Author's Notes:
I'm all sleepy, so I'm going to bed now. :) Cya all tomorrow!
Shut up.
_______________________________________
____
____
Chapter 77:
Bella was so fucking gorgeous, I could barely breathe deep enough to keep my brain working. She had stepped out of the salon – freshly facialed, massaged, manicured, and God knows what else – looking like sex on a stick, but without the stick. I had a stick I was willing to share, and even managed to keep myself from saying so. Actually, I didn’t say anything – back to the whole lack of oxygen thing.
They had dressed her in the salon, and the short little thing she was wearing had a collar around her neck, but no sleeves, and the skirt length was nearly illegal. And it was bright fucking red.
All I could do was stare at her.
Now that she sat across from me, running the edge of her finger around her water glass, I couldn’t even hear what she was saying. I think she might have been talking about friends she knew in her school and what happened at the last homecoming football game or something like that, but I wasn’t sure, because I was having a mental conversation with my cock.
He was also staring at her.
Well, pointing, really.
I had to get a grip.
By the time dinner was over, Bella started asking me what was wrong, and why I wasn’t talking. I finally just dropped my head in my hands and shook it, which didn’t illicit the correct response at all. She really thought there was something wrong at that point. Finally, I gave up, and just told her.
Well…sort of. I didn’t tell her about my cock. I’m not that stupid.
Shut up.
“You’re just…so fucking beautiful tonight,” I finally said. “It actually makes it hard to concentrate on anything else.”
Her cheeks tried to turn a shade shy of her dress. I leaned over the table and reached up to stroked her cheek with my thumb.
“You are,” I told her.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “For all of this. The spa was about the most relaxed I think I have felt in months, dinner has been wonderful, and you…well, you look kind of beautiful, too.”
I huffed through my nose.
“Guys aren’t supposed to be beautiful.”
“You are,” she insisted. I decided it wasn’t worth discussing.
“Ready for a trip up the tower?” I asked.
“Definitely!”
Bella wanted to walk…fucking walk up the steps to the observation platform. I thought she was nuts. Once we had gone up about forty-five thousand steps, I was sure she was nuts.
“Seriously, Bella,” I panted as we reached another one of the platforms between sets of stairs. “I can’t go anymore.”
I dropped down on my ass at the top of the stairs and held me hand over my chest.
“I’m too old for this shit,” I groaned. Bella laughed, and whatever pain I was feeling in my calves dissipated with the sound.
“But I’m the one who is older today,” she said as she laughed again.
“Yeah – a whopping nineteen,” I grumbled. “Ten years ago I probably could have walked up to the top, too.”
Bella looked down over the railing, biting down on her lip a bit. She was damn cute when she did that. Her eyes glanced over at me, but then looked back out over the city. I hauled myself up and went to stand beside her. The wind had picked up, and her hair was blowing out of the carefully constructed twists and braids and whatever. Little strands were blowing around, and Bella reached up and pulled out some pins so her hair fell free around her neck and down her back.
I couldn’t let that slide without action, so I stood next to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. We both looked out at the lights of the city for a minute, and I wondered what she could be thinking. My free hand dived into my pocket, fingering the little box inside and wondering if now was as good a time as any.
“Bella?”
“Hmm?” She didn’t turn towards me, but leaned against the rail and let the wind blow against her face.
“I…um…” My finger fiddled over the tiny little bow on top of the box. I took a deep breath and pulled it out. “I got you a birthday present.”
“Edward, you didn’t have to do that.” Bella pushed off the rail and turned to look at me. “I think the whole spa thing and dinner and everything is plenty.”
Shit, had I screwed this up after all? I thought there was supposed to be something to open on your birthday, and none of the other things could be wrapped. I told her as much, and was glad when she conceded the point. I held the little rectangular box out to her.
Bella’s eyes darted up to mine before she looked back down to her hands and slowly lifted the lid.
“Oh my God,” she whispered as she pulled the diamond and ruby bracelet from its box.
“It matched your dress,” I said. I couldn’t figure out if she liked it or not, and he more she didn’t say, the more I was starting to think I fucked it up again. I should have gotten the sapphires, just because they cost more, but one that fit with what she was wearing made sense, or at least I thought it did.
Bella finally looked up to me.
“Edward…it’s beautiful.”
I stood there with the Paris wind blowing across my skin, the air cooling quickly as the setting sun finally disappeared over the horizon, and just looked at the most incredible person I had ever known as she looked back at me. I couldn’t breathe right, swallow, or even think, really – I was just too caught up in the look in her eyes and the fact that she was here, with me.I wanted to tell her how incredible she made me feel, and how I wanted to give her everything she could ever want in the world. I wanted to tell her I would do anything – anything – to stay in her life when all this was over. I wanted to tell her she had changed me – that I wasn’t the same person who had been so selfish and depraved he thought buying another person could solve all his problems.
I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I took the bracelet from her hand and fastened it around her wrist.
“Happy birthday,” I said with a little shrug and a grin.
Bella’s arms reached up around my neck and pulled me to her. Her mouth warmed my lips as we stood there on one of the Eiffel Tower’s lower platforms, and became completely lost within each other. There were no other tourists around, no other sights, no other sounds. Only the two of us.
This had to be heaven, right?
___________________________________________
Chapter end notes:
“Facialed” is apparently not a word. It should be. If you can get massaged and manicured and such, you ought to be able to be facialed.
Doofy done good, didn't Doofy?
Next update, tomorrow!
