Love Rekindled (Candle Light Book 2) (11 page)

He sighed loudly, pulling away. “What now? You have no reason to be jealous. You know that I only have eyes for you.”

“Yeah, if you’re training to be a monk,” she mumbled, keeping her face turned from him.

He sighed again. “We are not going to argue about that again Melody.”

She faced him with a bone wilting glare. “Argue? We barely discuss it! You end it with a bellowing no whenever I bring the topic up. You are so damn annoying.” She tried to pull out of his embrace but he trapped her to him with his arms. “Out of all the guys I’ve dated as long as we have you are the only one that hasn’t tried to get into my pants even once!”

He smiled cheekily at her. “You forget, I have tried.”

Yeah, he did during their last days in the Bahamas. She’d suffered a moment of fear when he crawled between her legs and blurted out her virginity. He’d left the room then like a bat out of hell and can back a few minutes later. She guessed her sobs of rejection drew him back. With his sleeping pants on, he climbed back into bed—dragging a shirt over her head to cover her nakedness—held her to his chest and soothed her to sleep. She hadn’t wanted him to stop. All she wanted was for him to be gentle.

“I should never have told you I’m a virgin,” she grumbled turning away from him again.

He cupped her chin with his cool hand and turned her head up to face him. “I’m glad you did. Your virginity is a gift to the man you love and who truly loves you back. I’m glad you kept it. You have no idea what a guy feels when he knows he’s the only one who’s touched the love of his life. It’s the best thing you could ever do for the man you love. Not many girls do that these days.”

“Then what’s the problem? You love me and I love you and yet I’m still a virgin!”

His bark of laughter should have offended her, but she loved hearing him laugh. Each time he laughed, and he did so constantly these days, it told her she was doing something right. She was making him happy and seemed to help him forget whatever it was that had him in the dumps when they spent time together in the Bahamas. He had moments he would just disappear into himself for what felt like hours to her. But these days he rarely had those moments because she took it upon herself to constantly occupy his mind.

“I already told you this, but I’ll say it again. The best gift a man could give in return is marriage. I’m not going to deflower you until I make you Mrs. Albury.”

Melody blushed right to her roots and she quickly pressed her face in his bulky winter coat at his chest. The cold fabric cooled her heated face some.

“Okay fine, but that wedding better be soon and the proposal sooner.”

“You got it,” he said laughingly.

* * * *

“Wake up sleepy head!”

Melody buried herself deeper under the covers, also covering her head to block out Ruiz and his loud voice. She clutched them tighter under her head when she felt him pull on them.

“Come on. Business is taken care of for the morning. Now it’s time to explore!”

“I need just a few minutes more,” she whined.

“What? You’ve slept well into the morning.” He yanked the covers away and Melody yelped quickly sitting up. “Time to wake up.”

“Ruiz, I’m cold.” She tried pulling the covers over herself again but he just rolled them up in a big ball and tossed them across the room.

With his hands on his hips and a smug smile on his lips he said, “Drink some coffee. That should warm you right up.”

She glared at him. “I wouldn’t be so cold if you hadn’t left so early in the morning taking your body heat with you and not turning up the heat.”

He was man enough to look ashamed. “No wonder the room was so chilly when I came back. Why didn’t you just get up and turn up the heat yourself?”

She hugged the pillow to her chest. “Too cold and the thermostat was too far.”

“You’re kidding!”

She shrugged, leaned her head on the top of the pillow she hugged and closed her eyes.

He chuckled. “You look so cute so disheveled. I should take a picture—”

Her eyes shot open and she turned to him. She jumped when he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and held it up. “No! Okay, I’m up, I’m up no pictures.”

“Sure? Riana and Loraine would love to see you look a mess. Especially Riana since she’s huge, uncomfortable and always disheveled. Come on, let me take just one to comfort the pregnant lady.”

“No!” she yelled, running into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She even made sure the lock was in place just in case he got a not so bright idea. She glared at the door when she heard him laugh. He’d thought he’d won. Well, she was just going to annoy him back—by taking an hour in the bathroom and another hour getting dressed. Ruiz hated waiting for her as she got ready. He said watching her pick an outfit then discard it before she decided on another was torture no man should have to endure.

Two hours fifteen minutes later, they were finally out of the suite and apparently she had failed in her revenge because Ruiz had spent that time working. He must have figured she would try to punish him for the way he woke her up. She pouted for a while until they got to the Ile de la Cité in the heart of Paris. She hoped Ruiz was taking her where she thought he was and wasn’t sure until they passed the Palais de la Cité, now known as La Conciergerie. She’d always wanted to see the Sainte-Chapelle church, run up the Grand Degres—the grand ceremonial staircase —and exit through the north flank and eastern apse, but there was never any time left in her previous trips. She would always save it for last, but whenever she was almost out the door to finally do it, Allan would get a call about some business that he’d have to fly back home or wherever to attend to immediately. She would beg for him to leave her behind, but he would adamantly refuse, even when she pouted and put on her best crying performance.

He always said he didn’t want what happened to the Larson girl to happen to her. It was only recently she found out the Larson girl was Loraine. Her new best friend was under the impression that no one except her immediate family knew what had happened to her, but somehow Melody’s brother found out too. But then again Allan always found things out no matter how well people thought they had hidden them. It served him well in business negotiations, especially when he took over or bought a company. He never told Melody what really happened to Loraine, just that she was alone in Paris with no one to help her when she got attacked. It only clicked that it was Loraine he was talking about when she told Melody of her ordeal—what she called her nightmare in Paris.

