Your Wish Is My Command (21 page)

Her forehead began to throb again. This was too much. She had to stop thinking about it all and just live her life. Right now she was interested only in working the shop and continuing to set up her new life. She had furniture to shop for and a model boat to work on. She scowled as thoughts of the pirate-ship model only led to thoughts about Sebastien. Perhaps she'd ditch her plans and do a schooner or something. Or maybe something completely different. “Like a Chinese junk.”

“What was that?”

Jamie turned to find another customer standing at the counter. She'd been so lost in her thoughts she hadn't heard the bell on the door. This customer was blond and wearing khaki shorts, but otherwise he was a carbon copy of her first customer.

“Hi,” he said with an inviting grin. “How are you today?”

“Fine. But I'm not going out with you, so don't even ask,” she snapped.

His smile faded. “I—I just wanted to buy this book.” He tentatively slid a popular
Times
list hardcover on to the counter. “I'm married.”

“Oh, for heaven's sake,” Jamie muttered. She was
losing her sanity. Red-faced, she rang up the sale and offered the man a smile. “I'm sorry, it's been a long morning. Please visit us again.”

The guy smiled a bit unevenly and hurried out the door. Jamie was certain they'd never see him again.

Ree walked up behind her and put her hand on Jamie's shoulder. “Sugar, why don't you go in the back and handle the stock. I'll watch the counter. We're not in the black yet and you're scaring off the customers.”

“Ha ha ha.” But Jamie took her friend's advice and wandered to the back storage room. She had to do something. She had to see him again, somehow convince him to change the deal. Whatever it took, she had to get him to agree to leave her alone.

She had to get him to understand that it would be best if they never saw each other again.

S
ebastien sipped his wine and looked over the dinner menu. Santini's had a wonderful ambience. Small, intimate booths ran along both walls, with round tables for larger parties filling the interior. The decor was dark, plush, and comfortable. They took no reservations and filled up every night. The clientele was made up almost entirely of locals. All in all, a very successful operation.

Sebastien wondered if Angel knew how much of his initial success he owed to Ree Ann. He kept the menu in front of his face but sat at an angle that allowed him to keep an eye on the door. Ree hadn't shown up yet, and he expected Angel to take her to a private dining room once she was here. But Sebastien intended to stick around as long as possible. There was much he could learn from her face when she departed later.

If she departed at all.

He smiled to himself, imagining how stinging Jamie's retort to that thought would have been, had she been privy to it. He was well aware that she could not comprehend the attraction between Angel and Ree. But he could. He had felt the pent-up energy emanating from Angel the day he'd left the shop. Just as he could feel the same bottled-up need in Ree.

He'd done his research on Angel. Yes, the man had behaved appallingly toward Ree Ann. But Sebastien
had discovered this was not typical of the way he treated others in his life. His employees—the ones Sebastien had managed to befriend—were consistent in their comments on his fairness and good managing style. His acquaintances murmured about his quiet philanthropy. Even the women he'd dated briefly— and none had been long-term—had nothing negative to say about the man. Except for the lack of his ring on their fingers.

Ree Ann, then, had been the only person to really shake him up. Sebastien saw this as a very good sign.

Like Ree, Angel had also proved to have an excellent eye for business. With Ree's guidance, Edgar had rescued the restaurant from near financial ruin, then turned it over to Angel. Angel had taken the reins and steered Santini's to an even greater success than Edgar could have imagined.

It was a pity the two had never reconciled, Sebastien thought. Both were stubborn, but Angel wasn't nearly as narrow-minded as his actions seemed to dictate. During the probate process, his behavior had been largely influenced by his own sense of failure where Edgar was concerned. There was also a personal history involving his parents that Sebastien hadn't been entirely successful in uncovering. But he knew it was somehow responsible for Angel's uncharacteristic attack on Ree that had caused the original rift with Edgar.

Whatever their past, he fully believed that now that Angel had finally met up with the sharply intelligent woman Sebastien knew Ree Ann to be, the combination could be downright explosive. They could forge a relationship that would be bold, passionate, and strong enough to weather any storm—that is, if they could lower their defenses long enough to see how right he was.

Sebastien ordered the first course of his meal and
settled in for the long, hopefully successful evening ahead. He imagined Jamie's expression when she realized that his second match was a success. However, rather than amusement, the oddest ache centered in his chest.

He sipped his wine. Nonsense. He was not pining over the affections of a woman. Certainly not when said woman was one of his matches. There were dozens—nay, hundreds—of other women in his future. Far too many for him to waste precious time and energy lusting after the one he couldn't have.

He carefully set the glass down when he realized his grip threatened to snap the fragile stem. He would match her and match her well. There was no other possible outcome to this chain of events. And yet he hadn't brought himself to even contemplate who that man might be. That he was tied up finalizing his work with Ree and Angel was a hollow excuse, and he knew it.

His appetizer arrived. It was perfectly presented and smelled heavenly. Yet he discovered he'd lost his appetite.

He wanted only one thing. The vision that came to mind stirred his hunger, but his belly wasn't what rumbled in response.
MonDieu
, had a man ever ached so supremely for wanting to taste a pair of lips?

