Killing Time (30 page)

“So, are you ready to leave for France, soon?”

“Absolutely although . . . well, Manhattan has kind of become my adopted home and I will miss the frenetic pace and the crazy people.”

“Paris has crazy people too so not much changes other than the language and you happen to be fluent in it so it shouldn’t be too big of a deal,” he replied as he ran his hands through her silky tresses.

“It’s not. What about you? Are you looking forward to getting back to Europe?”

“Yes, very much. I always start to miss it after a while.”

“And what about you?” Her green-gray eyes were bright as she leaned into him. “Do you know the ‘language of love?’”

“Both the international one and French . . . fluently I might add in both cases.”

Aurélie raised a perfect eyebrow. “I didn’t know that.”

“You didn’t ask but I am telling you now so why are you trying to make a big deal out of something trivial? Fine—since it’s important to you to know about how many languages I know, I’ll tell you. I speak German—High, low and Swabian—English, French and Catalan fluently. Catalonia is my favorite region in Spain and I have spent extensive time there. Plus, I make it my business to know the languages fluently where I have businesses.”

She turned away from him and walked to the window that overlooked Central Park. “So you don’t have any clubs in Scandinavia?”

“I do but Gabriel is half-Norwegian so it makes it a bit easier for me. He and Severin handle the Scandinavian clubs since they are clubs he decided to open on his own though we both have equal ownership of everything. He is much more language savvy than me.

“Severin—in addition—to knowing German, English, Catalan, Castilian and French, also speaks Danish and Swedish. Norwegian is a breeze for him because the languages are so much alike—Danish and Norwegian that is,” he replied as he walked over and held her from behind.

“I’ve decided not to pursue the book.” Aurélie turned toward him and smiled shyly. “I don’t want it to open old wounds and it simply isn’t worth the headache it would cause.”

“I’m only glad you are starting to see sense. I loved Trésor with all my heart and although I was not in love with her, I don’t want all the hurt and pain caused by her death to start eating away at us. Does that make sense to you?”

She slipped her arms around his neck and looked deeply into his eyes. “Yes, I understand where both you and Nikki are coming from but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. She was my baby sister and I know I need to let this go but writing her story would have been extremely cathartic and a healthy way to say goodbye . . . and finally let her ghost rest. I would have been more prepared to let her go. I don’t want her haunting our relationship for as long as we are together. The thought would be unbearable.”

“I agree whole heartedly. It’s part of the reason why we have to leave here. There are too many memories and it would be nice to be able to start again.” He ran his hands through her hair before he touched her face ever so softly. “I am not trying to erase anything that happened between your sister and I—please, don’t get me wrong—but I don’t want what we have constantly marred by what I shared with her either. Do you understand?

“You have to know you and I are not the same as Trésor and I. To be honest, this is the first time I have ever been a relationship like this so you have to allow me to make errors and mistakes. I don’t always know what I am doing but I promise you I will try my best and when ever you don’t like something I do, just tell me. Remember our safe word—every couple should have one. It is simply ‘no.’ Please don’t ever doubt I won’t have your best interest at heart all the time.”

Aurélie smiled again before she melted into his warm embrace. “You make me so happy. Thank you.”

“Now, before you start the waterworks, remember we have to leave in an hour. Our flight is this evening but thanks to the unpredictability of New York traffic and an impending snow storm, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he responded as he held her close, inhaling her perfect and seductive scent.

“In that case, I am going to check my bags again just to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything important.”

She dashed off and Rory was left with his own thoughts again.

He could barely believe what he had allowed to happen but it was what he truly wanted. He’d been in love with the idea of possessing Aurélie for so long, and now that he had her, his only worry was he might lose her over bullshit.

She was an amazing woman with a gorgeous face and body, an intelligent mind and someone who wasn’t afraid to stand up to Severin or himself. In truth, the wholeness of her mind, body and soul wasn’t what fascinated him but what kept him tethered to her. The sheer control she held over herself seemed to translate to the power she had over him and he found himself transfixed, enthralled and enraptured with everything she had to offer.

The material gifts he lavished upon her meant nothing because money had never really had any intrinsic value. He’d grown up surrounded by it and when he became of age, he and Severin were obsessed with keeping it to cultivate the lifestyle they chose to live.

The clubs, his hotel in Vegas, Severin’s hotel in Monte Carlo—all these ideas seemed like no-brainers to them. They were both highly intelligent; identical twins that functioned like one human being. Their close relationship and constant work helped everything come together in tandem.

Rory’s only hope was Severin would never blame Aurélie for something that had happened naturally. Although once an enthusiast, he didn’t find the whole bondage and sadism part all that appealing anymore. He loved the domination and submission but purely for bedroom purposes only. It gave him great pleasure her life didn’t revolve around his and she very much had her own friends and interests and could think for herself.

He’d warned her against writing the book, not because he wanted to be a dominating asshole but because he truly thought her life was at stake. The imbeciles at NYPD and their Medical Examiner’s office had officially ruled Trésor’s murder “Death by Misadventure” but he didn’t buy this for one moment.

Her body had been shipped to France and his own private team of doctors, both consisting of French and German physicians he’d attended university with, were going over her body with a fine-toothed comb. Already, they’d found out she was six weeks pregnant but the report he received from the NYPD Medical Examiner’s Office had not listed anything about this predicament.

When Rory called to complain to both Detectives’ O’Reilly and Wozniak, they were pretty glib about the situation. They didn’t have the Medical Examiner check for pregnancy because he insisted she was on birth control.

The pregnancy itself was a reason alone someone might have murdered her and thus he’d given samples of every male he knew who’d ever had contact with Trésor to his team who were doing their own autopsy in France.

