Services Collected Boxed Set (13 page)

My head dropped back to the table, and my hands released timber to cover my eyes. His body slumped against mine, and we lay in near coma until I found the will to stir.

“How many more hours till Paris?”

He looked at his watch. “Six.”

I grinned at him. “We’ve
got
to do that again.”

I woke to
find Jacob still fast asleep in the grand hotel bed we both shared. It was still new to me, this whole sharing-a-bed thing. Scary and intimate all at the same time. We were staying at the
Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière
, a five star hotel that cost more per night than I used to earn in a month. We’d both slept
very
well.

I lay there for several long, pleasurable moments admiring him. He was spread out on his stomach, hands under the pillows at his head, sheets tangled at his waist. I knew it was something I would never tell him – that he would deny if ever I did - but he looked so cute, so vulnerable like this. I could see this fast becoming my favorite time of day, should we ever get married and make a habit of waking up together.

The thought of marriage, or rather, the lack of it, produced a black little stain on an otherwise perfect morning. I rose from the bed and dressed quickly. I needed to do something to take my mind off things, so that I could be bright and bubbly and cheerful when Jacob awoke.

All my life I’d heard about French croissants and coffee. It seemed as good a place as any to start. “Bonjour. Two… um, I mean
deux croissant
and a
café
please?”

My French was terrible, but the petite blonde waitress at the patisserie in the hotel lobby laughed and served me anyway. I picked up an English newspaper and sat at an antique wrought iron table.

Someone approached out of the corner of my eye. I paid them no attention until they sat down opposite me. “Anna, I need to talk to you.”

I knew that voice! I looked up to find Victoria staring at me intently. Shocked, I pushed my chair back.
Why couldn’t she leave us alone!

I opened my mouth to scream at her to leave, but she reached for my hand desperately. “Please. Wait. Hear me out and then I’ll go, I promise. ”

I hesitated, looking at her. Mascara smeared Victoria’s beautiful features. Her clothes were rumpled under her faux fox collar. It looked like she’d been crying. “Have… have you been here all night?” I asked.

“I got in at 2 a.m.,” she said. “Please, will you sit?” She looked at me imploringly.

Grudgingly, I sat down. “You’ve got five minutes, then I’m calling security.”

“I know I haven’t been acting the best. And I’m sorry for that,” Victoria started.

I crossed my arms. “Go on.”

“It’s just, when you love someone, you would do anything to be with them, right?” She looked at me, tears in her eyes, and my heart thawed, just a little.

I knew all about doing anything for love. I’d been prepared to sleep with a woman – this woman in fact – for Jacob. I’d give up my life at his command. Change everything. Could I blame someone if that
very same man
had had
the very same
effect?

“Victoria,” I said softly. “I understand. I really do. Love makes us do crazy things. But what you’re doing…” How could I describe it? That she was on a one way road?

The thing Victoria didn’t realize was that the person had to love you back. It had to be a two way street, otherwise you just kept driving further and further, going the wrong way. Jacob didn’t love her.
How would I feel if I was in her shoes?

Despite all she’d done, all the pain she’d caused, my heart broke for this woman before me, and for what I had to say next. “Jacob doesn’t love you, Victoria. Even if we don’t get married, his heart is not for you.”

Victoria leaned back. “Good. Because I don’t want it.”

“I’m so sorry… wait, what?” I sat up, surprised. “You don’t want Jacob?”

Victoria laughed. “No, of course not. He was a means to an end; a comfortable fantasy to keep the tabloids happy. I love him, but not
like that
. We were good together, but I don’t want to spend the rest of our life together. Anna,
I like
girls
.”

Oh. Now I got it.
Pretty hard to for a woman to make a baby without a man.

“I know about the baby Victoria. Jacob told me,” I said.

“I’d figured as much, from our last conversation.”

I shook my head, then I sighed. “Part of me is happy for you. Very happy. Victoria, I want you to know that I will always support your relationship with Jacob as the mother of his child. Our marriage won’t change that – it won’t keep him away from the baby. In fact, we’ve already talked about setting up a trust fund for the baby’s education from money gifted to us at the wedding.” I reached over to clasp her hand. “It’s OK. He’ll still be there for you. And for your child.” 

