Laurent nodded. “That would be… nice.”
He turned, and I let him get a few steps away. “I’ll be in to watch you once I’ve got the coffee on.”
He stopped dead before turning slowly back around. “What?”
I leaned nonchalantly against the counter and schooled my face into a deadpan expression. “You watched me in the shower. You got to seeeverything.Turnabout is only fair.”
If I’d been hoping for Laurent to get flustered, I should have known him better than that. Instead, he narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t know it was you. I thought Finn and Cillian had returned from Dubai early.”
“Huh!” I considered his words for a moment. “And which of them were you hoping for? I thought you and Finn had only shared a kiss. Now, I’m thinking perhaps it was more.”
“I wasn’thopingfor either of them. I merely thought that if I could catch them in a compromising position, it would put them on the back foot for years to come. Instead, I got you. And it was two kisses.”
“Two kisses!” My surprise was genuine. “It keeps going up. What’s it going to be tomorrow? Two kisses and a hand job? Two kisses and a quick fuck?”
Laurent sighed. “He kissed me shortly after arriving in Paris when he was drunk. It was very one-sided and very much about Finn being on the rebound rather than harboring any genuine desire for me. And I kissed him when Cillian turned up on his doorstep unannounced, so the option was there for him to pretend he had a boyfriend.”
Laurent frowned at his own words. “Apparently, that’s what I do… Pretend to be people’s boyfriends. Work colleagues. Straight men. Perhaps next time I can branch out and find myself a priest or something. Anyway, why do you care how many kisses it was?”
“Cillian’s my brother. Of course, I care about anything that affects him.” I really needed to stop lying. The intensity of Laurent’s stare said he’d seen through it this time. I lifted my hand in a shooing gesture. “Take your shower. You know, I was only joking about coming in there. You’re too easy to wind up.”
“Am I?” Laurent’s lips curled up into a slow smile. “You say wind up. I say, surprised. You’re welcome to come in and watch.” One hand slid into his bathrobe, resting provocatively over the exposed nipple. “I was just surprised a straight man would want to. But… what is that English saying? Knock yourself out. I’ll leave the door unlocked.” He delivered his own wink before turning on his heel and continuing to the bathroom.
I contemplated the interaction between the two of us while I worked out the complexities of Laurent’s coffee machine. Laurent was flirting. Why? Because he found me attractive? Or because he thought he could call my bluff and send me running in the opposite direction? It was an interesting quandary to ponder.
By the time the coffee machine had finished brewing and I’d made quite the breakfast banquet out of the things I’d brought with me, Laurent was out of the shower. He’d dressed in blue jeans and a gray T-shirt that hugged his chest, his hair still damp. He accepted the cup of coffee pushed his way with a slight smile, taking a seat at the breakfast bar and scrutinizing the plates of food.
I waved a hand at it, inviting him to help himself.
Laurent helped himself to a pastry. “Did you raid Cillian’s cupboards?”
“No!” The note of offense was in my voice before I could stop myself. “I have money.”
“I never said you didn’t. I was thinking more in terms of you having time to get this stuff than not being able to afford it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I promised you a breakfast fit for a king, and I may have many faults, but keeping promises isn’t one of them. I got up early.” My pointed stare said that at least one of us was capable of such a feat.
Laurent nodded as he tore into his pastry. “Tell me about them.”
“My faults?”
Another nod. I spread butter and raspberry jam onto my croissant. “I’ll swap one of mine for one of yours.”
“Who said I have any?” A slight raise of my eyebrow had Laurent giving a lopsided grin. “I’ll do my best to find one or two.”
I chewed a mouthful of croissant while I thought about it. “I’ll admit to being impulsive. Take coming here, for instance. I didn’t give it much thought. As soon as the idea popped into my head, I booked a plane ticket and got on the first available flight.”
Laurent smirked. “And like telling Cillian we were dating without bothering to ask me first.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, stuff like that.” I washed my mouthful of croissant down with coffee. “Your turn.”
“Give me three, and I’ll give you one.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can add changing the rules to your list.”
“Noted.”
“I can get bored easily. Work. Relationships. Activities. You name it. I’m always searching for the next thing that’ll grab my attention.” Laurent held up three fingers as a prompt that I still had one to go. The last one was more difficult. I thought back to the previous day. “I can be pushy. I expect everyone else to move at the same speed I do, and get frustrated when they don’t, likethe whole address thing. I’m lucky you didn’t call Finn there and then and tell him the whole thing was a sham, just so you never had to deal with me again.”
