I didn’t know what this meant to him but I knew what it meant to me. I nearly threw myself at him and gave him a big kiss.
Instead, I called, “Ready.”
His head came up, he looked at me, his eyes went lazy and my stomach pitched pleasantly.
Then he asked me, “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
My body rocked to a complete halt.
It was safe to say, no. I didn’t know.
I mean, I knew I was nothing to sneeze at. No mothers had pulled their children away from my grotesqueness and I could somewhat easily get a date.
The way he said it, the fact that Lucien said it – a man so rugged, so compelling, I’d likened him to a living god not twenty minutes before; a man who’d probably seen his fair share of women in his time – that made it another compliment which was profound and I was definitely not sure I could handle it.
“Leah?” His voice calling my name jerked me out of my Lucien Profound Compliment Stupor.
I didn’t know what to say. What did you say?
I decided on, “Thank you.”
He walked right up to me, his eyes thoughtful. When he stopped (in my space, by the way), he used both his hands to shift my hair over my shoulders and then he curled his fingers around my neck. The whole time, his eyes were locked on mine.
“You have no idea, do you?” he asked quietly.
“I count the fact that I’ve reached forty and no one has asked me to join a circus as a good sign,” I told him, his head cocked sharply to the side and he burst out laughing, pulling me to him roughly and giving me a stand-up hug.
I endured this hug. It was hard. A stand-up hug from Lucien wasn’t as good as a lying down one but it wasn’t far off.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity but wasn’t, obviously, he pulled away. “Let’s get you some books.”
He drove us in the Cayenne to a mall in the city. Not any mall but an exclusive one that was surrounded by streets and streets of luxurious boutique shops and classy restaurants, cafés and bars. These were all nestled in between wide, clean sidewalks with lampposts on which hooked hanging planters and big, stylish pots on the walks all dripping colorful flowers.
He valet parked and we went to an enormous bookstore. There, he bought me ten books.
I thought we’d walk right back to the valet but he steered me into the boutique streets and seemed perfectly fine with wandering the sidewalks on a sunny day, hand-in-hand.
I saw a particularly gorgeous outfit in a window and my heart must have leaped because his head turned to me before he walked me right in. Then he went directly to the shop assistant, told her we wanted the outfit in the window and gave her my size.
I was staring at him and I was pretty sure my mouth was hanging open when the assistant asked me, “Would you like to try it on?”
I looked at her and was about to speak when Lucien said, “No. We’ll take it.”
I watched in horror, mainly because I could see the prices on the register display, as she rung it up and it took all my willpower not to freak out.
I stood dutifully beside Lucien as he paid, the shop assistant looking at him probably like I did when he yanked off the towel and at me definitely like I was the luckiest woman in the universe.
As we walked out, Lucien carrying both my bags, I felt it important to say something.
“That wasn’t necessary.”
His hand gave mine a squeeze but he didn’t look at me.
“You’re correct, it wasn’t,” he replied.
Well, what could you say to that?
Except nothing. So I said nothing.