The International Kissing Club (32 page)

She sighed. Sebastian was amazing: witty, intelligent, and so sexy that she nearly melted whenever he was in the same room with her. He listened when she talked, let her bounce new and exciting ideas off him. He even let her drag him all over the city, to places she knew he’d been to a million times.

And when she didn’t have a plan, didn’t have any idea what she
wanted to do or where she wanted to go, he always had the coolest suggestions. They’d gone to some of his favorite haunts, off the beaten path and not listed in any tour book she’d ever read. The clubs, cafés, markets, and galleries he brought her to had shown her an entirely different side of Paris—one she really liked.

He’d even taken her deep into the city’s underground, into the catacombs she had read about for years but never thought she’d have a chance to see. The whole trip was awesome—spooky and dark and, with Sebastian at her side, more than a little hot. Who would ever have guessed that an underground cemetery could be so … stimulating?

She never wanted to leave Paris. Sure, she missed her friends, but they were pretty much the only reason she wanted to go home. Her mother, her sister, Germaine—the idea of returning to Texas to be their scapegoat once more was almost unthinkable. She’d tasted freedom, tasted what it was like to be part of a family that genuinely liked and respected her, and she had no desire to go back to the way things were.

Skipping from the IKC page to her personal one, Piper tossed off a quick update on what she’d been doing. Then clicked over to Sebastian’s page to see if he’d said anything about her. The last time he’d posted had been the weekend before, after they’d gotten back from Versailles. “
Belle fille. Des moments de plaisir. Intéressant art. Merveilleux weekend
.”

Beautiful girl. Fun times. Interesting art. Great weekend. Though she’d read the description before, it still made her grin. He’d called her beautiful and the weekend they’d spent together great! What more could any girl want? She glanced over at his relationship status. Oh yeah, that. Why hadn’t he changed it? They’d been dating for weeks, yet his status still said single. She’d changed hers soon after the Louvre, and it was starting to bug her that he hadn’t. He probably just hadn’t thought of it yet, but still …

She sighed, then logged off Facebook and checked her e-mail superquick. She and Sebastian were going to be out most of the
afternoon and she wanted to see if her grade was up for the big project she’d just turned in for art class. She’d worked crazy hard on it and was hoping—

Yes, there it was. An e-mail from her painting teacher, Madame Amirault. Closing her eyes and muttering a quick prayer, Piper clicked on it. Maybe this time her teacher would understand what she was getting at. Maybe this time she would actually like what Piper had done—God knew, Piper had poured her newly shiny heart and soul into the piece.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes—and felt all the excitement drain out of her in a rush. A C-. She skimmed the comments—too juvenile, too sweet, too boring. Not enough zest.

Tears burned in Piper’s eyes, and she lowered her head to the desk with a thunk. What was she doing wrong? She had given everything she had to this project—to every project she’d done since arriving in France—but it didn’t seem to matter. In class, both of her art teachers—Madame Amirault and Monsieur Blanchard—were always on her ass, always saying her attempts were childish, that they lacked passion. Depth. Vitality.

Yet she’d never felt more passionate, more vital. Never felt anything as deeply as she’d felt these past few weeks with Sebastian. And still she’d disappointed them. And more importantly, she’d disappointed herself.

“Hey, are you ready?” Sebastian poked his head in the room she and Simone shared. “The movie starts in half an hour.”

“Oh, right. Of course.” Shoving her disappointment—and worry—to the back of her mind, Piper sprang up and yanked on her jacket. Then she grabbed the scarf Sebastian had bought her the week before when they’d been out and she’d been freezing. As her fingers fell on the soft, purple cashmere, she realized again just how much—and how quickly—Sebastian had become a part of her life, almost as if he’d always been there.

He’d made the past two weeks the most fantabulous of her life.
And when she was with him, nothing mattered but the way he smiled at her.

The way his eyes crinkled just a little bit at the corners and sparkled with laughter.

The way his fingers felt—warm and slightly calloused from all his sculpting—when they stroked down her face.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she was taking all the feelings she’d always had for her art and giving them to Sebastian instead …

More mixed up than she had been in a long time, Piper ducked her head and started down the hallway.

