"And I can trust you Erik, and for that I am grateful," I finished as I kissed him.

Erik swept me into his arms and deepened the kiss, but then he pulled away and looked me in the eyes, "Mon ange, must you leave in a few weeks? Couldn't you stay a while longer?"

I must admit, I wasn't opposed to the idea. "I don't know Erik," I said while laying my head on his chest, "There's always Meg. I may not mind staying, but she might. And I couldn't do that to her if she wanted to go back to the States."

Erik started nuzzling my neck, and thinking of leaving him became much harder, "You could always stay without her."

I had to laugh at this, even though he was being quite distracting, with his little nips every now and then. "Please Erik, I could never stay here without her. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have gone to the ball with you."

"Remind me to thank her for that later," he said as he stopped nuzzling my neck and returned his attention to my lips.

All thoughts other than him left.

That was the first night Kristina and I made love. Nothing could have been more perfect.

The next morning we left her apartment to go have breakfast together. I never did find out where Meg stayed that night, I only know that Kris called Tony to ask him to tell her what was going on. I could have lived without Tony knowing before anything happened, but the evening was too perfect to let something so small ruin it.

We went to a café down the road from her hotel, and sat with no embarrassment between us.

"So, Erik," Kris said, "Now you know all about me. But I still don't know about your childhood."

This had caught me by complete surprise, and I consequently choked on my coffee. Which was a less than enjoyable experience, believe me.

"Are you ok?" Kristina asked, concern plainly obvious on her face. "Fine, mon ange," I smiled, "Do you think we could skip this conversation?"

Kristina scoffed at this idea, "Yeah, right. Like that's gonna happen. Come on! I told you about mine!"

I scowled, I realize now that it was a naïve thought, but I had been hoping never to have to talk about that. "Please Kris, I would rather not."

This was obviously not what she wanted to hear, "What the hell is this? I've told you everything! But I know next to nothing about you! It's not fair!"

"Not everything is fair, Kristina," I snapped back, then quickly tried to get my self back under control. "I'm sorry. Just please, let's not talk about it. Let's just go back to your hotel and-"

"And what, exactly, Erik? If you think I'm sleeping with you again, when you refuse to tell me anything, you are out of your mind." She said, her voice getting louder as she gained steam, "And why are we always at my hotel? Why don't we ever go to your house? Why?"

I got up from the table and went over to Kris' side. I kneeled down beside her, and used all my self-control not to yell at her. "Please, let's go somewhere more private where we can talk. Not here." I whispered.

I could tell she wanted to yell at me some more, but I guess the look in my eye told her to think more carefully about it. "Fine," she muttered.

We gathered our things, and I left some money on the table. Then we walked out, both of us being careful not to touch the other.

An: Yay for short chapters!