Wicked Games [Mature 18 +] **COMPLETE**

Chapter Twenty

August came and went in the Chateau, and I couldn't help but wonder if what I was experiencing was Stockholm's syndrome as Lucien and I drank wine in his office again. Willa and Maxime left for the riviera a week before to Maxime's luxury Villa where he'd agreed to host a party for some celebrity. Things had calmed down and strangely enough I didn't find myself chomping at the bit to leave. Glancing at the clock on my phone, I stopped looking through all of the pictures Willa sent me. It was around the time that Lucien tended to be in his office alone. We hadn't done anything sexual in a while but I found I liked being around him. We were friends in a strange way that we also knew what the other tasted like. He also stopped making comments about my skirts being too short. A part of me was saddened by it, but another part accepted it because I didn't have to trust him as deeply which meant I stopped being haunted by the image of his face covered in blood and could appreciate his beauty without thinking too much on it.

I went to the kitchen to grab a bottle of merlot and two glasses. There were still other families there and I smiled at some of them as I passed them and made my way up to his office. But as I turned the corner from one of the dinning rooms I discovered two men guarding the door dressed in black blazers and white collared shirts without ties. I didn't recognize one man, the other I'd seen at breakfast on occasion.

"Is Lucien busy?" I asked and both look at me for a moment, their eyes hungrily devouring my body and I suddenly wished that I hadn't pulled my skirt up like I usually did. The minidress clung to my body, and it was something I'd ordered so instead of black or some other muted neutral color it was rose gold—my go to color. The skirt came to mid thigh, the neck line plunged into obscenity and it was held up but two little straps.

The one I recognized nodded after a moment and opened the door, but the other one stopped him. A conversation in French ensued but Lucien's guard won out and opened the door, revealing that Lucien sat at the desk with Julian standing behind him, and a blonde man I didn't know across from him. On the couch sat Felix and once more a man I didn't recognize. The blonde man smirked at me, eyes roving my body. In front of Lucien on the desk was a tablet, and those blue eyes of his were all heat when he looked at me. Smirking he held his hand out and beckoned me over. Lucien was facetiming with someone, with deep bronze skin, black hair and a prominent nose. The man was handsome and his jaw was covered in stubble, he too sat in a similarly lavish room.

"Amber this is Enzo," Lucien took the glasses and wine bottle, setting them on the desk. "The man who wanted you dead." He pulled me down into his lap, I didn't know how to react it was the first time I'd felt his hands on me in a while even though he only used a quick touch at my waist to steady me.

"So beautiful, you are a spoiled man, Lucien. Given how our situation has escalated, like I was saying before that vision entered the room, I am proposing a sit down face to face to work out our differences. You will meet me—"

Lucien sat up a bit more, "That's cute, you think you're in a position to make demands. Keep going, I'm curious as to what you think I will do."

The man on the other side looked clearly flustered, he pursed his full lips to thin line and shifted uncomfortably. What had Lucien done to gain the upper hand? I glanced at Lucien, he looked so pleased with himself his blue eyes sparkled in the dim light.

"What do you think is best, Comte DesLaurent?" The man acquiesced.

"In three days, we'll meet on Flavian's yacht in the Mediterranean. I'll send him with coordinates, it will be a neutral meeting spot for us both. Two trusted men for each of us and whatever women we like."