Hi everybody, I know we're only two chapters in, but I wanted to thank you already for the amazing feedback so far!
I also wanted to "warn" you that this chapter is probably going to feel centered on humor and smutty vibes, it just flowed out this way but I promise you I'll be offering more variety as we go on! Hope you enjoy :)
III
Truth, beauty, freedom and love
His selection of paisley ascots was laid out on the elegant ottoman before his nit-picking eyes. Nothing could kindle his bohemian spirit like a night out on Montmartre to share with his muse.
'Hermès or Burberry?' Chuck called out.
Her prompt answer echoed through the room, 'I'll have to see the colors first!'
Chuck nodded with a curl of his lips and stepped to the locked door that separated them, once again knocking and talking into a fissure with his fingers drumming on the wooden frame.
'Remind me again why I'm not there with you?'
Blair took a deep breath under the downpour, rubbing some more silky shampoo into her hair. She simply would never address the issue, not in this lifetime, she swore to herself while immersed in the scented vapors.
'I told you we don't have the time for that!' White lie.
'It makes no sense. We could've saved time, and there's a bathtub too' he argued, but Blair didn't reply.
'Also "that" can be different things and you know that time is never an issue unless we want it to be'
He was smug. Chuck could picture her rolling eyes from there as she shut the water off.
He stood there waiting, and again he tried to get to the bottom of what happened moments earlier when they returned to their apartment.
They had been out and surprisingly well behaved all day, completely engrossed in their intense sightseeing. Then of course Blair had pushed him on the bed and pounced on him the second her heels made their landing onto the floor. But somewhere between his hand under her skirt and her hand in his pants, she bolted to the bathroom and locked herself up in absolute silence. Something he did must have been terribly wrong, he wondered, because that behaviour was completely foreign for her.
At last she emerged from the threshold, her freshened skin wrapped in a cloud of towels and emanating the most inviting fragrance. Before Chuck could say anything or get any closer to her inexplicably tensed face, Blair had already darted to their bed and sat with her back fully turned to him.
As he made a step inside the bathroom he saw it then, the missing piece to his puzzle: her Chanel n5 perfume set above the toilet's perfectly closed lid. It could either be a piece of evidence or a preferred form of explanation. Chuck had to bring a hand to his nose and suppress whatever sound was coming out of it, careful to not belittle her vulnerability, as silly as it was. Of course she would fret about something like that, he had to see that coming especially now that there was no space for hiding and all the bathrooms were over one floor instead of the three at Harold's.
'I thought it was assumed that when I said that I loved you-' he announced solemnly, closing the door behind him as he unbuttoned his shirt.
She hushed him on the spot, 'Chuck, no.'
'I meant the whole package, which also includes-'
'Not listening!' Blair chanted, as loudly as she could.
At the same time she sighed to herself, a trace of relief washing over her as she dried her hair with one less burden in her chest. For a while longer, she probably wouldn't allow him in the bathroom with her, but as unspeakable as it still seemed, she was glad to be hearing that.
Chuck too was sighing in their ensuite, although for a whole different reason. When alone, he started to notice, his showers would turn ordinarily boring and last shorter. Much shorter than the ones he used to have before Blair, when the cloak of scorching water on his skin felt like an adequate substitute for whichever affection Nate claimed he was lacking.
The only reason why Chuck wasted a second more than he needed to clean himself now was to observe how his and her products bore the same labels after he mistook their shampoos. He held a not so secret pride in having so much in common, and inhaling her floral scented lotion was all it took to make him miss her presence even at just a wall apart. Chuck shook his head in disbelief at the way such a level of insanity had started to become the normalcy that seemed to make him breathe. He could barely recognize himself recently, and that was probably the best change that happened to him so far, he concluded.
'The Hermès will do.' She greeted him with a smile.
He gave his approval as he finished drying himself up, 'It's the one I liked best.'
Just as he smiled back at her, his eyes widened to the side of the bed where laid a full suit she had clearly picked for him, belt and socks included.
'I love the pattern, the gold fits the deep blue and it will go well with my vintage Versace.' Blair chirped casually from her rummaging of the travel trunk destined to her shoes.