Once in front of the church Ruiz turned to her. “Forgive me yet?”

She nodded. “I’ve always wondered how much attention if any at all you paid to me when I spoke. Now I know that dazed look is you paying intent attention. Thank you.”

He chuckled. “That and your brother called me this morning and told me to make sure I bring you here but you’re still welcome.”

Melody went on her toes, pulling him down to meet her half way so that she could kiss his cheek. “A lesser man would have taken credit for it.” Then once fully on her feet she pinched the back of his neck.

Ruiz jumped away from her. “Ouch! And what was that for?”

“For admitting you do tune me out when I speak.”

He swept her up in his arms and Melody squealed when he spun her around then placed her back on her feet a step higher than him and yet she was still shorter. Her laugh got caught in her throat when she saw the change from amusement to desire in his eyes as he stared at her lips.

“Your lips drive me to distraction. You can’t blame me for being mesmerized by them, imagining when I get to kiss you next.”

She licked the said dried lips and swallowed hard when he leaned down to brush his against hers. “Especially when you do that. Total distraction,” he breathed seductively against her lips.

“Ruiz…” she gasped, quietly begging him to kiss her already.

“All the travel magazines say to fully appreciate the stained glass windows. They are magical on a sunny day.”

“Aha,” she responded absently reaching higher on her toes when it hit her. “Wait, did you just quote me to me?”

He pressed a quick kiss on her lips and released her. “See, I do pay attention!”

They rushed up the steps and into the church to the lower chapel. They then climbed the narrow winding staircase off to one side of the lower room to the upper chapel—there wasn’t much to see in the lower chapel except for the low ceiling and it wasn’t all that interesting in the dark. The upper chapel had the richest decorations from the floor to the ceiling and strong vertical emphasis that gave it a sense of weightlessness. And even though it wasn’t as sunny as she hoped, it was sunny enough to see the magic as the light played against the stained glass windows.

“Now that is mesmerizing,” she muttered, moving to stand under the reflection of the glass so that the colors would fall onto her white winter jacket.

Ruiz came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her mid-section and kissing her cheek. “Come on, there is a lot more to see.”

There were a number of tourists taking photos and Ruiz, thank goodness, had remembered to carry a camera. He looked exactly how Melody would describe a tourist taking photos and paying attention to the discussions about the Holy Chapel.

“Hey, come hear this,” he whispered, waving her over to a plump guy speaking in French accented English about the church.

He wasn’t saying anything Melody didn’t already know, but Ruiz was such an excited tourist she didn’t want to ruin it for him. So with a pleasant smile she joined him on the unsanctioned tour.

“…it is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. It was built under the commission of Louis the ninth to store over thirty items including his collection of the Passion Relics that included the image of Edessa and the Crown of Thorns laced on Jesus Christ’s head on the day of his crucifixion. The crown of Thorns is considered to be the most important relic from medieval Christendom and Louis bought it and other relics like it from the Latin emperor Baldwin the second.”

“He doesn’t mean Aleck Baldwin and no they are not related,” she whispered to Ruiz and he answered with an elbow to her side when those around them who heard chuckled.

The wannabe tour guide glared at her for the interruption and she smiled back at him. “
Veuillez continuer
—continue please.”

With a toss of his head he kept on walking and talking and like a herd of sheep they followed him. “The Sainte-Chapelle is one of the surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Ile de la Cité, and though it was restored in the nineteenth century after it sustained damages during the French revolution, it still has one of the most extensive in-situ collections of the thirteenth century stained glass anywhere in the world.”

“This guy knows his stuff,” Ruiz whispered down to her.

“Pft! Please, he’s just regurgitating what he read on Wikipedia before he came here. I bet he doesn’t even know what
in-situ
means—ouch!” she yelped, rubbing her arm. “That hurt!”

He smiled an indulgent smile that made her stomach clench. “Be nice.”

She stuck her tongue out at him as she rubbed more gently to her throbbing arm. “How did you get to my skin through a thick layer of cotton?”

He leaned closer and whispered seductively in her ear, “The same way I got to your heart. Through your skin, flesh, and bones.”

Melody rolled her eyes. “Oh Romeo, you weaken me with your sweet, sweet words of love. Where have you been all my life?”

“Come on,” he chuckled. “We are missing out on the history lesson.”

She twisted her face in disgust. “I hated history in school and not much has changed now. Too much to remember, too many dead people to know even though there is no way they’ll ever be coming back to life—”

He elbowed her again. “Shh!”

She made a face at him then crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lips shut.

“…the king himself carried the relics, barefoot and dressed as a penitent to this very chapel. A scene depicted here in the south side of the chapel,” he pointed at the stained window of a man, “the Relics of the Passion window. It’s something
non
?”

“Something doesn’t even begin to describe it,” she whispered in admiration as she moved closer to the window. As the rest of the crowd moved on, Melody just stood there basking in the beauty of the depiction of penitent Louis. She wanted to touch it and yet she was so afraid she would taint it somehow. Seeing this for herself, was a true gift from history. It was beyond beautiful. It was…

“Now that’s magical,” Ruiz spoke behind her.

Magical…
That was exactly what it was. She turned to face the other magical gift in her life. “I’m glad I got to see this with you and not Allan. He has no taste for the arts and wouldn’t have given it the appreciation it deserves.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Neither do I—have an appreciation for the arts that is. That’s Riana’s thing. But I’m glad too that we got to experience this together. Why don’t we head to the Les Invalides next?”