My fingers clenched unconsciously around her thigh, bringing her bright grey eyes to mine. The serenity in her expression calmed me.
“You are very quiet,” I noted.
Her lips twitched. “It’s making you uncomfortable.”
I raised my eyebrows at her, knowing it would make her laugh.
I wasn’t disappointed.
When she was finished giggling, she leaned towards me to press a fragrant kiss to my jaw. “You are so much more volatile than anyone knows.”
“Because I want to know every thought that runs through the gorgeous mind of yours? That’s hardly unreasonable.”
Her lips pursed in an expression of doubt that I was all too familiar with. Giselle wasn’t a confident woman at the best of times and I hadn’t given her much reason to believe in me. She might have believed that I loved her but she didn’t trust that I wanted to love her. I’d been fighting it for so long that she obviously still felt like a burden to me.
God, I was fucking disgusting.
“Giselle,” I said, tugging her hands so that she was forced to face me. I ran a hand through her copper colored hair and let it rest on her cheek. “Have I spent too much time telling you that you are mine, and not enough emphasizing that I am utterly yours?”
She smiled slightly but in the reserved mood she was in, I couldn’t tell if it was sincere or meant to placate me. Before I could question her further about it, the car pulled up on the narrow street in St-Germaine-des-Pres where we would be staying.
I watched with the eager anticipation of a child as Giselle laid eyes on the building. Her beautiful features shone with joy as she realized where we were.
“Sin, how did you know?” she crowed, spinning around to throw her arms around me.
I chuckled. “I may have done a little background check at some point. I was starved for information about you when we weren’t talking,” I explained with a deceptively casual shrug. She didn’t need to know how I had spent countless hours pouring over every thing I could find about her. “I may have stumbled across your Pinterest account.”
Her delighted laugh pealed like Parisian church bells through the town car and the sound echoed throughout my body. I was utterly dazzled by her.
“I’ve always wanted to stay here. Did you know Oscar Wilde died here in 1900?” She pressed her nose to the glass, her hands spread wide against the pane.
I chuckled. “That would explain why our room is named after him.”
She spun to face me, her petal pink lips soft and dewy as they opened and closed in shock. I had to fight the urge to press them to my hardening cock.
“You are amazing,” she breathed.
I sunk my hand into the silky hair at the base of her neck and pulled her close until I spoke against those enticing lips. “Only for you.”
She kissed me with smiling lips and then dove out of the car. I chuckled as I collected our luggage and followed her into the lobby. I found her standing in the small but ornate reception, her face tipped to the ceiling and glowing with joy. It took my breath away to see her like that, especially after months of causing her only pain.
I snagged her hand as I walked past to check in but she remained blissed out on our setting and didn’t clue in to my exchange until I said, “Yes, my girlfriend and I will need a car to pick us up at eight o’clock to take us to Chez Dumonet.”
She stared at me as I accepted the old fashioned key to our room but I ignored her until we were safely enclosed in the elevator.
“Yes, siren?”
“I’m your girlfriend?”
I struggled not to smile, shrugging one shoulder instead. “A bit juvenile, I know.”
“No,” she whispered after a brief pause. “It’s perfect.”
“You can call yourself whatever you want, Elle, as long as it implies that you are mine.”
She blushed beautifully.
I led her down the hallway to our famous Oscar Wilde room, opening the door for her so I could watch her expression of awe as she passed into it. Cage had an apartment in the city, my parents had a house just outside Paris in the countryside with enough room for us and a travelling circus, but I was glad that I had decided on the hotel because it meant I got that look on her face.
“It’s just how I imagined. Did you know he was a bit of a social pariah? He was cutting edge and sexually progressive for his age, not to mention very gay.” She smiled wryly at me. “It’s fitting we’re staying here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “If you’re a homosexual, Elle, I’m afraid you should have told me sooner.”
She laughed and skipped over to me, throwing her arms around my neck to pull me down for a loud, smacking kiss.