Chapter Thirty-Six

Kara’s palms grew sticky as she watched Justin work everyone into a fuss about whoever was downstairs. Her wide eyes darted around.
Lucas couldn’t have come after her. Why would he waste his extra privileged, millionaire time on her poverty stricken self?
The question made Kara’s shoulders straighten. Not poverty stricken for long. Soon, she’d be a millionaire herself, she’d make certain of it.
But she would be forever haunted by the man who never loved her like she did him.
Holding off the torrent of emotions with the strength her crappy life had given her, Kara stuck her hands into the pockets of her jeans and sauntered off into the house at a pace that seemed careless to the helpers, until she got around the corner and began bolting down the corridor.
If that was Lucas, good luck to him finding her! One thing Kara was good at was running and hiding. Well, that would be two things, but who’s counting?
A very good hiding spot she’d seen near the laundry room came to mind and she’d just begun making a beeline for her possible safe haven when she rammed herself right into an equally frazzled Justin.
“Miss Kingsley!” he gasped, catching her by the shoulders. “Come along now, there’s a very important man coming up at this minute! I want you to meet him.”
Justin smiled at Kara like he’d just told her he’d bought her a golden ticket to heaven.
She gave him a wobbly smile, topped off with a wide eyed look and a quick shake of the head.
“Uhh… I don’t think I want to meet him.”
Justin scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Nonsense! Everyone wants to meet him, he’s rich!”
Kara sighed as they neared the elevator. It was okay, there were many rich men in the world. He could be anybody.
“He,” said Justin. “Is a good friend of Raphaël Sauvage and he’s so rich, he’ll definitely get your career started like a rocket.”
Shit.
Kara’s throat went dry and she started to dig her heels in.
“Justin, I have to go…”
Justin clutched Kara’s arm, cutting her off.
“Please don’t leave me, the man is extremely rich and rich guys scare the crap out of me.”
Kara paused to raise her brows at him. “Then how on earth do you manage to work for Raphaël Sauvage?!”
You couldn’t possibly have a phobia of millionaires and work so willingly for one of the richest men of France.
Shouldn’t he have been working in some run-down factory where he had no hopes of running into some infamous billionaire?
Justin sighed. “I don’t mind them when their thousands of miles away from me and I get paid well, but when they start showing up unexpectedly…” The elevator dinged, announcing its arrival. Justin’s mouth suddenly spread into a wide grin. “Oh, shit, here he is, everybody stay calm,” he murmured as Kara steeled herself.
The elevator doors swished open and Kara’s jaw fell.
“You!” she accused.
Strolling leisurely out of the expensive elevator, looking dashing in his navy suit, came none other than the blue eyed businessman from the plane.
Justin looked at Kara like she was insane.
“Uh, Mr Knight! W-welcome!” he said then, hoping she would keep her mouth closed.
Unfortunately, Justin was unaccustomed with Kara’s outspoken ways.
“Are you stalking me?!” she demanded, trying to ignore how her heart had nearly exploded when she’d seen that it wasn’t Lucas.
“I assure you, I am not,” said the man with a smile, then he cringed. “Or… I might be. You ran away from me at the airport.”
Kara’s eyes narrowed dangerously, showing sudden irritation that she knew really stemmed from the fact that this man wasn’t freaking Lucas Cartier.
It wasn’t his fault, not every man could be a half God like Luc, but Kara wasn’t thinking straight.
“I do not know you!” she stated, crossing her arms, very unaware of a trembling Justin beside her.
He smiled and his eyes did their weird twinkling thing. “Christian Knight is the name.”
Kara tossed back her hair in habit, although it was tied. “The name means little to me,” she stated, missing how Christian’s eyebrows shot up. Justin actually gasped and she turned to him. “You said he was a good friend of Raphaël Sauvage! Raphaël has very few people he calls friends and I’ve never heard him say the name Christian Knight! What kinda hustle is going on here?!”
Justin blanched. “Miss Kingsley…”
“No, no…” said Christian, looking thoroughly amused. “It’s okay. I assure you, Miss Kingsley, there is no hustle.”
“You keep assuring me of a lot of things, Mr Knight, but I don’t really know what your word is worth,” said Kara with a pensive expression.
