The Frenchman's Plain-Jane Project

by Myrna Mackenzie

  She placed her hands on his bare chest and whisked his shirt down his arms. “What, Etienne?” she whispered.

  He shrugged out of his shirt and in only seconds had slid down the zipper that ran down the front of her dress, sliding the garment down and off her body. For long seconds he simply stared at her, his gaze moving slowly from her head down the length of her.

  “Etienne?” Her voice came out on a choked gasp.

  “That comment I made about stopping, Meg?”

  “Yes?”

  His eyes met hers. While he gazed at her he finished undressing her. “I’m not going to. Unless you ask me to. And I’m hoping that you won’t ask.”

  “I’m asking you to make love with me, Etienne,” she answered.

  He smiled and shrugged out of his clothes, then took her in his arms. “You are the most amazing woman, Meg.”

  She pressed herself to him and took a deep, shuddering breath as his skin met hers. “And you are the most amazing man, Etienne. Please…amaze me.”

  But he did so much more than that. He kissed her, he caressed her.

  She nipped at him and smoothed her palms over the chest she’d been wanting to touch.

  He lifted her hair and made love to the nape of her neck. He made shivers run down her whole body, then followed with kisses that made her burn.

  And then, he did something even more wonderful. He joined his body to hers. He turned her world to bliss. He made her forget everything but him.

  Afterward, as they lay there half asleep, he held her and whispered in her ear, “Don’t miss me when I’m gone, Meg,” he said.

  She kissed his hand. “Don’t worry about me when I’m gone,” she said.

  But when morning came and he had returned to his room, Meg realized that neither of them had answered the other, and with good reason. She was going to miss him, and he was going to worry.

  There was nothing she could do about the first. No matter what happened, she would miss him. How could she not when she loved him so much?

  But as for the worrying about her, that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Worrying that he had failed one woman, his wife, by walking away from her and leaving her on her own had nearly destroyed Etienne. That wasn’t going to happen here. She was no fragile flower; she could take care of herself and she was darned sure going to show Etienne Gavard that he had absolutely nothing to worry about where Meg Leighton was concerned. She was totally capable of surviving completely on her own. He could leave her with a totally clean conscience.

  He never needed to know that her heart was broken.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ETIENNE was worried. Ever since he and Meg had made love, she had been avoiding him. And when she hadn’t been avoiding him, she’d been running full tilt. His concern wasn’t because she looked unhappy. On the contrary, she was always smiling and cheerful. Extremely cheerful. More cheerful than any one person would ever be for that length of time. She even, occasionally, stopped and gave him one of those little pats on the cheek he had often seen her give her friends at Fieldman’s. As if she was trying to reassure him. As if she was concerned for him. As if she was worried about his well-being.

  When she knew very well that he had been the head of the Gavard family with all its lands, money, businesses and obligations for years. She knew things about his personal life, too. Above all, Meg knew that his Achilles’ heel was vulnerable women.

  All of which led him to believe that something wasn’t right here. Because besides the fact that Meg was treating him as if he was merely a friend, she had not said one word about making love with him. Not a sound of regret, of joy, of anything. That just wasn’t Meg. She was an emotional, involved, complex woman, and he was totally positive that she didn’t take making love lightly.

  Etienne fretted. He weighed the evidence…and decided that there could be only one likely conclusion. Meg was afraid that he would think she was falling in love with him and she was trying to protect him from beating up on himself.

  That was exactly like Meg. And that really did make him worry. He didn’t think she was falling in love with him. She’d made it clear from the beginning that long-term relationships with men held no appeal for her. She didn’t even want to have a father hanging around when she finally had those babies she longed for. If he’d thought there was even a remote chance she might fall in love with him, he would…How would he feel?

  For a minute his heart soared…and then fell. What did it matter how he felt? The truth was that he was all wrong for Meg. She wanted children; she needed a man who would stay in one place and be there for her. He was exactly the wrong kind of man for her. He was the kind who would end up hurting her even if he didn’t want to. The fact that she was worrying about him was proof enough that her association with him was already taking its toll.

  Especially since right now she had too much on her plate. She still had speeches to give at the expo, she had to fly home alone and then she had a company to run. From here on out, she would be shepherding her flock at Fieldman’s alone. She didn’t need to add “trying to make sure Etienne doesn’t have any concerns” to her list of things to do.

  What could he do? Tell her that she could stop putting on an act for him? Tell her that he wasn’t worried about her?

  Well…he was worried about her, because…

  Because I love her, he thought. The truth stared him in the face. He loved Meg. He would always worry about her, but those were the last things she needed to hear.

  Her career was taking off. She was in demand. She was right where she had told him she wanted to be on that first day they met. A man like him…he’d merely been her springboard. Now he needed to get out of her way and let her do and be the things she wanted to do and be.

  Etienne blew out a shaky breath. He resigned himself to letting Meg continue this charade. But he hated it. He didn’t want her gentle pats on the cheek and her affectionate little smiles. What he wanted was all of her. Forever.

  But he would not tell her that. It would just make her sad. And he would sacrifice anything if he could prevent Meg from suffering any more heartache in her life.

