Ma Chérie Read online

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2014 Remmy Duchene

  ISBN: 978-1-77130-951-6

  Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

  Editor: Tricia Kristufek

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To Jade—You asked for a French man.

  MA CHÉRI

  Romance on the Go TM

  Remmy Duchene

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Gaël Leveraeu stood at the window in his hotel suite and stared out. His friends were speaking in muffled French behind him, but the truth was, Gaël wasn’t paying attention. He wasn’t even seeing the beautiful blue waters outside his window—the blue of the infinity pool that looked as though it flowed right into the ocean. All he could focus on was the sexy, chocolate skin of the only man he fell in love with at first sight. Maybe that sounded dramatic, but it was the truth. Then Gaël could see Shawn’s hip swaying from side to side. That was a part of the seduction. His one-night stand was more than he thought it would be, and the regrets of not staying pulsed through him. He bowed his head and shoved his fingers through his hair.

  “All these miles away and after all these months,” Ken LeRue spoke softly. “Tu pensezs toujours à lui.”

  Gaël turned and looked at his best friend. They were now alone in the room. How did he not hear when Maxim left? Was he that deep in his own head and the pain of losing a man he didn’t think he’d want to keep around? He rubbed a hand over his face and shrugged. It was not the time to have Ken lecture him about the intricacies of l’amour. “I still think of whom?”

  Ken tilted his head. “I have known you for over thirty years, Gaël. Have you forgotten? In all those years, I’ve come to know you better than even you know yourself.” He chuckled. “I know when you look at a man for a one-night stand and when it’s more. The way you looked at Shawn did not say one time only.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Is that a fact?” Ken pushed. “Lying to me is fine. Just don’t do it to yourself. I’m going to get something to eat, then go for a walk.”

  “Ken….”

  “No. Tu as besoin de temps pour réfléchir.”

  “I don’t need time to think, Ken. Even if I did think of Shawn Rhodes, he’s probably over me by now.”

  “Let me ask you this. Which of you came up with this one-night thing? You or him?”

  “I did.”

  “And he went along with it. Do you think he agreed because it was what he wanted, or did he agree because it was the only way he could get into your arms?”

  “I thought since I was leaving Everbank it wouldn’t do to go into it thinking it was anything but just the once.”

  “In other words you killed it before it even started or before you knew what it was.”

  Gaël made a face and turned his attention out the window in deep concentration. “Maybe you have a point there. But I don’t know if that is the least bit important.”

  Ken touched his shoulder. “You don’t think? Why don’t you go back to Everbank and see what he thinks? Or are you strictly thinking about the sex—what he did to your body?”

  Gaël had no answer for that, so he remained silent.

  “I’m going to make a suggestion, and if you don’t like it, you can’t fire me, because we’re friends, so you just have to sit there and take it.”

  Gaël chuckled.

  “Call Shawn. Offer to fly him to France,” Ken suggested. “Tell him you wish to see him and have a talk.”

  “And when he asks why we can’t have this conversation over the telephone?”

  “You tell him the truth, Gaël. You tell him you were a moron for suggesting only a one-night stand and that you miss him.”

  Gaël sighed. The longer the conversation went with Ken, the more Gaël was beginning to see he was right. When he faced Ken again, Gaël smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “You might be right, my friend,” he said, making his way across the room to one of the sofas. “But I will have to think of something a little less drastic than disrupting his life.”

  “A trip to France is disrupting a life?”

  “You don’t understand. Shawn isn’t like the other men I’ve been with. He doesn’t care for the wealthy and the luxurious. I think all of this would make him uncomfortable.”

  “A man who doesn’t want your money—there’s a concept.”

  Gaël nodded. “But you’re right. I do want this man, Ken. For the first time in life, I yearn for something and I have no clue how to get it.”

  Ken sat beside him. “Go about this the same way you go about everything else—fight.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Of course it’s not that easy. In that one moment you had with this man, you know the kind of man he was. So that’s half the battle. At least give it a try.”

  Gaël promised he would. After hugging Ken, he was alone but remained where he was sitting. It was amazing how such a small conversation could be so eye-opening. Still, there were so many faucets to his being with Shawn that needed to be ironed out. He lived in France, while Shawn lived across the ocean in Everbank. That was the main issue. But the longer he thought about the distance, the more trivial it seemed.

  Finally, he smiled and rose. He grabbed his phone, sunglasses, and keys and exited the hotel room. Walking out the doors and down the front steps, he glanced both ways before moving along the Avenue. He stopped at a large flower store. It was one of the biggest ones around the Champs Elyse, and he needed someone who could reach as far as Everbank with the flowers still elegant and ready to go.

  “You wish to send flowers where?” the woman behind the counter asked, shock written all over her face. “We have never….”

  “Then you cannot help me then? Is that what you are saying?”

  “Well, yes.”

