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Twenty-four hourslater she was sitting in the back of a limo with Jack, dressed in a Versace dress, the Eiffel tower glittering in an inkysky.
She should have been tired. She’d been caught in a whirlwind of excitement and luxury since she’d stepped into the car with Jack outside her apartment. She’d tried to sleep on the plane — it would have been easy given the bedroom at the back of Jack’s private jet — but she’d been too excited both by the reality of what she was doing and by the nearness ofJack.
By the knowledge that she would soon be naked and under his power — under his body — onceagain.
She’d dozed and read while he attended to business, making calls and reviewing reports, occasionally turning to her, looking almost — was she imagining it? — pleased to see herthere.
They’d landed eight hours after leaving New York and had been whisked to the Plaza Athenee where Jack had led her to a suite on the top floor and ordered her to take a bath. She’d sent a quick text to Karen explaining her whereabouts and had emerged to find an assortment of clothing suitable for traversing the city — suitable in Jack’s eyesanyway.
She might have been more comfortable in jeans and sneakers, but she couldn’t deny the thrill of stepping out of the limo in a dress and strappy heels, of being led by Jack into the most expensive boutiques in Paris, of being led to the best tables at the best restaurants intown.
“Champagne?”
She turned to Jack, holding a bottle of champagne from the ice bucket in thelimo.
“I might fall asleep if I drink champagne,” she said. He hadn’t slept at all since they’d arrived, and she’d onlydozed.
The signature Jack Morgan smile — as if he were privy to all the world’s most coveted secrets — lifted his mouth. “I can promise you won’t fallasleep.”
“Champagne itis.”
She had no idea where they were going. Jack had ordered her to wear the Versace dress with no underclothes. He’d taken her for a dinner so good she’d almost had an orgasm in the restaurant, then said he had a surprise forher.
He handed her a glass filled with effervescent bubbles and touched it with his own. “Tohonesty.”
It took her a few seconds to place the reference. Then she remembered: their conversation in his apartment about her not knowing how to date anymore, about her seeing someoneelse.
“Tohonesty.”
She felt guilty as she said it. She hadn’t yet told Liam about Jack. She tried to make herself believe the time had never been right — they’d been so intimate, but Liam had never expressly said he wanted to be monogamous — and that she hadn’t had a chance before he left forLondon.
But deep down she knew she was aliar.
Jack Morgan might take his competition in stride, but she had a feeling Liam wouldn’t feel the same way. He’d texted her every day he’d been gone, and she made a point of texting him when they landed in Paris to tell him she’d had to leave town suddenly and would check in when shereturned.
It wasn’t fair to Jack to spend their time in Paris textingLiam.
The situation wasn’t sustainable. That much was obvious. She couldn’t jet off with Jack and expect it not to come up with Liam, couldn’t live forever with the conflict between the meaningful passion she felt with Liam and the boundary-pushing excitement she felt withJack.
She took a drink of her champagne and looked out the window, her eyes on the Eiffel Tower and a city that was even more beautiful in person than in all the pictures in theworld.
She was in Paris with Jack Morgan, a man who set her on fire, who made her wet simply by sitting next to her in the car, who gave her glimpses of a life she’d neverseen.
She was going to enjoy it. She owed herself thatmuch.
They pulled up outside a granite facade so grand it looked like a museum. There was another limo in front of them and their Paris driver — Reggie must still have been in New York — idled as he waited to pullforward.
“No warnings about paparazzi?” she askedJack.
“There won’t be any paparazzi here.” There was a dark undercurrent in his voice, one she recognized from thebedroom.
Her stomach twisted into a knot, anticipation and fear mingling until they were one and thesame.
The car inched forward and the driver got out to open thedoor.
Jack helped her from the car and they made their way up wide granite steps to a set of carved wooden doors. When they got closer, she saw that they were decorated with gargoyles and twisted vines, invisible from afar, darkness obstructed bybeauty.
