Parisian Picnic

1.       Parisian Picnic

BELLE

I ran down the street as fast as my legs could carry me, still clutching Grayson’s credit card in my hand. I thought I had seen a grocery store when we’d gotten out of the cab earlier, and thankfully I was right. That’s where I needed to go. I ran faster. 

I didn’t look behind me to see if Grayson was following. I had no doubt in my mind that he would catch me. In fact, I hoped he did. I had given up on getting away from him. 

But first, I had to make it to that grocery store. 

I crashed through the doors of the store and smiled brightly. It only took a second for me to feel arms wrap around my waist. I was tugged backward into a hard chest. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Grayson growled in my ear. 

I turned to face him and wrapped my arms around his neck, smiling. He looked surprised by my display of affection. 

“It took you awhile to catch up,” I said. 

He tightened his arms around me. “I wanted to see where you would go.” 

“You weren’t afraid that I would run off and spend all your money?” I said, waving his credit card in his face. 

“What’s mine is yours. You will never want for anything ever again. You can spend as much of my money as you want.” 

I stared at him for a moment. I’d never had enough money to spend on anything other than the necessities. Sometimes I didn’t even have enough to buy food. 

I couldn’t count the number of times I’d gone to bed hungry after my dad had gotten sick. 

Back home, I was just starting to be able to provide for myself. 

I’d rented a small one-bedroom apartment and was paying for it with a crappy waitress job.

It wasn’t the most luxurious life, but it was enough for me. 

And I took great pride in the fact that I was making it on my own, providing for myself.  Sure, sometimes I didn’t have enough money to buy groceries. But maybe now that I didn’t have to save up all of my paychecks for a plane ticket to Paris, I could finally start living, instead of just surviving. 

Of course, that was before I missed my flight home and didn’t show up to several shifts I’d been scheduled for. Shifts that I needed in order to pay my rent... Which was already overdue. 

I didn’t even want to think about how I’d pay for another flight home. I guessed I wouldn’t be buying groceries for a while still. 

I remembered I had peanut butter in my cupboard, and I could always steal French fries off people’s plates at the diner if I still had a job. Hopefully my boss would understand. That would have to be enough for now. 

When I didn’t respond, Grayson squeezed my sides. “Why did you come in here, anyway?”  I smiled. “If you must have your sour grape juice, this is the only place that I will allow you to buy it.” 

He raised an eyebrow, looking very amused. “Is that so?” 

I nodded. “Yep. And I get to pick it out.” 

He shook his head, looking like he would object. “Belle—” 

I cut him off by crushing my lips against his. Grayson let out a surprised groan but didn’t protest. A low growl came from deep within his chest, and he immediately deepened the kiss, tugging my body closer to his. 

Knowing how quickly things could escalate when it came to kissing Grayson, I removed my mouth from his when I felt him run his tongue over the seam of my lips, asking for entrance. 

He groaned out his disapproval and tried to kiss me again, but I put my hand over his mouth as a barrier. He growled. 

“Give me what I want and I’ll give you another kiss,” I said. 

He narrowed his eyes, and I slowly removed my hand. 

“You’re lucky you’re my mate,” he said in a low voice, telling me his wolf was at the surface. “If anybody else tried to manipulate me like this, I would have them back in their place within seconds in the most painful way possible.”  I swallowed hard. 

He leaned in so that his lips were almost brushing mine. 

“It’s a good thing I’ll do anything to have your sweet lips on mine,” he whispered. 

I could feel my cheeks heating up. Grayson chuckled softly. 

“C’mon, let’s go get your wine.” He pushed me in the direction of one of the aisles.  Once I had picked out a reasonably priced bottle of wine for about six euros, I looked at Grayson. 

“Okay, we got the wine. What next?” 

Grayson had one arm wrapped possessively around my waist, his thumb rubbing my side. 

“Now we go get the bread.” He pushed me toward where the bread was located. 

“Bread? Why do we need that? What are you planning?” I asked. 

Grayson smiled. “I was actually surprised when you came here. This place was our next stop.” 

“Really? Why?” 

Grayson picked up a nice-looking baguette. “We’re getting French bread and cheese.”  “Wine, bread, and cheese? Are we having a picnic?” I asked. I looked outside. “The sun is about to go down.” 

Grayson shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” 

After buying our wine, bread, and about five different types of cheese, Grayson and I were back in a cab and off to our next destination. 

Which just so happened to be the Eiffel Tower. 

As I stepped out of the cab, I couldn’t help but gape up at the massive wrought-iron lattice.

It was so much bigger than I’d thought it would be. 

“Wow,” I said. “This is my second time in Paris, and I’ve only now gotten to see the Eiffel Tower.” 

Grayson came behind me and wrapped his arms around me, leaning down so he could place his chin on my shoulder. 

“I’m glad I’m here with you for the first time you get to see it,” he said. He kissed my cheek gently and then grabbed my hand. “C’mon.” He led me toward a bench. 

There were already people sitting there when we approached, but when they saw Grayson they immediately stood up and hurried away, muttering, “Sorry, Alpha.” 

“Why don’t we just sit at that bench?” I asked, pointing to a bench with no one sitting on it. 

“It has to be this bench,” Grayson said sharply, sitting both of us down.  

Mr. Bossy, as usual. 

I was finally starting to enjoy my time with Grayson, but maybe that was because I knew that it was ending. Soon I’d go back to work and try to forget all about my trip to Paris. 

I shook my head to get rid of that thought, coming back to the present. 

The sun was just beginning to set, painting the sky a beautiful pink, purple, and orange. 

There were people sitting all around us, gazing up at the tower. 

I noticed that several other people were just arriving, too, setting up blankets on the grass and sitting on the surrounding benches. 

“Why are there so many people?” I asked as I looked around. 

“You’ll see,” Grayson said. 

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing. 

He opened the paper bag that contained the wine, bread, and cheese and took it all out. I reached for the bread, but he moved it out of my reach. I gave him a questioning look. 

He looked down at his watch. “Just a few more seconds.”  And then our night got truly magical.