These are beyond good. Please have patience. I hope I’ve earned your trust.
—K
The fact was, she did trust him, more than he realized, more than he could ever know. Her entire life, her heart, battered and broken and still beating, rested in the man’s hands. She was his, bent on her knees, humbled and surrendered, an open offering. He didn’t know it, maybe he never would, but in Heidi he had found a woman who would follow him, wholly and without hesitation, wherever he decided to go, no matter what sacrifices she had to make.
Chapter Nine
“Adjoining rooms?” Heidi murmured. She looked up at Kaiser hopefully as the porter took their bags and said something in French she assumed meant “Follow me.” Heading around the corner, he bypassed the elevators the other patrons were waiting for, sliding his key card into a different slot down the hallway. Heidi noticed people staring at them, whispering, probably wondering who in the heck the mousy girl going up in a private elevator to the Belle Etoile Suite at Le Meurice with Warren Kaiser really was.
Kaiser smiled indulgently as he waved her in. “It’s an entire floor. Two, actually. I think we’ll have plenty of room.”
“Would you be needing the car this evening, sir?” The porter spoke perfect English to Kaiser, with just a hint of his Parisian accent.
“We’ll be dining in.” Kaiser slid his hand across the small of Heidi’s back, rubbing, and she shivered, wondering at his real meaning. She was tired—an eight hour flight, even in first-class, was exhausting, and while the Christian Dior travel-suit she was wearing was gorgeous and much more comfortable than it looked, she still wanted out of it. And even in spite of that, she couldn’t resist the press of his hand, whatever his insistence might be.
The door opened and Heidi blinked in amazement, gaping. She couldn’t help it. Being aware of the vast expanse of Kaiser’s money in New York—the clothes he purchased her, the lunches they took, the amenities he could afford—was entirely different than experiencing his wealth somewhere like Paris. Here, lavish wasn’t just impressive, it was stupefying. She stood there with stars in her eyes, only moving forward propelled by the firm pressure of Kaiser’s hand on her back.
Then she found her feet, flying from room to room to room…to room! Bedrooms, living room, sitting room, the bathroom was beyond magical—a gallery of black and white Italian marble with an enormous round tub as its centerpiece. If she hadn’t seen the terrace, she might have peeled her clothes off right there, but Paris called her name and out she went, throwing the doors wide and breathing in the fresh air.
They were in the center of everything—the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, even the Eiffel Tower made a distinctive appearance like a sculpture of steel lace in the distance. It was a dream. She had to be dreaming. She had hit her silly head out on the beach tripping over Kaiser’s outstretched feet and was just lost in her own personal version of the perfect fantasy, that’s all. That had to be it.
“It’s a bit ostentatious for me. I usually stay in a little chalet on the Seine.” Kaiser slipped his arms around her waist from behind, his lips moving along her hairline. “But I thought you might like to be in the center of all the action.”
“It’s…” But there weren’t words—Heidi spread her arms out to embrace the city, unable to express the magnitude of her feeling, and laughed.
“Besides, this view is incredible. There’s nothing like a sunset in Paris.”
“There’s nothing like this,” Heidi agreed, breathless. “I’ll remember this forever. Forever and ever and ever.”
“I hope there will be plenty more experiences like this for you.” He smiled. “Some day, a room at Le Meurice will seem like a night in a youth hostel.”
“I doubt that.” She laughed, turning in his arms. She couldn’t have imagined a more romantic setting, the sun sinking behind the Eiffel Tower behind them, his eyes full of warmth as he looked down at her. “I just want to thank you. A month ago, I was…nothing…I couldn’t have imagined this.”
“You were never nothing,” he murmured, hugging her close. She felt his heart beating with hers and didn’t ever want him to let her go. “Are you hungry?”
“Hungry, tired, dirty…” She went through the list with a groan.
“Let’s work backwards.” He chuckled. “Why don’t you draw a bath?”
“In your tub?” she asked, incredulous.
“Our tub.”#p#分页标题#e#
Did he mean it? Was she really staying here, with him? There was a bedroom on this floor with a huge accommodating bed, but two more below, and she was sure to be relegated to one of those. Surely…