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Discovering her passions or putting her degree in literature to good use. He knew Claudette was certainly worried about it.
    After a long moment of silence, Gisele leaned her head against the door and said, “Eleni is beautiful. Elegant.”
    Julian could certainly agree with that. “Her breeding is evident.”
    “I suppose.” Gisele frowned faintly and pushed away from the door. She crossed the room and came to stand at the edge of the bar while he uncorked the bottle of wine. “Still, I thought she would be…I don’t know. More sophisticated?”
    He chuckled. “You thought she would be French.”
    Instead of laughing with him, a frown creased her brow.
    Julian sensed an undercurrent of tension, as though Gisele perhaps wanted to tell him something, but didn’t know how. Perhaps Eleni had seemed dismissive to the girl. Gisele was not used to being treated that way. She had been raised to treat Chateau du Sévigné as though it were her own home. In a way, it was, even though she was still a servant.
    “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
    She started to speak, but hesitated. Julian frowned. Something about the curious look on her face made him think she was about to say something important, but before she uttered a word, she stopped herself, her lips pressing together in a thin line. She shook her head. “It’s nothing. You’re working.”
    “I was, but not now. It’s too hard to concentrate.” He didn’t tell her it was because he couldn’t stop thinking about his new protégé. He couldn’t keep his thoughts off her body, and his desire to sample the sweetness of her blood.
     “You know,” he said as he poured wine—a glass for Gisele, a glass for himself. “Ms. Audridov—Eleni—has gone through a lot. On top of that, she is American. It may take her time to acclimate herself to our ways, so be a friend to her.”
    “Of course,” she said as she took the wineglass and brought it to her lips. Her dark eyes watched him across the rim of the glass as she sipped.
    He took his glass and returned to his desk. Once again, his gaze strayed to the clock. It was a few minutes after the hour. He frowned. Perhaps Eleni intended to be fashionably late.
    “I’m going to take this with me.” Gisele held her glass up as if to toast her departure.
    Julian saluted her with his glass, and the minute she was out of the room, he opened his computer and tapped into the security camera feed to look for Eleni.

    * * * * *

    It seemed ridiculous to be so nervous. After all, by moving into his house it was as if they had a signed contract to be free with one another. Still, Eleni felt awkward and tense as she walked down the stairs to the main foyer. She’d kept a careful eye on the time, but after her shower she’d hesitated over everything—how to arrange her hair, and what dress to wear for her evening with Julian.
    Her own inefficiency frustrated her. At one time, she’d known by instinct what to wear for a lover. It had seemed almost second nature to her, and only during special occasions had she given her appearance any real thought. But her earlier meeting with Julian left her feeling nervous and unsure of herself. It didn’t help that he was drop dead gorgeous, either. She was used to seeing judgment in other people’s eyes, and hadn’t expected anything different from him, but it was more than that. Even though he had accepted her into his house, he didn’t seem the least bit charmed with her. The idea bothered her more than she cared to admit.
    At the last minute, she’d fastened her long, straight hair into a simple coil at the nape of her neck and wore the red, body skimming halter dress her sister had given her as a reward for her success in going six months without being bitten. Perhaps in some way, the dress would give her strength, because she certainly needed courage.
    The silence of the house made her hyper-aware of the way her red suede heels clicked over the marble floors. The solitary echo