The Vintner and The Vixen

Chapter 10

This was the do-or-die moment. Her grip tightened on the door handle to Jacques's room. All she had to do was push it open.

After fleeing the winery that afternoon, she'd ridden as far west as she could until she'd come to the Atlantic. There, as vacationers enjoyed the hot summer day with ice creams, she'd taken off her boots and walked the beach, imagining that the water lapping her ankles had also once been on the shores of Canada. She couldn't go back. And she couldn't go forward.

How could she even contemplate a relationship with Jacques, knowing that any second Tony, or the RCMP for that matter, would find her and either kill her or take her to jail, which was pretty much the same thing?

But she couldn't stay at the chateau, even at the cottage, without doing something. The chemistry between her and Jacques was too explosive to ignore. Either she pushed him away or she pulled him closer. She knew which one her body wanted. Was it fair to offer him an affair with no future? But even without the price on her head, what real chance did they have? They were too different to be able to make something permanent work. Besides, she wasn't ready to settle down yet.

She knew she had to return the land, and probably the cottage, to the de Launay family. It wasn't right for her to keep what had been in their family for centuries. If she managed to stay in hiding, and as soon as she lived up to her promise to Gran-Gran to spend a year concentrating on her art, she'd make a deal with Jacques. Nothing like the ten million euros he'd offered. Maybe just enough to get a small place in a neighboring village. There was nothing in Canada for her to go back to. Her life, for as long as she had one, was here now.

But in the meantime, what should she do about Jacques? Maybe a short-term affair would clear the air of the lust-haze that enveloped them. Once they'd satisfied their passions, they could both go back to their original truce agreement. Yeah, her body had definitely overruled her brain on that decision. On the way back to the chateau, she'd stopped at a pharmacy and bought the biggest box of condoms they sold.

So, here she stood, outside his bedroom dressed in her most seductive negligee, because if you were going to renegotiate an agreement, you should do it from a position of strength.

The handle turned smoothly in her hand, the door opening with a slight creak.

There was a rustling noise from across the room and then a pool of light as Jacques sat up and turned on the lamp beside his bed. He blinked a couple of times then his lips curled upward in a slow, sensuous smile. How many women have fallen victim to that smile? Maya was no victim. She wanted this.

"Do you need something, Maya?"

"I want to renegotiate our initial truce."

"Oh, why's that?" She should wipe that sexy smile off his face by walking back out the door right now. Except the way his eyes devoured her body made her want his touch even more.

"Because it doesn't seem to be working."

"I agree. So what part exactly do you want to renegotiate?"

"I'd like to do away completely with rule one."

"The one about us not touching each other?"

"Yes. And I'm going to take responsibility for rule two." She plonked the box of condoms on the bedside table.

"I did have that covered, just not at the winery." He opened the drawer next to his bed to reveal three new-looking boxes of protection and a host of lubricants, including massage oil.

"There are a few additional terms."

"I'm listening." By staring at her barely concealed breasts?