Breaking Love Full Hearts 2 (11 page)

Megan’s heart was in her throat as she paid the driver and got out of the cab in front of Luc’s building. She walked up the steps and buzzed, then waited for a moment. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to say.

“
Âllo?
” A woman’s voice came over the speaker.

“Oh, um, hi. I’m looking for Luc.”

“He’s not here right now.” The voice now sounded bored.

“Okay. This is Megan, a friend of his. I think I left my cellphone there. Is it possible for me to come up and check?”

“Oh, yes, the American. It is Simone. I found your phone. I will send the elevator down for you,” Simone responded tersely before buzzing her into the building.

When Megan reached Luc’s floor, she found Simone standing in the foyer, lighting a cigarette.

“Come in. Your phone is in the kitchen. I found it earlier on the floor near the couch.”

Megan smiled and followed Simone inside. “Thank you. That’s a relief.”

“Would you like a coffee? Luc’s washing machine broke and I am here waiting for the repairman to finish.” Simone poured two coffees and pointed Megan to a chair.

“Um, I should just get my phone and go, but thank you,” Megan replied, hoping to leave before Luc got back.

“Sit for a minute,” Simone said, bringing the mugs over to the table. “That is an old trick, no? To leave something behind so you can see the man again.” She gave Megan a knowing smile.

“No, it honestly was just a careless mistake. I should go.”

“So, you stayed here last night? His plan worked, then.”

Megan gave her a confused look as she slid into the chair opposite her. “Plan?”

“Luc loves American women. All French men do, actually. Well, mostly the boys love the college girls who come over here. But he hasn’t outgrown it yet,” she said, taking a drag on her cigarette and blowing the smoke out. She continued. “You are known for being, what is that term, an ‘easy thing’?”

“A sure thing,” Megan answered quietly.

“Yes. That’s it. Luc has an expression to describe it—‘they hear the accent and then spread their legs.’ Megan, you seem nice. I only tell you this so you will not expect more from Luc. He is not going to be anyone’s knight in shining armour.”

“Right,” Megan agreed, wishing she were anywhere but here listening to this. Her eyes searched the room for her phone unsuccessfully.

“He took you to the Louvre, then the Eiffel Tower, no?”

“Yes.” Megan flinched in surprise.

“I’m guessing he took you for a private dinner on a yacht, on the Seine?”

“Yes,” Megan replied, suddenly feeling nauseous.

“That is what he does. Always the same. The Louvre, the tower and, if the woman is a real challenge, the yacht. You must have been the toughest of challenges to end up back here. Most women give in on the boat.”

Simone sucked on her cigarette before continuing. “He is both a romantic and a predator—like most men, maybe, but smarter about it. He sees something he wants and knows exactly how to get it. Don’t think too poorly of him, though. He really believes he is doing women a service. Taking them out of their dull lives and into something exciting and romantic for a short time. He likes to send them home feeling sexy.”

Megan felt numb as she listened to Simone talk. Her voice came out as almost a whisper. “I should go, Simone. Where’s my phone?”

“I have upset you. I only tell you this to help you. I hope you can see that?” Simone tried to look concerned as she got up to get Megan’s phone.

“Yes, of course. Thank you,” Megan said, feeling confused and unsure if she should be thanking Simone or slapping her smug face. She stood up and took her phone back.

“I’ll tell him you were here,” Simone said as they walked to the elevator together.

“No, please don’t. I didn’t intend to see him again anyway.” Megan managed a weak smile as she looked at Simone, trying to gage her reaction. She pushed the button to call the elevator.

“I’ll keep it our little secret. No point in him knowing you came back for more. He’s out with another woman today, anyway. She is French, so he’ll have to use a different game.”

Her words dug into Megan like talons. Megan willed the elevator to arrive before she had to hear any more. Finally the doors opened and she could escape. She pushed the button and gave Simone a little nod and a weak smile.

“Enjoy the rest of your trip, Megan. I will be here waiting for the repairman to finish.” She rolled her eyes as the doors closed.