“Hey, is something wrong?” Sebastian asked as she passed him. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“I’m just thinking.” She shook her head. “I got a crappy grade on my latest art project, and it put me in a bad mood. I’ll get over it.”

“That sucks.” His mouth twisted in sympathy. “I know how hard you worked on it.”

“I work hard on everything, but it doesn’t seem to matter, does it? I think I’m hopeless.”

“You’re not hopeless.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her against his chest. “Not even close.”

“Then why do I feel so useless? I swear, I can’t do anything right.” She could sense the tears beating at the corners of her eyelids, but she blinked them back.

“You can’t think like that, Piper. I’ve seen some of your work. You’re really good.”

“I wish my art teachers felt the same way.”

He brushed a soft kiss against her forehead, and Piper shivered, despite her misery. “They will. It just takes time to get in the groove with a new teacher. It’s normal to make some mistakes as you try to figure out what they want from you.”

She pulled back, looked at him, surprised. “Has it happened to you?”

He laughed. “
Oui
. Of course. Even us
pot makers
can mess up sometimes.”

Piper blushed at his reference to the insult she’d hurled at him a few weeks before. It was doubly embarrassing considering how gorgeous his work really was.

Shrugging it off, she grabbed her purse and opened the door. “Come on. We’re going to be late for the movie.”

“You know,” Sebastian said, his arms coming around her from behind, pulling her against his long, well-muscled body. Piper felt everything inside of herself go ooey-gooey at the contact. “We don’t have to go to the movie.”

“Oh yeah?” She grinned. “And what should we do instead?”

“Guess.”

His soft, full lips made her shiver as he pressed kisses up and down her nape, and Piper leaned into him, relishing the contact. Relishing what it felt like to be held by a guy who really cared about her. A guy she had truly fallen for. Big-time.

Forget the movie, she’d be happy to stay right here forever.

Turning, she looked up into the deep, dark indigo of his eyes and felt herself melt. Not just her body, which, admittedly, was completely into what was going on, but her heart as well. It had flipped over in her chest at the sight of his smile, at the feel of him against her, and she wasn’t sure how she was ever going to get things back to normal again. Or even if she wanted to.

Reaching up, she framed his face with her hands.

Stroked her thumbs over his sharp cheekbones.

Imagined, not for the first time, what his face would look like in charcoal on her sketch pad or in oils on the easel Marie had let her set up in the corner of the living room.

He was so beautiful standing there, his impossibly long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks while a couple days’ worth of stubble darkened his jaw.

So different from Tanner or any of the other boys she knew in Texas.

So much more than she’d ever imagined.

She brushed a finger over his lips and he smiled—not the cocky grin she’d seen so much of the first day they’d met, but a soft, sweet curving of his mouth that he reserved just for her. Then he nipped gently at her fingertip and her heart went crazy. It beat a wild, messed-up tattoo that had her nerves jangling and her breath catching in her throat.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

She shook her head. “I’m cute. That’s a far cry from beautiful.”

“Shh.” It was his turn to put a finger on her lips. “You’re beautiful to me.” His voice wasn’t as steady as usual, and she realized, in awe, that the trembling she felt wasn’t coming from her. It was coming from him, from the strong body he had pressed so tightly to her own.

The realization that she affected him as much as he did her swept through Piper, made her feel powerful and alive. Made her feel as beautiful as he insisted she was.

“Sebastian—”

He didn’t let her finish, his mouth replacing the finger that had slowly traced the curve of her lower lip. And then he was kissing her. Softly, sweetly, and finally with an edge of desperation that simply destroyed her.

Her knees trembled, turned to Jell-O, and she grabbed onto the lapels of Sebastian’s jacket to keep herself from falling. He pulled away just a little and she thought maybe he would laugh at her inexperience, but there was nothing amused in the deep, wild eyes that stared into her own. Just a darkness, a need that echoed the one spreading through her at an alarming rate.

