French Twist (9 page)
Just then, I peeked up and saw his face on the big screen. He was walking alone with his head down, smiling to himself. The sight of him made me lose my breath. He was wearing jeans, a light-blue collared short-sleeved shirt and brown leather shoes. I noticed he wasn’t wearing his chain or his sunglasses. For a brief moment I wondered if he was trying to adapt to his new environment. I quickly brushed the thought aside and brought myself back to the moment. I felt a wave of emotion flow through me that this man was mine (at least for the time being) and couldn’t wait to get my hands on him. I moved further up towards the exit door and held my breath.
After what felt like an eternity, Louis passed through the door. His eyes met mine immediately and he broke into the most spectacular smile I’ve ever seen. I ran over to him and flung my arms around his neck. He buried his face in my hair and held me tightly.
“I missed you,
mon coeur
.”
I breathed in his heavenly scent. “I missed you more.”
He pulled out of the hug and held my face in his hands. “I highly doubt that, but we can debate this on the ride home if you like.” He kissed me tenderly.
I wanted to stay there forever, but we were starting to block foot traffic, so I reluctantly extracted myself from the kiss. I took his hand and we started walking toward the elevator. “How was your flight?”
He sighed. “Long. I was sitting next to this model who would not stop talking about the photo shoot that she was flying into San Francisco to do. All I wanted to do was sleep.”
I felt a stab of jealousy. Here comes the sarcasm. “Poor baby. You had to sit next to a gorgeous French woman for thirteen hours.”
“You
should
feel sorry for me. You have completely ruined me for French women. They cannot hold a candle to you.” He stopped and kissed me again. “You have no idea the power you have over me.”
Even after everything that had happened over the last three weeks, I had trouble taking Louis seriously. I wanted to believe him, but a) how could I possibly have this effect on anyone? and b) he
had
to have some kind of hidden agenda. I decided if this turned out to be a total fantasy, it was still more interesting than anything else I had going on right now. Honestly, reality is often overrated.
“Cry me a river, Louis. You’ve forever ruined me for American men.”
He laughed. “
Mon coeur
, how I have missed you.”
As we got into the elevator, Louis took my hand. “So, what are we doing tonight?” He raised his eyebrows at me.
I peeked up at him through my lashes. “What did you have in mind?” I can think of a few things...
The elevator doors closed and Louis pulled me into a passionate kiss. All his luggage fell to the floor and we started reaching under each other’s clothes. It’s good thing we were alone in the elevator since anyone in the vicinity would have been enjoying some free soft-core porn.
“Louis.” I gasped.
“I want you.” He ran his hands all over my body. I started to get dizzy. I really missed this.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Louis and I quickly rearranged ourselves, grabbed his luggage and exited past a group of people with very smug looks on their faces.
I laughed as we walked to the car. “That was quite a show in the elevator, Louis. Do you have a thing for having sex in public places?”
“No, I am not into any weird sex things. Believe me, I have tried and seen enough for a lifetime. I simply could not contain myself.”
A moment later, he pushed me up against my car and kissed me to the point I thought I would melt into a puddle on the floor. With great effort, I pushed him away from me.
“That’s it! You’re now cut off. We’ll never make it out of here at this rate and I have
no
intention of having sex in the car.” I ruffled his hair and opened the trunk for him. “Let’s go.”
Louis laughed. “
Oui, Madame
.” He put his luggage in the trunk, climbed into the car and we were on our way. I focused on the fact that I would have him all to myself in less than an hour.
After far too much traffic for my taste, we finally reached the door of Louis’ apartment. As he searched for his keys I felt a warm feeling spread through my entire body. Finally! I would get to have Louis to myself in private. When he put the key in the lock, I came up behind him and slid my hands around his waist.
“I’m so happy you’re back.” I slowly began kissing his neck. Louis turned around and kissed me hard on the mouth.
As things started to heat up a little too much for the hallway of his corporate apartment building, Louis quickly removed himself from the kiss. “We need to go inside, Syd. This would be far too interesting a show for the neighbors.”
I sighed. “You’re right. Thank you for protecting my modesty.”
Louis laughed and grabbed his bags. He opened the door and music spilled out into the hallway. Crap. Jean was home. My plans didn’t involve having Louis’ roommate in the immediate vicinity.
“Louis! How was your flight?” You had to hand it to Jean. He had amazing manners. He always insisted on speaking English to Louis when I was present.
“Long. I am glad to finally be back.” He rubbed his eyes for emphasis.
