Authors: Meg Cabot

Tags: #Europe, #Contemporary Women, #Humorous, #Fiction, #Romance, #Americans, #Humorous fiction, #Young women, #General, #Americans - Europe, #Love Stories

Queen of Babble (34 page)

Until suddenly he mutters, “Christ, Lizzie, you haven’t got on any underwear,” and I say, “I know, I didn’t want visible panty lines,” and he puts his lips there, too.

And on top of the cask I feel as if the sunlight is piercing me all over—but piercing me in a good way—and I look down through half-lidded eyes and think how bizarre it is that Luke de Villiers’s dark head is between my legs—but bizarre in avery good way—and then I don’t think about anything at all for a while except the sun, which seems to have turned into a supernova, right there inside Monsieur de Villiers’s cask room.

And then Luke straightens and wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close against him and my legs wrap around him and I feel his naked chest beneath my fingers and wonder how. And then he’s inside me, thick and hard, and it feels even better than when his mouth was there, and we’re moving against each other in just the right rhythm, with him burying himself more and more deeply in me, and me trying to get closer and closer to him, and he’s kissing my neck and shoulders where the sun is hitting me, and suddenly there’s sun allover me, like I’m being showered in golden sun drops, and I cry out at how good it feels, and Luke does, too.

And then as he stands there, holding me slickly to him and panting in my hair, I realize that we just had sex on a wine cask.

And that it was fantastic. I didn’t even have to worry about taking care of my own good time! Luke totally made sure I had one. Or two, actually.

“Have I mentioned,” Luke wants to know when he’s caught his breath, “that I think I’m in love with you?”

I laugh. I can’t help it.

“Have I mentioned,” I ask, “that the feeling is mutual?”

“Well,” he says, “that’s a relief.” He doesn’t move, and neither do I. It feels good to stand like that. Or, in my case, sit.

“I should also probably tell you,” Luke says, “that I decided to go ahead and enter that program I got into at NYU.”

I wonder if he can see my heart leap inside my chest. Although I try to sound casual.

“Really?” I say. “That’s funny. I’m moving to New York, too.”

“Well,” Luke says, leaning his forehead against mine and smiling, “isn’t that a coincidence.”

“Isn’t it, though?” I say, smiling back.

A little while later, we slip hand in hand from the cask room just in time to see the bride and groom cutting the multitiered cake. Agnès, spotting us first, rushes over with a tray of champagne glasses, and we each take one and stand, side by side, as Vicky and Craig feed each other the first piece.

“I hope they don’t cram it into each other’s faces,” I say. “I hate when they do that.”

“Plus,” Luke says, “then you’ll have chocolate stains to get out.”

“Don’t even say that,” I say, shuddering, and hug his arm.

“Why, hello,” Shari says, appearing, with Chaz in tow, a minute later. “Where did you two disappear to?”

“Nowhere,” I say quickly, blushing to my hairline.

“Oh, right,” Shari says with a knowing smile. “I’ve been there.”

“What are you talking about?” Chaz, clueless, wants to know. “You’ve been here the whole time.I’m the one who had to take that freak to the train station. I’ve decided that from now on, Lizzie, I’ll be screening all your boyfriends. You can’t be trusted to choose your own.”

“Is that so?” I say, exchanging an amused glance with Luke, who puts his arm around me.

“I’ll give you a hand with that, Chaz,” Luke volunteers. “I think Lizzie is more than you can handle on your own.”

Chaz, spying Luke’s arm around my shoulders, narrows his eyes at us.

“Hey,” he says, “what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it to you someday, baby,” Shari says, patting him on the arm.

“Nobody ever tells me anything.” Chaz pouts.

“That’s because you’ve got to go straight to the source,” Shari says.

“Which is?”

“The LBS. Who else?” Shari says, tipping her head in my direction.

Which is right when an extremely tipsy Ginny Thibodaux spies me and hurries over to plant a kiss on my cheek.

“Lizzie!” she exclaims. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I wanted to thank you for what you did for my Vicky. That dress—it’s beautiful! You know you’re a lifesaver, don’t you? I’ve never seen anything like it. Why, you ought to open your own business!”

“Maybe,” I say with a smile, “I will.”

In conclusion, we have seen the important role fashion has played in the development of world culture and history. Starting from strips of fur worn for warmth and protection by cavemen gathered round a fire, to Prada shoes worn for their beauty and cachet by the modern working woman at a cocktail party, fashion has, over the centuries, come to be one of man’s—and woman’s—greatest and most interesting accomplishments.

This author in particular looks forward to seeing what surprises and innovations await her in the world of fashion—and beyond—in the coming years.

History of Fashion

SENIOR THESIS BY ELIZABETH NICHOLS

About the Author

MEG CABOT was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband.

www.megcabot.com

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Available from HarperAudio.

ALSO BY MEG CABOT

All-American Girl

Ready or Not: An All-American Girl Novel

Nicola and the Viscount

Victoria and the Rogue

Teen Idol

Avalon High

THE PRINCESS DIARIES

The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries, Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight The Princess Diaries, Volume III: Princess in Love

The Princess Diaries, Volume IV: Princess in Waiting The Princess Diaries, Volume IV and a Half: Project Princess

The Princess Diaries, Volume V: Princess in Pink

The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training The Princess Diaries, Volume VII: Party Princess

The Princess Present: A Princess Diaries Book

Princess Lessons: A Princess Diaries Book

Perfect Princess: A Princess Diaries Book

Holiday Princess: A Princess Diaries Book

The Mediator 1: Shadowland

The Mediator 2: Ninth Key

The Mediator 3: Reunion

The Mediator 4: Darkest Hour

The Mediator 5: Haunted

The Mediator 6: Twilight

Every Boy’s Got One

Boy Meets Girl

The Boy Next Door

She Went All the Way

Size 12 Is Not Fat

THE 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU BOOKS

When Lightning Strikes

Code Name Cassandra

Safe House

Sanctuary

Credits

Jacket design by Georgia A. Liebman

Jacket photograph by Jan Cobb

Sony/ATV Songs LLC, R.U. Cyrius Publishing, Knockout Music Company and Donald Jay Music LTD. All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Songs LLC administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

QUEEN OF BABBLE.Copyright © 2006 by Meg Cabot, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Microsoft Reader May 2006 ISBN 0-06-119142-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cabot, Meg.

Queen of babble / Meg Cabot.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-085198-9 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-06-085198-8 (alk. paper)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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