Her chin went up. “He told Jean-Claude my breasts and hips were too big, and once I had a child, I’d be a cow for certain, that I was well on my way in that department already. He pointed out he wasn’t in the least attracted to me, and what did Jean-Claude want him to do? Close his eyes the entire time he fucked me?”
There was a short silence when Brielle finished speaking. What the hell else was there to say? It was really the only truthful thing said as far as Elie was concerned and it was bad enough. Still, he waited. Not saying a word.
“What happened, Brielle?” Stefano pushed.
“I went home. I told my father and Fayette I wasn’t going to marry Elie and she could have him if she wanted him. My father was furious since I didn’t convince Jean-Claude to accept Fayette in my place. Fayette sobbed for hours, and in the end, my father demanded I find Elie and plead with him to marry me or Fayette. I refused. He threw me out. I walked out and took a job as a nanny for a good friend’s mother in Spain.”
That was why he couldn’t find her. Why his letters kept coming back unopened. Elie cursed under his breath. Damn her father. Damn Fayette. Damn him for being a complete ass and not standing up to Jean-Claude the way he should have instead of hurting the one person who mattered to him.
“You can see why it is impossible for me to marry this man,” Brielle concluded.
“I haven’t heard from Elie yet, Brielle. That is only one side of the story. There are always two sides. Given what Brielle has revealed, Elie, do you want to end this right now and give your consent to allowing her out of the marriage?”
“Absolutely not.” Elie poured conviction into his voice. He leaned toward Stefano. “I never met Fayette Couture until she opened her door when I went looking for Brielle right before I made up my mind to enter into an arranged marriage. I had to fill out the same questionnaire as Brielle did, stating my preferences for sexual practices and I had to swear to the honesty of those practices. The computer matches the two subjects as closely as possible. I’m a shadow rider and I live by my word. I don’t share women. I don’t do threesomes, or practice anything else other than bondage and I do that with my partner and no one else. I am dominant in sexual practices. Fayette lied to Brielle about everything. I never touched her, kissed her or fucked her and that’s the God’s honest truth.”
“But—”
Stefano held up his hand. “You have to give Elie the courtesy of hearing him out, Brielle, just as he did you. What you were saying couldn’t have been easy for him to hear, just as this isn’t easy for you.”
“I did say those terrible things to Jean-Claude, not because they were true, but because I was so angry with him for running my life, taking my childhood away from me, my family, and dictating every aspect of my life to the point I wasn’t even there when my father died. More, I had noticed Brielle when she was underage working in the café I frequented. She was gorgeous. I knew I shouldn’t be looking at her, especially since I was older and I already had certain sexual preferences. I couldn’t stop myself.”
Elie pressed his hand to his chest, remembering that moment when he first heard the sound of her voice. “She asked me what I wanted to drink and just the sound of her voice opened up something in me that had been so closed off, but I didn’t understand then what it was.”
Stefano held up his hand, frowning. “No one ever talked to you about what would happen when you found the right person?”
Elie shook his head and then pressed his hand to his temple, ashamed he had to confess not only to Brielle, but to Stefano, the one man he respected above all others. “I began to make certain I knew her shifts and I would go to her place of work. When our shadows touched, there was a sexual jolt that was unbelievable, but more, I could see our shadows knotting together. I always made certain I stood where our shadows touched. At first, I did it because I was addicted to the rush. But then I wanted to tie us together—to have a connection to someone. Not just to anyone—to her. She began to matter to me. Jean-Claude found out about her and what I was doing. I felt like he took the one good, decent thing I had in my life and ripped it away.”
Elie forced himself to look at Brielle. “I honestly loved the way you looked with your curves. I said those things to strike out at Jean-Claude, not you. I didn’t know you were anywhere around. It was idiocy on my part. I was young and hitting out at the great Jean-Claude Archambault. As for saying the things about sex, I played right into Fayette’s hands. I didn’t feel the family had any right to judge me when I felt abandoned by them and yet used at the same time.”