Here I am again! Though please get used to the idea that the updates might not be so quick after August… Studying and working at the same time already takes a lot of energy, not to mention writing!
Acadian Angel : Oh, I knew everyone would block on the idea of Remy being a father… That would mean there's a mother somewhere…
Yumiko : Lucky, indeed. The x's will do for a time, but I'll probably change my pen name *sigh*. Like I have the choice…
nessie6 : 'Sixteen Years'? *Slaps her forehead* Darn, I forgot about that one! I better get going on it, because my last semester's coming as fast as a running horse (2 weeks!), and it will be hell, being the last semester before my final training course as a teacher, and I franckly don't know if I'll have a lot of time to write before Xmas…*tear* Hum, I better go on writing, though. I have two stories to end before the next two weeks!
MzJenna : Goodness to come indeed, but I HAD to put in some angst or something (it seems I cannot write a single happy story. I can't help it, it looks like my characters always have to suffer…), so tears to come. No one will die, though, I promise!
Panther Nesmith : I'm glad you love it. Reviews are always welcome, but I would be a fool to prefer the negative one (though due to some miracle of some sort, I never got a flame. But I can't bring myself to think that everyone loves each one of my stories? No way. They just don't review…). So you're not going to say you're mad that Henri died? *sigh* I wish I hadn't done that. But well, it is written and posted now, so I can't very well change it… can't I?
ishandahalf : NON!!! You're LEAVING? And how am I to live without your reviews and awards and fun and stuff? You're the one who made me write this thing, and now you just leave? Deserter! Traitor! *tear* Gosh, your reviews have to be the longest and funniest of all. I check my email everyday when I post a new chapter, first because I can't wait to read my reviews, and second because I can't wait to read yours. I feel like it's a conversation of some sort, and I'll miss you. *hug*. But wait! You're coming in Québec? Hey, just drop by the Eastern Townships, and I'll let you read all the fiction you want on my computer! It should help with the withdrawal… As for your comments on the chapter, I have to say that I made Raven's character what she is so that it would hide the fact that Jade is not so… Rogue, I guess. Raven talks a lot and is not afraid of saying what she thinks to whoever is whitting ears reach, and Jade well… she has some reasons to act the way she does with Remy (you'll see at the end of the chapter), very good reasons in my POV. And, well… Oh, I just like her, that's all. And it was fun to see her drool over Remy. Anybody would drool over Remy. It's universal. And sorry about scaring you about the kid… There is no wife around, if that can reassure you. The only real obstacle to Remy and Jade's relation here is… Jade herself?
Enjoy!
Chapitre sept
A man rarely lets out his emotions to show. And that man had, without any warning whatsoever, been proclaimed the head of the famous Guild of Thieves of New Orleans, in the middle of a war between them and the Assassins. From one day a normal man, a thieve between others, he was now the leader of dozens in search of vengeance for the kill of their former leader. And with that kind of pressure, the bearing of the loss of his two most precious friends, his father and brother, and no one to talk about it, no one with whom he had the kind of relation he had with Henri or Jean-Luc. Yes, Remy LeBeau must have had lots on his heart, and lots to hide from other men that were lingering in the mansion now and then. And he probably was thinking he was finaly getting the privacy he couldn't get inside the house. She couldn't steal that. She stood up and cleared her throath.
"Ah thought it would be better if yah know Ah was there. Yah look like yah need yah're privacy, sugah. Ah'll go inside."
He didn't move. His head was still bent, leaning in his hands, and the abandonned cigarette was slowly consuming itself between his fingers, bit of ashes sometimes falling from the glowing tip. It reminded her of the look of his eyes, and she walked towards the door.
"Stay, s'il-te-plaît." She turned and looked at him. He was still sitting in the same position, but he pulled back his head and stared at the stars above, like she had a few moments ago. Then he turned his face at her, and gave her a small smile. "Sit with me, Jade." She smiled back and pulled back a chair.
"Yah look like yah have a lot on yahr conscience, sugah." The smile faded, and he looked back up at the dark sky.
"Let's just say I'm an irresponsible man, with de hell of a lot of responsibilities all of a sudden."
"Ah'm sure yah can take it. From what Ah heard in the conversations, yah were trained by the best."
"De best of all. La crème des voleurs" he confirmed, barely whispering. Obviously he felt the need to change the subject, for he looked her straight in the eye. "Was it you I heard in de corridor minutes ago? Outside Marguerite's room?" Jade blushed.
"Ah heard yah sing, Ah wanted to know what… who it was… Nice lullaby. What does it mean?" Remy smiled.
"A ridiculous song about colored hens layin' eggs in different places, so dat de child can go to sleep. Tante Mattie sang dat song to me when I was young."
