Sorry for the long wait. I've been really busy. This chapter is kind of short, but I decided to make it really romantic and sweet.
Christine
Erik was frighteningly quiet as we ascended onto the dark streets of Paris. The rising sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon bringing glorious hues or orange with it. While he was pulling me hastily through the dimly lit streets, I turned around to see the glorious silhouette of the Opera Populaire bathed in the early morning light. As I did so, I couldn't help but miss the place. It had been my home when I had no home. Madame Giry and Meg had been my family when I had no family. When I stared at the grand form of the opera house, I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever see either it or Madame Giry again.
"Where are we going?" I asked Erik. He was moving fast with his long graceful legs. I may have been a ballerina only weeks ago, but I was having trouble keeping up with him.
Clearly he was very anxious. With every step we took, the streets were filling with more light. Soon Paris would be bustling with people going to and fro. That would mean someone was bound to see us. The thought was unsettling to me as well.
"We need a place to stay so I can collect my thoughts and arrange for a place for us to reside more permanently," he answered.
"Where are we going to stay?" I inquired. The way he was acting made me feel like I was an annoying child asking too many questions. I know he didn't mean for me to feel that way. He was just nervous.
He nodded toward a lavish hotel at the end of the street. I stopped in my tracks, abruptly stopping him too. "You can't be serious? We're a block from the Opera Populaire. They'll surely look here for you!" I kept my voice low, but I made sure my tone made it clear I was not happy. He was smarter than this.
"They're expecting me to be halfway around the world by now. They'd never think to look a block away," he defended. He didn't seem to believe his own words. I knew this was merely desperation. This was a last resort.
"That's a really big chance to take, Erik," I responded.
He sighed. "I know. But we have no way to get out of the city yet, and no place to try and figure out how to get out of the city. If we stay on the streets they will surely find us."
I looked on the wall beside us, and grabbed the same poster I'd been seeing littering the walls from here to the Populaire. It was a drawing of Erik's disfigured face, and a similar one with him wearing the mask. They were everywhere. I held it up to him. "And how are they not going to know who you are?" I inquired, almost sarcastically.
He smiled. "They won't even know I'm there, my love."
Somehow Erik's terrible plan had worked to get us a room. It mostly just included me doing all the talking, and he had snuck in through a window. Luckily, no one had been in the front desk to talk to me. I had to sneak a key and put fake names in the sign in book. We had a first floor room. The hotel was quite exquisite. The floors were a dark oak color, and the ceiling ornately carved. Lavish, gold candelabras set in the four corners of the room. It vaguely reminded me of Erik's lair. There was also a tall four- post queen bed with a burgundy, satin canopy. Black, sheer curtains hung down on all sides of the bed. The sheets were also a deep burgundy and made of satin, and the duvet had a maroon base with black lace trimmed underneath it. It was a very romantic bed.
I couldn't help but grin at Erik when I noticed the bed. He didn't notice me though. He seemed lost in thought and nervous as he placed his bag on the ground and sat on the chaise with his face buried in his hands. My poor angel. He looked quite dashing in his black suit and his long velvet cape that was magnificently strewn out over the chaise.
Tentatively, I walked over to him and sat behind him. Then I began to rub his shoulders. He felt very tense. He lifted his head in surprise, but I could tell he enjoyed the massage, or perhaps it was just me having my hands on him. Slowly, he grabbed one of my hands and brought it to his lips for a kiss. The coolness of the porcelain of his mask sent a shudder through me. I carefully removed the mask with my other hand.
"You don't need this dreaded thing when you're with me," I reminded with a warm smile.
He said nothing, but grabbed my other wrist and held both my hands over his heart. I buried my face in his thin hair, and let my fingers play with the fine material of his shirt. I loved the feeling of him in my arms. "You know I love you, don't you?" he whispered after a moment.
I didn't respond, but instead positioned myself so I could see his face. He was staring at me with weary blue eyes. Smiling, I cupped his distorted cheek in my hand, and he savored the feeling by pushing his face into my loving grasp. Then I kissed him. He kept his mouth closed at first, surprised by my sudden show of affection. Then he opened his lips though and the kiss became passionate and needy.
His hands became laced in my hair as he undid the scarf I wore. I pushed him back on the chaise, not letting go of our passionate kiss. My hands found their way to his shoulders and then down the rest of his body. I wanted to feel all of him. I wanted to let my touch relieve his tension. I undid the button of his jacket and waist coat without breaking our kiss. Then my hands found their way inside his shirt and up his slender body. Immediately, I felt the tension in him ease. His arms wrapped around me, and in one swift move he turned me over so I was on the bottom.
He stared down on me with dark, lustful eyes still tinged with a faint look of apprehension. Whether the fear was from our current situation or from the uncertainty of being intimate with me, I did not know. Either way, I wanted him to forget his fears, if only for one night. I brought my fingers up to his lips. "Make love to me," I whispered. We had not touched each other in over a week romantically. To say I wanted him would be a vast understatement.
The apprehension melted from his eyes. Gracefully, he grabbed my hand and stood up from the chaise. He helped me slowly to my feet. Our eyes did not leave each other's. It felt like the first time I had actually seen him, when he led me down to his layer. Except now I would happily give myself to this seductive man. He held back a curtain from the bed and let me sit on the soft comforter. Still, our eyes never left each other. Fire was beginning to spread throughout my veins. Every nerve felt like it was heightened to the max. I knew this feeling better now. It was one that I always got a hint of when I was around Erik, but whenever he stared at me with those lustful blue eyes, my whole body went in to over drive. This wasn't just love, it was passion.