'Are we matching clothes now?'
He chuckled at his own rhetorical question, as if they hadn't already done that by coincidence so many times in the past. Insanity, again, the beautiful and comforting insanity of their relationship.
She stood up, spinning towards the mirror on her designated black pointed Choo's, but she halted her step when his sight caught her attention. Looking at Chuck in his daily, private rituals was nothing like looking at Nate. Blair discovered that she loved staring at him while unaware of her when he dressed and undressed. She finally didn't have to feel like a peeping Tom anymore, indulging and intruding in a territory that wasn't entirely hers, and that was liberating, pleasing, to the hilt.
He was always so impeccable, clean, and in order even if most of it was pure façade for the quiet chaos underneath, and she loved that too. There was no room for embarrassment in those visuals, and something about his smooth, yet resolute manners and gestures, something in the way he skillfully toyed with his belt or straightened his sleeves and lapels caused her lip to curl under her teeth every time. Blair thought she could recognize a few of those unhesitating, steady movements in bed too at times. And those said times were often the ones when she would end up on her hands and knees with him fastened to her back.
'Zip me?'
Chuck ghosted behind her in no time, feathering a kiss to her head as his fingers secured the slit down her back.
They faced the full length mirror, smiling and taking in the stunning image of them together and looking rather attractive in the same shade of night blue.
Blair as usual was a treat for his eyes: two scarcely large bands of brocade cascaded from her shoulders to fold her breasts and keep them pressed to her chest, leaving an ample show of skin in the middle and the sides. The two tied and overlapped between her ribs, creating a pattern that coiled down and around her hips and toned backside, gift-wrapping her curves some inches down her thighs. Behind her, Chuck's silken sleeveless gilet and trousers matched her in color, with his ascot complementing both his ivory shirt and her hefty golden necklace and bracelets.
'I love it, by the way. That we match in every sense. And this dress…' Chuck clicked his tongue, letting a quiet whistle tickle her ear. She blushed.
It wasn't the mid-length decorous one she had bought hours before. Blair was in the mood to parade on their romantic night, which also meant showing off how incredible he made her feel, no matter what was on her skin or off it.
At times, more and more often now and largely thanks to him, she would just let herself embody the seductress that she was, and she never once shamed herself for it. Actually, she started to embrace how different her figure could look in more daring garments, and she liked it almost as much as she relished under the blazing eyes that would fixate on her.
'Thanks, and you look very handsome yourself. These lighter fabrics always accentuate your muscle tone too' she flirted back, rubbing her shoulder to his taut chest and proving her point.
Blair glanced at their reflection again. She noticed the way his large hand nestled against her hip, occupying its rightful space on her middle, and Chuck watched her staring from where he rested his smiling lips at the base of her neck. Her curls a caress to his skin, his breath a caress to hers. That intimate moment and their pose had her take her phone out of her mini bag and snap a picture of them - immediately deciding she would print it as well.
'Wait, take another. May I?' he murmured, moving a few waves off her front so that her dress could showcase her shapes in full.
Blair agreed and clicked the camera again, but only after sliding her forearm on his and lacing their fingers at her side. That need to touch their bodies in any way they could manage became palpable in the air around them. Or maybe it was within them, in their flesh and blood. They still had to figure that one out.
It was only natural to be closing the remaining space left between them. Indeed by doing so, she encouraged him to bring another hand on her other hip and hold her tighter to him. Though she hadn't registered yet exactly what they had started, letting their pull move them so effortlessly… oh, she adored how inevitable it was.
Right away she could clearly discern the heat emanating from his strong body to her back, and her smile became wider.
'I'll take just one more' she purred.
Blair clicked again, and she pretended to not notice the knuckle that rose inches away from the curve of breast under her arm. Just like she pretended to not notice the breath that caught up in her throat once her back met an unmistakable swelling. Blair knew she had the edge on him when she set herself perfectly against it and could hear a hiss in his breath betraying him.
That half grin touching her neck was barely a mask to the building pressure in his south, when he muttered, 'What is it you want, Blair?'
