Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kara rolled over in the plush bed with a groan. Groggily lifting a hand, she held her head. What on earth was happening to her? She felt as though her head had been disconnected from her body for a full day and then slammed back on.
Had she arrived upon some outbreak of a virus in the US that made one’s limbs feel as heavy as titanium bars? A feeling of dread swept through her at the thought. No, this couldn’t be it. She wouldn’t die like this. Using maximum effort, she dragged her body out from under the covers and went in search of Justin. He had to tell her why she felt as though mercury had been injected into her veins to replace her blood.
Kara stumbled through the hallways, reaching around in the darkness. Why was it so dark? Did the US now have abnormally long nights? She felt as though she went to bed ages ago and it was now morning, but it didn’t seem to be the case.
“Kara?”
She spun around, hands shooting out to hold the wall when the sudden action made her head spin.
Justin tied his robe tighter.
“Why’re you awake?”
Kara squinted at him. “I don’t… I don’t know. Why the hell isn’t it morning? Why am I so tired? Am I dying?”
Justin came forward, catching Kara by the elbow before she’d let herself slop onto the floor.
“Uhm, it’s not morning because the sun hasn’t risen. You probably are experiencing jet-lag and no, you are not dying.”
“What's jag-let… jet-lag?”
Leading her back toward her room, he sighed and shook his head.
“It’s the monster that ruins every holiday vacation, sweetheart. Okay, back to bed.”
Justin helped Kara back into bed, assuring her that the US had normal nights and that, yes, the sun would rise.
Having tucked her back in, he headed back to his room for a few minutes of precious shut eye.
About four hours later, the house slowly came alive with the birth of the day.
The hallways were brightly lit and Justin walked the pristine paths, ensuring that every house duty was been efficiently taken care of.
Approaching the kitchen, the first thing he saw was a grumpy Kara slouching over a mug of coffee.
“Good morning, sunshine!” he called.
Kara lifted her gaze, dropped it.
“Hrmph…” was her reply.
Justin couldn’t help the chuckle. “It’ll go away after a few days when you become accustomed to the times.”
“I feel like I need to sleep for a whole week, to be honest,” said Kara.
He nodded in response and offered to make her breakfast to which Kara declined.
“I have to go and electrocute myself or something so I’m awake later,” she murmured.
“Oooh, awake for Christian Knight?” asked Justin.
Kara shrugged. What was she doing here in the US, jet-gagged and going on lunch dates with a weird twinkly eyed man? "I’m not trying to be awake for him, I just want to be able to not walk into a pole.”
Justin nodded and leaned onto the counter, eyeing Kara curiously.
“You can’t really stand the man, can you?” he asked.
“Well, I’m not absolutely smitten with him, but I’m not hating him either. He’s just some man, I guess.”
Justin shook his head in disbelief. “And I can safely inform you that you, miss, are the only woman in America to have ever said that about Christian Knight.”
Kara rolled her eyes and dragged her butt off the stool.
“Then the women in America need to get hobbies.”
“That jet-lags got you snippy.”
“The jeg-lag is an eye-opener,” she retorted.
Justin raised an eyebrow in confusion as she walked away. “It’s jet-lag, Miss Kingsley.”
“Whatever.”
Kara made her way towards her room, tugging her short silk robe about her shoulders, but found her feet changing paths. Before she knew it she’d found herself standing before her makeshift studio.
This was the space she was comfortable with until Raphaël’s US secretary is able to find her a good sized studio. The woman was taking a little long, but Kara let it be. She’d only been in the US for two days anyway.
With a quiet sigh, she pulled out her key and unlocked the door, pushing it open upon hearing the click.
The light that flooded the room from the massive windows made the paintings and drawing of Lucas Cartier that lay all around the room look like they were glowing with golden perfection.
The breath caught in Kara’s throat and she coughed it out, refusing to be caught up in her emotions today. She stepped quietly in, her eyes gazing at the art that struck her anew every time she looked at it.
She’d committed Luc’s every feature to memory. Her fingers had traced his lips, felt the prickle of his beard and felt the contours of his face and they’d been able to transfer that onto her canvas.