Jean smirked. “I am sure you are.”
Louis held up his bags. “I am going to put these down and rest. See you later, man.”
“Enjoy your nap, Sydney.” Jean winked suggestively.
My face no doubt turned a new shade of red, but this wasn’t going to stop me. “Thanks, Jean. See you later.”
Louis walked into his bedroom and put his bags down. I followed him in and closed the door. He turned to me and grinned. I launched myself at him and he fell backwards on the bed and laughed.
“You missed me quite a lot, didn’t you?”
“That’s an understatement.” I could contain myself no longer. I kissed him like my life depended on it. Louis responded and our hands started to wander. As I tried to reach the button of his jeans, deep laughter rumbled from his chest.
“I have missed you too,
mon coeur
. Just remember these walls are pretty thin.” He sat up and regarded me with amusement.
“Are you worried Jean will hear something?” I smirked. “I seem to remember a few times when Jean was fairly loud with total strangers he’d brought home from a bar. Maybe it’s time he got some payback.”
“I was merely concerned for your virtue – as you call it.” He couldn’t get through his comment with a straight face.
“Hey! I’m perfectly virtuous.” As I said this, I realized before Louis, the perception of my “virtue” would have been a real concern for me. For some reason, it used to really matter to me what other people thought. After Louis, it didn’t seem important. At this moment, I knew I wanted him, and I didn’t care who else knew.
I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him back on top of me and into a slow kiss. My hands made their way back to his jeans and opened the button. Then I slowly worked the zipper down and began to pull his jeans off. I had worked them down to just below the waistband of his underwear when I felt...skin. My eyes jerked open. Louis started to laugh uncontrollably. I was totally confused. I peered over his shoulder and started to giggle. He was wearing a thong!
“I thought you might enjoy this.” He had tears streaming out of his eyes from laughing so hard. “You should see the look on your face. You Americans are
so
uptight!”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You did that on purpose to shock me?”
“Of course not. I do not like my panty lines to show.” He fell into another fit of giggles and I jumped on top of him.
“Ha, ha. You’ve had your fun. Now come here.” It wasn’t too hard to get Louis to stop laughing.
A few magical hours later, Louis and I were lying in bed talking. Apparently, Louis had a lot of decisions to make in the next couple of weeks regarding his living arrangements.
“Now that I have been transferred to the US, I can no longer stay in the corporate housing or drive the rental car. I need to find an apartment and buy a car. So many decisions!” He eyed me thoughtfully. “Wait a minute...don’t you help people with this kind of stuff for your job?”
“Why yes, Louis, I do. Is there something I can do to help you?” I giggled. “My fee is pretty steep.”
“I think I can make it worth your while, Miss Bennett.” With that, he drew me close to him and gave me a reason to want to do everything possible for him, whether there was something wrong with him or not. I was finally starting to let go. This man was a miracle worker in order to make a slightly sane woman out of me.
Louis and I didn’t get very much sleep his first night back, though we both agreed it was worth being exhausted the next day. I knew I should have gone home last night, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave him. After being without him for far too long, my system was blissfully happy to be on overload. I was completely enchanted.
When I opened my eyes in the morning, the sky was bright. In fact, it appeared to be a lot brighter than it normally was when I got up for work. I rolled over and gawked at the clock. It was flashing twelve o’clock. Something wasn’t right. I got up and found my watch. Crap! It was eight o’clock in the morning! I had to be at work in thirty minutes. There was no way this was going to happen.
I ran over to Louis and gently shook him awake. “Bluey, wake up. It’s eight o’clock.”
His eyes snapped open. “No! I am very late.” He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed quickly. “Why didn’t the alarm go off?”
“Something must have happened to your clock.” I pointed to the flashing numbers and then continued to collect my clothing which was strewn about the room.
“Damn it. Jean must have blown a fuse again.” He seemed irritated as he ran to his bathroom and began to brush his teeth.
“Is this something he does often?” I quickly got dressed.
Louis spat out a mouthful of toothpaste. “He has these late night cooking sessions and sometimes uses too many appliances at the same time. This is an old building, so it does not take too much.”
“Maybe he was lonely. For once you were responsible for providing the noisy entertainment.” I chuckled.
He beamed as he dressed rapidly. “I rather enjoy the sounds you make.”
I blushed. “On that note, I have to run. I’m going to be totally late.” I wrapped my arms around Louis and kissed him. “Have a good day.”