  Gaël muttered under his breath and exited. He walked to three others, but none could help, so he returned to the hotel, pulled out his computer, and set to work, sitting in the middle of his massive bed.

  Ken didn’t come back for a while, and Gaël just assumed he and the others were out partying or something. When Ken and Maxim returned, it was only to shower, invite him to a party, and leave again. Gaël didn’t feel much like going dancing, and while Ken and Maxim didn’t like the idea of Gaël sitting at the hotel by himself, they eventually left him alone.

  Back at the window, Gaël stared down at the pool. He longed to go for a swim, but the deck was alive with other people from the hotel and their guests. He couldn’t—there was no way his mind could handle the chaos of other guests.

  “Shawn, où es-tu?” Gaël whispered. “Are you with someone else?”

  The thought of Shawn being with someone else the way they were together made him angry and broke his heart. The thoughts were so vivid, he had to turn away from the window and pull the thick drapes in place to block out the light. Back in his room, he climbed into bed and pulled the sheets over his head.

  Chapter Two

  “Shawn, you got a delivery!”

  Shawn Rhodes turned from door hinge he was trying to fix and arched a brow. He wondered who would send him a delivery to a jobsite and not the office, but he removed his gloves and walked to stand beside his brother, F
rankie, and before the delivery guy. “Are those flowers?” Shawn questioned.

  “Yeah. Sign here, please.”

  Shawn and Frankie exchanged glances, but Shawn did sign. Once he did, the delivery guy handed over the bundle of flowers and wished them a good day.

  “Um, you too, buddy,” Shawn answered.

  “So? Who are they from?” Frankie pushed.

  “I have an idea,” Shawn replied, pulling the card from the package and opening it.

  I know it was only once—but there can be a twice. Gaël

  “Gaël?” Frankie asked. “Isn’t that the guy you had that thing with?”

  Shawn pressed his lips into a thin line while nodding. He tapped the card against the stems of the beautiful white tulips. He sniffed them, as the other guys began whistling at him. Shawn’s cheeks warmed and he frowned. “Get back to work, yah jerks!”

  They only laughed.

  “I thought what you had with him wasn’t a serious thing—it was only one night.”

  “So did I. I mean, that’s what he said. And I haven’t heard from him since then.”

  “And now he sends you flowers.” Frankie was nodding. “Maybe he tried getting over you, but you’re like under his skin, right? He is having a hard time getting over your sweet, ooey-gooey goodness.” Frankie punctuated his words by wiggling his brows in conjunction with his hips.

  Shawn groaned.

  “But in all seriousness, man,” Frankie continued. “Gay dating isn’t any easier than straight dating, is it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know.”

  Frankie patted Shawn on the shoulder and walked away.

  Shawn wasn’t sure what he was going to be doing with the flowers until they were finished for the day, and leaving them in the trucks would kill them because of the heat. Taking a breath, he found a roll of paper towel and tore off a handful. He soaked it in cold water, wrapped it around the stems, and placed it by the side of his truck in the shade. The card he shoved in his back pocket and went back to work.

  Shawn and the gang put the final touches on their projects, then sat around out front just staring up at the home. That was their way of saying good-bye—kind of. It’d taken them a little under a year to complete that project, and they were very excited. Though he invited them all back to his place for beer and a cookout, Shawn didn’t feel much like company. Yet these guys always did their best work for him, and Shawn figured he could do it without being too much of a stick in the mud. He sucked it up, gathered his things, including his flowers, and pulled away from the home. Frankie offered to head into the office to hand in the paperwork while he stopped at the grocery store to grab some things to cook for the guys.

  When he finally made it home and was halfway through the hall toward the kitchen, the doorbell sounded. He dropped the bags on the island and went back to answer it. Another bundle of flowers—this time they were calla lilies. Shawn closed the door and carried them into the kitchen. He filled a beautiful blue vase his mother had given him after he’d built his first home with water and dropped them in. He added the tulips in as well, since it was the only vase he had, then read the second card.

  I apologize. Gaël

  “What are you apologizing for, Gaël?” he asked the empty kitchen.

  To get his mind off the flowers, or as an attempt at keeping his mind off them, he ran around the kitchen preparing for dinner that night. He checked the time periodically, wondering where in the hell Frankie was. He couldn’t leave the grill going without someone watching it, and he needed to take a shower before people arrived. Shawn set the beers to chill—what didn’t fit in the fridge, he put in a cooler and dumped ice in. Wine was put to cool for their sister, Bella, who worked as the company’s secretary and her best friend, Judith. He cleaned and seasoned the meat, then put it in the bottom of the fridge to stay cool for the wait.

  By the time Frankie arrived, he’d done all the prep and stood, hands braced on the island, staring at the flowers.

  “Wait, calla lilies?” Frankie’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Where’d you get those?”

  “A delivery guy brought them when I got home.”