He knelt down and began removing me shoes. His eyes were still hooked into mine. I was vaguely aware of the thud my shoes made as they landed on the floor. Then his fingers started to trace their way up my legs. I could feel his electric touch through my stockings. He pushed my skirt up in a quick motion, causing me to lay down flat on the black lace of the comforter. His fingers found the top of my stockings and then slowly, he began to pull them down. He placed soft kisses down my leg on each new area of exposed skin sending desirous sensations through my body. Slowly and tantalizingly he did the same to the other leg. Who would have thought removing stockings could be so sensual?
Then he turned me over and began to hastily undo the buttons on my dress. When he was done, he pulled the back of the dress open to expose the top of my back. His fingers traced a line from the top of my scalp down my spine to the top of my corset. Again, a pleasurable shiver ran through my body. I couldn't help but wonder if he was testing me, trying to see how my body responded to his touch. He must have liked my answer because he then began to kiss my shoulder, and then he placed kisses all along my back. I then felt his hand on my lower back, on the corset.
"I hate these things," he murmured. He made quick and easy work of the complicated corset. When he was done, he helped me turn over on to my back. The top part of my body was now completely naked, but I felt no shame as he gazed lovingly down upon me. He then put one leg over my body so that he was straddling me. Then he bent over and kissed me lightly on the lips. Then he kept kissing. He kissed my chin, down my neck to my collar bone, and down to my chest. Before reaching my breasts, he looked up at me with wide and wanting blue eyes.
"You're so beautiful Christine," he said.
I sat up, not breaking eye contact with him, and started undoing the buttons of his vest. His whole body went tense again when I started working on his shirt. "Do you want the lights off again?" I asked.
Weakly, he smiled, and slipped his shirt over his head. "No, I want to look at you," he answered.
"Good because I want to look at you too," I told him. I ran my finger down from his jaw down his neck, in between his collar bone, and down his sternum. He took a deep breath and trembled from my touch. Our last time, I never really touched him that much. He had seemed more interested in pleasing me. Now I wanted to please him.
I traced my finger across a large scar underneath his ribcage. Then I placed a kiss on it. I then let my hands glide up his protruding ribs up to his neck. "You know. You're really going to have to put some weight on," I said with a smile before pulling him into a kiss. We fell back onto the pillows, with him on top. Then we lost ourselves in each other.
I awoke to Erik's eyes gazing down upon me. My arm was draped across his chest, and I had my head nestled comfortably in his shoulder. It was late in the day, and all the candles we lit from earlier were now fading into stumps of wax.
"You know we really should eat something," he suggested when he saw I was awake.
I scrunched up my nose and buried my face deeper into his side, holding him close to me. "No," I mumbled. I wasn't moving from this spot. This whole moment, everything about it, was just too perfect.
He laughed. "Weren't you the one just telling me to put some weight on?"
"Yea, but I don't wanna move," I groaned.
"Well don't move. I've got some food in my bag. I'll get it." He tried to get up, but I pulled him back down on the bed beside me.
"No sir, you're staying with me," I ordered.
"Christine," he exclaimed when he fell down on the bed beside me. I positioned myself on top of him so that my chin rested on his chin, and I could look him the eye. "We need to eat," he said.
I placed a kiss on his lips, and then continued to place tender kisses all the way down to the thin trail of hair above his groin. I could tell he was really enjoying it, but he stopped me. "You're insatiable," he laughed as he grabbed my chin and forced me to look him in the eye.
"You're just really good at this," I replied. He was really good.
"Um…thanks," he responded with a blush.
I tried to continue my seduction, but he shifted me to his side and then slipped out of bed before I even had time to protest. He noticed my scowl as he walked over to his bag. "You know you're really cute when you're pouty," he laughed as he pulled something small and wrapped up out of his bag. He came back to the bed and pulled the cover over both of us. I rested my head on his chest. "If we're going to continue our bedroom adventures though," he unwrapped the item to reveal half a loaf of bread accompanied with some butter, "I will need some sustenance."
As we were nibbling at the bread, I decided it was as good a time as any to ask what his plans for getting out of the city were. Earlier I hadn't wanted to bring up anything that might cause him more tension. "So, what's the plan?" I inquired as I smeared some butter on my piece of bread.
"We're going to have to obtain some means of travel and then sneak out of Paris," he said.
"How are we going to obtain a means of travel?"
"We're going to steal it," he replied simply. He may have been the one that insisted we eat, but he had hardly touched his bread since he got it out.
"Ah…and what are we going to do when we get out of the city?"
"We're going to get out of the country…"
"And then…?" He really wasn't getting the idea that I wanted details.
He sat up in the bed. "I've got enough money for us to buy a house to live in. Plus I'm not exactly lacking in skills. Perhaps I can become an architect again. Maybe I could start an architectural firm. We could make good money that way."
The next question that came to my mind, I didn't want to ask him, but it had been eating at me since I realized I might never see the Populaire again. "Do you think I'll ever sing again?" I asked.
His blue eyes lit up, and a warm smile met his lips. He trailed one of his long fingers from my chin to the base of my throat. "Christine, my love, I will die before I let your voice be caged."
Sorry couldn't go in to too much detail. I didn't want it rated MA. :p Thanks for the reviews. I'll try to update at least once a week from now on.