Louis held me for a moment. “You too. I will call you when I can. Today will be a busy day of debriefs.”
He walked me to the door and gave me a very sweet kiss. “I am so happy to be with you again,
mon coeur
. I missed you terribly.”
“I missed you too.” I smiled and walked out the door before I decided to call in sick in order to catch up on my sleep.
As I ran to my car, I left a message for my boss letting her know my alarm didn’t go off and I would be there as soon as I could. There was certainly no need to include my quick stop at home to find appropriate clothing for the workday. Nice, Sydney. What a great example you set.
I made it to work an hour late, but thankfully hadn’t missed anything important. I didn’t have any new hires for orientation, so it was only a matter of digging into what was sitting on my desk from Friday. No matter how much I worked, the pile didn’t seem to go down. It usually bothered me, despite my boss’ reminders that this is how it was supposed to be, but not today. I was on such a high, nothing could bring me down.
I started to relive some particularly memorable moments from early this morning when my phone rang and startled me back to reality.
“Sydney Bennett, how may I help you?” I lacked my usual perky tone, but this was understandable after two hours of sleep.
“You can spill all the gory details of your night of passion.” Maya was not one to wait to be informed.
“Good morning to you too, sunshine.” I giggled.
“So, Syd, you sound kind of tired. Were you up to anything special last night?” I knew she had an enormous smirk on her face. I also knew she was going to embarrass me within an inch of my life.
I sighed dramatically. “No, nothing special. It was actually kind of boring.”
“Really? Then you’re not having any trouble walking today?”
“Maya!” My face was now the most ridiculous shade of crimson possible. I hadn’t expected her to pull such a high level of vulgarity so fast. I was incredibly thankful I had closed my office door when I came in, which muffled the volume of the shock which came out in my voice.
“Oh, don’t be such a prude. You know you had an...
active
reunion last night.”
“I’m thrilled to provide such lively entertainment for you, perv.”
Maya laughed. “You know you love me. Who else would push you so far out of your comfort zone?”
“I would say you
throw
me out of my comfort zone. Repeatedly. Unwillingly. But I do love you. You get a great discount at Bloomingdales.”
Maya snorted. “Seriously, how was last night?” She was clearly eager for details.
“Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Being with him is just...heavenly.”
“Wow. You’re totally high.”
“Exactly! I’m…distracted. It’s embarrassing!” I closed my eyes for a moment. “I need...sleep...and Louis.”
“Honey, it doesn’t sound like those two things go too well together.” She couldn’t control the huge cackle which escaped her.
Wow. I walked right into that one. I desperately needed sleep.
Maya was still laughing. “I guess you’re going to have to decide which one you need more.”
“Alright, Missy. You’ve said quite enough! I have to go and try to make some sense out of the mess on my desk.” Then I’ll try to sort out the mess in my head.
“Sounds good, Syd. Then you can start on your head.”
I shuddered. Sometimes Maya knew me a little
too
well. “Bye, Maya. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”
“You’d better! Or I’ll have to start stalking you. And if I don’t get enough information, I’m sure I can track down Louis...”
I hung up before she said anything else. Maya was crazy enough to do something like that. Just thinking about it ran shivers down my spine.
The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully, except for Louis’ phone call right after lunch.
“Sydney Bennett, how may I help you?”
“I can think of a few things....” His voice was so sensual. I swear, I felt a tingling sensation all the way to my toes.
“I’m still recovering from last night.” I smiled.
“It was only a warm up,
mon coeur
.”
“As amazing as you are, I’m so tired I don’t think I’m going to be of much use to you tonight.”
“Do you think I am using you?” He immediately sounded on edge.
“Of course not! I’m sorry; it’s an expression. I only meant I’m so tired, I’ll probably fall asleep very early.”
“Oh.” He sounded relieved. “The English language is very odd. I am afraid you will have to continue to explain these ‘expressions’ to me for some time.”
“I’m happy to provide the service.” That sounded bad. What do I have to do to get my brain working properly again? “Um....when are you going to start teaching me French?”
“You would like to learn? Wonderful! You will love it. It makes a lot more sense as a language than English. The rules of grammar are consistent.”
“Sounds good to me. Consistency is helpful. Just don’t put your expectations of my ability to master a French accent too high.”
“Do not worry, Syd. With me as your tutor, you will sound perfect.” He cleared his throat. “I know you are tired, but I must see you this evening. Why don’t I come to your apartment after work and we can order some dinner. If you don’t mind, I will bring an overnight bag and stay with you.”
