the police.’
Star whirled round, aquamarine eyes aghast. ‘Luc…no…
please
don’t do that!’
Luc shrugged a broad shoulder. ‘“Please” doesn’t work with me any more. I want blood. I want Juno. If you can’t deliver her, I’m just wasting my time, and I don’t like people who waste my time.’
‘If I knew where she was, I’d tell you…I
swear
I would!’ Star gasped, hurrying across the expanse of worn slate floor that separated them.
‘No, you wouldn’t. You’d protect her. You’d hide her from me—’
‘No…If she got in touch…’ Star snatched in a shuddering breath, her eyes overbright with unshed tears. ‘I’d tell you. I swear I would. I wouldn’t like doing it, but what Juno’s done to Emilie hurts and angers me very much. My mother was in the wrong—’
‘The police can deal with her. I’ve got enough to hang her with.’
‘No…you can’t do that!’ Involuntarily, she stretched out her hand and pulled at his arm in an attempt to hold him back as he opened the door that led into the passageway.
Luc gazed down at her, eyes glittering black and cold as ice in warning. ‘Don’t touch me…’
Her throat closed over. Her fingers dropped jerkily from his sleeve. She trembled in shock, a mortified wave of hot colour sweeping up her throat. For an instant, she sank like a stone into a bottomless pit of remembered rejection. Their wedding night, which Luc had spent with his beautiful mistress. The unbelievable anguish of loving without return. In a split second she relived it all, aquamarine eyes darkening with pain and veiling.
‘I’ll crucify Juno in court and I’ll divorce you,’ Luc murmured with velvet-soft sibilance.
‘Do you want me to get down on my knees and
beg
?’ Star flung at him wildly.
Luc raised a withering aristocratic dark brow.
‘I’ll do
anything—
’
‘Begging doesn’t excite me.’
Startled by that husky assurance, Star lifted her head and looked up at him again. Luc gave her a dark smile, brilliant eyes shimmering beneath his lush black lashes. Heat curled low in the pit of her stomach, jolting her. She quivered, drawn like a moth to a flame.
‘But then I like my women tall and blonde and rather more sophisticated,’ Luc completed with dulcet cool.
Star flinched, stomach turning over at that lethal retaliation.
In the simmering silence the door at the foot of the dim passageway was suddenly thrust noisily wide. Rory strode in, carrying several bulging supermarket carrier bags. He came to a halt with a startled frown. ‘Sorry. When you didn’t hear me knock, I tried the door. I didn’t realise you had company.’
Disconcerted by Rory’s appearance, Star breathed in deep. ‘Rory, this is Luc…Luc Sarrazin. He’s just leaving—’
‘Like hell I will,’ Luc incised, half under his breath, still as a statue now by her side.
Not believing her ears at that intervention, Star glanced at her estranged husband in astonishment.
‘Luc…?’ The bags of groceries in Rory’s hands slid down onto the stone floor as he released his grip on them. ‘You’re…you’re Star’s
husband
?’
Luc ignored him. His attention was on Star. ‘Does he live here?’
‘No, I don’t,’ Rory stated curtly.
Luc turned his arrogant head back to study Rory.
‘Fiches le camp…
get out of here!’
‘I’m not leaving unless Star asks me to…’ The younger man stood his ground.
‘If you stay, I’ll rearrange your face,’ Luc asserted with cool, unapologetic provocation.
‘Stop it, Luc!’ Star was aghast at Luc’s unashamed aggression.
Luc angled back his proud dark head and lounged backagainst the doorframe like a big powerful jungle cat ready to spring. ‘Stop what?’
‘What’s got into you?’ Star demanded in hot embarrassment.
‘This little punk got my wife pregnant and you dare to ask me that?’ Luc launched back at her, his husky accent scissoring over every syllable with raw incredulity.
‘Rory is
not
the father