  “Who’s sending you flowers, big brother?” Bella asked, reaching in to drop a chaste kiss on Shawn’s lips, then walking around him to sniff the flowers. “They’re beautiful.”

  “Some guy he had a one-night stand with,” Frankie answered before Shawn could.

  “Frankie!”

  “What? It’s not like I’m lying.”

  Shawn frowned. “Well, he isn’t lying, Bell. This guy said it was only one night, and I agreed.”

  “But you don’t do one-night flings,” Bella pointed out. “What was so special about this guy?”

  “Show her the picture on your phone,” Frankie suggested.

  “The meat is seasoned in the fridge,” Shawn said. “The grill is preheating. Start cooking. I’m going to take a shower.”

  “Whao! Wait a minute!” Bella called.

  He could hear her footsteps following. In his bedroom Shawn peeled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the bed before pulling his cell phone from his pocket. He handed it to her and watched as she put in his password and scrolled through the pictures.

  “This him?” She turned the phone so he could see.

  “Yeah.”

  “Wow…. Look at those eyes.”

  “I know, right? But when he said only one night, I couldn’t just let him walk away. There was something about him that I knew if I didn’t experience, I’d die.”

  Bella smiled but said nothing.

  Shawn sat beside her. “You think I’m an idiot. Frankie obviously thinks I am.”

  “I don’t think you’re an idiot. And you know Frankie. He runs his mouth without thinking. What’s his name?”

  “Gaël Leveraeu—a businessman from France.”

  “He’s French? Nice.”

  Shawn chuckled. “Yeah. Nice.”

  “Look, Gaël is sending you flowers, two deliveries in one day? I’d say this man wants a little more than one night.”

  “They’re just flowers, Bell.” Shawn got up and stopped to peer at himself in the dresser mirror. He rubbed a hand over his face but not before noting his tired brown eyes. “When I went out with Frankie and the boys two months ago, I didn’t think I’d meet anyone—hell, I stopped believing in love a long time ago. But this man….”

  “See? You can’t just stop believing in love. It doesn’t work like that. Love will always find you—isn’t that what that woman in the commercial says?”

  “Yeah well, pardon my French, Bella, but that woman is full of shit.”

  Shawn stomped into the shower and slammed the door. He wasn’t sure why he was so upset, but just the thought of love not giving up on him was a load of crap to his ears. He turned on the shower, pretending to use it, but didn’t actually step into the shower for a long time. Shawn sat on the toilet seat, face buried into his hands, wondering what he could have possibly done in a previous life to deserve this kind of torture.

  Chapter Three

  “That campaign did very well. We were thinking of suggesting bringing it back. Sales jumped sixty-five percent in the first two days alone, and….”

  Once again, Gaël wasn’t paying attention. He hated meetings, and lately they just seemed to be getting longer and more pointless. But he had insisted on being a part of everything within his company. Somehow he saved face by adding suggestions and asking questions.

  Yet the majority of the time, he remembered the way Shawn walked into the predominantly gay club with a presence that screamed big man on campus. He fist-bumped a few of the guys, hugged a few girls, and stopped to speak and laugh easily at someone’s joke before continuing through the crowded room. At the bar, Shawn leaned over to hug the bartender and no doubt speak into his ear.

  Gaël remembered trembling even as he made his way over, pressed a hand to the small of Shawn’s back, and reached up
to speak in his ear. “Can I buy you a drink?”

  A smirk traced Shawn’s lips before he nodded.

  Everything about those first moments was magical. Everything about them made Gaël’s heart race and aroused him so desperately, he had to run to the toilet to readjust.

  Gaël shook his head and looked around to see the meeting was over. He couldn’t get out of the large conference room fast enough.

  Ken called after him, and Gaël only stopped when they were alone in the hall. “You look tired,” Ken said. “I leave you alone for a few days and you become a zombie? When was the last time you slept?”

  “I can’t remember. But I’m fine, mon ami.”

  Ken eyed him. “Maybe you should try taking a nap now.”

  “I can’t. Every time I close my eyes, I’m back in Everbank, dancing with him, kissing him—in his bed…. Jesus, I sound like frigging greeting card.”

  Ken laughed. “Not any card I’ve ever gotten. Did you call him?”

  “No. I’ve been sending him flowers.”

  “And your phone number, I assume?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Gaël, what are you waiting for? How many more nights do you want your bed to be empty? How many more days do you think you can go around without sleep, trapped in your mind, without everyone else noticing?”

  “These things take time, Ken. I want to romance him—seduce him again.”

  “You already did that, remember? And you did such an amazing job, he was in your bed the night you met. Besides, seduction is overrated.”

  Gaël rubbed Ken’s shoulder but didn’t reply. Instead he shrugged. “I just need some more time.”

  “Right. You go back to your suite and lay down. You may not sleep but stretch your back out a little. I’ll go have lunch.”

  “You’ll eat alone? What about Maxim?”