'I'm just taking a few pictures for us to remember'
She took the reins on her acute voice and kept up the charade, the slight quiver in it only noticeable to his expert hearing.
'Oh, right' he nodded, shifting to the other side of her neck. He reached for her back again but this time to unzip her dress, and he did it as slowly as he could muster.
'Chuck, we don-'
'What, we don't have the time?' he teased. His whispering deepened when his hand slithered under the band on her chest, at once triggering a sigh from her lips and a spark to her every nerve in its wake.
'What do you want then? I can call right now and move our table to the next shift' he hummed nonchalantly, with his palm cupping her breast, rubbing her ever so slowly. Blair had nearly forgotten about their soirée thanks to her mind turning into a canvas of sensations under his touch.
Chuck interjected for her, 'All you have to do is tell me what you want.'
His lips curled to a feline smile at her state but also at the way she held her poise this far. Chuck had noticed how great she kept getting at their games, and his trousers now felt so uncomfortably close-fitting.
'My patience is getting thinner, I'll tell you that much.' Blair snapped back and then cleared her throat to better inhale some sense back into herself. That slight controlling note in his voice was clearly bowling her over.
'Getting thinner...' he husked.
His palm trailed an excruciatingly slow path down the front of her slinky dress.
He brushed a kiss on her cheek then, when his fingers curled on a hook beyond the hem to find her, 'just like this lace?'
Her adamantine silence cracked with a shaky breath that fled her throat, and she wished she could hate the way a mere touch of his was enough to affect her this much. Pretending that it didn't could be at times quite the challenge, especially once past that turning point where her body seemed to act on its own volition far beyond her strong headed, controlling clutches. But in the end, never could she bring herself to deny her senses such liberation.
'You started this, so I'd like to know what you're craving... let me serve you' Chuck muttered to the side of her neck, between a kiss and a groan at the warm, gushing need he uncovered between the faintly quivers of her thighs.
'Call them now, then. That's what I want.'
He nodded, overly complacent as he took his phone out of his pocket, with the other hand never leaving his favorite destination. Chuck didn't manage to extract the true words he knew Blair restrained in her, but he grinned to himself thinking that it would be a new dare for another time.
His French spoken breaths to her ear did nothing but aggravate her arousal, as if his joint cupping her front and pulsing to her backside weren't enough. Chuck couldn't help but press further into her when he noticed she took another picture of their much erotic reflection, and then some more at the wicked smile she yielded for him. There she was.
Her exhibitonist actions had worked. In a flash, his phone was put back in place and he was on his knees, his back to the mirror, his fingers hooked around the drenched string of fabric. Chuck searched for her eyes when rolling up her dress and helping her out of her lace, her sultry, excited look a confirmation that he was precisely where she wanted him.
'You're not gonna say it, are you' he husked on a smirk.
With devotion he helped her slide one thigh onto his shoulder as if it was the most obvious gesture in the world, and not just what he had been fantasizing about doing all day.
Her eyes danced and fluttered as both his palms rubbed their way to seize behind her. When he groaned again and as she felt his ravenous breaths on her, it clicked into place. Blair glanced to the mirror still directly in front of her and then back down to him on his knees for her pleasure. She was herself, bare and ignited to the core.
Greedy fingers threaded into his hair, tugging at it gently, and the sneer she flashed him made him combust.
'Devour me, Chuck.'
He barked a laugh and much readily commenced his personal feast, obliging and worshipping her the way only she deserved.
Blair took one last picture, one that would be cherished only between them, before shutting her eyes and losing herself on his mouth unreservedly.
The lively street at the foot of Montmartre saw them arrive under crimson painted shadows and the starry night.
They walked beneath the famed red mill as if they'd been the only couple to know love in Paris, their hands in constant motion, their voices secretive whispers. The glow that shone across their faces was enough of an explanation as to why Monsieur Bass insisted so much, and was willing to pay so much, to push their table past dinner time.
Blair was on cloud nine.
