The Laws of Seduction: A French Kiss Novel (9 page)

Rex picked it up at half a ring. “
Allo
?
”

“Don’t give me ‘
allo
’ motherfucker,” Marcel said. “Where are you?”

“
Mon frangin
, your voice is music to my ears.”

“Too bad I can’t say the same. Christ, how the hell did you get yourself arrested? And why aren’t you calling me on your own phone? It couldn’t have taken you this long to get out of jail. Come on, I’m busy.”

Busy getting laid, he knew. Son of a bitch was on his honeymoon off the coast of New England while Rex rotted away for
la firme
. “It did take that long. And my phone’s missing.”

“Fucking
flics
. I’ll get it cleared.”

“No—don’t!” Rex said, much too quickly.
Merde
.

“Christ! Okay! But why not?”

Should he tell him how he taped the congresswoman? Should he say what his suspicions were behind this whole thing? Or should he just let it ride until he knew for sure? Rex let his instinct decide for the latter. Better to play it off for now.

“I have some files on it I can’t afford to lose, that’s all. I’m sure they’ll find it sooner or later.”

Marcel paused. “You’re hiding something from me, but I’ll let it go for now. But I’ll have it traced.”

“It won’t work. I shut it off when I gave it over. But that’s not the larger issue anyway. Someone is trying to frame me for whatever reason. But I’m not going to find out up here in this bourgeois Riviera. I need to get down to D.C. And I need you to get me a car that can’t be traced.”

“I’m no expert on American law, but didn’t you just post a five-million-dollar bond?”

“Which is why I have to do this under the radar. Can you get me a car or what?”

“Can’t you get your own?’

Jesus, talk about dicks
. . . “No, because they’re watching us. Even sent the goddamned cops over to the house.”

“Us? Whose house are you at?”

Fuck
. Rex pinched his eyelids. “My lawyer’s.”

“So you called Legal. Though I don’t know how good they are at criminal bullshit. But I heard that Bélanger once clerked for a district—”

“I didn’t call Legal. I got my own lawyer.”

“Who? Do I know him?”

“Her.” He may as well tell him. “Charlotte Andreko.”

Rex could almost hear his head exploding. “
Her?
Why in the holy fuck would you pick that crazy
salope
?”

Was that his own nails cutting into his palm? He forced himself to stay calm. He needed Marcel to help him and besides, he couldn’t smash his face from here. “Can you think of a better person to defend me on a sexual assault charge than a feminist lawyer? Especially one who’s a partner in a firm in the city where I’ve been charged?”

“Okay, I get it. I also get the big, juicy
lolos
.”

“You know I haven’t forgotten that sucker punch in Boston. You still have one coming.”

“All right already. Where are you?”

“Not too far from Atlantic City. At least I can see it from the beach.”

Silence, then, “Get back to me in a couple of hours.”

“Don’t take too long.” Rex said. “I don’t have much time.”

Rex heard something bang in the background. “Neither do I. Call me in two.
Ciao
.”

When Rex returned to the table Charlotte was staring straight ahead, her chin propped in her palm. “The congresswoman,” she said, not waiting for him to sit, “she’s in love with you.”

“What are you talking about?” he said, even though he did.

She looked at him directly. “I’m talking about Lilith Millwater.”

“In love with me . . .”
Merde.
He flicked his hand. “What difference does that make?”

“What difference?” She looked flabbergasted. “She’s
in love
with you.”

“
Non
,” he said, continuing
en français
, “I was fucking her. She was fucking me. It was servicing. That’s all there was to it.”

She looked up, answering in kind. “You’re wrong. It makes all the difference in the world. Women never just fuck. They’re always emotionally invested in one way or another. It could be because they’re unhappy, or they need the attention, or yeah, maybe they’re in love. But it’s always something.”

“Right. She liked my cock and I wanted the bill passed. A simple barter system.”

“But what if she stole your phone and listened to your recording of you hooking up with that lobbyist? My God, it’d be like a double whammy. An insult to injury. Rex, if she
is
in love with you, it would destroy her.”

His jaw tightened. “Wouldn’t that be the intention?”

“What?” She seemed incredulous. “Let me wrap my head around this. I thought you taped your conversation with her for your
own
protection, because who trusts politicians these days? But it never was for that, was it? You’d blackmail her if necessary, wouldn’t you?”

