All Chapters of The Billionaire's French Kiss : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

LenaI didn't sleep.Not really.I closed my eyes sometime after two in the morning, but every sound pulled me back awake.The hum of the refrigerator.A car passing outside.The pipes knocking somewhere inside the building.Even the soft movement of the curtains when the air conditioner came on.Everything sounded wrong.Everything sounded like someone was there.I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, my phone resting beside my pillow.The last message was still on the screen.You shouldn't have gone to Paris.I had read it so many times that the words no longer looked real.I turned the phone facedown.Then turned it back over.I hated that I was doing this.I hated that one sentence from an unknown number had reduced me to this.Scared.Suspicious.Unable to sleep in my own apartment.My eyes moved toward the bedroom door.Closed.Locked.I had checked it three times already.Still, my chest tightened.The photograph.Daniel's missing key.Someone trying the door.The empty hall

LenaThe glass doors closed behind me.I stopped just inside the building.For a moment, I simply stood there.My heart was still pounding.I could still feel Daniel's presence outside.Even though I couldn't see him anymore, I knew he was there.Or at least, I knew he had been.His words kept replaying in my head.You still care about me.You wouldn't be this angry if you didn't.I hated the way he had spoken to me.As though my anger belonged to him.As though the years we'd spent together gave him the right to decide what I felt now.As though walking away from him had been some temporary decision he could simply wait out.I tightened my grip around my bag.No.I wasn't going to let Daniel ruin this too.I was here for an interview.I needed this job.I needed something that belonged to me.Something that had nothing to do with Daniel.Nothing to do with Paris.Nothing to do with the kiss that had somehow followed me home.I approached the reception desk.“Good morning.”The recept

AlexandreParis had always made sense to me.It was a city I understood—the rhythm of its streets, the pace of its business districts, the constant movement of people who always seemed to know where they were going. Even when everything around me became complicated, I could usually retreat into work and let numbers, contracts, meetings, and decisions occupy enough of my mind to drown out everything else.That was exactly what I had been doing since returning from Paris.Work had become easier than thinking.I sat behind my desk, one hand resting against the edge of a report while I scanned the figures on the screen in front of me. The office was quiet except for the occasional sound of movement beyond the glass walls.Across the room, Julien stood with a folder tucked beneath his arm."The discrepancy is larger than we originally thought," he said.I looked up."How much larger?""Enough that I don't think it's an accounting error anymore."I leaned back slowly.The company Julien was

LenaMy first week at L&L firms began with one simple decision.I was going to make this work.Not because I needed to prove anything to the people who had doubted me.Not because I wanted to erase what happened with Daniel.And definitely not because I wanted anyone to look at me and think I had somehow managed to land a job because of the man I kissed in Paris.I needed this job because it was mine.That was enough.I stood in front of the mirror that Monday morning, smoothing the front of my blouse before reaching for my handbag.The outfit was professional without being uncomfortable: a deep-colored blouse tucked into tailored trousers, a pair of low heels, and small earrings that Maya had insisted made me look "dangerously competent."I looked at myself one last time.As a plus-size woman, I had learned to be conscious of how clothes sat on my body. Some outfits made me feel like I was trying too hard to hide myself. Others made me feel as though I had to spend the entire day adj

Alexandre "Hello, Lena." The moment the words left my mouth, I realized how strange they sounded. Too familiar for two people who hadn't spoken since Paris. Too simple for everything that had happened between us. She didn't answer immediately. She just stared at me. I couldn't blame her. I hadn't expected to see her either. I had known she worked for the subsidiary. I'd read her name. I'd seen her photograph in the employee file. I'd seen the reports her department submitted. I'd known exactly which division she belonged to. But none of that had prepared me for this. Seeing her in person was different. Completely different. In Paris, she had been a woman in a blue dress standing beneath warm lights, looking at me as though she had forgotten for one reckless moment that the world existed outside that room. Here, she looked like someone else. Not a different woman. The same woman. But changed. She stood with several folders pressed against her