When Strangers Marry (Vallerands #1)(60)

“Max… what if we had met this evening for the very first time, and I were Etienne Sagesse’s wife?” Lysette tightened her arms a little. “I could so easily have been his bride instead of yours. If I hadn’t run away, or if Justin and Philippe hadn’t found me… or if you had decided to give me back to the Sagesses—”

“I would never have given you back. And if you had married Sagesse, I would have taken you away from him. No matter how I had to do it.”

From any other man, it would have sounded like an empty boast. From Max, however, it was entirely believable. Lysette gazed at him in wonder, his face shadowed and his head silhouetted against the hazy starlit sky. “Mon mari,” she said softly, “sometimes you almost frighten me.”

Max stroked her throat and let his fingers drift to the perspiration-dampened valley of her cle**age. “Why?”

Lysette’s eyes half closed as his fingers slipped inside her bodice to touch her nipple. “You are so ruthless when it comes to getting what you want. It makes me wonder if anything could ever stop you.”

“You could.” Max played gently with the soft peak of her breast until it budded against his fingers. “You know that.”

His mouth descended to her neck, and she sighed in pleasure. “Then if I ever asked you to do something against your will… you would?”

“Of course.”

Her breathing hastened as she felt the warm slide of his lips over her throat. Slipping her hand behind his neck, she nuzzled into his thick hair. “Max… I must tell you how much I—”

She broke off, startled as a shadow disentangled itself from the tall yew shrubs. Her first thought was that it was some kind of animal, but quickly the shadow assumed the shape of a man strolling toward them. Max turned and automatically jerked Lysette behind him as he faced the approaching figure.

Lysette felt an unpleasant shock, rather like the all-over stinging sensation of barely saving oneself from a fall, when she heard the voice of Etienne Sagesse.

“Ah, Lysette,” he drawled, coming closer. It was obvious that he was drunk, his words slurred, his face puffy and florid. “You seem to be enjoying yourself, ma chère. But I pity you. Someday you’ll realize how much wiser you would have been to stay with me. And I’m afraid that poor Corinne would most definitely agree.”

Chapter 11

Lysette had known it was inevitable that she would someday come vis-à-vis Etienne Sagesse. However, no amount of expectation could have prepared her for it. She remembered in a flash the loathing she had felt for him, the fear and desperation that had driven her to take the foolish risk of traveling through the bayou alone. She did not doubt for one moment that her opinion of him had been well founded. If she had married Sagesse, he would have insulted her, condescended to her, debased her in a hundred ways. Blindly searching for Max’s hand, Lysette felt his fingers close reassuringly over hers.

“What do you want?” Max asked Sagesse curtly.

“Why, to congratulate you. Since I was not invited to the wedding, I didn’t have the opportunity before now.” Sagesse’s smile was reptilian as he regarded Lysette’s flushed face. “You seem to be content as a Vallerand, Lysette. But as I recall, so did Corinne… at first.”

“If you want another duel,” Max growled, “you’ll have it. And this time I’ll finish it.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“No,” Lysette said quickly. “Max—”

“Not a challenge, but a warning,” Max said, ignoring Lysette’s outburst. His hand tightened to silence her, and she flinched as her fingers were squeezed together.

“You think you’ve won,” Etienne said to Max. “You have everything you want, don’t you? But it is only a matter of time before you lose it all— and it will be my pleasure to watch your downfall.”

He nearly tripped over his own feet as he wandered away, weaving drunkenly across the lawn.

Lysette and Max watched in silence until he disappeared. “I hope that his family takes him home before he makes a public scene,” Lysette said. “He seems to want to ruin himself. It is strange, but as much as I hate him… just now I actually pitied him.”

Max regarded her with a sardonic expression.

“Didn’t you?” she asked.

“No.”

“I think you did.” Lysette pressed against his shirtfront, breathing in his familiar scent. “We won’t let Sagesse spoil our evening, Max. Take me back inside— I want to dance again.”

Unfortunately, despite Lysette’s determined efforts to enjoy herself, Sagesse’s presence cast a pall over the evening. He remained in the corner of the drawing room, staring at her, while the other Sagesses endeavored to keep him quiet. The guests at the ball kept glancing between the Sagesses and the Vallerands, until finally Lysette gave in and ruefully asked Max to take her home.

Max said little on the way back to the Vallerand plantation. Lysette made desultory conversation with Irénée and Alexandre, exchanging observations and bits of gossip. “How was your evening?” she asked Alexandre. “Did you approach Henriette Clement’s tante?“

“Oh, yes,” Alex said gloomily. “I hovered around her for at least a quarter hour, feeling like a complete fool. She seems to believe that no innocent young woman would be safe in the company of a Vallerand, even with ten chaperones present.”