Besides being already sated before their upcoming banquet, she was certain to be stepping into a place that was kindred to her and more welcoming than her own home. Like at Victrola, that was her first thought. She had watched "Moulin Rouge!" many times, as many as the videos of the sort of shows actually happening in there nowadays. The sort of shows that made her insides tingle with fascination, inspiration, and wantonness. But nothing that Blair saw through a screen could prepare her for the atmosphere that met them past the legendary glossy doors at the heart of the Red Light District.
It looked like an intimate baroque theatre, but pervaded by the same wonderment of a timeless circus and much more. It was art and culture, the very core of Belle Epoque washed in reds and shimmer, golds and luster. Dim and warm string lights were everywhere above them, casting a blurred mantle of rose and crimson that felt like sensuality you could gaze at. Ruby, scarlets and vermilions, all her favorite tones invaded her just like the air that saw centuries of decadence unroll within those infamous walls. Her eyes lit up at once as if she had just discovered her own tailored version of a sacred graal.
Chuck had picked up that enraptured expression on her face, he perfectly remembered where and on which occasion he had seen it before, but he still wanted to ask, 'What is it?'
'It's so...' she sighed, delight dancing across her face.
'Enticing?' he whispered, and she merely nodded.
The grand hall was a meshwork of red blaze alternating to more seductive unilluminated corners, the space under it crammed with clean dining tables and other fairly well-dressed tourists. At least once though, everyone seemed to have glanced at the young, yet adult looking couple occupying the one single table in the best spot, facing the central stage. Mostly, they were wondering, with a tinge of envy, just how much they had dropped to be sitting there and to have dinner served at such an hour on their specific request.
From seven to eleven, Blair had explained to him as he helped her sit, there would only be musical and cabaret numbers. The "good stuff", she grinned, would happen later in the night. Craving the full ambrosian experience, Chuck had ordered lobster for them both and a seafood salad, and Blair had politely asked for caviar tartines and quiche Lorraine, of course accompanied by the most expensive magnum they could offer.
A jazz band was oozing and grooving on the stage throughout their meal, only breathing even more charm into the already alluring atmosphere. After their serves of luscious food and more than a few champagne flutes, they felt once again in a quiet bubble of their own though in a confined space that overflowed with loud, chattering people.
'Can you tell me something? You gotta be honest though' Blair spluttered out, swallowing down another wash of pearly golden cuvée G.H. Mumm. That one and the fresh lobster always made her particularly chatty.
Chuck laid his fork down on his plate and reached for her hand instead, doing that boyfriend thing he had never done in his life. They both smiled.
'You know that you don't have to ask', he added.
'Right.'
She put her glass down as well and locked her smiley eyes with his.
'Why do you like it so much?'
His unsure, furrowing brows talked for him. Easily, Blair further clarified her question with a flick of her tongue on a creamy tartine, while placing the morsel between her lips to savour.
Chuck cleared his throat on a bewildered sneer, feeling rather amazed by the nature of her curiosity. He leaned over the table to make sure she would be the only person that ever got to hear these words from him.
'Because I can't resist you.' he said simply, his thumb drawing circles on the back of her hand. He took in the gleam in her eyes, a not-so-subtle clue that she was impatient to hear more. Fine by him.
'I think it goes deeper than just not being able to stay away from each other.'
The circles he was tracing on her looped higher and higher on her arm, all while the tone in his voice dropped lower.
'It's your taste, your scent... the way you react to me. To be able to give you all that alone brings me a great deal of pleasure. It's addicting really, it makes me want to start over as soon as you finish.'
At that, they both chuckled as it was exactly what he had done prior to their dinner. Chuck also made a mental note for the future to give her a turn to answer her own question.
He yielded quite the satisfying answer to which Blair bobbed her head, her cheeks in a flush while her foot hovered to brush the fine Italian leather shoe under the table.
'I'm asking because… Well, I heard that not many guys can be this considerate' Blair let her eyes roll to the side, avoiding the confession within them that clearly hinted to the ashy blonde and self-serving man they both knew very well.
Chuck relaxed back into his seat, observing her as he tried to follow her train of thoughts, and then poured them both some more champagne.
