When I'm with You (Because You Are Mine #2)(22)
“Or have ever heard of my father’s name, let alone his crimes.”
She came to a halt, startled that he’d mentioned his father. He paused as well and touched her cheek, as if to erase her amazed expression. Her breath caught at the unexpected, tender caress. His fingertips lingered, warm and firm against her skin.
“We are both fugitives here, I think,” he murmured.
“I prefer to think of myself as an adventurer,” she replied in a hushed tone. His flashing smile was like an injection of adrenaline straight into one of her veins.
“You look beautiful,” he murmured, his gaze lowering over the floral sundress she’d donned for the warm summer day.
“Thank you, but I’d rather just look like a chef.”
“An adventuresome chef?” he asked, looking amused and . . . warm. She smiled, fully enthralled.
The delicate, charmed moment fractured when he begun to dig in his jeans pocket, the motion distracting her. He withdrew a wad of bills and handed them to her. “Just get a receipt for whatever you purchase, please.”
She nodded, eyeing the money with an appreciation she hadn’t possessed for most of her life. It took not having something to really get the value of it. She’d learned that much in the past year.
She tucked the money carefully away in her backpack and they continued walking, Elise staring with interest at the colorful vegetables and fruits and smiling at the vendors, suddenly feeling like a kid in a candy store. The smell of wild onion entered her nose, then a delectable, sweet fragrance that she inhaled deeply. A farmer had sliced one of his melons. Her mouth watered as they passed his booth.
You can do this, she told herself.
She’d been marketing with her fellow students and an instructor while at school, hadn’t she? Of course this was different. Lucien was affording her the status of chef. She was in charge, she thought with a thrill of excitement.
“Do you have your list?” he asked.
Her eyes widened in panic as she stared at some brilliantly green Granny Smith apples. She was the chef. She should have made a list.
“I don’t need a list. I’ve memorized the menu,” she said honestly. “And I’ll pick whatever is nicest and freshest for the special next week.”
“All right,” he said. She sighed in relief that he seemed to have accepted her reply. She wanted to convince him of her expertise at all costs. “We usually buy from Jim Goddard over there.” He pointed to a booth with a thickset, gray-haired man sitting behind a table. “He’s got a way with heirloom lettuce and arugula, and his peppers are usually good. If you trust me to do it, I’ll pick up the avocado and snow peas from Mort Sanger over there. I’ll rent a cart and bring it over when I’m finished.”
Elise glanced to the booth where he pointed a quarter of the way down the block. She longed to see, touch, and taste the lovely produce there as well, but she thought it best to handle her bartering without Lucien coolly observing.
Twenty minutes later, she’d forgotten about her anxiety—and even Lucien, momentarily—as she chatted with Jim Goddard and sank her teeth into a fleshy San Marzano tomato.
“Délicieux,” she exclaimed, eyes wide as the sweet, intense flavor flooded her mouth. She grinned widely at Jim. She took another bite and wiped the juice off her chin with the back of her hand. “I don’t understand you Americans,” she chastised Jim teasingly after she’d chewed and swallowed. “How can you put all that awful salad dressing on your salads when you have vegetables like these?”
“I don’t make the salads; I just grow the vegetables,” Jim said, looking a little dazed.
“And you do it extremely well. What’s your price for these delectable gems?” she queried, holding up another pepper-shaped tomato near her mouth and eyeing it hungrily, all too aware of Jim watching her every move with stunned amazement.
Two minutes later, she had finalized the deal with Jim, and he walked away to pack up her order.
“You bargained for the tomatoes, but you were angling for a good price on the lettuce the whole time, you little minx,” a deep, delicious voice murmured near her head, causing a tingling sensation to go down her neck. She twisted her chin and saw Lucien standing closer than she’d expected. His gaze was fixed on the back of her neck like he was considering taking a bite out of her there. Her nipples tightened against the tank top she wore beneath her sundress.
“How do you know that?” she asked innocently.
“Because I watched you eating one of those tomatoes a moment ago, just like Jim Goddard did.” She watched his ungodly sexy lips move as if in a trance until she realized what she was doing and turned away. “After that display, the poor man probably would have thrown his farm into the deal in order to make the sale on those tomatoes. What’s a few crates of lettuce to him, when he gets to witness you turning his vegetables into certifiable sex fruit?”
“You shouldn’t complain. I saved you money,” she said breezily, still not turning because she loved the feeling of his warm breath on her neck, the vibration of his deep voice in her ear.
“It’s just a little hard not to feel for the rest of the helpless men on the planet when I see them so easily seduced by you.”
“Seduced? I didn’t do anything improper,” she insisted, turning to face him.