"She looks like a sweet child." Remy laughed softly.
"Yeah, she looks like'one." Jade swallowed.
"What… what happened to her mother?" Remy frowned and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Her mother? Mercy?" Jade stopped breathing. Mercy?
"Mercy?" she just repeated, staring at him. But he looked as dumbfounded as her.
"Well, yeah, Marguerite's mother, dat's what y'asked?"
"Mercy is yah're daughter's mother?" His eyes went round, and he smiled as comprehension dawned on him. He started to laugh, his fingers running through his dark untied hair, and layed back in the patio chair.
"Marguerite isn't m'daughter, chère… She's my niece, she's Henri and Mercy's fille. Though with Henri gone… I feel like I have a responsibility with her. I'm a little more dan an oncle, now." Her brows shot up, and her mouth opened in a small, surprised 'o'.
"Oh." He looked at her with a growing smile on his lips, but he saw she felt uneasy.
"How's y'friend?"
"Oh, Raven's fine. That woman… Mattie? She said she would be fine to go before Friday." The smile faded from his face.
"Dat's de day after tomorrow…"
"Yeah, well we have to go to work on next Monday. We normal people have an honest day job, yah know." He looked down at his slender hands, but not before she noticed a small tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Dat's low, chère."
"Ah know… Ah'm sorry. Ah'm really grateful for what yah're all doing for Raven and me." He shook his head.
"It's a normal thing for Thieves to help dose who need it. Jean-Luc did de same for me, takin' me away from de streets." She looked at him, surprised.
"Yah're not Jean-Luc natural son?"
"Non. I lived in de streets, and Jean-Luc quite saved m'life. Like de Thieves did to you'n Raven dis mornin'. De only difference is…" he paused, a grin on his lips as he looked her in the eyes.
"Is what?"
"I stayed." She bit her lip, but didn't look away from his eyes. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, not even blinking. "I've known lots'o women, chère. But none of'em made me feel de way I do, when I look at you." She swallowed the lump forming in her throath, but it didn't move.
"Remy…" His hands lifted and settled on the arm rests of her chair, emprisonning her between his arms, and his face inches from hers. She felt her breath run short, and fought not to close her eyes like her body was telling her. "Remy, this is crazy."
"Oh, oui, it is. Dat a woman I don' know comes in m'life like a dog in a bowlin' alley, and steal m'heart like I steal other's goods." She sighed involuntarily, staring in his eyes. "Who are'y, Jade? How can'y make my heart flutter like a teenager's, and make me tell m'heart like I never did with anyone?" This was more than she was prepared to hear, and she brought her hand up to his lips, shushing him.
"Please, Remy. This is insane…" she whispered, more to convince herself than him. He smiled behind her fingers and kissed them, sending small electric sparks all the way down her arm, and a deep shiver ran down her spine. He didn't stop, though, and planted small kisses all the way up her arm, leaving his chair to kneel down in front of her. She felt her whole body turn into water as his lips brushed against the soft skin in her neck, and the heat of his breath in her ear was enough for her to close her eyes, the stars leaving the sky to blind her behind her eyelids. She brought her arms around his neck, and kissed him. She fell on her knees as well, and after a few moments of surprise, he took her in his embrace and kissed her back.
Her mind was racing. She was on the floor on a terrasse, kissing a man with all her might, a man she had met… the night before?
Her conscience was yelling in her head, screaming her to stop this madness. This was going too fast, they were going to make a huge mistake…
But a mistake was just what she wanted. What she yearned for. What her body had wanted for months. Years, since she had been with a man, since she had touched the skin of one. Remy's skin was hot under her hands, burning as hers was. He was yearning for it as much as her, but…
She put her hands on his chest, and pushed him away as she had done at the bar, with as much force she could put into the push. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough for the kiss to break, and for the two of them to take in some large gulps of air, filling their lungs. It seems he had been thinking the same things, for he asked, his lips brushing against hers, "What d'we do now, chère?"
Sense seeped back into her brain, and she shook her head. "Nothing, Remy." He said nothing, but kissed her forehead with a sigh. She dearly wished she could see his eyes, but they were hidden from view, his true emotions unreadable. Tears welled up to her eyes and she turned her face away from his look. Getting up, she freeded herself from his arms, and walked towards the door, feeling the burning of his stare in her back.
She fought back the tears but, as much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn't bring herself to go back in Remy's arms. In any man's arms.
A sob shook her chest as she closed the door to her room, locking it. The tears in her eyes blurred everything in the dim lit bedroom, and she ran to the bed, holding tight onto a pillow.
Would the past ever leave her alone?
To be continued!
Ho oh! What's that? Another plot twist? Damn… *bangs her head on the wall* Get out of my head, you… you plot!