He snickered, 'Correct. I never was either until I found myself on you.'
Those surprising, beautiful words called her eyes back to his, fulfillment and adoration now surfacing on both their expressions.
Deep down she was preparing herself for a sharp twinge in her jealous heart at the awareness of how many women Chuck had blessed with his pleasure-gifting mouth. He had been her only one for that as well, although Nate had tried once - after Cotillion, in a pathetic attempt to make their first time a special one. It was a dreadful forty seconds.
Nevertheless, she could tell that Chuck was uncommonly skilled and that he clearly did his homework in that department. But to be hearing that he had ever enjoyed it with her only made her feel insanely exhilarated and warm in her body. The latter also being a side effect of several flutes of expensive wine.
'Noo way. I can hardly believe it, to be honest' she encouraged him to continue with a coy smile.
'Well, whenever I ceded, it was because I knew I would get something else in return. But in the end it really came down to me wanting to become agreat lover. I liked to own that sort of myth to my name, that fame.' He revealed, smirking as ever as he caressed her hand with more fondness.
'But with you' he smacked his lips, 'it's like you gave my mouth a purpose.'
Blair nodded again, concealing the gulp that bobbed in her throat. She couldn't help but agree with him and gloat along, but she still wasn't keen to give in and disclose just how many times she had craved that mouth on her when alone in her bedroom. She thought she might soon though, because that could make another interesting conversation.
Once again in her life, Blair had proof of how only Chuck could gift her that unique, unashamed freedom to talk about her reserved yet most fervent passions, and she needed it like water after all those months wasted in a desert because of their pride and fear.
'Honestly, I merely wanted to impress you the first time I did it' he continued, careful to not admit how in reality he simply was terrified to fail her disastrously beyond foreplay - he was aware that she could read it on his face anyway.
Blair couldn't tell what was curiosity and what was lust that squirmed in her middle.
'What changed?'
He nodded, resolutely; he was so pleasantly impressed with her level of genuine, carnal interest. That was an extensive sort of chat Chuck never really had with anyone else before and he felt at utmost ease, although he knew he had to partially thank the champagne.
'Well, I realized that I was doing it for you rather than myself. And that maybe that was the whole point of it.'
His smile was devilish and his voice seduction, but she recognized love pooling in his eyes.
The sudden spark in hers though told him instead that she would've gladly had him again right under that table; if only there weren't those hundreds of eyes on them and a world famous stage at their side. So he winked, imperceptibly, and glided a finger down the elegant cloth in a silent promise that sometime soon he planned to oblige her.
'I guess I must be very lucky, then.' Blair inhaled, deeply.
He smiled, 'I guess we both are.' and anew their feet started their dance under the table.
Before the last performance could finish, they indulged on a rich chocolate mousse to wrap up their gorgeous meal over the slow melody that seemed to be playing for their ears only. Chuck welcomed a memory that surfaced to him all of a sudden in a Proustian moment, right as he let his lips thoroughly polish the spoon.
'When we were hooking up in junior year I'd show up at school sometimes just to see you... I used to fantasize about you melting around my tongue in those preppy uniforms of yours.'
A soft smirk on his lips as if he had just landed a joke, and he heard her dessert go down the wrong pipe together with her spoon clinking against her crystal bowl.
'Chuck are you dirty talking to me now?'
Blair snapped, faking a decorum that nothing but clashed with what was occurring down the pit of her stomach. And lower.
'I simply thought you asked me a question and were prone to listen' he leaned closer again, 'and no, that was only a reminiscence. If you want to hear the real deal I'll be happy to please whenever you want.' His voice felt like hands on her.
Blair wondered exactly what Chuck meant by real deal, when the few times they had ventured there during their trysts prior officialty had already left her breathless.
The anticipation had her blush at the thought, with the reassurance that Chuck would always let her decide which boxes to check and at what pace. Then the spots on her cheeks further spread their reddening because Blair wanted a taste of all of it, and then some. She would be lying to herself if she denied the itch she felt for everything that world of erotic wonders could offer. Blair had been lying to herself for nearly all her life and she was over it.
