Page 74 of Torrid Passion
“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned,” I sass.
“Mother Mary, your dirty fantasy came to life,” Stella says. Then the light bulb goes off in her head. “Loki was your Mr. Pussy last night!”
“Could you please shout a little louder? I’m pretty sure someone in Nepal didn’t hear you,” I say.
“Sorry,” she apologizes.
“Did you really…?” Hayden doesn’t finish her sentence.
I run a finger up and down the length of my body. “Why on earth do you think I look like a hot mess? The man worked me harder than a bunch of underpaid workers in a foreign sweatshop.”
“Ooohhh!” Hayden and Stella exclaim in unison.
Then, they turn to face each other, clasp hands and start jumping up and down. I swear it’s like watching a girlie movie. My hopes to remain incognito as I made my way back to the guesthouse were just shot right out of the water.
“Okay, you two are making a scene,” I point out.
“Sorry, this is such an epic day,” Stella says. “I guess an epic night,” she sneers.
“Come in for coffee and breakfast,” Hayden says. “We need to hear all about your salacious night with Naughty Loki.”
“I second that,” Stella says. “Since Hayden has had rotten luck lately with men, and I pretty much gave up on dating, we need to live vicariously through you!”
* * *
“That was absolutely delicious. Thank you,” I say, polishing off my last bite.
“My pleasure,” Stella beams. “This called for a special breakfast. A paltry bowl of cereal or toast with peanut butter and jam wouldn’t have cut it on an epic day like today.” She’s been using the word epic a lot. “Only eggs benedict with smoked salmon, goat cheese, fresh dill and capers would do.” She’s not a master chef in the kitchen, but she’s very proud of the handful of recipes she aces.
“More coffee?” Hayden asks.
“Yes, please!” Stella and I exclaim.
A few minutes later, all three of us are sitting in front of our second piping hot latte of the day.
We each take a long sip, enjoying the dark goodness.
“Okay, we fed you and you’re fully caffeinated, now spit it out,” Hayden commands waving a finger at me.
“I’m so ready for this,” Stella smiles wide. She shimmies her ass against her seat as if she was getting comfortable for a Netflix marathon.
“I’ve had a crush on Loki since forever,” I start. “I managed to keep my feelings in check and force them to remain dormant. That was easy when I was studying in New York, but when he decided to visit his sister for ten days while I was also in Paris, everything changed. My crush only intensified.”
“What happened in Paris?” Hayden asks. “You’ve always been vague about it.”
“After my summer classes, I decided I needed a break, so instead of coming straight home, I flew from New York to Paris to spend some time with my best friend,” I launch into story mode. “My timing was off. Harlow was called in at the last minute to replace a designer who threw a diva-like temper tantrum. Since it was for a fairly prominent fashion show,” I point to my heels with the iconic red sole, “she didn’t refuse. And she couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. She was working morning, noon and night. I retreated to the family apartment instead of bunking up with her. Loki had already made plans to visit his sister, so here he was alone and he didn’t speak a word of French. Since I’m fluent, I offered myself as his tour guide. The first few days were so much fun. I must’ve taken a hundred photos. As the days went by, something shifted. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt it. By the last day, I just didn’t know what to do with myself. All the feelings I had bottled up for all those years were surfacing and threatening to go off like firecrackers on Independence Day.”
“Wow,” Stella shakes her head in amazement.
“I can’t believe you were hiding all this from us,” Hayden scolds.
“I was hiding it from myself,” I confess. “I still remember. We were standing on Pont Notre Dame overlooking Notre Dame cathedral. We were standing side by side. He was so close. Time seemed to stand still. I desperately wanted to feel his lips against mine—”
“And last night, you did?” Hayden asks.
I nod. “I did…”
Stella’s brown eyes search mine and then she smiles wide. “And you did a lot more than kiss him.”
