Bachelor at Risk
by Rebecca Winters

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The Brooding Frenchman's Proposal

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Nicole braved Jean-Jacques's piercing glance. "There are no other guests."

"Why did you allow me to think otherwise?"

"Because I knew you wouldn't have come unless I'd told you there would be other people."

He cursed. "Damn you, Nicole! You got me over here on false pretenses." A dull red had crept beneath the skin of his handsome face. "We covered everything that needed to be said in the car."

She didn't move a muscle. "But I didn't have my Christmas present for you with me then."

His lips thinned in a hard line. "I suppose that's as good an excuse as any for a private talk about my new position with the company. But your effort isn't necessary. I know I could never fill your brother's shoes. We both know that would be an impossibility."

"That's not true," she said, wounded by his aggressive attack ? the last thing she doubted about him was his business abilities.

"Tell that to someone who doesn't know you as well as I do," he said with maddening calm. "You always were a highly emotional woman. Why don't you save all that charged energy for someone who would believe you."

Nicole shook her head. "Why are you being like this?" More than ever she was convinced his uncharacteristic rudeness hid something he didn't want her to see.

"You think I don't know you have a right to be upset?" The cords stood out in his neck. "Unfortunately it's a fait accompli. All I can do is make certain the comptroller of the company sends you monthly statements and keeps you apprised of developments as they occur."

"That won't be necessary."

"No one has more right to information than you," he kept talking as if she hadn't said a word. "One day half of the Giraud fortune will belong to you. I promised your brother I would protect and hopefully increase those holdings. I make you the same promise."

"Fine, but I was never in any doubt of it." She moved away from him and reached under the tree for his present.

He backed away from her. "I don't have time for this."

"Surely you have a few minutes to spare. Actually it's the birthday present I made for you, but you left Vence a week too soon for me to give it to you." She moved next to him and when he didn't take the gift, she ripped off the Christmas wrapping so he could see the framed eight by ten color photograph of the two of them on his motorbike.

In the picture, she sat behind him with her arms flung around his waist, their smiling faces pressed together.

Watching his reaction, she saw that Jean-Jacques remembered one of his friends snapping the photo. In the right-hand corner she'd written, "To my love from your love," and the date.

"Do you remember that day? We'd just taken a glorious ride to Eze. Philippe —" his friend who had taken the picture “— said he'd never seen a couple so in love. He told us how envious he was." Her voice throbbed.

Jean-Jacques took the picture from her hands and set it on the coffee table next to the eggnog. Then he turned to her. "We had good times, Nicole. But all of that's in the past." His black eyes glittered with a strange light. "I should never have come here."

She was trembling so hard, her legs would barely hold her up. "Nobody forced you. Certainly your job wasn't on the line if you didn't. If my company is so repulsive to you, why did you bother?"

His chest heaved. "Because I felt I owed you something for hurting you when I went away without a word of explanation."

"What do you think you're doing to me now?" came her tortured whisper.

Jean-Jacques felt as though he and Nicole were back where they had been five years ago. Surely she still didn't have feelings for him. If she did, he was going to put a stop to any crazy fantasies she held. "Mon Dieu. It's happening again. No matter how many times I used to goad you, you always came back for more."

Her eyes filled with tears.

"I was a cruel swine wasn't I? Unfortunately it's a habit I can't seem to break." He shot out his hands to grasp her upper arms. "Is that what you want from me tonight? More of the same treatment?"

"Yes!" she cried her answer to his taunting question. It came from the very depths of her being. "If it's the only part of you I can have, then yes — I'll take your cruelty." Her hands reached inside his jacket and slid up that familiar hard chest to his broad shoulders. "Please, Jean-Jacques," she begged from every sensitized cell in her body, so on fire for him she covered his mouth with her own.

Nicole was taller than the average woman. In high heels, she didn't have too far to go in order to wrap her arms around his neck and prevent him from evading the full force of her desire.

It may have been five years, but what was happening right now felt as natural to her as breathing. One moment he was resisting her, the next instant everything changed and she found herself being kissed with a hunger she'd never even dreamed of.

Long, deep sensual kisses that went on and on. He crushed her against him, melding her curves to his solid frame. Their hands roved frantically as if in disbelief that they were back in each other's arms.

His mouth stifled her moans of ecstasy, transporting her back to other flower-scented nights when they couldn't bear to be apart. It was like that now, and yet it was more. Much more. She knew she would die if she couldn't love Jean-Jacques like this for the rest of her life.

"Please don't stop," she begged when he unexpectedly wrenched his mouth from hers, holding her at a distance while he struggled to recover from the passion they'd always aroused in each other on contact.

"Perhaps now you understand why I decided against telling you I was leaving Vence. I have no desire to hurt you, Nicole. Even if it was five years in coming, let's agree we've had our final goodbye." He started for the door.

Ecstatic because he'd lost control in her arms, she followed him considering what had happened between them, feeling a glimmer of hope. "Whatever you say, Jean-Jacques. See you at the villa on Christmas Eve."

The second he slid behind the wheel of his car, Jean-Jacques reached for his cell phone to call Nicole's brother. The same damn message resounded in his ear. Dominic wouldn't be available until the New Year. Letting loose with a couple of well-chosen epithets, he clicked off and shoved the key in the ignition.

He should have gotten out of Nicole's apartment before all hell had broken loose. The heavenly taste of her mouth still clung to his. His body throbbed with unassuaged longing.

One look at that photograph had unleashed every demon driving him. But it also reminded him his bike was still in the garage at the farm. Though he'd urged his father to sell it ages ago, the older man had insisted on keeping it for his son's return, assuring him it would stay in mint condition. Blessing his father's foresight, Jean-Jacques drove to his own apartment where he could change clothes first.

Tonight he needed the wind on his face and enough speed underneath him to find forgetfulness, if only for a little while.…

And then he was going to contact Dominic and leave…before it was too late.