“Horny, kinky men like you.”
Jason pursed his lips. “I only went there to relax, to loosen up as you told me to, but then shit started happening. They tried to get me drunk, tried to take advantage of the stupid American, but Sara wouldn’t let them. To make a long story short, I got kicked out and she got fired.”
“Then what?” Lemaitre asked.
Jason held up a hand. “Look, I swear to God. I didn’t know she was part of the act I was scouting, and she didn’t know I was with Cirque du Monde.”
His voice turned a shade icier. “You slept with her.”
“We were both freaked out by what happened. She was upset.”
“So you lured her back to your hotel room and soothed her, is that it? Such a heroic, selfless act.”
“You told me I worked too hard, remember? You told me to ‘enjoy the local pleasures.’”
“I didn’t mean her!”
Jason paused, grasping for calm. “You know I wouldn’t have done it if knew who she was. We didn’t find out any of that until the next day. Then her partner shut down the pitch about Cirque and wouldn’t let her speak, so she came to my hotel again. Only to talk with me about coming to Paris.”
“So you didn’t sleep with her the second night?”
Jason pressed his fingers against his eyes. “I tried not to.”
“But you did,” Lemaitre snapped.
“Is it your business? It was private. Consensual.”
“It’s my business because she’s my performer now. She shouldn’t have been compelled—”
“I did not compel her. It happened.”
“And it seems to keep happening, considering the fact that she’s upstairs.”
Jason sensed great fury beneath his boss’s bitten-off words. Which made no sense, because Lemaitre slept with the talent all the time. He made them into his devoted sex slaves, for God’s sake. Perhaps he was angry to learn that Sara had to support herself in Mongolia waitressing at a sex club, but circus wasn’t always a lucrative career.
“You can’t blame her,” Jason said, heading back to the kitchen. “You can’t hold it against her. She’s here now, ready to work. That should be all that matters.”
“Do you think I’d hold it against her? Really, do you?” He followed that question with a string of French expletives that made Jason’s ears burn.
“She’s sleeping,” he reminded him. “Keep it down. Do you want some coffee?”
“I want to speak to her.”
“No, you’ll embarrass her. You’ll scare her. If you don’t trust everything I’ve said, then fire me. I don’t want to work for someone who thinks I’m a liar.”
“I don’t think you’re a liar. But I find you something of an opportunist.”
Jason ground his teeth at that dig. “There was a mutual attraction.”
“Imagine her being attracted to an important, attractive Cirque du Monde director who’s offering her a new career.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“How was it, Jason?” He leaned forward, wagging a finger. “Once you knew she was a talent prospect, you should have gone out of your way to re-orient your relationship into a professional one.”
“I tried. Honestly, I tried but—”
“But you preferred to keep fucking her.”
“Everything between us has involved mutual consent.”
“Jason?” The soft question arrested their rising voices. Sara stood by the door to the back hallway, clad in a blanket and his wrinkled button-up shirt. So much for his obedient slave.
“Sara, go back upstairs,” he said in a firm voice.
She turned to Lemaitre. “You can’t fire him. This isn’t his fault. Last night he told me that we should take things slow, but I didn’t want to.”
Jason rubbed his forehead, stifling a groan. The last thing he wanted was for Sara to debase herself pleading on his behalf. Lemaitre turned to face her, his expression one of uncharacteristic gravity. “My deepest concern is for your well-being. While you’re with the Cirque, you’re under my protection.”
Sara blinked at him. “You don’t have to protect me from Jason. I want to be with him. I promise we’ll be…discreet.”
Lemaitre gave her one of his patented glowering looks. “This isn’t a matter of discretion, my dear. It’s a matter of professional behavior. Jason was sent to Mongolia to scout you, not seduce you.”
“He didn’t seduce me. It wasn’t like that. Things just happened.”
“Things just happened doesn’t make it right,” he said, his voice sharpening.
Jason made a low warning sound. Lemaitre could rail at him all day, but he wouldn’t let him chew out Sara.
Lemaitre’s scowl deepened as he lounged back on the couch. “You and Jason will be working together as part of a professional team. Whether ‘things happened’ or not, you both have an obligation to focus on the development of your act. Let me put it this way: I brought you here to grace the stages of Cirque du Monde, not the bedroom of Mr. Beck.”
Sara straightened her shoulders and stared her imposing boss in the face. “You should have some respect for me as an artist. Do you think I won’t give my all for Cirque du Monde? For my performance? Whether Jason’s in charge of my act, or you, or someone else, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to do my best work, regardless of my personal life.”
She lifted her chin, as if daring Lemaitre to defy her. She didn’t realize it, but with that brave outburst, she’d earned her boss’s respect. Jason knew him well enough to see the approval in the twitch of his lips, the softening of his stare. “Very well,” he said in a gruff voice. “Your best work? I’m going to hold you to that.” He picked at the tailored cuff of his sleeve. “I apologize for waking you, mademoiselle. It is early. Perhaps you should retire again upstairs.”
It was an order, not a suggestion, and it meant he wasn’t done hammering Jason yet. Jason walked to Sara and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Bad girl,” he whispered, pulling her close. “I told you to stay in bed.”
She gave him a look, that look slaves had when they knew they’d fucked up and were very sorry for it. If Lemaitre hadn’t understood how serious their thing was before, he’d know now from the expression on Sara’s face.
“It’s okay,” he said, tracing a thumb down the curve of her cheek. “We’ll talk about it later. For now, you really need to go upstairs.”
“Yes, M—” She slid a look at Lemaitre. “Yes, Jason.”
Sweet, clueless Sara, hiding their dynamic from the outsider. She didn’t realize yet that Lemaitre was the Master of them all. He’d have to explain it soon, so she’d understand the world she’d entered. He turned back to his boss, who regarded him with a shuttered expression.
“Very nice,” was all he said.
Jason went on the defensive. “It is very nice. It happened naturally for both of us. You know how rare and special that is.”
“‘Rare’ and ‘special.’ What a glowing way to look at it.”
“I’m telling you, from the start, we knew. We sensed this thing between us. Even the first night, we knew something was going on. You don’t understand the pull we feel to each other.”
Lemaitre stood and stalked to the window, then turned back to him with a scathing look. “No, I don’t understand, because I control my ‘pulls’ when they’re inappropriate. It’s called restraint.”
“Are you lecturing me about restraint, Michel? Because I don’t think you have any moral high ground to stand on. You sleep with your subordinates all the time.”
“Perhaps, but it doesn’t ‘just happen.’ I choose my partners with great care. I groom them for weeks, months, years sometimes. You’ve known Sara for what? Three days all together?”
“Almost a week.”
Lemaitre’s phone buzzed and he looked down at it. He glanced back at Jason, then out the window again. Struggling. Lemaitre was struggling with something, which almost never happened. Jealousy?
Michel Lemaitre wanted Sar
a for himself.
Jason suspected it, dreaded it, and now it seemed obvious. “I won’t say I love her yet,” Jason declared, “because as you said, I just met her. But I’m on the way to loving her. I’d appreciate it if you would respect that.”
Lemaitre turned to him, stroking his chin. Jason endured his assessing stare, shored up by his convictions. He cared about Sara. He would have lost his job for her. He still might lose his job over her, if Lemaitre couldn’t let the jealousy go.
“You’re off her act,” Lemaitre finally said. “I’ll oversee it myself with Theo’s help. As for the other, I wish you both the best.” He looked back down at his phone. “A few minutes ago, Sara’s partner arrived at Cirque du Monde headquarters. I see no point in telling her until I’ve met with the young man and learned his intentions.”