  Meg never quite knew what happened on the last day of the expo. Everything had been going as planned. She had been meeting and greeting people, smiling, laughing, pasting on the “Face of Fieldman’s” for the world to see. She had given some presentations. Orders had started pouring in, Jeff told her in a conference call.

  But mostly she had been trying not to let Etienne know in any way that her heart was crumpling and cracking and that she was generally a mess inside whenever she thought about the fact that she would never see him again.

  Still, she continued on. The hours were passing and she almost looked forward to the time when she could get on the plane and fly home, because then she could finally stop smiling and let herself cry.

  She only had two more things to do before that could happen. First, she had to give one more presentation. And then, she had to kiss Etienne goodbye.

  The second thing was the important one. No matter how much she had been avoiding him, she couldn’t leave without being in his arms just once more. Just once. That would have to last her forever.

  She was rushing to the presentation area and thinking about kissing Etienne, about where and when to do it and how long she could press her lips to his without him suspecting that she was totally in love with him, when she started to climb the five stairs to the makeshift stage, and the heel of her red stilettos clipped the last rung.

  Most people would have been surprised by how quickly a person could go from standing upright at the top of a set of stairs to hitting the ground beneath, but Meg had taken all those classes she’d told Etienne about. In an attempt to garner some small measure of grace, she had been taught how to fall time and time again and had experienced the “upright to ground” phenomenon many times before, but in the past she had been concentrating so hard on trying to master the fall that she had inevitably failed.

&nbs
p; Now, however, her first thought was that Etienne would witness her mishap and be either scared out of his wits or concerned that she still couldn’t manage a simple walk across a room. In fact, she was sure she heard him cry out her name as she went down.

  Consequently, somehow, Meg managed to gracefully roll and rise to her feet, brushing off her clothing and trying to simultaneously smile, rearrange her hair, pick up the papers she’d dropped, ignore the pain shooting through her body in various places and still be ready to turn and face Etienne as if nothing untoward had happened.

  Too late. She was still disheveled, still missing papers when he vaulted over a table in his path and ran up beside her.

  “Meg, ma belle, are you all right? What am I saying? Of course, you’re not all right. You fell down the stairs. You must be damaged, Meg,” he said in a rush as he reached for a chair, drew her to it and demanded that she sit down. Right then.

  “Meg, mon petit lapin, look at me. Is that a bruise on your jaw?” His fingers gently brushed.

  Meg melted. She leaned forward…and saw a world of worry in his eyes.

  Slowly, she shook her head. She found a small smile. She touched his face. “Etienne, don’t worry. Really. I’m fine. I did it. I finally learned how to execute a fall and live to tell the tale.” She even laughed a little.

  He wasn’t laughing. His eyes looked stricken, scared. “Meg, you were wonderful, but…my heart may never be the same again. I was too far away, you were falling too fast. I was afraid you were going to hit your head, break something, worse. Meg, Meg…”

  She couldn’t help it. She framed his face with her hands and kissed him. “Etienne, I—”

  “I can’t leave you,” he said suddenly. “It’s too…You’re too…Meg, I want you to marry me. Now.”

  Meg wasn’t sure which one of them was more surprised to hear the words falling from his mouth. Etienne’s gaze was fierce and intense and slightly shocked as if he wondered who had spoken, and Meg…For two seconds her heart overflowed with love and joy and…

  No. She was totally sure that this proposal had been an impetuous decision on his part, wrenched from him by his concern for her. He’d been teaching her and working with her for weeks and he was naturally concerned for her welfare, worried that he would fail her in some way the way all teachers did. Then he’d seen her fall and he had thought of Louisa, of how he’d failed his wife. In some small way, not being able to be at Meg’s side when she’d fallen was reliving his past. This time they’d shared had made him feel responsible for her, and his suggestion that they marry was simply an attempt to protect her and save her from future harm.

  It was as she’d already admitted to herself. Etienne saved people. But who saved Etienne from himself?

  She would.

  Meg slowly shook her head, she cupped his jaw, she bent and kissed him. “Thank you, but I can’t marry you,” she whispered. “It would be…so wrong.”

  Then she got up and stumbled out of the expo. She didn’t give her presentation. She didn’t stop to sign out. She just left.

  The flight home was a blur. She vaguely remembered calling Edie and blurting out…something. She sort of recalled Edie meeting her at the airport and how she had sobbed in her tiny friend’s arms.

  After that, nothing much mattered or made sense or sank in. There was a lot of sleeping, a lot of tears, a few attempts to work and then more tears. She mindlessly watched television. She sat for hours staring at nothing.

  And then one day a few days later, the phone rang.

  Meg stared at it, but didn’t answer. Two minutes later it rang again, and she picked it up, meaning to hang up again.

  Edie’s panicked voice rang out. “Don’t hang up, Meg. Come quick. Alan is back, and he’s threatening everyone in the office. He’s making Paula cry.”

  Meg snapped to attention. “I’m on my way,” was all she said before she hung up the phone and started to scramble for clothing.

  Her heart was still raw, but that couldn’t matter. She had neglected her friends and colleagues and there was no Etienne to save them. She had to put to use all that he’d taught her. She had to be the one.