He laughed softly, hardly believing his ears. “Wouldn’t you? What kind of lawyer would you be if you didn’t throw every wrench in your toolbox?”

“It’s not the same thing,” she said, slowly rising. “You don’t hit them below the belt.”

“But why not? That’s the softest spot.”

Charlotte stared at him. “God, you can be cold. It’s like you throw a switch and you turn into this iceman. How do you sleep at night?”

He picked what was left of his wine, downing it. “Like a baby.”

She turned, hurrying down the street.

Chapter Nine

Filling in the Blanks

“C
HARLOTTE, LET ME
explain!”
Merde
. Now he really screwed it. He went after her.

When she stopped at a traffic light, Rex caught up with her. She turned to him before he could speak.

“You must forgive me,” she said, looking back to the street. “As you may have noticed, I have a tendency to say the first thing on my mind. It’s a bad habit and why I don’t have many friends. You owe me no explanation.”

“Of course I do.” The light changed and they continued on. “You’re my lawyer, so you need to know the facts. Why do you think I recorded her to begin with?”

“That’s easy. To throw her words back in her face.”

“And why would you think I’d have to?” This was the part that sent his blood pressure through the roof. “I’ve come to realize she doesn’t give a damn about the bill or the thousands of jobs it could create, even though that’s what she’s been campaigning on. She doesn’t give a damn because she’s a shark, Charlotte. She’s such a shark she makes you look like a fucking jellyfish.”

That got her attention. “Gee, thanks.”

“I’m serious. She hates her husband, her kids are grown and off on their own careers, and she’s in real danger of losing her seat because she’s been accused of not hating Washington enough. So she’s keeping this bill in limbo just so she can show her voters how hard she’s fighting for them, as well as show the party bosses how much she hates Washington by letting it die.”

“Yet you were fucking her.”

“
Oui
. I was taking one for the team.”

Charlotte looked at him, incredulous. “That’s disgusting.”

“You do what you have to do.”

She considered that a moment. “Then she’s using you.”

“She thinks she is.”

Her lawyerly radar was on, her face lighting. “So by recording her, you’re really calling in your marker?”

“Exactly.”

They came to another light and she paused, her face creasing. “But she’s still in love with you, you know.”

“Right. That’s the vig.”

It changed, and they continued on. “The what?”

“The vig. The juice. The slice I take for doing her the favor.” She wanted the iceman? Oh boy, was she getting him. “The part that sinks the knife when I drive it home.”

That stopped her cold. “But that’s horrible.”

“She taught me the Washington rules, Charlotte. I’m just playing by them.”

She walked faster. “I don’t want to hear any more. I’ve been hired to defend you against a charge, and your liaisons are none of my business. As far as I’m concerned, the two have nothing to do with each other. I’m sorry I stuck my nose in your affairs. It won’t happen again.”

Hearing that hardly placated him. He didn’t want her being so civil. He wanted her coming at him in a huff and screaming with jealousy, and not like so many woman of his acquaintance, cavalier and dismissive of their relations. Because deep down he actually hoped she
was
jealous, and not this outraged feminist, blindly defending a woman who’d cut her down as quick as breathing. He didn’t want Charlotte living by the rules she adopted for herself. He wanted to be the exception to them.

Ahead lay the beach, Charlotte aiming for the pavilion at the foot of the strand. The wind was freshening the closer they came, and it was a good thing she’d slipped on her sweater as he didn’t have a jacket to lend her. Somehow he wished he had, if he could offer her some kind of peace offering, no matter how insignificant. A distance now gaped between them, and the fact that it bothered him startled Rex considerably.

When the street ended they stepped up to the pavilion, Charlotte crossing it to the railing at the entrance to the beach. As she looked toward the ocean, Rex came up beside her, leaning back so he could face her.

“Charlotte,” he said, his finger brushing her arm.

She glanced to it before turning her gaze back to the water. “Seriously, Rex, I don’t need to hear any more about your affair.”

“To call it an affair would be like calling McDonald’s haute cuisine,” he said. “I’d come to Washington, I’d get the latest story on the bill, we’d have some drinks, and then I’d—”

“Please,” Charlotte said, turning toward him. “No play-by-play. The only reason I mentioned it in the first place was because it’ll complicate things.”