Victoria tilted her head. “You think this is about the baby? It has nothing to do with that.” She leaned in. “You do know that Jacob has to give me money whether he wants to or not, right? That’s the law?”

Now it was my turn to look confused. “Well if it’s not about Jacob, and it’s not about the money, what is it about?”

Victoria’s hand covered mine. She looked intently into my eyes. “You. It’s about you, Anna.”

“What?” I sat back in shock. “Me?”

She shook her head in disbelief, as if agreeing with me. “I know, right? Who would have thought it? Me, the famous movie star who could have her pick of any lesbian on the planet, falling for a girl she’s only spent one night with.”

“Wait. You’ve fallen for me?”

She looked at me shyly. “I’ve fallen hard.”

I waved my hands, confused. “Let’s ignore the absurdity of that for one moment, and focus on the crazy. Why the hell, if you don’t want Jacob, are your lawyers stopping him getting married?”

She looked at me, eyes lidded. “Because… it would stop you getting married too.”

“Me?”

“You.” She seized my hands again. “Anna, the way you made me feel that night – I’ve never felt like that before, ever. I have to have you. Have to be with you.”

“You… you love me?”

She looked genuinely confused. “I… I don’t know. I’ve never been in love before. But I want you. I lust after you. And I think it’s the same thing.”

My hand disentangled itself tentatively, to pat hers. “Oh honey. It’s not. I know.”

“But how do you know?”

I shrugged. “Because I’ve experienced true love. With Jacob.”

“And it’s not the same? As what we had?”

I shook my head. “Not by a long shot.”

Then I drew a deep breath. “But that’s beside the point. Victoria, you need to withdraw your lawsuit against Jacob. If you really, truly believe in love, you have to let us get married.”

Tears filled her eyes. “But then we’ll never be together!”

“Can’t you see Victoria? All of the things you’re doing, they’re marking it worse, not better! You should be a welcome part of Jacob’s life. Mine too. Not something that makes us run to Paris. I don’t want to feel like this anymore – I need you to move on… please.”

She looked around wildly. Desperate. “One last time.”

“What?”

“One last time. Will you let me experience what we had one last time?”

“Victoria, I…”

“Show me. Take me to that place again, Anna. Just you and I, and I’ll withdraw all charges right now. We can get a room... Jacob doesn’t even need to know!”

I hesitated. Strangely, her offer was tempting. One morning – an hour, maybe two – and all our troubles would be over.
Could I do it?
It wasn’t cheating if I was doing it for my marriage, right? I was hazy on the rules with same sex partners – if it was with another woman, did any man mind?

My night with Victoria had been hot.
So hot.
I remembered her hands on my thighs. Her tongue lapping at me…
down there.
I remembered groaning into her, and her groaning into me. Such a unique experience.
Such a pleasurable one.

But could I do it when my heart belonged to another? I looked deep into myself and instantly I saw the answer. “I’m sorry Victoria. I really am. But I love Jacob – I can’t betray him, even for you, even for this.”

She opened her mouth to object, but I held up a hand. An idea was forming. 

“Wait, let me finish. I won’t sleep with you now.
However
. If you withdraw the lawsuit, and if Jacob agrees…” I drew a deep breath… “I’d be amendable to having another night together – the three of us – at some stage in the future.”

I held up both hands now. “All things going well of course, and only when Jacob and I are comfortable in our married life. I can’t make promises about anything. It might never even happen. But,” I said softly. “It’s a chance to start again. It’s a chance to have something, as opposed to nothing at all.”

Victoria, uncharacteristically, was silent. Crimson lips opened to speak, then stopped, and she closed them again. I waited patiently for her mind to process what I had said.

“You would do that?” she asked, finally.

“I don’t love you Victoria,” I said. “But then again, even though you profess it, I don’t think you love me either. You’ve just never had anyone deny you before – it’s foreign to you, and you’re mistaking that feeling of want, for need. There will come a day when you realize this. On that day, come back and see me. We had fun together!”

