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PART I: When We Touch

Chapter One

It was past ht when Lucien opened the rear entrance to his restaurant and i his movements In the distance he heard the sound of a low male voice An intruder had breached his restaurant’s security Although Fusion was frequently bustling with the chic late-night dinner and nightclub crowd, it was closed on Sunday and Monday There definitely shouldn’t be anyone inside Quietly, he closed the rear door, his fist tightening around the polothis cracked one with an intact one froe closet at Fusion He had different plans for it now

For the uely amused, cynical stance of an experienced, world-weary libertine, a man who claimed no family, no country, no creed, and few of the worldly possessions to which he was entitled by lahich were ht for Always He just hadn’t realized that the restaurant he’d recently bought had gotten so deeply into his bones until this very moment, when he was ready to do battle for it

He eased down the di around a partially closed door that led to the large bar area of the restaurant He turned his head, his hearing pitched to pick up the slightest sound A tingle went down his spine at the sound of feh and inti, as if in a toast

Lucien approached the door and leaned his head into the crack

“Why do you play games with me?” he heard a man ask

“Play games?”

Lucien’s escalated heartbeat seee She was from the country of his birth The feht, her French accent laced with a British tinge Perhaps he recognized the accent because it was very similar to his own

“You are taunting ht Not just ht asn’t bewitched by you”

“I’ether, after all,” the woot the is

“I want more than just to ith you I want to help you I want you inthe feh alert to irritated in a second flat when he recognized the lary on his premises

He’d walked in on a seduction