“I’ll go back to the boat and check on Dauphine and make myself scarce.” She put her mouth close to my ear, so I could hear her properly. “You go up and talk to him.”

“I can’t,” I said, turning my head slightly in case he could read my lips. My nerves made my legs feel like jelly, and I gripped the bar top tightly. “No. Come on. Let’s pay for our drinks and get back out there.”

“He already bought them for us.”

I let out a long breath. “Of course he did.”

“Go talk to him.”

“Ahh, les filles élégantes!” We turned to find our two young admirers looking a little sweatier and just as enthusiastic as before. “Voulez-vous danser encore un fois?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Evan appeared on the other side of us. His gaze burrowed into Andrea’s. “Having fun?” he growled.

Whatever was on Evan’s face had the two boys disappearing into the crowd as quickly as they’d shown up.

“Hey,” yelled Andrea over the noise. “What was that?”

Evan said nothing, though I could tell he was biting his tongue, and Andrea looked ready to spit fire. Whoo boy. If anyone had chemistry around here it was these two. It was pretty funny that she couldn’t see it.

My eyes left them and found him again. He hadn’t moved. He watched us still. He watched me. Like a leopard from a tree.

“I’ll make sure Andrea gets back safely.” Evan’s voice was loud in my ear, presumably so I could hear him over the noise. “He wants you upstairs.”

I flinched. “He does?”

And then, in the time it took for me to process Evan’s words, he and Andrea were gone.

Xavier Pascale took a drink from a heavy looking tumbler, then he set it down somewhere next to him I couldn’t see.

My legs shook, and my heart pounded in my throat. I knew if I went up there, it was going to forever change me.

A spark of anticipation and nerves, hot and searing, scorched through me from my neck to my navel. And then I was halfway across the room, pressing through the people, my pulse racing at Mach speed and my breathing not much better. Apparently, I’d started toward him before my mind could give me permission.

There was a bouncer at the bottom of the stairs. A rope. But somehow I was past them. The bouncer hadn’t stopped me. The stairs were glass as I found my footing. The railing was cool wood and steel under my palm.

By the time I’d reached the top, I’d run a marathon. Adrenaline pumped. My lungs bellowed.

He waited for me, retreating from the railing and inclining his head slightly toward a small couch and table in the dim corner. I felt curious eyes on me from the darkness and dismissed them.