Wild Temptation (Wild #1)(66)
Author: Emma Hart

It’s a silence that says all the right things at all the right moments.

And I apparently need to pause on the wine for a while… Or maybe not. Maybe the magic of Paris is casting itself over me. Or I watched way too much Peter Pan as a kid and still have a misplaced belief in fairies.

I sigh.

“What’s up?” Ty asks, his breath fanning across my cheek. Warm, ahhh.

“Just thinking. Too much.” I frown. “Way too much.”

He laughs. “Let’s get you food. And I demand you stop thinking.”

I raise my eyebrows. “D’you see a bed, mister? Nope. Me neither. Shove your demands.”

“Shove them where?” he hums against my neck.

“Up your ass. Up my ass. I don’t particularly care right now.”

His lips curve. “Yes. You need food, babe.”

He hands two tickets to the girl behind the glass and whisks me off toward a boat. Oh, it’s a nice boat. I’m not a boat fan, but the wood piping and classy interior has me swooning. Tyler leads me onto it, holding my waist the whole time.

The top of the boat is open, ready for tourists to sit on and stare at the city as the boat travels along the Seine. For a moment, I believe that’s where we’re going until Ty stops to talk to the host and he waves his hand.

He leads us to the back of the boat. His hands part two curtains, and with a nod, Tyler guides me behind them.

A whole section of the boat to ourselves.

Hot damn. What is he planning?

23

My butt has barely touched the seat when he orders for us both in fluent French. I stop and stare at him in disbelief. He can speak French?

“I spent a lot of time here while my parents were setting up their hotels,” he explains, answering my unsaid question. “Speaking French seemed…natural.”

“I can barely speak English.” And that’s true. Sometimes I forget how to speak my own language.

Ty smirks. “I lived in London for most of my life. France is a stone’s throw away from England. It’s not like you growing up in Seattle, where your closest ‘foreign’ language is French Canadian.”

“Most of your life? Where else did you live?”

A waiter enters with a bottle of rose wine and two glasses. He pours a little in one glass and asks Tyler to taste it. He does, nods, and the waiter pours two glasses before disappearing. I grasp the stem of mine and lean forward.

“We lived in the US for a few years. My parents were ready to expand over there when Uncle Brandon—Aaron’s dad—went international with his business. Mum had been considering it for a while, but Dad really pushed her into the leap.”

“How long did you live there for?”

“About three years. We lived in New York. It was my parents’ central base for the restaurant and hotel business. I sometimes wonder if they would have been as successful if it weren’t for my aunt and uncle, but then I think the same for the other way around.” He shrugs a shoulder.

“And you really never wanted to take it over? The business?”

He shakes his head. “Tessa is my twin, so it would have always been a fifty-fifty stake. I just… I don’t care. That makes me sound like a right twat, but I don’t. It’s not interesting to me. I refuse to do something just because it’s expected. I’m not my sister or my cousin.”

I run my finger around the top of my glass. “I respect that.”

“Really? Most people think I’m a f**king idiot.”

“You are, but I still respect it.” I take some bread from the basket between us and tear it apart. “My dad was a professor in math. He used to give me extra lessons to make sure I got it, you know? But I didn’t. I never understood math, despite his best efforts. I barely scraped by to graduate high school. He was pissed when I went to college and studied art, but hey. I didn’t see why I should put myself through torture to make him happy.”

A long moment passes between us. Our dynamic shifts. We go from two people drawn together by chance to a couple brought together by fate’s coincidental timing.

“My dad wanted me to run the company with Tessa the way he does with Mum. Of course, that was never going to happen when she got married.”

“Is she okay, by the way? That must suck. I remember Day talking about the wedding after she and Aaron got engaged.”

Tyler’s lips twitch. “She’s a Stone. She’s taking his arse and she’s hanging it out to dry while wringing it out. Pre-nups are legally binding, something that knob forgot when he f**ked about on my sister.”

“Good. He deserves to be trampled by a donkey.” I finish my wine just as our food is delivered.

I dig in as soon as we’re left alone. So I’m hungry. I cut a piece of meat off the thigh on my plate and put it in my mouth. Salty but sweet… It’s duck. Something I usually cringe at eating. Somehow, the French have made it not cringe-worthy. Combined with sautéd potatoes and salad, they’ve made it damn tasty.

We eat in silence. My eyes are almost fixed on the window and the city as we float past it. The Musee d’Orsay, Notre Dame, Le Palais… We pass them slowly with barely any effort.

I wish I had my phone for pictures, but while staring at these uninhibited by a lens, I understand why Tyler said no. The photographer who says no to pictures—go figure.

I set my knife and fork on my plate and turn on the seat. The seat stretches the whole way around the back of the boat, and windows line the space above it. Except for the very center, which is windowless.

After resting my forearms against the ledge, I lean forward, poking my head out like it’ll increase my viewing pleasure. In reality, I just want to feel the river breeze against my cheeks.

The sound of the dark red curtains closing fills my ears. I look to the side and see Tyler pulling them toward me. He releases them and they hang on either side of my body. He shrugs off his suit jacket and rolls up his shirtsleeves before climbing on the seat behind me.

My lips pull to one side when he lifts my arms and links our fingers before setting our entwined hands back down on the ledge. He rests his chin on my shoulder and watches the city as it goes past.

His body is hot leaning against mine. It completely blocks out the coldness of the evening—but I’m not sure I’ve even registered it fully. I’ve been so focused on Tyler and the incredible views as we’ve gone along the River Seine.

And now… Now, this moment is more intimate than most. It’s something very real. There’s something very enticing in the way he holds me. It’s comforting. Safe.