He straightened. “It seems it already has.”

“Apparently. Now you have a jealous woman behind this whole thing.”

“I wasn’t talking about the congresswoman,” he said, taking her by the shoulders. “I was talking about you.”

“Me?” She palmed her chest. “Do you think
I’m
jealous?”

“Are you?”

She huffed. “No, of course not.”

“Then what is it?” He swept his hand over the top of her head, smoothing her flying strands. “Because it feels like more to me.”

She seemed surprised. At least he hoped she was. “Maybe it is. But I don’t want it to be.”

“Maybe I don’t give a damn what you want,” he said, his mouth falling to hers.

Perhaps that was the last thing Charlotte expected, Rex kissing her, but he didn’t care. After just a couple of hours he already missed the taste of her, the feel of her in his arms. He couldn’t remember the last time he reacted to anyone this way, maybe he never had. He pulled her closer, hardly caring if anyone was watching or if he was a grown man making a fool of himself. When she sighed and deepened their kiss, he turned to pin her against the rail, his body pressing against hers.

“I want you, Charlotte . . .” he murmured against her lips. “I want you very badly.”

“Maybe I don’t give a damn what you want,” she whispered back, nipping the corner of his mouth.

He growled, “I could take you right here . . .”

“Do you always take what you want?” she said, her hips shifting in a tantalizing pass.

“
Oui
,” he wanted her to know. “Though it usually comes willingly. I choose my targets carefully, you see.”

“Is that what I am?” Charlotte’s blue eyes sparked fire. “A target? An objective?”

“
Oui
,” he said without hesitation. “I go after what I want and I don’t stop until I get it.” He kissed her once more, then pulled back, caressing her cheek. “Are you gotten, Charlotte? Or is that exceedingly bad English?”

“
Oui à la fois
,” she said, toying with a button on his shirt. “And God help me—I don’t want to be. In fact, you’re scaring the crap out of me.”

“
Très bien
,” he said, kissing her again. “That’s what I expect from all my conquests. How do you think I’ve gotten as far as I have?”

“I’m not joking, Rex. You do something to me. Do you think I react this way to all of my clients?”

“Since most of your clients are women . . .” He broke into a wicked grin. “Why, you saucy little thing, you.”

She turned six shades of red. “Oh—
stop
,” she whispered. “I’m serious.”

“Believe me, I know,” he said, throwing his arm over her shoulders as they walked back to the street. “Your demons are mine,
ma belle
. I find you very, very hard to resist, too.”

He felt her laughing as she tipped her head against him. “Oh, if only you knew what was going through my mind now.”

“Are you still thinking of Lilith?” He kissed her temple. “Oh,
merde
, I’d still like to meet that guy who messed you up.”

Her arm tightened around his waist. “Then you’re jealous, too?”

“Aha!” he said, pointing at her. “You
were
jealous.”

“Only because I had a reason to be. You,
mon ami
, don’t.” A tiny derisive sound came from the back of her throat. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she coerced that lobbyist just to get your attention.”

Rex stopped. “What are you saying?”

“You mean you hadn’t thought of that?”

“It’s obvious someone had, but Lilith?” He wouldn’t put it past her to steal his phone, but this added a whole other dimension.

What possible reason would the congresswoman have in alienating Rex? Their relationship, if it could be called that, had been centered around the dredging bill, their coupling hardly more than a pleasant way to settle the day’s work, much like the old-school backroom boys would use a glass of scotch and a cigar to seal the deal. It hadn’t entered his mind to look for anything deeper, and if Lilith had ever shown any strains of jealousy, it was only because she was protecting her turf. Rex well knew that information was the lifeblood of D.C., and it didn’t hurt having the ear—and the cock—of the chief operating officer of one of the biggest privately held corporations in the world. But
son of a bitch
, why would she have to do something like that? Didn’t she trust him? As if he didn’t know. In Washington
trust
was a currency at ten thousand percent inflation, as worthless as a day-old newspaper.

“It’s a possibility,” Rex finally admitted. “Though the girl would owe her big-time.”

