Disclaimer: They are not mine. I don't own anything but my ideas.
Chapter 20"Ace!" exclaimed Logan. "What are you doing here?"
"On a sidewalk in New York?" teased Rory, "Walking of course." Reaching over to wrap her arm around Tristan, she moved to introduce them. "Logan, this is my boyfriend Tristan Dugrey. Tristan this is Logan Huntzberger."
Logan's eyebrows rose as his introduction made no move to identify his as an ex-boyfriend. For a second, his male brain interpreted it as Rory still holding a flame for him. Even if they hadn't parted on good terms, Logan still felt that illogical need to mark Rory as his territory and his girl.
"Dugrey…" began Logan thoughtfully, "I thought you got shipped off to Europe for bad behaviour and how did you and Rory meet? When Ace and I were in a relationship, I don't remember her ever mentioning your name."
"You should know better than to listen to East Coast society gossip." Tristan was trying his hardest not to sink to Logan's level, trying to convince himself that Rory would not appreciate him marking what Logan was interpreting as his new "possession".
"But still, you dropped off the face of the earth. No more society functions, no more charitable donations…" Logan just couldn't stand the idea that Rory could have possibly found another "Logan" socialite, one that was obviously more willing to join his world and Rory's than he was.
"Not really, just some complicated family inheritance stuff. My name changed, one of the requirements you know." Tristan tried to pass it off offhandedly, not wanting to make his new name and title a big deal…but Rory wouldn't have any of that.
"Perhaps you've heard of the Montpensier name?" Rory kept her gaze steady on Logan, "silly me, I knew Tristan in high school so I always just remember him as that spoilt little boy Dugrey…chasing me, it was very much a pull on my pigtails Kindergarten romance. But now he's the Comte de Montpensier." Rory glanced up at Tristan standing beside her and moved to place a hand on his chest as she leaned up and pecked him on the cheek.
The woman with Logan chose this moment to clear her throat and look meaningfully at Logan. Distractedly and dejected with those furrowed eyebrows and narrowed gaze Logan adopted whenever irritated and confused, he introduced her, " 'Stasi, this is my old girlfriend "Ace" Lorelai Gilmore…"
"The third." Rory added in.
"Ace, this is Anastasia Bertwick."
"His fiancée." Completed the blonde with the emphasis on fiancée as she extended one well manicure and expensive hand to Tristan for him to kiss. On that hand, a giant extremely vulgar sized diamond rested on her ring finger.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Tristan held her gaze as he slowly brought her hand to his lips as he brushed a quick kiss to her knuckles and turned on the charm.
The inbred looking girl was immediately enchanted with Tristan, and his name, and the wealth and society gossip about the Comte's now groomed and gentleman abilities and his American life as a teenager and his sexual exploits and unconsciously tried her luck with a meaningful and suggestive gaze back.
Tristan simply kept the polite but uninterested smile on his face as he dropped her hand and turned to wrap Rory from behind in his arms, smiling at the other couple. Logan began to fume slightly at the Tristan's perceived poke at Logan's smaller frame than Tristan. Logan had never been able to fully wrap Rory into his body in that protective and comforting fashion. They simply looked on as Logan embarrassed, by how this chance encounter was playing out, had to break the spell over his fiancée induced by Tristan's charm. Whatever game of "mine's bigger" Logan had tried to initiate was stomped into the mud by now, all he could do was carefully extract himself and his pride from the situation as carefully as possible.
"Well it was good running into you Ace, Tristan, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Logan simply glanced in Tristan's direction and then moved then focused his gaze on Rory.
With what could only be described as a wistful expression in a low voice mostly to himself, Logan whispered, "I'm sure you will have all the best in the future." The regret, pain and resignation of a man who had loved and lost evident in his voice but as quickly as the crack in Logan's public appearance had occurred, he mended the image almost as instantaneously. "I wish we could go and chat about old times, but 'Stasi has an appointment at Elizabeth Arden, so we've got to run." Without even waiting for everyone to exchange proper polite farewells, he grabbed 'Stasi's hand and continued on their way. Unknown to Rory and Tristan he did look back on the couple and thought, Tristan, love her better than I do. He emotionally closed the Rory chapter in his life, realizing that with Tristan by her side, he was obsolete and would not be needed even as a friend in her life.
A few blocks later, Rory was still quiet and pensive about the encounter. Her hand was still held within Tristan's and Rory's free hand was wrapped around their joined hands, gently caressing Tristan's knuckles.
"Caramel for your thoughts?" Tristan broke their amiable silence right outside a Godiva chocolate store. He pulled her inside the store without waiting for her answer and ordered 2 single caramel chocolates from behind the glass counter, and within moments they were back on the sidewalk, him carrying the tiny gold bag dangling it in front of his girlfriend coaxing her thoughts out of her.
"I was just thinking of all the good times Logan and I had. He did love me once, and I think a little part of me will always love him a bit too…but I think you were right when you said on the plane that loving someone isn't always enough. I'm not in love with him anymore. There was too much pain and angst at the end." Rory thoughtfully bit tiny bites out of the chocolate Tristan offered her.