Time passed, and still Ree didn't show up. His waiter replaced the half-eaten appetizer with his entrée. Sebastien was pushing his braised duck around on the plate when Ree finally made her entrance and snapped him from his malaise. And an entrance she did make. With nothing more than an understated black dress and her flame-red hair pulled into a sleek, sophisticated twist, she managed to reduce every gentleman in the establishment to drooling incapacitation. Much to their dining partners'dismay.

Sebastien shifted so he was not directly in her line
of vision and turned to watch as Angel stepped away from a table where he'd been talking to several customers. He was rather striking himself, in a superbly cut suit that had Sebastien making a mental note to discover his tailor. His hair was slicked back and gathered in a queue at his neck, his face freshly shaven, and his rather intense eyes focused entirely on his guest.

Sebastien subtly shifted his attention to Ree and had the pleasure of watching her step falter ever so slightly when the two made eye contact. Good, good. Everyone in the room had to be reeling from the waves of sexual energy these two produced.

Her fiery looks were like an exclamation point to his leashed intensity. Sebastien smiled.
Mais oui
, these two will burn brightly together, he thought. And with their intensity, the flame should remain strong and bright for decades to come.

He watched as Angel placed a light hand on Ree's back and escorted her to a private dining room in the rear of the restaurant. He'd seen enough to be convinced that his match was the right one. But he admitted he wished he could observe them. Even in their short time together, Ree Ann had won his affection. What he'd learned of her unusual life had only underscored those feelings. He would enjoy witnessing her fall in love.

He returned his attention to his food and put thoughts of his next chore aside. He would have this evening of victory. Then he would face Jamie's future.

Jamie looked through the window of Santini's. Damn, but she was good! Sebastien was right where she'd suspected he'd be. Eavesdropping on Ree and Angel's hot date. She marched to the door but paused with her hand on the knob. She had come here to
confront Sebastien, but now that she was here, she realized Ree might see them together and think they were both spying on her.

Jamie had to admit she was dying to be a fly on the wall. Ree had been on an emotional seesaw at work for the past couple of days. Which had been merciful only in that it helped Jamie take her mind off her own problems. She had stopped attacking every poor, unsuspecting male who entered the store and had put her thoughts to work on helping Ree figure out what she wanted. And Jamie was very much afraid her friend wanted Angel. She still wasn't completely certain why, but there was no denying that Ree was like a golden moth to his dark flame. At the moment anyway. Jamie trusted her friend hadn't lost all of her instincts. And if Ree's wings started to get a bit scorched, Jamie trusted that she would fly immediately to safety. After scorching Angel's wings completely, of course.

Jamie took her hand off the knob and leaned against the outside of the building. She didn't want to intrude. Ree had made it perfectly clear she had to handle this on her own. Fine. She'd just wait for Sebastien to come out.

“Spying again?”

She let out a small shriek as she jumped away from the wall. “No. That was your role tonight, if I'm not mistaken. I was waiting out here to talk to you.

” Sebastien was grinning at her from less than a foot away. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Would you care to join me for the remainder of my dinner?”

She was still glowering at him for making her jump. Again. “No, thank you. Just tell me when you'll be done and I'll meet you somewhere else. We have to talk.”

Now his smile faded. “Then we must talk. I'll be right back.”

Jamie opened her mouth to tell him to finish his dinner, but he was already gone. She swore under her breath. This wasn't going at all how she'd planned it. Not that she'd really thought it out that much. She had been working on rearranging her apartment, but her whirling thoughts made concentration impossible. She needed to talk to Sebastien, and until she did, she wasn't going to get anything else done. At least not well. And since it was her idea to force this confrontation, she thought she'd feel more in control of the situation. She didn't.

Sebastien reappeared and took her hand, weaving it through his arm. “Where to, mademoiselle?”

She slid her arm right back out and stepped carefully away. “Rule number one: no contact.”

He nodded. “Agreed.”

Jamie should have been relieved, but her stomach was too knotted up for the feeling to be noticeable. “I need to talk to you.” Customers leaving the restaurant jostled by them. “In private.”

“So you have said. Would you like to go to the courtyard?”

She knew he meant his courtyard. She shook her head. “Maybe along the Moonwalk.”

“It is a Friday evening. We won't find much privacy there.” He tilted his head. “Would you feel more comfortable on your turf, as they say? Shall we go to the shop?”

Jamie thought about it, but Marta was still there working on some of the other accounts she did on the side. And Bennett was supposed to meet her there later. She didn't want to interfere with that. Nor did she want Sebastien anywhere near her apartment. “Okay, we'll use your courtyard. But remember the rules.”

He smiled at her, obviously amused, and motioned with his arm for her to proceed

Fine, let him be amused, she thought. As long as he obeyed the rules. He wouldn't be smiling for long anyway. Not when he heard what she had to say.

They were settling themselves at the wrought-iron table in his courtyard far too soon. She still wasn't entirely sure how she was going to handle this. Sebastien had been mercifully silent on the walk over, but her thoughts were a confused jumble. Anytime she got within three feet of the man, her mind turned to mush.

Well, that was about to end.