to the amount of pain medication he must be on. And if not, it’ll just be added to the long list of legends about the Château LeBlanc and the mysterious beast that arrives to save the family when they’re in peril.” Ethan drained the last of his tea. “Anyway, why should you play down what you did? You were so brave. I really thought Agathe was going to kill you.”
“So did I. And all I could think was that if I were going to die, at least I’d spent the last evening of my life with the man I love.” Jean-Luc walked over to where Ethan sat and put an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, but I can’t hold back my feelings any longer. I know we’ve only known each other for a matter of days but you’re my mate, Ethan. We’re meant to be together…”
My mate.
The words didn’t seem as ridiculous as they had when Jean-Luc had first spoken them. In fact, he thought it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever called him.
“I’m going to have a shower before bed,” Jean-Luc continued. “Care to join me?”
“What do you think?”
Ethan got up and followed Jean-Luc through to the bathroom. While his lover switched on the shower and adjusted the heat to the temperature he desired, Ethan stripped out of his clothes. With horror, he realized the brownish stains on his shirt and jeans were dried blood. It must have gotten on him when he’d been trying to help Olivier. He thought again of Jean-Luc in his lion form, clamping his jaws tight around the robber’s arm. The guy was lucky those sharp teeth hadn’t bitten into his throat.
“Hey, are you just going to hang around there all night?” Jean-Luc stood under the spray, water soaking his hair and skin.
Even through the steamed-up glass door of the shower stall, Ethan could see Jean-Luc’s cock was already half-hard, swelling further as he ran his fist along it. He crooked his index finger, beckoning Ethan to him.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing him naked…
He opened the door and stepped in with Jean-Luc. There wasn’t much room for both of them in the confined space, which meant they had to press close together. Ethan didn’t consider this a hardship in any way. He turned his back and pushed his arse against Jean-Luc’s crotch. The shifter’s erect shaft slipped into the groove between Ethan’s cheeks as though it belonged there.
Jean-Luc took a bar of soap from the shelf on the shower wall. He rubbed it between his hands, creating a creamy lather that he rubbed into Ethan’s pecs. With his caresses, he washed away every trace of dirt and sweat from Ethan’s skin and set flames of desire flickering through his body.
“Mmm, that’s nice.” Ethan relaxed a little more, letting his head loll back onto Jean-Luc’s shoulder.
“And I’ve only just started…”
Jean-Luc moved his hand lower, over Ethan’s flat belly and down to grip his cock. When Ethan let out a sharp, delighted hiss of breath he murmured, “You like that, eh?”
“I can’t begin to tell you how much.”
The world melted away, replaced by pure need.
If only Jean-Luc would stop tantalizing him with these soft, barely there touches. He needed to feel those fingers working up and down his shaft, each tug taking him closer to the edge just as they had done beneath the restaurant table. Tender foreplay had its place but after everything that had happened tonight, Ethan needed satisfaction—and fast.
“Please, don’t tease me,” he begged. “I’ll do anything you want if you’ll only make me come.”
Jean-Luc laughed. “But you’re not properly clean yet. And anyway, when you do come, I want it to be with your cock balls-deep in my arse.”
The image conjured up by those words had Ethan moaning in anticipation. Frustrating though it might be, he couldn’t do anything but let Jean-Luc set the pace. From the way his lover’s erection nudged at his butt, however, he knew it wouldn’t be long before they left the bathroom and headed for the warmth of Jean-Luc’s huge bed.