"Well you were right too. That is a business merger, either that or arranged for other reasons." Tristan reflected, Logan's fiancée wasn't just not photogenic, she really did have lovely features, but they were simply arranged badly on her face, eyes too close set, mouth too thin for her face, and she wore expensive things with pomp and pride. Not with the quiet class that Rory and a select number of high class socialites carried themselves with. She may have been raised a socialite, but there would always be something innately crass about her behaviour, perhaps influenced by her continual need to land the best man she could capture, be the most envied…something he was glad Rory didn't know how to do.
After thoughtfully chewing on the last of her caramel, Rory murmured, "I just hope he finds happiness somewhere. It took a lot for him to go back and be what they wanted him to be."
"I do have to admire him for that." Agreed Tristan, "And I would say he had extremely discerning and high quality taste for some girlfriends." Smirking like crazy on the streets of New York, he gathered Rory in his arms and touched noses with her and as they shared a single breath, he whispered, "But I am glad you guys broke up, cause now I stand a chance." As he reverently worshipped Rory's lips and worried her bottom lip with his teeth and tongue trying to capture all taste of caramel and essence of Rory, Rory whispered between kisses.
"You…" Tristan's kisses escaped along her jaw line. "…always…" it was becoming harder for Rory to think as the delicious fog of kisses enveloped all her senses, "…had…", a sharp cold breeze was deflected by the buildings and she instinctively moved closer to Tristan needing to share his warmth and he shifted them to shield her with his body from the cold but the piercing cold cleared her brain a bit. "A chance." She finally completed her thought and looked through dazed eyes at Tristan who now observed her with one eyebrow cocked up in disbelief.
"You and I simply had to convince me first that I wanted it." Rory elaborated. With that relationship insecurity once again reassured, she turned herself around in his arms until he was wrapped around her from behind, his front against her back. Rory tilted her head turned and kissed the underside of the jaw she could reach comfortably from her position. As she snuggled into the warm body of her boyfriend, he groaned. Slightly alarmed Rory pulled away, only to be held tightly by his arms locked around her.
With glazed and grey stormy eyes with as many shades of darkness as a summer storm Tristan managed to smile at the fragile bundle in his arms, "You can not start to imagine the affect you have on me Mary…" Tristan bent his head closer to her ear and whispered an a husky voice only for her, "if we didn't have dinner plans, I'd swing you over my shoulder, call a taxi and high tail it back to that hotel and show you." With a nip of her ear Rory blushed a deep and even ripe peach colour. With horrible realization, Tristan stiffened slightly, aware that he may have stretched the playful line of tension between them too far, and was stiff and alert of the possibility he may have snapped their bond.
Rory still oblivious in her haze reacted instinctually at the loss of Tristan's attention turned her attention to his neck as she once more did a half turn in his arms to face him, as she hugged him tightly and buried her face in her neck kissing his pulse with a short imperceptible caress of her tongue held him for a moment as she felt their racing hearts slow.
"What dinner plans?" she voiced when her brain eventually regained normal operation.
"With Alison and her new boyfriend." Tristan replied as if it was general knowledge.
"Alison and her new boyfriend?" Rory repeated.
"Yes, they called while you were trying on clothes in that last store."
"While I was trying on clothes." Rory's voice was taking on a higher pitch.
"Are you sure I didn't short circuit your brains with my electrifying kisses and touch Miss Mary? You seem to be stuck on mimicking me and repeating everything I say." Struck by a juvenile and terrible idea, Tristan acted on it. With a straight face he said, "Ok, if you're being so compliant…Tristan, I would like to go to bed with you and model the entire Victoria Secret catalogue for you in private."
"Model the entire Victoria Secret catalogue…" unconsciously, repeated Rory followed by a playful punch to her boyfriend's arm. "Model the catalogue my ass!"
"Yup, I'm sure your cute little ass will look delicious in the clothes." Tristan shared his thoughts in a voice only meant for her to hear. With a little pat of Rory's bum he moved from their embrace and continued walking on his way even when Rory was frozen to the spot in disbelief and slight embarrassment at his boldness of patting her bum so casually on the streets. With sudden awareness of her surroundings, she relaxed as she realized none of the New Yorkers were paying attention to their affectionate byplay and no one noticed her boyfriend's slight of hand. A few meters away he stopped and called back at Rory. "Are you coming?" he asked as he extended an open hand in invitation for her to join him. Walking quickly to catch him she grabbed his offered hand and asked, "What are we eating?"
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A/N: Sorry for the long time between updates, I've been miserable the last two weeks, writers block, down and out sick, midterms and lab reports, it feels awfully nice to spend a lazy Saturday morning updating my fanfiction…maybe that's why I ended the chapter on such a nice fluffy note.
It's always glad to hear I make others happy with updates, and I always feel really happy and good about myself when I open my email and see all those nice reviews in return. Thank you for reading and please review.
Have a great weekend everyone!