Kara looked at her Lucas and he looked back at her from the walls and the floor. This was embarrassing. She’d drawn him and painted him. God, was this obsession? Had she reached the level of a support group candidate where she’d stand in a circle of other addicts and introduce herself and they’d all say “Hi, Kara.”, then she’d tell them about her obsession?
Was this it?
Kara bit her lip. Lucas was the first man she’d ever known…like that. The only one she could see herself ever knowing and wanting and loving.
Which sucked because he did toss her over to Markov. But, he’d also said he was sorry, hadn’t he?
No, she couldn’t go soft. She couldn’t give in. But she missed him. She missed the simple feeling of being held in his arms, feeling like his big body would swallow hers into him. Feeling the warmth that enfolded her whenever he did so. Missed how he teased her and would laugh out loud when she called him names.
His laugh. God his laugh. Kara’s eyes immediately went to the portrait of Luc’s laughing face. His lips pulled back in a dangerous grin as he laughed at her, his hair falling over his face and he’d let it. But then when he’d straighten, he’d push it back with one hand, Kara knew. Or he’d leave the hand there and clutch it if he was frustrated.
Her lip trembled and Kara quickly pulled herself out of the room, slamming the door closed before going as far away from the room as possible.
Which really was just to her own room which wasn’t even far enough.
She felt tired, but she also felt crowded. Fueled with thoughts of Lucas, Kara knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep without dreaming of him and seeing him in her sleep just to wake up to a reality without him would probably drive her insane.
She dragged herself to the edge of her bed and sat facing the wall. Her chin rested in her hand as she pondered.
How long would she have to stay in this penthouse suite that didn’t even belong to her? She knew that Isabelle and Raphaël saw her as a friend now, but even so, Kara wasn’t comfortable. They had already done so much for her and she didn’t want to be even further indebted to them, because although they didn’t know it, she intended to pay back every cent.
Where she was from, there was never anything given for nothing. Everything had a price.
Maybe it was time she left, wasn’t it? How would they know where to find her? They wouldn’t.
Worrying her top lip with her teeth, Kara eyed the door. They wouldn’t know.
A final decision had her pushing off the bed and heading for the bathroom to wash up.
Forty minutes later, Kara was poking her head into the corridor to ensure that the coast was clear. Her black hair was held back in a thick ponytail, ensuring that nothing would bother her at this moment.
She was doing the right thing, wasn’t she? Staying under Raphaël’s money was like still being connected to Lucas and the longer she let that continue without any actual contact with the Luc, the sooner she’d be recruited for those Obsession Recovery support groups.
It wouldn’t be long before she started drawing Lucas on park benches, or carving him into tree bark or some nice builder’s drying cement.
With a huff at her thoughts, Kara appeared in the main sitting room and made a beeline for the elevator.
She pressed it approximately a hundred times and waited desperately for the doors to open.
It took only about six seconds really, but Kara could have sworn it was six hundred years.
Safely inside the elevator, Kara clutched at her chest, drawing comfort from the backpack worn tightly against her body as she repeated to herself to not look around. She really didn’t like whoever designed the glass elevator.
When the elevator chimed and the doors whirred open on the ground floor, Kara shot out of it like it was a filthy holding cell and not the high-class technology that everyone else saw it as.
With firm, but rapid steps, she walked out of the building as the housed company employees went about their business, none noticing the dark haired girl zipping across the foyer.
Kara left the building, distractedly thanking the door men who held the glass doors open for her.
Her eyes looked up and down the street. My, it was such a beautiful and busy city. She needed some air. Which way was the park again? Kara took a few steps to her left, eyes focused in a squint towards the distance where she could see a city map board. Behind her a sleek, black car rode up to the building doors, the driver door being thrown open to let out a man with dirty blonde hair, who’s sharp grey eyed gaze shot up to the top of the building. Kara pursed her lips, still looking toward the city map.
Lucas looked at his watch and started into the building before him, where his gut told him he’d find her. And he sure as hell hoped he would.
Kara waved aside the city map and began her trek, hoping to come across the park on her own.
On impulse, or more like habit of running away from people and things, she threw a single glance over her shoulder and noticed the sleek, black car parked before the fancy building she’d come out from.
That hadn’t been there when she’d come out, had it? Kara gasped. What if it was that blue eyed businessman, Christian Knight, come to pick her up early for his lunch thing?