Rory’s Ulysse Nardin rang—jarring him out of contemplation—and he quickly pressed the answer key. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me. What time are you and Aurélie leaving for the airport?” Severin inquired in quick German.

“In about an hour . . . why do you ask?”

“I want to come by and say goodbye. Is that a crime?”

Rory felt a migraine coming on. He always had a migraine when he spoke to Severin and they were getting more and more frequent. He’d seen his doctor earlier that month to make sure he wasn’t going to have a stroke or didn’t have a brain tumor they were starting to occur so often.

Alas, his doctor had called him only to tell him it was all in his head—literally—and prescribed the latest pharmaceutical drug to cure migraines before he’d sent his American medical insurance carrier a hefty bill. He would check with his European doctor when they arrived in France just to make sure his American one hadn’t missed anything.

“Listen, I need to take my new migraine drug but feel free to come over. We’re on a tight schedule and we
must
leave in an hour. When are you going back to Los Angeles?” Rory wondered off hand.

“Soon but I feel like I should stay around here for a while. You left quite the mess when you stole Grayson’s fiancée and your little fix-it solution didn’t work. Now I have to find him the perfect submissive because he doesn’t
want
Claudette,” Severin explained in a sarcastic voice.

“
Scheiße. Was zum Teufel ist los mit Claudette?
” he questioned his brother in angry German.

Severin laughed wickedly. “What
isn’t
wrong with Claudette, Rory? She’s too blonde, too French,
too
submissive. I am afraid I have ruined her but . . . alas, Jason said he would take her.”

“What? Why does Jason need someone? He has Kaysa for Christ’s sake!”

“He
had
Kaysa . . . she isn’t at home and once her lunch date went over the allotted time, he received a phone call from his head of staff. She didn’t come home and doesn’t plan to…sounds to me like she did a runner but none of the money in their bank accounts is missing. She had to have help,” Severin explained in a neutral voice.

“How is he so sure she won’t come back?”

“Well, someone of her likeness was spotted at the airport. I had our little hacker do a little rundown and she found her leaving from Newark International Airport. I didn’t ask her to do a trace because it’s about time she got out of the life. She’s tired . . . she was pretty exhausted when I handed her over to Jason but she thought he would be a way out . . . not degrade her more than I ever did.”

It was Rory’s turn to laugh as he grabbed his migraine prescription bottle. “I find that hard to believe.”

“The difference is huge, brother. She was in love with me but she never loved Jason. You’d be surprised how much you will put up with for someone you love that you wouldn’t tolerate under normal circumstances. Take your little princess for instance. Why doesn’t she object to you sharing her with me? Do you think if Grayson had suggested they have a threesome with his brother she would have been as eager?”

Rory swallowed his pill with water from a bottle of San Pellegrino. “Point taken. Listen, I have to go but remember, we are on a tight schedule—”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’ll be over shortly.”

He hung up the phone and turned to notice Aurélie as she breezed through with a slight smile on her face. “Do you mind if Severin stops by? He just wants to say goodbye.”

She stopped walking and looked at him intently before she rushed over and touched his head. “Are you suffering from yet another migraine?”

“Yes, but I should be okay. I told him he could because we won’t be seeing him for a while and I didn’t think you would mind,” he replied.

Aurélie played with strands of his hair. “I don’t but . . . promise me when we get to Paris you’ll have this whole ‘migraine’ thing checked out? They can be dangerous you know.”

“Yes, I am aware of that. My doctor here did an MRI and he said it came back clean. People in my family are prone to them but other than the occasional discomfort and inconvenience caused by them, I feel great. The doctor said it’s probably stress . . . the death of Trésor, et cetera. You know how my brother can be . . . sometimes he’s too much for me to handle and—”

“I said it was fine. The real ‘fine’ . . . not the fucked up, insecure, neurotic and emotional kind, okay? We won’t be seeing him for a while and you’ve spent a lot of time together lately. Let him say goodbye.”

Her soft hands slipped to his face and he grabbed them and held them in his own. “Are you sure? Shit, I just asked you that but . . . it would kill me if this interfered with anything.”

“His visit has nothing to interfere with, Rory. We’re leaving for the airport in less than an hour. Why don’t you crack open a bottle of Cristal and we can share it and toast to new memories before we leave for the airport? We’ll wait for Severin and all have a drink before the driver gets here,” Aurélie suggested in a seductive voice he couldn’t possibly say no to and immediately made him melt like putty.

“Fine, I’m off to the kitchen to crack open the champagne. Can you get the door when he comes then? I had a feeling he was already on his way.”

“Sure, I’ll get the door and I’ll check to make sure you’ve packed everything you planned to take in your overnight bag too.”

Rory walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of Cristal from the fridge. Sometimes—at that very moment for instance—he couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten. He truly had the best of both worlds with a sophisticated and intelligent—not to mention drop dead gorgeous—woman in public and the perfect submissive in the bedroom.

Life couldn’t be better and he had a hard time believing anything that happened in Paris could spoil their life together because they were truly made for one another.

Chapter Nineteen

I’D JUST FINISHED DOUBLE CHECKING
all of Rory’s personal effects when the doorbell rang. He and Severin were twins after all therefore he must have known his brother had been in transit when he’d made the phone call to him.

I tried not to listen in but the more I was around them, the more German I heard and it brought back swatches of Alsatian for me. When I really thought about it, the dialects weren’t so different after all. It was just odd because they’d been raised in Munich, the biggest city in the Bavarian region of Germany but they didn’t speak the dialect. Instead they spoke High German, a version of the language understood in every part of the country and could reasonably be understood in not only every part of the country but in Austria, and most of the German-speaking region of Switzerland.