I grinned, reliving the memory of that passionate night. “I could have some more of that.”

Victoria stood up, deep in thought. “In the movie business, it’s all or nothing. You either get the role, or you don’t. I never thought that there might be another option – another role I could play. Thank you Anna, you’ve given me a lot to think about.”

She strode away, and even though she hadn’t said that she’d agreed, I was satisfied.

I followed Victoria with my eyes. Her fox fur coat and her swaying hips. And I noticed how she went out of her way to walk past the cute French waitress with the long legs. Sure enough, the waitress did a double take, recognizing her. Victoria stopped, ever the gracious movie star, to allow her a photo. They swapped numbers five minutes later. I sipped my coffee, and smiled.

The cat only wants the mouse when it’s trying to escape.
Lay it at its feet, and it just walks away.

I chose not
to tell Jacob about Victoria when he awoke. He was too happy, too excited to be on holidays with me at long last. He kept circling me like puppy.

“Can I take you shopping? Please, pretty please? Say yes!”

I laughed, giving in after a long, protracted protest to a whoop of joy from my sexy, hunky lover.

It was a beautiful summer day in Paris; the sort where you might expect a bluebird to alight on your hand at any moment. We walked hand-in-hand along the Champs-Elysées, its shady tree-lined boulevard leading to the imposing Arc de Triomphe in the distance.

Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Hugo Boss and Louis Pion – we walked into them all, the entrance itself giving me a small thrill each time we did it – these were not my usual stores. Jacob laughed when I told him. “Pick something out, anything, and it’s yours. I’m taking you somewhere special tonight, let’s get you an outfit.”

“Anything?”

He leaned in. “Almost. I get to choose the underwear, and I’m very fussy. You might have to model quite a lot.”

* * *

I
looked hot.
As in the sexy kind.
I couldn’t help it – I looked at my reflection in the foyer windows one final time while we were waiting for the limousine to arrive that evening.

Shopping had been fun! I’d purchased an Emanuel Ungaro little black dress, black leather Versace knee high boots to match
–Versace! Squeal! –
and, when Jacob had finally told me our destination, a wool-knit oversized cream scarf in case it got cold.
It didn’t hurt that it covered the love bite on my neck from the plane, too.

We were going for dinner at the Eiffel Tower; he’d made a 9 p.m. reservation.

The Eiffel Tower! In all my visions of France, in all the daydreams and fantasies I’d had over the years of this exotic country, the Eiffel Tower had stood tall and proud. It was the epitome of France; the country’s answer to the Statue of Liberty, and just as iconic. I couldn’t believe I was actually going!

“Mr. King, a letter for you has just arrived.” I was broken out of my reverie by the concierge.

Jacob took it, rolling his eyes. “Even in Paris business finds me. Sorry about this.” He tucked the letter in his jacket as our car pulled up. “I’ll look at it later.”

Our trip didn’t take long, and Jacob spent the entire journey pointing out one sight after another as we glided through the streets. Suddenly though, he turned me toward him, from where I’d been looking out the window. “Close your eyes Anna. We’re almost there.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s better that way. Trust me.”

I closed my eyes as the limousine came to a stop, and then soon enough I felt a cool draft inside the car as my door opened.

“Here, take my hand.” Jacob helped me out of the car. “You’re not peeking, are you?”

I giggled. “No, but maybe I should. Can I open them yet?”

He walked me forward several paces, and then I felt him twist my hips so I was turned slightly to the right. “Yes.”

Oh wow.
It was like I’d walked into a postcard. Couples walked hand in hand in the still warm evening, drinking hot coffee. Music played across a huge expanse of green lawn. An elderly couple danced beside a fountain. And towering over it all in a glimmering, shining expanse of intricately wrought metal, stood the Eiffel Tower.

It was perfect. Larger than I’d imagined in real life – a latticework of beams and girders that twisted up into the air. They became strands of spun metal in a beautiful, delicate web high above. The tower was lit in the warm evening by a wash of golden light.