Justin’s jaw dropped. “Kara, perhaps you should go and paint something.”
Her mouth twitched at his antsy state, but she kept her eyes trained on Christian Knight.
He was grinning at her, like she was a brand new little discovery he’d made in a lab.
Kara raised a brow at his smile.
“But, I am a friend of Raphaël’s. Business-wise anyway. Our companies do a lot of business with each other, so I’m well acquainted with both him and his partner, Lucas Cartier.”
Her heart skipped a couple of beats and Kara paused to let it settle.
“Oh,” was all she managed to say.
Justin was waiting for the moment when Christian suddenly wanted to sue her for slandering or public humiliation or whatever else rich guys did. Knowing what kept you alive these days, he kept his thoughts to himself.
Kara looked suspiciously up at Christian. He was gorgeous. But his hair was quite short and his eyes too blue. His smile to warm.
Kara didn’t know when she’d begun to prefer longer hair or darker, more dangerous eyes… Okay, maybe she had an idea.
“Well, what are you doing here? This is Raphaël and Isabelle’s penthouse,” Kara informed him, greatly emphasizing the word penthouse like Christian Knight didn’t know what it was.
He grinned and put his hands in his pockets. “I do know that. I figured you’d be here, seeing as Raphaël put you on the plane.”
Kara wondered at his accent. She’d never really heard such an accent before, except for maybe in the pirate movie. The accent that Captain Jack Sparrow had… or something similar.
She stared at him for a moment, trying to remember exactly what Jack sounded like.
Christian stared at her, staring at him and found himself deeply drawn in all over again. She had the most beautifully expressive eyes. Green as burning emeralds, they were. God, she was beautiful.
“Go to dinner with me.” The words were out before Christian could stop himself and he was pretty sure the stunned look on her face mirrored his.
Kara glanced at Justin who glanced back, equally surprised.
Justin was shocked out of his mind. Not only had a filthy rich millionaire not sued her for handing him his ass on a plate, but he was also asking her out for fucking dinner!
Nothing in the world made sense anymore.
Kara rubbed her hands over her thighs.
“Uh…um, it’s too late at night.”
Christian wasn’t ready to drop it. “Tomorrow then. Lunch. We can have lunch and then I’ll show you around the city, I know you’re new here.”
It was perfect. His meeting in the morning wouldn’t take more than a few hours.
Kara bit her lip, unsure on what to say. She’d never had a man ask her out for dinner or even lunch before. Lucas hadn’t even wanted to cook for her.
Sudden tears burned the back of her eyes, and Kara found herself noting to get her tear ducts permanently sealed once she could afford it. Damn tears.
With a sigh, she nodded. “That would be fine.”
Plus, she really had to know New York if she was going to stay there and get her career stared. Although it was the last thing she wanted to do. Kara just wanted to get on a plane and head back where she felt most at home.
Christian smiled broadly and Kara thought she saw his cheeks turn a little pink.
What in the hell was wrong with him? Did he have a fever?
She stepped forward with a frown.
“Are you perhaps ill? You’ve gotten slightly pink.”
She saw the man redden even further and was convinced that he had come down with some type of flu.
Christian only chuckled and shook his head, before looking her in the eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Kingsley.”
Kara pursed her lips and nodded. “Sure thing.”
He turned around and walked back into the waiting elevator, confidence oozing like sweetness from candy.
“Dear God, he’s fucking gorgeous,” murmured Justin as the elevator doors closed.
Kara’s brows rose to her hairline as she glanced at him in surprise.
Justin shrugged and walked away. “I see beauty, doesn’t mean I’ll be caking myself up for a man, okay. Relax. I’m straight.”
He walked away quickly, leaving her there, staring after him. Why did he assume she had a problem?
With no answer for the question, Kara shrugged and headed to bed.
**********
“Come on, come on,” groaned Lucas in annoyance.
Raphaël glanced at him, hiding his amusement.
“Why don’t you just go in that cabin and fly the jet yourself?”
Luc’s mouth twisted in distaste. “I damn well would, if they’d let me!”
“Good. We pay them to recognize a crazed man in love when they see one.”
