His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (2 page)

“Oh, you finally noticed I’m still standing here? No. I’m
fine,” she said sweetly, “but I’m sure you have something more to ask her for,
like her phone number?”

Ruiz rolled his eyes and laughed turning to the surprised
concierge. “Jet lag. Excuse us.
Merci.
”
With her hand still in his he turned around and walked towards the elevators
pulling her into a run behind him.

“Ruiz, I don’t need a workout, I’m
jet lagged
remember?”

Once they were inside, he pulled her into his arms and bent
down to kiss her. She turned her head quickly and his lips fell on her cheek.

He sighed loudly, pulling away. “What now? You have no
reason to be jealous. You know that I only have eyes for you.”

“Yeah, if you’re training to be a monk,” she mumbled,
keeping her face turned from him.

He sighed again. “We are not going to argue about that again
Melody.”

She faced him with a bone wilting glare. “Argue? We barely
discuss it! You end it with a bellowing no whenever I bring the topic up. You
are so damn annoying.” She tried to pull out of his embrace but he trapped her
to him with his arms. “Out of all the guys I’ve dated as long as we have you are
the only one that hasn’t tried to get into my pants even once!”

He smiled cheekily at her. “You forget, I have tried.”

Yeah, he did during their last days in the Bahamas. She’d
suffered a moment of fear when he crawled between her legs and blurted out her virginity.
He’d left the room then like a bat out of hell and can back a few minutes
later. She guessed her sobs of rejection drew him back. With his sleeping pants
on, he climbed back into bed—dragging a shirt over her head to cover her
nakedness—held her to his chest and soothed her to sleep. She hadn’t wanted him
to stop. All she wanted was for him to be gentle.

“I should never have told you I’m a virgin,” she grumbled
turning away from him again.

He cupped her chin with his cool hand and turned her head up
to face him. “I’m glad you did. Your virginity is a gift to the man you love
and who truly loves you back. I’m glad you kept it. You have no idea what a guy
feels when he knows he’s the only one who’s touched the love of his life. It’s
the best thing you could ever do for the man you love. Not many girls do that
these days.”

“Then what’s the problem? You love me and I love you and yet
I’m still a virgin!”

His bark of laughter should have offended her, but she loved
hearing him laugh. Each time he laughed, and he did so constantly these days,
it told her she was doing something right. She was making him happy and seemed
to help him forget whatever it was that had him in the dumps when they spent
time together in the Bahamas. He had moments he would just disappear into
himself for what felt like hours to her. But these days he rarely had those
moments because she took it upon herself to constantly occupy his mind.

“I already told you this, but I’ll say it again. The best
gift a man could give in return is marriage. I’m not going to deflower you
until I make you Mrs. Albury.”

Melody blushed right to her roots and she quickly pressed
her face in his bulky winter coat at his chest. The cold fabric cooled her
heated face some.

“Okay fine, but that wedding better be soon and the proposal
sooner.”

“You got it,” he said laughingly.

* * * *

“Wake up sleepy head!”

Melody buried herself deeper under the covers, also covering
her head to block out Ruiz and his loud voice. She clutched them tighter under
her head when she felt him pull on them.

“Come on. Business is taken care of for the morning. Now
it’s time to explore!”

“I need just a few minutes more,” she whined.

“What? You’ve slept well into the morning.” He yanked the
covers away and Melody yelped quickly sitting up. “Time to wake up.”

“Ruiz, I’m cold.” She tried pulling the covers over herself
again but he just rolled them up in a big ball and tossed them across the room.

With his hands on his hips and a smug smile on his lips he
said, “Drink some coffee. That should warm you right up.”

She glared at him. “I wouldn’t be so cold if you hadn’t left
so early in the morning taking your body heat with you and not turning up the
heat.”

He was man enough to look ashamed. “No wonder the room was
so chilly when I came back. Why didn’t you just get up and turn up the heat
yourself?”

She hugged the pillow to her chest. “Too cold and the
thermostat was too far.”