They luckily got distracted before the conversation could turn any steamier, as the lights around them dimmed to let the real show unfold.
The first sequence of performances were partially acted dancing numbers of the most various genres. Velvet curtains opened to dozens of men and women in flamboyant costumes, presenting group choreographies in a frenzy of pearls, feathers and glitters of every color. Acrobats, singers and dancers entered and quit the stage in a perfectly continuous harmony, leaving the audience stunned and elated with their talent and their irresistible, fiery splendor every time.
The whirlwind of extravagant performances spellbound both their faces towards the stage, and for the first time during their day they brought their conversing to a halt. But no matter how immersive or blasting the exhibitions could become, they still searched for their eyes and their hands after every applause, in light and dark alike.
When a huge tank covered by a black cloak showed up from behind the curtains, Chuck signalled her that his favorite number was about to commence with an arch of eyebrows. Blair jolted in her seat when its content was revealed. The stage was pitch black, and only intense flashing green lights illuminated the water cubicle inside which writhed two long, and probably oversized emerald pythons.
A couple of gymnasts with nothing but a string on their skin then simply dived to the roll of drums, and twirled and moved to the hair-rising music together with those reptiles of considerable length and strength. After a first, brief shock, Blair's slightly horrified expression morphed to match Chuck's own beguiled one as the acrobats seemed to be born to perform underwater with those sinuous animals.
'Did they scare you? They're so fascinating to me, imperturbable and secretive yet so lethal' Chuck whispered from the dark, his comforting palm slithering to her arm and mimicking the seductive image playing before them.
'Well I'm not an enthusiast of exotic species unless they're printed on my accessories, but real, enormous serpents? So much better than the human ones!' she bantered.
Too easy. Chuck let out a snort, 'And here I thought that mine took your breath away.'
Blair blinked at him twice, just long enough to wonder when and how his interest in pet reptiles had escaped her memory. Once she did register the meaning behind his words, her shoe bulldozed into his ankle point first with one swift blow, her stiletto digging enough to mark that gorgeous leather and most definitely the flesh underneath too.
'I meant sneaky people, you degenerate sleazebag.' she hissed at Chuck, who was now rubbing his injury, quietly but still sneering above the pain.
Appeased again, she veered her gaze back to the wondrous creatures still twisting in the water when a mumbling afterthought found its way out of her loosened lips, 'and it does take my breath away.'
She instantly promised herself she would tell him that was the champagne talking, if he heard any of that.
Following another couple of acrobatic numbers and after Blair had given her word she'd nurse his contusion once back in their apartment, there finally was her most anticipated act; the burlesque, of course.
At that point in the show it was indisputable that the Moulin Rouge theater would not only cast the most talented performers in the world, but also the best looking and proportioned ones; the girl that appeared on the stage then was the quintessence of such impossible standards.
Skin of sheer silk on the most feminine structure, cinched in a corset entirely covered in pearls and glitter around the waist of a doll, and with pin-up coiffed wavy hair framing the face of a vixen. Blair was in absolute awe.
That view had her take a trip down the memory lane, to the weeks that followed her very spur-of-the-moment debut on the stripping scene at Chuck's club. She decided that her favorite performance was the Martini Glass act, especially the Dita Von Teese one, which she had watched over and over in the utmost privacy of her bedroom. No one, absolutely no one knew about it, not even Chuck himself, yet. But he could have as well guessed it then, by the way Blair immediately shifted in her seat to fully face the stage as soon as the oversized, shimmery receptacle appeared behind the performer.
Blair was so captivated by the stripping that Chuck didn't really know where to lay his eyes on when she was beaming with her own, and blossoming he dared say, voyeurism.
He watched her delight in every gesture, as she widened her eyes and bit down her lips at every new piece of clothing that would vanish off the dancer's dream body. Blair drank in the pearly colored gloves sliding off one by one, the lower garment dropping off those glimmery fishnets, the corset's straps being flicked opened ever so slowly on that seductive swaying of hips to the music. Chuck watched her too of course, but the dance happening within his girlfriend's facial features somehow seemed to be an even more intimate spectacle than the woman undressing before them.
