Monday, May 9, 2011

CBWR? Chapter 77

Author's Notes:
I'm all sleepy, so I'm going to bed now. :)  Cya all tomorrow!
Shut up.

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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?
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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! 

CBWR? Chapter 76

Author’s notes:
Here’s a bit more for ya.
Or was that just me?
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Chapter 76:
“I need to make an appointment for my wife,” I told the obviously flaming gay guy at the front desk of the hotel’s salon.
“Of course, sir,” he responded.  “I can work her in tomorrow afternoon…”
“Not tomorrow,” I said.  “Today.  Now, actually.”
He laughed a cute little effeminate laugh, which I wanted to punch right down his throat.  With a two-by-four.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir,” he said.  “But we are completely booked up for the day.  Perhaps-”
“Look,” I said as I waved my hand in front of my face.  “I honestly don’t give a shit what else you have going on here today.  I want my wife totally and completely pampered by whoever your best is, and I want it arranged by the time I get to my room and back.”
“It’s just not possible…”
His voice trailed off as I pulled out my wallet and started laying bills in front of him.  I stopped at five thousand Euros, figuring there was no way he was going to turn down that kind of load, and I didn’t want to leave any room for argument.
“That’s the first half,” I told him as his eyes tried to bug right out of his head and do a little ballroom dancing on the counter.  “Once she’s done, you’ll get the other half.”
“This…this will be…fine… sir,” he stammered.  “We’ll be ready for her in five minutes.”
“Good man,” I said with a smile. 
One more part of this little plan was set in motion. 
When I woke Bella up this morning, I had croissants and coffee ready for her on a little tray, along with a single red rose in a vase.  I was about as fucking nervous as I could be, just knowing that something so small couldn’t possibly be special enough, but Bella’s eyes went wide, and she reached out for me.  I was just about hugged to death before she actually let me go and tried out her breakfast.  Part two was the pampering at the salon, followed by dinner.  Kate had just said “spa day and take her out of the town,” so I figured that meant dinner and sightseeing.
I told Bella I was taking her out for dinner, and she got a big smile on her face.  She went to the dresser drawer and pulled out the white box that had been delivered to our first hotel in Paris – the one she had been carrying with her all this time, but wouldn’t tell me what was in it.  She opened it, and pulled out tow dresses – one black, one red.  The both looked really, really tiny.
“Which color do you like?” she asked.
“Red.”  Like there was really any guesswork there.
I love the fact that money can get me most any kind of service I want.  Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve fucked up my relationships, but I didn’t want to deal with that right now.  I got Bella set up in the salon, got someone else at the front desk to get me a suit with a tie the same color a Bella’s dress, and had the hotel’s florist shred the petals off a couple of hundred red roses and deliver them to the room.  Everything was done within view of the salon door, so I could keep track of her as well – until we got to the rose petals.  It was the only time I was actually far enough away from the door to get a little nervous.  I had a freaking huge basket of petals in my arms, and now that I was staring at the freshly cleaned room, I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with them.
I took a deep breath and carried the basket over to the bed.  At first, I just kind of threw the around the bed, figuring I’d go with the BINGO cover-all approach.  I made a trail from the door to the bed, and then looked over everything.  It just looked like a big fucking truckload of flowers had exploded in the room, if you asked me.  I shook my head, trying to figure out what I could do to make it look like less of a…well, less of a mess.
Or was that just me?
I finally went back to the bed and gathered all the petals I could into the center, cursing my general lack of artistic skills.  I spread them out again, making a huge, red, rose-petal heart in the middle of the bed.
Girls liked that kind of shit, right?
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Chapter end notes:
He’s trying, right?
What do you think – BINGO coverall, or heart shape?  I’m with Edward on this one – sounds like a big-ass mess to me.
Next update – maybe tonight.  We’ll see.