“You’re kidding!”

She shrugged, leaned her head on the top of the pillow she
hugged and closed her eyes.

He chuckled. “You look so cute so disheveled. I should take
a picture—”

Her eyes shot open and she turned to him. She jumped when he
pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and held it up. “No! Okay, I’m up, I’m
up no pictures.”

“Sure? Riana and Loraine would love to see you look a mess.
Especially Riana since she’s huge, uncomfortable and always disheveled. Come
on, let me take just one to comfort the pregnant lady.”

“No!” she yelled, running into the bathroom and shutting the
door behind her. She even made sure the lock was in place just in case he got a
not so bright idea. She glared at the door when she heard him laugh. He’d
thought he’d won. Well, she was just going to annoy him back—by taking an hour
in the bathroom and another hour getting dressed. Ruiz hated waiting for her as
she got ready. He said watching her pick an outfit then discard it before she
decided on another was torture no man should have to endure.

Two hours fifteen minutes later, they were finally out of
the suite and apparently she had failed in her revenge because Ruiz had spent
that time working. He must have figured she would try to punish him for the way
he woke her up. She pouted for a while until they got to the Ile de la Cité in
the heart of Paris. She hoped Ruiz was taking her where she thought he was and
wasn’t sure until they passed the Palais de la Cité, now known as La
Conciergerie. She’d always wanted to see the Sainte-Chapelle church, run up the
Grand Degres—the grand ceremonial staircase —and exit through the north flank
and eastern apse, but there was never any time left in her previous trips. She
would always save it for last, but whenever she was almost out the door to
finally do it, Allan would get a call about some business that he’d have to fly
back home or wherever to attend to immediately. She would beg for him to leave
her behind, but he would adamantly refuse, even when she pouted and put on her
best crying performance.

He always said he didn’t want what happened to the Larson
girl to happen to her. It was only recently she found out the Larson girl was
Loraine. Her new best friend was under the impression that no one except her
immediate family knew what had happened to her, but somehow Melody’s brother
found out too. But then again Allan always found things out no matter how well
people thought they had hidden them. It served him well in business
negotiations, especially when he took over or bought a company. He never told
Melody what really happened to Loraine, just that she was alone in Paris with
no one to help her when she got attacked. It only clicked that it was Loraine
he was talking about when she told Melody of her ordeal—what she called her
nightmare in Paris.

Once in front of the church Ruiz turned to her. “Forgive me
yet?”

She nodded. “I’ve always wondered how much attention if any
at all you paid to me when I spoke. Now I know that dazed look is you paying
intent attention. Thank you.”

He chuckled. “That and your brother called me this morning
and told me to make sure I bring you here but you’re still welcome.”

Melody went on her toes, pulling him down to meet her half
way so that she could kiss his cheek. “A lesser man would have taken credit for
it.” Then once fully on her feet she pinched the back of his neck.

Ruiz jumped away from her. “Ouch! And what was that for?”

“For admitting you do tune me out when I speak.”

He swept her up in his arms and Melody squealed when he spun
her around then placed her back on her feet a step higher than him and yet she
was still shorter. Her laugh got caught in her throat when she saw the change
from amusement to desire in his eyes as he stared at her lips.

 
“Your lips drive
me to distraction. You can’t blame me for being mesmerized by them, imagining
when I get to kiss you next.”

She licked the said dried lips and swallowed hard when he
leaned down to brush his against hers. “Especially when you do that. Total
distraction,” he breathed seductively against her lips.

“Ruiz…” she gasped, quietly begging him to kiss her already.

“All the travel magazines say to fully appreciate the
stained glass windows. They are magical on a sunny day.”

“Aha,” she responded absently reaching higher on her toes
when it hit her. “Wait, did you just quote me to me?”

He pressed a quick kiss on her lips and released her. “See,
I do pay attention!”