I craned my neck back; noticing a beam of light that spun in an arc from the very tip, revolving around the tower to light up the darkening sky. Then suddenly the lights changed, to become a million bright sparkles that looked for all the world like a swarm of shimmering fireflies had alighted upon the tower to dance along its length. If France was the city of love, the Eiffel Tower was its beating heart.

“Oh Jacob. It’s beautiful.”

He took my hand. “Wait till you see where we’re eating.”

* * *

T
he
Jules Verne
restaurant was on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, past a discrete door at its base that led to a private elevator. The restaurant itself was a modern, sleek affair, with soft hexagonal lighting across the roof and tables with crisp white linen, sparkling wine glasses and glimmering candles.

It was beautiful, but it also didn’t matter – we could have been about to eat in a shoebox for all I cared. Because what was beyond the window, was stunning.

Paris opened out before us, a sea of stars on land, a map of yellow, red and white. The red, I realized, was cars. Long lanes of them stretching away from the tower below. The white was matching lanes of cars marching like tiny little ants toward us from the other direction.
Rubies and Diamonds.
A dark curve of glittering black and green cut through the heart of it all, spanned by glittering bridges.
That would be the river Seine
, with its boats creating gentle ripples on the water.

“Mr. King, your table awaits.” We were led past suited diners; young and old couples eating and chatting. A thrill went through me –
we were a couple too!
  Then suddenly we were walking past empty chairs to a single, lone table with a tall, slender candle that stood twinkling upon it.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Jacob said. “I was going to book out the whole restaurant, but then I thought some of these people might only be in Paris once, so I only booked out our section.”

“You booked this out… for me?”

“Well, like I said, not the whole restaurant.” He looked at me. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“Oh Jacob!” I sprang into his arms, “I love you so much!”

The waiter gave a cough. We separated.

Dinner was amazing – almost as delightful as the conversation. We ate
chaud-froid blue lobster
, and seared
escalope of duck foie gras
.  We talked about my past and our future together; anything and everything except the lawsuit that had occupied our lives for days.

“Thank you Jacob. For this. It was a welcome break.”

Jacob put down his napkin and stood. “It’s not over yet. Your hand, Madame?”

I took his hand and stood. “What now?”

“You’ll see.” He led me through a small door to an elevator, this time cordoned off by rope. A suited staff member waved us through, but when we got inside, instead of going down, we went up again. “Now, we get the view.”

“Wasn’t that it?”

He didn’t need to answer, because suddenly we started moving, and I realized that the elevator was made of glass. We entered a rising grid of metal girders, beyond which I could see stars that I could swear were getting bigger, and the lights of Paris which I
knew
were getting smaller.

By the time the elevator opened within the highest room in the Eiffel Tower, I was looking down on a whole new world. I rushed to a window in wonder. The Arc de Triomphe shone golden below us; a splendid arch at the top of the very street where I had been earlier today. I rushed to another; there was Notre-dame Cathedral, with its tall spires shining into the night. I rushed to a third – I could see the Louvre Museum, with its ultra-modern glass pyramid surrounded by huge grand old buildings. I rushed to another window, but then paused.
Wait.
“Where are all the people?”

Jacob looked embarrassed. “I might have, sort of, booked this out too.”

“Oh Jacob!” For the second time that night, I leapt into his arms. “You shouldn’t have.”

He kissed me deeply, then stepped back, looking at me from arm’s length. “I wanted to. Come on, let’s go outside.”

We walked up a set of metal stairs, and then suddenly a cool breeze was blowing away the heat of summer, and we were under the stars. The view was stunning. Dizzying. We walked to the railing – a latticework of widely spaced wires that ran higher than our heads, and drank in the sights and sounds below.

I nudged Jacob. “Thank you Mr. King.”

Something small and white fluttered from his pocket, and I stooped to pick it up before it was blown away. “The letter from the concierge. I must have knocked it from your jacket.” I looked at it. “Wickson & Wickson… hey, isn’t that the lawyer Victoria uses?”

Jacob grimaced. “Yes.”

“Let’s open it.”