Lucas grunted. Raphaël was right. He was a crazed man in love. Because of Kara. She’d made him this way. Like a thief, she’d snuck into his heart and he hadn’t even given her a key, or better yet, hadn’t given her the crowbar to smash awash the chains that kept guard.
And now that he’d seen what she’d done to him, he wasn’t willing to let her go. No way. He was going to take her back to France with him even if it took a whole year.
The jet finally eased its way into the air and Lucas relaxed into his seat. He let himself imagine what she was doing at that moment. Infuriating images of her in the arms of some Yank sent his temper soaring through the roof, but he tried to keep it lidded.
It was his imagination, that was all. And if it wasn’t, he’d make sure that the Yank turned his sight away before he lost it altogether.
Kara would not be with anybody, but Lucas.
Six hours later, Lucas was quickly putting on his seatbelt for their landing. Thank God, the jets didn’t take as long as commercial flights. Christ, he would have died.
The moment the jet stopped, Lucas was out of his chair.
“Any faster and you’ll win an Olympic medal,” said Raphaël with a chuckle.
“Oh, shut up,” retorted Lucas. “I’ve seen you nearly in tears over Isabelle.”
Raphaël shrugged. “I don’t expect you to understand, Cartier, you’ve never had a human being become the physical embodiment of the air you breathe.”
Lucas glanced at his friend and moistened his dry throat. “Maybe you should expect me to understand.”
They walked in silence, until they reached the sleek black sports car that awaited them on the tarmac.
A man held out the keys and Lucas grabbed them, allowing the man to leave.
Raphaël held his hand out as their stuff was packed into the boot.
“Excuse me, you drive like a fucking maniac and I’m not getting a speeding ticket on the first day.”
Luc rolled his eyes. “They would never give either one of us a ticket, you know that.”
Raphaël took the keys. “Yeah, but I’d ask for it. Money shouldn’t put us above the law, Luc. You know that.”
“Cause you never stop preaching it, yeah, I do.”
The drive to Luc’s penthouse suite took only an hour, leaving them with two hours to prepare for their meeting.
Lucas was restless, pacing around and going over and over the deal with plans to conclude the meeting as quickly as possible.
Raphaël was lounging on a long sofa, watching him with amused eyes.
“Yup, pacing like a lion with an itch up his ass,” he said to Isabelle on the phone, laughing at her response. “No, not yet, I’m still enjoying this… Yes, I’ll tell him. Just not now.”
Lucas shot Raphaël a glare as he grabbed his jacket and put it on.
Raphaël took the hint and stared getting up as he ended the call with his wife.
“You’re not going to tell me where she is until I shake it out of you?” questioned Lucas.
Raphaël grinned and shrugged as he walked out of the place.
Lucas smiled coldly, letting his friend think what he wanted. Luc already knew exactly where Kara was, it hadn’t taken long for him to find out and the second that meeting was over, he’d be there like a flash.
Raphaël could take a taxi home or something.
Again, Raphaël insisted on driving them to the Krypton Knight building, making claims that Lucas drove like a drunk man with the hounds of hell on his tail. All lies, of course, Lucas could swear.
The drive was excruciatingly slow for Luc and he got out of the car as soon as it came to a standstill at the super tall Krypton building.
“Any slower and you’re practically Rosa, when she drives.”
Raphaël chuckled. “Shut up, we’re alive aren’t we?”
Grabbing their things, they made their way into the building where it seemed like every secretary in the building wanted to take them to the boardroom.
Lucas thought he’d even seen two women discreetly clawing at each other’s arms to get closer. The thought was nothing new and he put it out of his mind.
Soon they reached the wide wooden double doors and stifled weary sighs when the women hurried to push the doors open, disappearing like wisps of smoke when their boss stood up and raised an eyebrow.
Raphaël smiled mildly. “Christian Knight.”
“Gotten a little old, hasn’t he?” asked Lucas with a chuckle.
Christian laughed and shook his head as he shook both their hands.
“Raphaël Sauvage and Lucas Cartier, gracing us with both their presence in one room! I began to think you two were one man, playing two roles, it’s so rare catching you together.”
“He gets attached if he’s with me all the time,” said Lucas, nodding at Raphaël.
Christian laughed again and nodded. “Welcome, gentlemen. Shall we get started?"