Blair stretched her back to better look at her movements once immersed into the tall Martini Glass: she thought she looked like a vision, showing off every inch of her skin as she teased, touched, whirled, and bathed in front of so many leering eyes. Blair didn't flinch like the rest of the audience when the dancer removed her white beaded bra and at last unveiled the two glittery round patches covering her nipples. If anything, Blair's smile grew wider and couldn't tell what part of her was admiring her and what part wanted to be her.
When the long applause faded away Chuck reached for her hand, but she turned to face him first,
'Did you see all that? It was magical, what a goddess! Never vulgar, either.' The lights were still dimmed around them, yet he could perfectly see the curved line of her lips that split her face in a bursting smile.
'Indeed I saw it all,' he sighed, tipping her chin, 'You definitely seemed more interested than me though. Maybe you'd like to repeat that number for me?'
She snorted, 'You don't want to hold your breath for this one.'
Blair rolled her eyes, and hopefully he would never know about her recent google searches.
At last, it was time for the most awaited closing number: the French Can-Can, a cultural monument that one can only savor in the cabaret where it came to life so long ago.
Blair braced for the performance and turned to the stage and again, the videos she saw could never compare to the general euphoria that exploded in the theater.
Girls kept rushing onto and over the stage from all sides, their french flag colored gowns floating mid air and their high pitched cries accompanying every synchronised split and cartwheel. Blair thought there was nothing human about them and she was barely able to follow the delirium of pairs of perfectly toned, long legs in their hysteria.
After the last few, closing choreographies, the dancers all lined up with their thighs and smiles on the most harmonious display. Blair saw her then.
One of the brunettes to the far left, a gorgeous, Victoria's Secret model-type looking female deity was the only one whose eyes weren't looking up during the concluding chant of the anthem. Her eyes were fixating, shining even, to their table and more specifically to Chuck.
Blair observed her again, letting her gaze slide back and forth along that invisible line that seemed to be connecting the dancer's kittenish expression right to her boyfriend's face. Once glancing back at her side, Blair noticed that Chuck was clearly avoiding that intruding stare, looking to the opposite end while straightening his gilet. And then it dawned on her.
Blair didn't let herself think or ask anything, she simply couldn't because everything in her body in that moment was heating up and pulling her chords towards the exit, screaming at her to just leave and hope to never see that excruciatingly beautiful girl ever again. At once, she rose from her seat and bolted away.
Chuck felt the waft of air trailing behind her fast step, and he followed Blair with his eyes until she took off for the doors rather than the restrooms like he had first guessed.
'Blair!'
He started catching up with her pretty fast as she was wobbly on her thin heels stepping on the cobblestones.
'Ne me suis pas!' (don't follow me!). Now that was dramatic.
'I think I will actually because you're tipsy and it's not safe out here'
So he made sure to keep walking behind her, all while leaving between them enough of a gap for him to still see Blair in the night as she led the way up the narrow alleys of Montmartre.
She felt rattled, there was no denying it; and the amount of alcohol together with their intimate conversation probably made it a lot worse than it should have been. But even if she was overreacting, Blair didn't care. As long as she kept marching and breathing in fresh air without seeing his face for a few minutes, she would be good.
Mostly, her sudden vexation was just a puffed blanket for how ill at ease she was feeling deep inside. Blair never felt underappreciated by Chuck, far from it. He worshipped her like he'd never seen a woman before. Blair also knew about his debauched past and she was aware that the number of women, and probably others, that paid visits to his bed was a big one. Good thing was that she never fully cared, and it was because he didn't either. If anything, all the experiences and mastery he accumulated over the years now were for her own enjoyment and exclusively so.
But seeing one of his former lovers live in the flesh, right before her, dancing so beautifully and performing such acrobatics… with her looking absolutely flawless too, from head to toe there was nothing to possibly improve. Was that his normal standard before her?
Blair walked faster.
Behind her, Chuck started to prepare himself for that upcoming confrontation gently offered by Blair's innate, infallible radar for sexual tension.
