and then he removed the shoes from the box. I felt like a less innocent version of Cinderella when Houston slipped the first heel on my feet.
“Ready to go?” he asked when, at last, I was dressed for a romantic night with a man who was still my ex but held one-third of my heart in his palm.
I tried not to think about Jericho, who still possessed an equal share.
“Yes.”
I grabbed my jacket since fall had come to Paris. As I slipped it on, I noticed Houston’s apparel for the first time. His usual jeans, T-shirt, and double leather cords around his wrist were gone. The only familiar thing he wore was the pinky ring. Tonight, he wore dress pants and a white button-up with a gray knit sweater on top. He hadn’t gone all out as Loren had on our first date, but I knew he’d tried. For me. I also knew Loren must have helped him.
Security was waiting for us when we stepped from my suite and into the hall. I didn’t consider the implications of this date until Houston and I walked through the hotel’s front entrance, and the cameras began to flash.
It wouldn’t just be a rumor anymore.
With Houston’s hand holding mine, the world would know that I was fucking my bandmates. The names they called me and the assumptions they made—there would be no mercy.
And still, all I could think about was Jericho.
Where was he? What was he thinking? How could he just walk away?
Houston and I climbed inside the back of the black Suburban, and we were off with security trailing us in another vehicle behind. Neither of us spoke the five minutes it took to reach our destination.
I sucked in a breath at seeing the Eiffel Tower up close. It commanded your attention during the day, but it was even more breathtaking at night. With the golden lights, how could it not be?
I assumed we’d head straight for the top, but Houston had other plans. He took me to the second floor, where apparently, we had reservations. I didn’t have to be an expert to know that a place like this was usually booked weeks or months in advance.
Maybe he’d pulled some strings.
Or maybe he’d always known that he’d bring me here.
Had Houston been biding his time for our first date?
Ignoring the vanilla wafting in the air, I looked at him as he sat next to me in the white curved booth, pretending to peruse the menu. We both ignored the stares we’d drawn from the people who recognized us and even those who didn’t. With two guards hovering around, anyone would be curious.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“To eat.”
My chest tightened where a heart should no longer be. After all this time, after all I’d been through, I didn’t understand why I hadn’t just tossed the damn thing away.
“That’s it?”
He looked at me then, his somber gaze searching mine, and said, “No.”
I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. Our waiter came, and we ordered drinks, our food, and then we ate in silence. Immediately after, we left the restaurant.
We were both too on edge to linger.
It was chaotic as hell, but eventually, we made it to the top of the tower. It was there the tension that had been brewing all through dinner exploded.
He pulled me into his arms and kissed me, and we didn’t stop even when we knew we were being photographed and recorded.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against my lips.
“No sweat,” I said as I swallowed the cherries. “I think the cat was kind of already out of the bag, you know?”
The look Houston gave me made it clear that I was provoking him. And then he sighed. “Fawn.”
“What are you sorry for?” I asked him with an evil smile. I already knew, but I needed to hear him say it.
“I’m sorry for not being a better man to you and a better friend to Rich. It wasn’t my place to tell you about Emily, but I should have fought harder to convince him.” Houston’s jaw tightened as he looked away, over the railing, and out to the city that promised romance beyond. “Even now, I’m conflicted. I chose him over you once, and I won’t do it again, but I ca—”
No longer indignant, I felt my legs tremble at the emotion in his voice and the words he couldn’t bring himself to say for fear of what they might cost us. Houston looked at me then,