  The last time she and Alan had had a confrontation she had pushed back, but she’d had no real ammunition. Now she did. Etienne had given her what she needed.

  Her heart lifted at the thought, and for the first time in a week she managed to smile.

  Etienne probably broke every speeding law in the book on his way to Fieldman’s after receiving Jeff’s call. That jerk was terrorizing the employees and Jeff said that Edie had apparently gotten through to Meg after not being able to for most of the week.

  Etienne thanked the stars above that he had returned to Chicago to begin the process of setting up the sale of the company to the employees. He only hoped he could reach Fieldman’s before Meg did. If that poor excuse for a man, Alan, does one thing to hurt her, I’ll…

  You’ll what? he asked himself. Already, he had made several wrong turns with Meg. That proposal…She’d been so proud of how she’d handled that fall and had he praised her? Well, maybe a little, but mostly he’d tried to corral her into marrying him. When he’d known that Meg had a strong need to be independent.

  Nonetheless, he couldn’t let Alan destroy her again. It was damned hard being a man in love, Etienne decided, as he slid into the parking lot at Fieldman’s. Dammit. Meg’s car was already here, parked crookedly across three spaces as if she’d arrived in a hurry.

  Etienne’s pulse began to thunder in his ears. She was in there with the man who had almost destroyed her. Swearing beneath his breath, Etienne started for the front door, then thought better of it and went around the back.

  Everyone in the office was clustered up against the private offices as if they’d been herded there like cattle. Alan’s voice rang out. “The contract has changed, because Gavard is selling it to you. That means you now have control, and I think you’ll find that what I’m offering you is extremely generous. It could make a bundle for everyone here.”

  If steam could come out of a person’s ears, it would be coming out of Etienne’s now. He started to charge ahead, but then he saw Meg’s face through the crowd. She was turned toward him and the man she faced had his back toward Etienne. The man was advancing and Etienne started to surge, but the expression on Meg’s face wasn’t one of fear. He saw determination and concentration and…Suddenly she lifted one eyebrow in a perfect expression of disbelief and condescension.

  Etienne stopped moving forward. He noticed that Jeff and Edie had sidled up next to him. “Did you see that, my friend?” he whispered to Jeff. “What a wonderful woman!”

  “Yeah, I was afraid that after she stayed holed up in her place all week that she was going to come out looking insane, but she’s beautiful,” Jeff whispered back.

  A jolt went through Etienne. She was, indeed, beautiful, but…

  “My Meg was locked up in her house?”

  “Yes, what did you do to her?” Edie whispered. “I couldn’t understand what she was telling me when she got off the plane, she was crying so hard.”

  Another jolt. “I proposed,” he said.

  “Oh. Did you say that you loved her?”

  No, he hadn’t. He shook his head.

  Edie glared at him. “Well, that explains it, then,” she replied. “If you didn’t love her, you should never have proposed. Meg kept saying something about how you wanted to protect her and save her and she couldn’t let you do that after what had happened to your wife and how you would always consider her a burden and a responsibility. The rest was hard to hear. She was pretty broken up.”

  Ah, he’d botched things badly. How had he done that to his lovely Meg? But he couldn’t ask any more questions now. He was straining to listen to Meg. After her eyebrow-raising, Alan had gone off on some rambling attempt to make his case. Now, she was crossing her arms and stepping forward.

  Alan took a step backward, closer to the rabble behind him. It was a bit like the Fren
ch revolution revisited. Etienne wanted nothing more than to beat the man senseless for daring to even speak to Meg, but after Edie’s comments, he saw where he had gone wrong. Meg needed to be strong, to earn her place in life. People had always forced her into a weak position. They’d made her feel that her strengths were weaknesses, but a man who loved her would never do that. He wouldn’t insist on saving her. He’d let her fight…unless she asked for his help.

  “I believe you were told that you weren’t to approach anyone in this company,” Meg was saying. “I think it’s more than safe to say that you have stepped over the line, Alan.”

  “I believe that if this company is employee-owned, then you don’t get to make all the decisions, Meg. This sounds like you’re just upset because I scorned you and dumped you.”

  Etienne jumped forward a little before Edie and Jeff grabbed him and before he got control of himself. He swore…in French. Too loudly. Alan apparently was too worked up to hear, but Meg’s head immediately came up. She looked straight into Etienne’s eyes.

  Then she smiled.

  “I could see where you might think something like that, Alan, and I probably can’t change your mind.” You always did think a lot more of yourself than anyone else did. But the truth is that I’ve…um…been involved with men that are far better, more admirable, and ten times more handsome than you’ll ever be, so no, the woman scorned thing just isn’t doing it for me. Try something else.”

  “How about this?” Alan turned to the crowd. “I’ll pay you a lot more than Meg will ever make for you.”

  A murmur went through the crowd. “Wow, is that true, Meg?” Paula asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” Meg said. “But do you really want to ever work for a jerk like this?”

  “Hmm, no, but I would like to throw a bottle at his head,” Paula said.

  “Or worse,” someone yelled. “He hurt Meg. We don’t want to have anything to do with someone like that no matter how much money he offers. What can we do to make him leave?”