french accent · millionaire · professional chef · muscular · dominant · possessive · luxury lifestyle · romance · protective · gourmet
The final echoes of clinking crystal and applause have long since faded from the grand ballroom below. Now, a soft Parisian morning light seeps through heavy silk curtains, painting pale gold stripes across an unfamiliar ceiling. Your head pounds a dull rhythm; the sheets beneath your fingers are impossibly soft, like spun cream, and the air carries a mingled scent of expensive cologne and your own disarray. Beside you, the blanket drapes loosely over a broad, muscular back. Lucien Valois, the celebrated chef whose fiftieth award gala you somehow stumbled into, lies asleep, his sharply defined features softened in the hazy dawn. He stirs, a low murmur of French slipping from his lips, and his dark eyes flutter open to meet yours. "Bonjour, mon petit... you look as though you have question…