Megan tried to blink back tears as she rode down. Her worst nightmare at that moment would be for Luc to be there when she got to the main floor.
Please don’t be here, please don’t be here
, she begged silently.

As the doors opened onto the main floor, she was filled with a temporary relief at finding the lobby empty. She quickly rushed out of the building and into the cold rain that had started to fall. She walked briskly down the street, not thinking about where she was going.

She had been used, and that awful woman had just delighted in filling her in on what an idiot she was. Simone’s words burned a hole through Megan’s heart:
an easy thing . . . he is a predator . . . most women give in on the boat. . . .

Everything he had said was a lie. This was just a game he played to fuck as many women as he could. He didn’t want to take care of her or show her his city. Her mind raced through the day before and all the time they had spent together at the museum and the Eiffel Tower and dinner. He had seemed so sincere and tender. All that stuff about art and his mother. How could all of that have just been a regular routine for him? How was that possible? Maybe Simone was lying to her. But if that was the case, how could Simone know where Luc had taken her? Was that why he had brought Harper and her back to the hotel two nights earlier? Was it all just to get her into bed? Was it all really that calculated?

She walked for several blocks before realizing she had no idea where she was. Stopping to look around, she tried to find a cab. She was no longer on a main street, so she would have to find her way back to a main road to get a cab. She suddenly felt completely alone. She was lost in Paris, it was freezing and raining, and she had been used. Luc was with another woman before the sheets had even gotten cold.

She found her cellphone and started to send a text to Harper, but her phone died before she could hit Send. “Motherfucker!” she exclaimed under her breath. A passerby clearly understood, giving her a dirty look for her foul language. She shoved her phone back into her purse and continued walking, trying to wipe the tears away with her hands. They were streaming down her cheeks now, mixing with the rain. Megan shivered, feeling chilled right to the bone.

Finding herself back on Luc’s street, Megan’s heart pounded in her chest with rage and, now, urgency. She needed to get out of here before Luc got home and saw her. She would lose all sense of dignity if he saw her here now.

She rushed along away from his building as quickly as her legs could carry her. Suddenly, a sleek black car pulled alongside her. She looked at it out of the corner of her eye, her heart feeling like it had jumped into her throat as she heard his voice.

“Megan!” Luc called, sounding happy to see her.

She refused to look and kept walking quickly.

“Megan? What’s wrong? Get in the car before you freeze,” Luc ordered as he drove slowly beside her.

“Fuck off,” Megan snapped, without looking at him.

“Would you stop walking and tell me what’s wrong?” Luc called firmly.

“Nothing will be wrong as soon as I get away from you. Now seriously, fuck off!” she spat as she turned in the opposite direction.

He couldn’t turn around because of the other cars on the road, but he could pull over. Luc hit the brakes hard, swerving the car to the side of the road. Several cars behind him honked. He grabbed the keys and got out, jogging up the street to catch her.

Megan felt a hand on her arm, pulling her to a stop. She froze in place and tried to shake his arm away. “Let go of me,” she said firmly, through her teeth.

“Not until you tell me what has made you so angry with me,” Luc said, spinning her to face him.

Megan looked up at him. He took no notice of the rain pouring down as he gave her a hard stare.

“I found out about your little game. Simone filled me in. I guess I was just another woman to hear your accent and spread her legs, right?” she shouted.

“What?” Luc’s head snapped back in surprise. “There is no game, Megan. I don’t know what she told you, but I really like you.”

Megan scoffed. “I’m sure you liked all of us, for a few minutes.” She tugged her arm out of his grip and started to move away.

Luc easily matched her pace, staying right beside her. “Megan, stop. Let me give you a ride to the hotel. I want to get you out of the rain so you can warm up and I can find out what Simone said. There must be some misunderstanding.”

Megan quickened her step, ignoring him and craning her neck in search of a cab.

“Megan, stop! This is silly. How can I defend myself if I don’t know what she told you?”

Megan stepped out onto the street to flag down a passing cab, but it continued on. “That’s hardly my problem, Luc. If you want to know what Simone said, go ask her. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just another bad memory. Now fuck off!”