He shifted a little so that his arms were tight around her waist, holding her up even as he pulled her body flush against his own. Piper wrapped her arms around him in return, relishing the feel of his broad
shoulders beneath her hands. The solid warmth of his chest and stomach against her own. And as she did, everything slid into place. All of her worries, all of her fears, all of the uncertainties about what her future—their future—held slipped away, and it was just her and him and the incredible rightness between them.

His lips skimmed down her throat and she gasped, then sifted her fingers through his dark, silky hair and pulled his mouth back to hers. He tasted like Marie’s rich, dark coffee. Like the raspberries and cream they’d had for breakfast. Like the smooth, soft chocolate she’d become addicted to her first week in Paris. She couldn’t get enough of him.

He must have felt the same way, because the kissing went on and on and on.

Piper didn’t know how long they stood there in the hallway, kissing and touching and tasting. Long enough for the grandfather clock in the living room to chime once, and then a second time. More than long enough for her toes to curl and her entire body to start shaking.

Finally, Sebastian pulled away, his breathing heavy and his eyes hot. “I’m okay with skipping the movie,” she whispered.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his gaze searching her face.

“Yeah. Absolutely.” She reached for Sebastian’s hand, tangled her fingers with his as she wondered if there was a way for her to slip out for a few seconds, just long enough to put on the bustier she’d bought weeks ago in Dallas. Then decided it didn’t matter. Nothing did but being with Sebastian.

They moved slowly down the hall to his room, and butterflies flitted back and forth in Piper’s stomach as she realized they were really going to do this. Five weeks ago she would have said she wasn’t ready for it, but that was before she’d met Sebastian, before she’d fallen in love. Now, being with him seemed natural. And if she was nervous, so what? It was normal. Right?

The second Sebastian’s bedroom door closed behind them, his mouth came down on hers again. Hard. For the space of one breath,
two, before he pulled away. “You make me crazy, Piper,” he whispered against her temple.

Everything inside of her went soft. “Me, too,” she answered. “I can’t think when you touch me.”

She crossed to the bed, sat down, completely overwhelmed. By the feelings spinning inside of her, by the way Sebastian was looking at her, by the knowledge of what she was about to do. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to pound right out of her chest.

Sebastian followed, but instead of sitting on the bed, he sank to the floor in front of her. Took her hands in his and pressed soft, tender kisses in the center of her palms. She shivered even as her nerves settled.

And then he was sliding her jacket off her shoulders, pressing her back onto the bed, stretching out beside her. Piper gasped at the feel of him, tried to ignore the brief flare of panic that shot through her. She’d never been on a bed with a guy before, never let one unbutton her top before, never let one kiss the sensitive skin of her stomach before.

It felt strange.

But this was Sebastian, she told herself. It was okay to let him touch her. Okay to be with him—

“Hey.” Sebastian pulled away a little and looked at her. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Of course.” She swallowed, wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re shaking.”

“It’s fine. I’m just—” Nervous? Excited? Terrified? “Cold.”

He didn’t say anything, just stared at her for a long time, his eyes so intense that it felt like he could see all the way to her soul. Then he smiled and reached down to the foot of the bed, pulling his comforter over them.

“Come here.” He snuggled her against him, one hand cupping the back of her head and pressing her face into the curve between his neck and shoulder while the other stroked her back soothingly.

They lay there like that for a few minutes, not speaking, not kissing, not doing anything but breathing in the scent of each other. Feeling each other’s hearts beat. As Sebastian’s warmth seeped into her, Piper felt herself relax. It was okay. This was Sebastian. She could do this.

She reached down, rubbed her fingers over his stomach.

He stopped her, brought her hand back up to his chest. “Piper, we don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for,” he said.

She leaned forward, kissed him. “It’s okay. I do—”

He kissed her to shut her up, a soft, gentle brushing of his lips against hers. “I know you haven’t done this before, and maybe halfway around the world isn’t where it should happen for the first time.”

His words confused her, since she couldn’t imagine being this close to anyone else. Ever. She’d thought he felt the same way. “But I thought you wanted—”