They stopped at a corner to wait for the light to change, his arm still around her. “And for what?” Charlotte said. “What would induce a young woman to compromise herself like that? The victim would always take a character hit. She’ll always be seen as complicit in some way.”

He eyed her skeptically. “Always? Do you really think so?”

Charlotte looked miffed, slipping from his arms. “All right then, we’ll say
usually
. But she’ll still bear the brunt of the stigma. People will always view her through the sexual lens of the crime. They’ll picture her with her skirt hiked up around her waist and naked beneath, not screaming or shaking in terror. That’s why so many women never report it.”

“And it’ll only get worse when her story turns out to be false.”

“Exactly,” Charlotte said, apparently appeased as she allowed Rex’s arm around her again. The light changed and they crossed. “She must have been paid one hell of a sack of money. Did she seem like the type?”

“I hardly remember. Do you think I was actually listening to what she was saying? I was looking at her
lolos
.”

Charlotte peered at him, moving away. “Do you have any idea how chauvinistic that just sounded?”

Christ, she’s a prickly woman
. He slipped his arm around her waist. “Yes, though it just proves how little attention I actually paid to her. Now
you
, on the other hand . . .” He caressed her hip. “I listen to every word that comes out of that smart mouth of yours.”

“I’m not sure how I should interpret that,” she said, lifting her chin.

“It means you most definitely have my attention.” Then he kissed her, right there on the street, amid the traffic with the pedestrians having to move around them, making a spectacle of himself for all of Margate to see. Not that he cared. He was quickly discovering Charlotte was like a blast of sea spray, too much champagne, closing a billion-dollar deal. But as intoxicating as she was, he also needed to remember he had too much to do and so little time to accomplish it, and Charlotte was too smart and intuitive to treat lightly. He needed her and her expertise to extricate himself from this mess, but if he let things get too complicated between them, well . . . he didn’t want to think about it. All he wanted to think about was
now
.

“I have to get a few things,” he said as they walked toward the boulevard. “Does there happen to be a men’s store around here?”

“Burberry? No,” she said, casting him a wary glance. “But I think we may be able to find something within walking distance.”

“Good, because as much as I’d like to be out of my clothes around you, I still have to deal with the world.”

She squeezed his hand. “Don’t I know.”

A short statement with more implications than she realized. He stopped in front of a bakery, clutching her in front of him as he caught her reflection in the window. “The congresswoman’s in D.C.,
ma petit
. You know I’m not going to find out what’s behind all this from up here. I have to make a call in a couple of hours about picking up a car in Atlantic City, then I’m taking it down there to see her.”

“But how can you be sure she’s even there?”

“She has to be. Congress recesses after Thursday, and as I mentioned before, that’s her last chance to get the bill out for a vote.”

“Yes,” she said dryly. “She has to at least
pretend
like she’s trying.”

“As I said before, I don’t write the rules. I only play by them.”

She peered back at him, her reflection hovering over a row of éclairs. “Have you ever thought of running for office? You’d make a damned good politician.”

“Ha! I’ve heard that before. But what would be the profit in it?” He leaned in, whispering, “Have I mentioned you look good enough to eat?”

“Have
I
mentioned the poll that said Frenchwomen prefer chocolate over sex?”

He was horrified. “Where’d you read that—the
Onion
?”

“The
New York Times
, I think. It was very scientific.” She tapped at the window. “We’re stopping here on the way back. I want that éclair.”

He kissed her neck. “And I want you,” he said, one hand sliding to the underside of her breast.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “It’ll be a friendly competition.”

They walked on, coming to a row of shops on Ventnor Avenue, Rex finding a store that sold men’s furnishings, surprising him how upscale it was. He bought underwear, two pairs of Jack Donnelly khakis, four Lacoste polos, socks, a belt, a pair of Top-Siders, and a gray tweed sport jacket from which he snipped the tags and slipped right on.

“Planning on staying a month?” Charlotte asked.

“I only planned on staying overnight. The rest of my things are on the plane, and it’s not like they’ll let me get within a klick of it.”

“I know how you feel,” she said wryly. “The rest of my things are at my chateau.”

The extremely obliging shop owner beamed at Rex from over the piled items. “And how do you wish to pay for this, sir?” he asked, teeth gleaming.