He watched her halt her steps and take a turn into a tighter alley on the right, and when he reached her, she was standing in front of a blue tiled sort of mural that covered the entire outer wall of a house.
Blair shook her head when she felt the warmth of his arms wrap around her middle.
'Please?' he muttered, making himself room in the midst of her curls with a flick of his nose.
They stayed silent for a few seconds, only hearing each other's breaths in the glow coming from the streetlamp at their side. He noticed that her chest was heaving slightly quicker than his.
Chuck broke the silence once he started reading out loud what he could make out of the many versions of "I love you's" that were written before them.
'... ti amo, volim te, saya cinta pad-amu, te iubesc, mye n-tondo, te quiero-'
'Okay okay got it! You've pronounced that last one wrong, by the way' she huffed, but with a smile tugging at her lips.
'I thought you liked how I roll my r's'
'Be careful now, or soon you'll find yourself with two wounded feet' Blair crooned, 'did you know about this? Frédéric Baron made it. Messages of love enamelled in over three hundred languages.'
Chuck tightened his hug around her, 'Of course. I was surprised I didn't read it on our sightseeing plans. It's quite fitting for us don't you think?'
'It is. Just a little cheesy' she huffed, 'you slept with her, didn't you? She's quite the vision.'
'Blair-'
She continued, rocking her head, 'Part of your "theater kid" phase I suppose. Serena told me about the ballet dancers and the Cirque du Soleil performers she found in the penthouse one morning.'
'Did she also care to mention the reason behind that phase of mine?'
Blair teased, 'Mh when you couldn't deliver because you kept thinking of me?'
'Exactly, and none of those girls reminded me of you enough, apparently', his voice as firm as stone.
The knot in her chest eased up a little, just like her breathing. Chuck turned her around in his embrace, wanting to see the tension leave her face once and for all.
'Blair, I'm never gonna say something like "I wish I could erase my past". Because I'd have to care about it first and I don't.' He stated.
She exhaled, her eyes racing from side to side. Not enough.
'I don't know how to explain this but I didn't recognize that girl at all until she started staring at me like a psycho. And we must have met six or seven months ago at best. My memories revolve around other things, around you or Nate and Serena mostly. Like that necklace of yours I tore apart at your eight birthday. I remember it because you sobbed for an hour straight and because the look on Dorota's face scared the hell out of me.'
Blair finally smiled again, 'And which one was it?'
'The Audrey one, handmade with real Spanish pearls. It was one of the gifts from your father.' They both chuckled.
'You said it looked stupid on me.'
'I was angry because you didn't like my gift as much' Chuck corrected her.
He kissed her then, hoping that he had been able to scrape enough together to build his case. It would have taken him hours to days to explain every reason why not much from his past really mattered to him, besides of course the many memories he shared with her.
'I know sex is important to you, but it never was for me before you uh, entered the scene' he murmured between a kiss and another.
'Fine, fine. I guess I'm just shocked it took us exactly two days before crossing paths with one of your former concubines, even all the way to Europe' she sneered, 'what if it happens again? Because I have a feeling it will.'
'Well, we could try to find a way to have fun with it? I'm sure you can surprise me' he smarmed, eliciting a shove down his arm. Chuck thought he deserved all of it that night.
Then it was her who kissed him, just before yawning vigorously against his lips.
'Shall we?' he smirked, offering her his arm, 'we have the Louvre tomorrow, and I think my severe injury needs to be taken care of.'
'We shall see about that.'
A/N
-I feel like this chapter has been quite monothematic, sorry if i bored you! I felt inspired by the setting and the fact that the previous chapters were pretty pg. I also really, really like to just sit in their brains and make them reflect about things.
-I'll probably delve into their sexuality again in the next chapter, but they'll be doing other things too I promise.
-Just a reminder for any new reader: english is my third language so please bear with me if my writing isn't always as polished or if it sometimes comes off sloppy! I really try my best and it can also depend on what sort of scene I'm writing.
-Any feedback or suggestion is very much welcomed as usual, and thank you for reading!