Page 51 of Blue Eyes & Paris Vibes

He committed to moving to London for our one-year anniversary half a year ago. He got himself the cutest apartment high above the roofs of London, a recommendation from his brother Jackson and within walking distance to his apartment. Before that, he either stayed at a hotel or in his brothers’ guest room whenever he was in town.

Now, while he’s hinted several times that I’m more than welcome to move in with him, I just don’t think we’re quite there yet. Or maybe that’s the part of my brain still whispering that all of this, thatheis too good to be true.

"We’re almost there," he assures me, his voice full of amusement and I cross my arms in front of my chest, sinking deeper into the seat with a pout on my lips.

"You’ve said that like five times already," I whine and blindly reach over, waving my hand through the air until I find his arm, then give him a soft, playful punch.

Sometime an hour or two into France, he demanded I put a scarf around my eyes. God knows why he brought one. After all, it’s September and still way too hot to even think about covering anything on my body with a scarf. A sleeping mask would have sufficed.

His luck that the air conditioning in his car works well or I would have staged a protest.

Suddenly, the car rolls to a stop, and he gives my thigh one final squeeze before turning off the engine.

"I’ll come over and help you get out. Wait for me or you’ll bump your head on your way out," he demands, and before I can object, I already hear him releasing his buckle and getting out of the car, flinching when the door falls shut.

“God damn it,” I mutter under my breath, mumbling curses that don’t stop when I hear, and feel, the door next to me open. He reaches over to loosen the buckle, then carefully puts his hand over my head as I blindly climb out clutching his arm until I’m standing and shuts the door.

"A few more steps," he says, and I can hear the grin in his voice as he leads me somewhere, one arm around my waist and my hand securely in his. "Careful there’s a step here."

"What is this, a fucking obstacle course?" I ask, hearing his low chuckle, softly kicking around until I determine how high this step is. I’ll give it to him though, he’s holding me so securely there’s no way I’d fall, even if I decided to risk it.

"Okay, okay. Now you can take it off," he says, but before I can reach up, I feel his hands undoing the knots on the back of my head.

I thought my eyes would need a moment to adjust, but it’s already dark. In front of us stands a mansion. I tilt my head and look at him, confused.

It’s definitely fancy, like the kind of place you’d expect royalty to show up at any minute. The building itself is a grand, three-story mansion made of deep red and brown bricks, with soft beige trim that catches the deep golden light shining from the ground.

It has this quiet elegance, like it knows it’s important, like it was lifted straight out of a history book: old, majestic, and completely untouched by time.

"Where are we?" I slowly turn my head to him with narrow eyes, watching his face light up.

"We’re at Versailles," he finally explains with a wide grin, and my eyes widen. "Or, well... the hotel right next to the Chateau de Versailles, that still kind of belongs to the chateau though, to be precise."

His hold around my chest tightens, and I melt against his side, leaning my head against his shoulder.

"A belated anniversary present." My eyes dart to him, brows furrowed, before I shake my head in disbelief.

"This looks expensive, Reed. You didn’t have to."

And he really didn’t. We couldn’t really do much for our anniversary on the actual day since it was in the middle of the week, and I couldn’t take time off. So, we ordered fancy French takeout and watchedThe Aristocats, reminiscing over our weeks together.

It was perfect. The best way to celebrate our one-year anniversary, because he was there. And that’s really all I cared about.

"But I wanted to," he says, and kisses the side of my head. "Now come on. We're just in time for a late dinner, and tomorrow we can explore the grounds. We’ll be here for two days and make a little road trip with some tourism stops of the way back."

"You're crazy," I shake my head at him, my lips stretching into a wide grin.

"And you're so into it," he teases in a singsong voice, and I can't help but avert my eyes at the blush covering my cheeks.

"You know I am," I whisper and slip my hand into his as we walk inside, but not before he presses a kiss to my temple.

"God, I feel so out of place here," I whisper to Reed as we step into the entrance hall of the palace of Versailles. A black-and-white checkered marble floor stretches across the room long hallway-like room.

Tall arched windows line the walls, framed with stone and filled with soft daylight, statues of figures with long, flowing robes along the opposite wall. The ceiling is high and curved with surprisingly modest, golden-framed chandeliers hanging from it that make this hallway-like room look as fancy as you’d imagine a palace to look like.

We started the day with a lavish breakfast in bed, in a room that looked like it hadn’t changed one bit since the 1800s. Pink floral wallpaper, along with expensive-looking wooden flooring and the castle view making me feel like royalty.

While the bed also looked a century or two old, let’s just say it was surprisingly sturdy.

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