They rushed up the steps and into the church to the lower
chapel. They then climbed the narrow winding staircase off to one side of the
lower room to the upper chapel—there wasn’t much to see in the lower chapel
except for the low ceiling and it wasn’t all that interesting in the dark. The
upper chapel had the richest decorations from the floor to the ceiling and
strong vertical emphasis that gave it a sense of weightlessness. And even
though it wasn’t as sunny as she hoped, it was sunny enough to see the magic as
the light played against the stained glass windows.

“Now that is mesmerizing,” she muttered, moving to stand
under the reflection of the glass so that the colors would fall onto her white
winter jacket.

Ruiz came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her
mid-section and kissing her cheek. “Come on, there is a lot more to see.”

There were a number of tourists taking photos and Ruiz,
thank goodness, had remembered to carry a camera. He looked exactly how Melody
would describe a tourist taking photos and paying attention to the discussions
about the Holy Chapel.

“Hey, come hear this,” he whispered, waving her over to a
plump guy speaking in French accented English about the church.

He wasn’t saying anything Melody didn’t already know, but
Ruiz was such an excited tourist she didn’t want to ruin it for him. So with a
pleasant smile she joined him on the unsanctioned tour.

“…it is considered among the highest achievements of the
Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. It was built under the commission of
Louis the ninth to store over thirty items including his collection of the
Passion Relics that included the image of Edessa and the Crown of Thorns laced
on Jesus Christ’s head on the day of his crucifixion. The crown of Thorns is
considered to be the most important relic from medieval Christendom and Louis
bought it and other relics like it from the Latin emperor Baldwin the second.”

“He doesn’t mean Aleck Baldwin and no they are not related,”
she whispered to Ruiz and he answered with an elbow to her side when those
around them who heard chuckled.

The wannabe tour guide glared at her for the interruption
and she smiled back at him. “
Veuillez
continuer
—continue please.”

 
With a toss of
his head he kept on walking and talking and like a herd of sheep they followed
him. “The Sainte-Chapelle is one of the surviving buildings of the Capetian
royal palace on the Ile de la Cité, and though it was restored in the
nineteenth century after it sustained damages during the French revolution, it
still has one of the most extensive in-situ collections of the thirteenth
century stained glass anywhere in the world.”

“This guy knows his stuff,” Ruiz whispered down to her.

“Pft! Please, he’s just regurgitating what he read on
Wikipedia before he came here. I bet he doesn’t even know what
in-situ
means—ouch!” she yelped, rubbing
her arm. “That hurt!”

He smiled an indulgent smile that made her stomach clench.
“Be nice.”

She stuck her tongue out at him as she rubbed more gently to
her throbbing arm. “How did you get to my skin through a thick layer of
cotton?”

He leaned closer and whispered seductively in her ear, “The
same way I got to your heart. Through your skin, flesh, and bones.”

Melody rolled her eyes. “Oh Romeo, you weaken me with your
sweet, sweet words of love. Where have you been all my life?”

“Come on,” he chuckled. “We are missing out on the history
lesson.”

She twisted her face in disgust. “I hated history in school
and not much has changed now. Too much to remember, too many dead people to
know even though there is no way they’ll ever be coming back to life—”

He elbowed her again. “Shh!”

She made a face at him then crossed her arms over her chest
and bit her lips shut.

“…the king himself carried the relics, barefoot and dressed
as a penitent to this very chapel. A scene depicted here in the south side of
the chapel,” he pointed at the stained window of a man, “the Relics of the
Passion window. It’s something
non
?”

“Something doesn’t even begin to describe it,” she whispered
in admiration as she moved closer to the window. As the rest of the crowd moved
on, Melody just stood there basking in the beauty of the depiction of penitent
Louis. She wanted to touch it and yet she was so afraid she would taint it
somehow. Seeing this for herself, was a true gift from history. It was beyond
beautiful. It was…

“Now that’s magical,” Ruiz spoke behind her.

Magical…
That was
exactly what it was. She turned to face the other magical gift in her life.
“I’m glad I got to see this with you and not Allan. He has no taste for the
arts and wouldn’t have given it the appreciation it deserves.”