Luc grabbed her arms and pulled her back onto the sidewalk as another car barrelled toward her. The driver of the car let out a long honk as he passed. Luc spun her to him. “Megan, stop this! You are acting like an insane person. Come with me to the car so we can sort this out!”

“Sort what out, exactly?” Megan spat out, her face wrinkling up in disgust. “How you like American women because we’re so easy? You won the game, Luc! You knew exactly what to do and say to get me into bed, just like you’ve done with countless other women! It’s my own damn fault for trusting you in the first place.”

“Megan, there is no game. I really like you and I wanted to be with you.” Luc’s voice was a mixture of annoyance and pleading.

Megan rolled her eyes and sighed. “You know what? It doesn’t fucking matter! We agreed to one night. No more. We had it. Whether or not you’ve done the same routine with a thousand women or not makes no difference. It’s clearly over. Now just get away from me.”

“Megan, I have not done that a thousand times. Just come with me out of this rain. I don’t want to end things like this.” He pushed his now-drenched hair off his forehead with his hand.

“It doesn’t really matter how it ends. It’s done, which is how we both wanted it.”

Luc took hold of her upper arms with both hands. “It
does
matter. I don’t want you to go home so upset. Let me take you to the hotel. Get in the car.”

Megan shook him off. “You don’t get it, do you?! I told you before—I don’t
need
you. I don’t fucking
need
a man! I am
not
getting into your car!”

Seeing a cab, Megan stepped off the sidewalk and held her hand up. The cab stopped and she got in without looking back.

EIGHT

Megan’s mind was swirling as she fumbled through her purse to find her room key. She was shivering violently and her hands felt like ice, making it hard to unlock the door. When she finally got in, she found the suite empty; Harper was still at her meeting. Glad to find herself alone, she walked directly to her bathroom. She turned the shower on to heat up the water and stripped down, feeling cold and tired. She stayed under the spray of the hot water for a long time, letting the heat rid the chill from her bones.

When Megan got out, she realized she was starving, having not eaten since the night before. She could hear Harper on the phone as she opened the bathroom door, dressed in a hotel robe and slippers.

Harper grinned and waved enthusiastically when she saw Megan. The expression on her face changed as she watched her best friend dissolve into tears and collapse onto the loveseat.

“I have to go. My friend Megan just came in.” She paused. “
Au revoir
.”

Harper tossed her cell onto the coffee table and rushed over to Megan. “Oh my God, what happened, honey?”

Megan told her the entire story from the beginning. Her head was pounding by the time she had let it all out. “It’s just so humiliating, you know? To find out I am just one of many.”

“Meg, do you think you can trust Simone? She’s a total bitch. What if she was just screwing with you?”

“I ran into him when I left, Harper. He didn’t exactly deny it.”

“Oh, Meg, I am so sorry. If I had known that this was what he did to amuse himself, I never would have set you up with him. I just feel so responsible,” Harper said, pulling Megan’s head onto her shoulder.

“It’s not your fault. How could you have known? He seems so sincere and thoughtful. Besides, I knew what I was doing. I made my own choices.”

“But Meg, I practically pushed you into his bed. I
literally
dragged you to meet him, and then I left you at the restaurant with him yesterday, like an asshole. I feel just horrible. What kind of friend am I, to push you into the arms of a total creep?”

“Harper, it’s not your fault. You were just trying to give me a good time. How could you have known?”

“I really thought I knew him better than that. I never should have done this.”

“I chose to go with him, Harper. I chose to get into bed with him. That was all me. I wanted to.”

“But you never would have if you had known the truth about him.”

“Oh, I don’t know why I’m so upset about it anyway. It was only ever going to be one night. What difference does it make if I was the first woman he seduced this way or the hundredth?”

“It makes all the difference,” Harper said, giving her a peck on the head.

“It does, doesn’t it?”

They sat for a minute and then Megan straightened up suddenly. “You know what? I’m in Paris for only one more night, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that prick ruin it. Enough tears. What are we going to do?”

“Are you hungry?” Harper asked.

“Famished.”