That was the only motivation her legs needed to start running. Kara ran through the masses of people in the city, until her muscles told her to stop her foolishness or they’d give out on her.
Slowing to a walk, Kara squinted breathlessly up at the sky. It wasn’t as blue as the French sky, and she found herself looking away from it, disregarding it completely, whereas she’d always stare at the French sky, enthralled by its cheerful blue and its fluffy clouds.
Kara yawned, feeling like her jaw was about to crack. She glanced around. Shops, people, taxis, cars…
Well, it was time to get the fresh air. In New York.

****
Lucas didn’t need to call up for permission, the Penthouse was available to him whenever he needed or wanted it. He couldn’t stand still in the elevator, shuffling from foot to foot. Would she slap him and say she never wanted to see his face again?
She could slap him, he’d take it. But if she sent him away…
Luc sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets., trying to ignore his heart as it tried to escape his rib cage. The elevator doors opened and he made his way into the penthouse where it always seemed like people where always cleaning and moving things around.
The first maid noticed him and gasped for so long and so loudly that everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up.
Their first reaction was to freeze in spot and not say a word to Lucas.
“Mr C-c-cartier, welcome,” said a chubby, short maid who was the head maid. Lucas nodded at her, eyes darting impatiently about.
What should he do? She he just burst in on her and surprise her? No, she might stab him by accident or something. Justin.
The other workers suddenly came to life and stutters of “Welcome, Mr C-c-cartier.” spread through the room.
Lucas acknowledged them with a nod.
“Justin!” he called.
A second later, a flustered Justin came bursting down the hallway, halting a few inches before collision with the kitchen counter.
“Lucas! Mr Cartier! Jesus!” panted Justin with wide eyes.
Lucas shook his head impatiently. “The first two, I am, but don’t go calling me Jesus. Where’s Kara?”
Justin blinked rapidly, pushing back his shower damp hair as he waved his other hand about.
“She around the house somewhere, Sir. Shall I get her?”
What was with all the millionaires strolling in, nearly giving Justin a heart attack and looking for Kara? He couldn’t understand. The girl’s bones must’ve been made of pure gold.
“No…”Luc shook his head, for the first time feeling the electricity zap down his back. God, he was so fucking nervous.
The elevator whooshed open behind him.
“Do you know how strange taxi drivers find it to drive Raphaël Sauvage?” asked Raphaël as he strolled in.
Justin paled. “Mr Sauvage…” he rasped out.
Raphaël sighed at Justin’s unusual phobia. “Calm the fuck down, Justin.”
Lucas was looking around, feeling the tension ease out of him at Raphaël’s presence. At least there was someone who’d be able to stop him if he went batshit on the place.
He glanced at Raphaël. “I figured Christian would offer you his car.”
“He did. I declined. Have you seen her?”
Luc shook his head and turned to Justin who was visibly making an effort to not pass out.
“Take me to her,” said Luc.
Justin nodded and began leading Lucas to Kara’s room. When they reached the door, Justin went to knock, but Lucas pushed him aside and sent the door gliding open.
Justin waited to hear Kara gasp and scream for privacy, but only got Lucas’s raised eyebrow.
“There’s no one here,” said Luc.
Justin blanched, jumping from his spot against the wall to look into the room. The bathroom door was wide open and empty. “What?! Where is she?!”
“Are you asking me?” growled Lucas as he turned on Justin. “Where the fuck is she?”
Justin inched back into the wall. “Painting!”
“Where?”
“In the office! She’s b-been using it as her studio until Annie finds her a good studio. She spends hours in there, the other day she was in there all day…”
Justin was talking to the wall, because Lucas was already gone.
He appeared into the main sitting room where Raphaël was reclined in a lounger, watching as Lucas strode up to a closed door and stared at it like he expected it to speak.
Raphaël cleared his throat. “Got a problem with the office door, Luc?” he asked curiously.
Lucas ignored him. With his heart in his throat, he reached forward and gripped the door handle.
With the jerk of his wrist, he sent the door swinging open and stepped inside before he could change his mind.
He didn’t see Kara anywhere.
But what he did see, had the breath stuck in his throat.