I hugged myself. “I would love nothing more. But you must keep your hands to yourself. I need some sleep tonight.”
He laughed. “I cannot promise anything. And I do not think you can keep your hands off me.”
I giggled. “You French men are pretty full of yourselves, aren’t you?”
“Full of honesty,
mon coeur
. I have to run. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Bye, Bluey.”
I hung up the phone and put my head on my desk for a minute. Even in my exhausted state I could feel myself starting to relax with Louis. I was actually starting to trust him. It was thrilling. Maybe things were finally going to work out in my love life. Maybe I would truly be happy and spend my life with an amazing man. I was starting to like those maybes a little bit more...
When I dragged myself home from work at the end of the day, I found a message from Kate waiting for me.
“You are
so
on my list, Syd. Why have I not heard from you all day? I’m sure there are ridiculous amounts of details I need to hear from last night and you’re leaving me hanging. Call me the
moment
you hear this message, even if Mr. Wonderful is there. I will
not
wait until tomorrow!”
If I valued my life, I would call her. I picked up the phone and dialed, hoping she would be home and I could give her enough details to hold her off until tomorrow. Louis was going to be here soon and I had absolutely no desire to discuss any of this in front of him.
“Where have you been?” Uh oh. Stern Kate has picked up the phone.
“Hi, Kate. It’s nice to talk to you too. How was your day?”
“Cut the crap. Tell me about last night. You sound totally exhausted. It must have been awesome!” Sweet! Stern Kate had now been replaced by Excited Kate. She’s much more fun!
I beamed. “It was...astounding. I’m really falling for him.”
She squealed. “I’m so happy for you, Syd. You deserve to have a wonderful man in your life.”
I started to squirm. “I’m afraid to get too comfortable with the idea, Kate. What if he turns out to be horrible, like all the others?”
“Syd, we’ve been through this. You can’t lock yourself away from the world because you don’t want to get hurt. You have to stop thinking that every guy is going to be an asshole.”
“Can you blame me for having issues?”
She hesitated. “Admittedly, you’ve had some rather...interesting experiences in your past.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it.”
“The point is the past is the past. You’re so smitten with this guy and it warms my heart to see you this way.”
I laughed. “Did you just use the word ‘smitten’? Are you from a different era?”
“Oh, shut up. You know what I mean.
Please
let yourself be happy.”
“Fine, but if he breaks my heart, I’m blaming you.”
“Nice, Syd. I’m pleased to hear that you’re behaving like a grown up.” She paused. I knew that something else was coming. “So....when will Nick and I get to meet him?”
My heart stopped. “Have you been talking to Charlie?”
Kate sighed. “Syd, even if I hadn’t spoken with him, I would still ask to meet Louis. Come on! Are you embarrassed by us?”
“Of course not. You guys are two of my favorite people in the whole world. That doesn’t mean I trust you not to embarrass me. And it certainly doesn’t mean Charlie and Nick haven’t concocted some scheme to evaluate Louis.” I knew them all too well.
“I promise not to embarrass you. Do you really think I would put you through that? I know how happy you are with Louis and I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am to see the effect he has on you. The last thing I want to do is to make you uncomfortable. I’d like to get to know the man who’s brought the smile back to your eyes.”
Crap. She was so sincere. How could I possibly say no?
I sighed. “You don’t play fair, my sister.” I was about to agree when another thought occurred to me just in time. “Kate, before I answer, you have to tell me one thing. Have Nick and Charlie come up with a plan for Louis?”
“They might have...discussed something the other day.” She sounded uncomfortable.
I knew it! “The answer is hell no.”
“Sydney Julia Bennett, don’t make me get Mom and Dad involved.”
I scoffed. “What are they going to do from three thousand miles away?”
“Guilt is a pretty powerful weapon, sweetie. Dad has it perfected to an art form.”
She had me there. Dad had heaped mountains of guilt on me over the course of my lifetime. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. “Fine. I give up. But give me a little more time. How about we have dinner next weekend?”
“Great. I’ll make your favorite.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Please make your husband promise not to embarrass me. I’m trying to convince Louis I’m normal.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make Nick promise. If he doesn’t listen, I’ll have lots of wine for you to console yourself with.” Kate knew I tended to drink a little too much when I was nervous. I had a sinking feeling this would not end well.
“Not funny. You have to be on your best behavior too.”
She sounded affronted. “What would I do to embarrass you?”
