Lancelot (The Theriot Family 3)

I thought he might gloat over his victory, but instead, he gave me a soft smile, one that made my heart flutter. Dammit.

“I need to go through some newspapers like I told you, and yes, I was absolutely serious. Will you help me?”

“You want me to go there with you tonight?”

“Yes.”

I studied him for a moment. “That’s it?”

“That’s it, and I promise your funding issues will go away.”

I studied him. We needed millions of dollars. How could he promise that kind of money? “Who are you?”

He held my gaze and said, “Lancelot Theriot, at your service.”

Theriot. The last name alone might not have clued me in. It was common enough in New Orleans, but how many people were named Lancelot. “Oh shit.”

9

Julian

Lancelot shook his head. “I’m not the monster you’re imagining.”

“But you’re… Your family…”

“Yes.”

“Oh fuck, you’re Remington’s brother.”

He laughed. “See? I’ve been punished enough for my crimes.”

“I should have known. When you came in yesterday, I thought we hadn’t had that much trouble—”

“Let’s call it excitement.”

“Since Remington demanded we allow him to take materials home.”

“If you’d done as he asked, your funding problems might have already been cleared up.”

I scowled at him, hating that he was probably right. “We can’t simply allow the materials to leave the library.”

“I’m not here to argue about that. I don’t need to take anything with me. Well, not anything that belongs to the library.”

“What do you need to take?”

He grinned and gave me a slow once-over. I shivered. It was much too much like the start of my fantasy. “Do you really want to know?”

My mouth had gone suddenly dry, and I had to swallow before I could answer. “What do you want from the library?”

“Truly, I just need to look through a few issues of The People’s Sentinel from 1918.”

“What are you looking for?”

“It’s in your best interest not to know.”

“If there’s something going on that involves the library, if your family is making—”

He stiffened. “Do not try to involve yourself in my family’s business.”

“It won’t matter how much funding we have if the library becomes the center of some kind of mafia—”

“Not another word.”

I shivered at the demand in his voice, and his answering smile told me that turned him on. Fuck.

“Some information was left for me. That’s all I need. No harm will come to the newspapers or the library or you.”

Lance took a final sip of coffee, pushed back from the table, and held out his hand. “Shall we?”

I frowned at him. “Do I have a choice?”

“No, but I always find it best to make people believe they do.”

I exhaled slowly. “I should be terrified right now.”

“Yes, you should, but you surprise me. I like when people surprise me.”

I didn’t take his hand, but I stood. “You can follow me to the library.” I wanted to be able to escape in my car as soon as I could.

“No, you’re riding with me.”

“You tracked me down here. Do you really think I’m going to escape from you?”

I wasn’t even sure I wanted to escape. What if I could just live in this fantasy world where a hot man had his way with me. Not that he was actually going to…

“You won’t escape. Since that’s not an option, why not ride with me? You’ll like my car. I promise the ride will be so much smoother than what you’re used to.”

“Yeah, no shit.” I’d salivated over his Mercedes when I’d seen it in the lot. “I don’t need a fancy car.”

“I bet I can change your mind.”

I was terribly afraid this man might change my mind about a lot of things. Principles. Values. Things I wasn’t sure I wanted changed.

“Come on, Julian. Ride with me.”

Why did it sound like he was asking me to do something dirty? Why was it so sexy when he said my name?

I expected Tony to pop up when Lance opened the car door, but I didn’t see or hear him. I’d known monkeys were loud, but I still hadn’t been prepared for the noise the little guy could make.

“Where’s Tony?” I asked once Lance was in the driver’s seat.

“Remy’s babysitting him.”

From the way he smiled, I assumed his brother was no more fond of Tony than I was, but I couldn’t imagine the man agreeing to do anything he didn’t want to do.

“I thought you didn’t like to leave him anywhere.”

“I don’t mind leaving him with family because I know he’ll be well taken care of. Remy pretends to hate watching him, but I think he’s exaggerating. Besides, we’d do anything for each other, no matter how unpleasant.”

“My dad was like that for me.”

“You lost him?”

I nodded. “Almost a year ago.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how much I’d miss my dad. He’s great with all of us.”

“But isn’t he—”

Lance turned away as he cranked the engine. “Just because the law doesn’t like the way we earn our money doesn’t mean we’re actually monsters.”