“Let’s not – I don’t want to spoil the night.”

I thought back to today’s meeting. “Please? For me? Maybe it will surprise you.”

He cocked his head. “Do you know something I don’t?”

When I refused to answer,
was too scared to answer
, he inserted his thumb in the side and slid it up the seal.

“Dear Mr. King…”
he read aloud.
“We are happy to inform you that our client, Victoria Cutly, has instructed us to…”
He turned toward me, face white. “Wait. Did you know about this?”

“I won’t know what I’m supposed to know unless you finish reading the letter, Mr. King.”

Hands shaking, Jacob continued.
“…instructed us to drop all charges against you, effective immediately.”
Tears sprung to his eyes. “Anna! You know what this means?”

The letter dropped to the floor, and suddenly the balcony, the view, everything faded except for the man before me. I did know.
It meant we could get married.

In one smooth motion, Jacob picked me effortlessly from the floor and walked, laughing, over an imaginary threshold along the balcony. We stopped, and the laughter stopped too. He looked deep into my eyes. “I love you Anna Watson.”

Suddenly we were kissing each other madly, deeply, our hands desperately roaming each other’s bodies. Buttons popped from his shirt as I pulled it open. His hands reached under my dress, sliding up to caress me. I ran my hands down his chest to the hard bulge in his pants.
I wanted Jacob King. All of him.

I undid his belt with urgency born of need, and fell to my knees as he sprang free.  One hand gripped his base, the other, the material of his shirt, and I slid him into my mouth.

“Anna,” Jacob groaned.

There was no slow build up to my lovemaking this time. I moved up and down his length furiously; sucking, licking, tasting. I could feel him quivering in my mouth as I slid in and out. I could smell his masculine scent.

“Anna,” Jacob groaned again. He pulled me to my feet. “I want you. I want to be in you.”

He pushed me against the railing and lifted my dress, then seized my panties and ripped them from my body.

I let out a moan of desire and raised my leg. He accepted the invitation and slid inside, lubricating me with my own saliva, still on his length. I could feel him immediately, filling my body, consuming my soul. I melted into his arms as he began to plunge in and out.

Every withdrawal was delight; every thrust back in, a pleasure. The place, the promise, the man; it was all coming together in a whirlwind that had begun between my legs but was quickly spreading to all corners of the earth. I began to whimper, soft sounds as I tried to hold inside the pleasure I felt within me.

“It’s OK. Anna,” Jacob breathed. “We’re alone, no one can hear you. Scream if you want.”

And so I did. In the middle of Paris, a thousand feet above the earth, I vocalized my desires for this man in cries that grew higher with each thrust within me, each time he filled me with his huge, hard member. I couldn’t help myself. I was building too quickly. I wanted to make it last, but suddenly I had no control over my own body. I clung to his neck as he built me higher, and higher…

The release came over me with the force of a hurricane. And suddenly I knew I was still crying out, but I couldn’t hear it. My ears were buzzing, my fingers were numb and electricity was zinging around my body with such force that I could concentrate on nothing else.

“Oh god,” I said when I could finally breath again. “That was amazing.”

He pulled out, still straight and hard. “It’s not over yet. Turn around.”

“Again? I don’t think I have anything left!” But still I turned, for I knew this man, and the power he had over me.

My hands gripped the railing before us and I spread my legs, arching my back to give him access. He slipped inside, but now only the tip, teasing me. I was so wet. It felt so good. Then he reached around, sliding a finger down until he found me. His finger started teasing me in a different area, brushing against my pearl lightly, gliding over it with quickly lubricated fingers.

My desire was growing once more. “Please,” I said. “I want to feel you. All of you.”

His hips drew him out to his very tip, then slid his length all the way inside. I groaned, the pleasure of his entry doubled by the slow, rhythmic pressure of his fingers.

His motion was gentle at first, smooth glides that were so different to the hard, powerful thrusts that had come before. It felt good – tender and loving. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling as our friction worked slowly through my body. I could feel each and every slide. I could imagine his hard body, shirt ripped, as he held my dress up against my back and gave me pleasure.