Toxic - Zoe Blake Page 0,39
and giving him a hug. His laughter was deep and rich as he held me close.
“Do you like my surprise?”
“I love it!”
“Good, because there is more.”
Taking my hand, he led me back onto the elevator. Higher and higher we raced, till we were so high my ears popped. This time when the elevator doors opened, I felt a little trepidation getting out. We were at the absolute top of the Eiffel Tower. Where before you could make out buildings and cars and little streetlamps and even the tiny forms of people walking about, now it was all just a bright blur of light stretching as far as the eye could see beneath a midnight blue sky.
Feeling dizzy and exhilarated, I let Richard lead me to a pair of doors guarded by two men in police uniform. As I looked to Richard, his only response was a secretive smile and a wink. Upon our approach, the men opened the door. I crossed the threshold into a cozy pied-a-terre. Its walls were covered in a faded red paisley wallpaper with many polished wooden cabinets.
As I moved further into the room, I stepped around the lush, jade velvet ottomans that were wrapped around the steel supports for the tower. With his arm on my lower back, Richard led me to a table placed off-center in the room. Pulling a high-backed upholstered chair out, Richard motioned for me to sit.
The table was beautifully set with gold-rimmed china and elegant crystal glassware. In the center was a small bowl of blush pink roses. Reaching out to stroke one of the soft petals, I smiled at Richard as he took the seat across from me.
“Nothing like a table with a view,” he quipped as he turned his head to look out the massive window to our right with its amazing view of Paris.
After casting a glance at the tuxedoed servers waiting along the wall, I leaned in, somehow feeling the need to keep my voice low. I whispered, “What is this place?”
Rolling the gold napkin holder down the rolled linen, Richard opened the napkin and placed it on his lap before answering. “This is the private apartment of Gustave Eiffel.”
“The guy who built the tower?”
Richard nodded. “Only the elite of the elite were permitted to visit him here.”
“This is so amazing! I didn’t even know this existed at the top.”
A server quietly approached our table with a silver bucket holding a solid gold bottle of Armand de Brignac Brut Gold Champagne nestled in ice. After showing the bottle to Richard, he poured us both a glass.
As I lifted mine to my lips, Richard stopped me.
“Let’s play a little game first, my love.” His tone was so deceptively light and playful.
I knew better.
My hand shook so violently the bubbles in the champagne flared up and slipped over the edge of the crystal flute to splash on my fingers. I put the glass down and waved away the server who had approached with a linen napkin.
“You like my games, don’t you, darling?”
Forcing my stiff lips to smile, I blinked back tears. “Of course, Richard.”
Somewhere hidden in a dark corner of the apartment, a violinist began to play softly. I listened for a moment and finally recognized the instrumental strains of the Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take.’
Richard rose and held out his hand.
I stared at it. His beautifully brawny hand that both protected and aroused as well as caused pain. Stealing myself, I placed my hand in his. I had chosen this path. I knew the danger. In my fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood likes it when the wolf bites.
We walked over to the massive windows.
Standing behind me, Richard moved my hair aside, brushing my neck with the backs of his knuckles, sending a shiver up my spine.
He ran his hands down my arms to wrap them around my wrists. Lifting my arms high, he placed my palms on the window. “Don’t move,” he breathed against my skin.
His hands caressed down my sides till his fingertips rested against the outsides of my thighs. Inch by agonizing inch, he pulled up the see-through gauze of my long dress. Once the fabric was around my waist, he pressed his thumbs into the waistband of the satin shorts I wore underneath it.
Getting a little of my own back, I shimmied my ass against his hard erection as I helped him push the shorts off my hips.
“Tease,” he growled before he nipped my ear.
The shorts caught at the tops of my knee-high boots,