Putting things off in her line of work was a bit like looking for trouble, since everything needed to function with the accuracy of a Swiss watch, and even when it did, things could and did go wrong sometimes. However, not indulging in the pleasures that the city had to offer was an unforgivable crime. A much bigger crime, it seemed, was letting her girlfriend wander the streets of Paris by herself, so she had secretly booked a pair of tickets for the Palais Garnier, not even caring to find out for which show, because the main thing was to satisfy Piper's curiosity to see the inside of the opera house, with its impressive staircase and ultra-famous chandelier.
Wearing a light-blue dress and looking absolutely stunning, the blonde was making her laugh with all her gawking and open-mouthed amazement. Alex knew that this wasn't the fucking New Year's Concert in Vienna and that they were slightly overdressed for the occasion, but who the fuck cared, when Piper was apparently enjoying every second of it? Alex was awfully aware that lately she had been too absorbed by work to do a lot of couple stuff, and could often perceive a shade of disappointment in Piper's eyes - not that she could do much about it; for all her riches, the one thing she definitely couldn't purchase was time. And yet she always managed to fix things. She was balancing both aspects of her life more or less successfully, intermixed as they now were, and at the moment felt pretty good about it.
The performance they were apparently going to see had been inspired by Degas's renowned paintings and sculpture, which Alex could certainly appreciate, but ballet itself… not so much. Piper, for her part, seemed too starry-eyed to even mind what the show was about; it was all shiny and golden and wow-worthy to her, and couldn't stop pointing at all the little things she noticed in the burgundy and gold interior, while Alex found herself wishing that the six-ton chandelier hanging above them would crash down on the audience. Not being one to settle for boredom, her mind instantly found something else to focus on. She calmly pretended to watch the ballet as her fingers tiptoed their way up Piper's thigh, and was unable to suppress a grin when she saw Piper's reaction out of the corner of her eye. The blonde, who in fact looked very cute when she was alarmed, jerked her head towards Alex, eyebrows raised and eyes wide open.
"Alex," Piper hissed, glancing around not very subtly. "Alex, what are you doing?"
"What? I'm not doing anything," she whispered back as innocently as she could. "Now hush, I'm trying to understand what's going on."
Her hand circled the inside of Piper's thigh and applied the intermittent pressure she knew would work on the woman. The blonde slid lower on the velvet seat and proceeded to fold her white shawl into a neat, rather large rectangle, which she inconspicuously placed over her lap. Taking this as an obvious signal to continue, Alex moved her hand upwards still, until her pinky and ring fingers grazed the fabric of Piper's underwear. The slight contact was enough to make the blonde buck her hips and slide even lower, a response which Alex acknowledged with pride.
She leaned towards the girl as if she was about to quietly make some comment about the performance, but instead took Piper's earlobe between her teeth and released it very slowly, topping it off with a wet kiss. Alex then fixed her eyes straight ahead while her fingers pushed their way under Piper's panties, since she did not need to look at the woman to know her way around her or to identify the natural reactions of her body while she stroked her (although seeing her was always a plus). What she did need to do, however, was press her lips together to keep herself from chuckling devilishly at Piper's efforts to keep both still and quiet in the semi-darkness of the packed theater flooded by classical music.
The brunette felt empowered by the knowledge that Piper was absolutely hers, that the girl was losing her sense of self -retaining just enough to keep her moans at bay- and had become a slave to her touch, that all she could do was focus on the flickering and spiraling movements of her fingertips. Additionally, Alex felt immensely happy, as she always was when she made Piper feel good. She had felt that particular kind of joy from day one -or rather, night one-, and had ardently pursued it throughout the span of their relationship. Moreover, she even found space in her mind to think about how both sensations often came together for her -the sense of power and the feeling of happiness-, how they were entwined, forming part of the same rush.
It was in her nature to know that Piper was at the point of no return now, and Alex was the one who could give her everything or nothing at all, depending on whether she kept on stroking her or stopped. But she did, she pressed on, and treated herself with a quick glance towards the blonde, who was biting her lower lip and clutching the protective shawl.
Her fingers lingered between Piper's legs to garner a few extra enticing shivers from the girl, and then Alex discreetly retrieved her hand, like nothing had happened.
"Je suis désolée," Alex hurriedly whispered to the middle-aged woman sitting at the other side of Piper, who had turned to frown at the blonde, perhaps because she had seen her tottering suspiciously. "Ballet just gets her too excited. We're such big fans."
Piper glared at her menacingly, with her eyes perfectly spelling out the words "I'm going to kill you," and it became impossible for Alex not to make a face, for all she could see was how flustered the girl was, with her cheeks as red as the seats. Feeling very proud of herself, she returned her attention towards the stage -a provocation in itself-, but also started sucking on her moist fingertips, which she suspected would drive the blonde insane. She was right in believing that, since Piper stood up as soon as the lights of the theater went on, so fast that Alex was tempted to ask her if there was a spring on her butt.
They hurried towards the exit, arm in arm and trying to act composed, when they ran into the theater employee who was at the door. He was so confused when they managed to make him understand that they wanted to leave that he tried to use his limited English to explain that the show wasn't over yet, which of course they already knew. He then tried to convince them to stay, which made Piper lose her patience and give that poor guy a taste of her temper, commanding him to move away from the goddamn door.
With the pattering raindrops falling over them, they skipped down the steps that led to the theater entrance and hailed a cab, because there was no time to spare. The swerving vehicle was like a miniature roller coaster, with Piper kissing her and half-crawling on top of her, which caused the driver to yell at them some French equivalent of "No hanky-panky in my taxi" - no translation required. Chuckling, Alex grasped the girl's hand to try to calm her and prevent her from answering back, since it would definitely be no fun to be dropped in the middle of the street.
They arrived to their apartment building, and Alex wasted no time in embracing the blonde in the elevator, her fingers digging into the skin of Piper's mostly naked back. While kissing Piper's bare shoulder, she lifted her eyes to look at their reflection on the elevator mirror, which took up almost half the wall. It was kind of amazing how well their bodies fit together, the way Piper's head belonged in the crook of her neck, and how her curves always seemed to touch Alex in all the interesting places.
"Are you going to finish what you started earlier?" Piper asked as soon as they crossed the front door, her voice sultry against her ear.
She rolled her eyes, pretending to think about it, but Piper's parted lips were now so close to her mouth that she couldn't help but dive into them, delighted to find Piper's eager tongue with her own. That was how they got to the main bedroom, Alex half-carrying the girl, stumbling blindly across the flat, which was still new enough for her not to know exactly where she was going. She dropped Piper on the bed and climbed on top of her, her hands starting to snake under the blue dress, discovering the even softer skin underneath.
Piper cupped her face and then carefully removed her glasses, a simple enough gesture, but still something she'd never done before. It was enough to make Alex stop what she was doing and look at girl. With no shortage of passion in their relationship, Alex was sometimes still amazed by how meaningful their quiet moments were for her. She enveloped Piper's lips with her own, caressing her hands down her sides as she pressed into the woman with her hips. No longer in such a rush, they slowly started rocking against each other without breaking the kiss. They let their bodies do all the work, with Alex interlacing their hands and holding them in place over Piper's head, and their hot centers rubbing against each other through their damp underwear. By waiting for each other they created a rhythm, which they gradually climbed together, until they couldn't put it off any longer and came at the same time, their mouths full of each other's moans and whimpers.
The blonde broke the kiss to place her scalding lips on Alex's ear. "I love you."
Releasing the girl's hands and surrounding her waist with her arms, the brunette made them roll on the bed so that Piper was now on top of her. Her fingers started tiptoeing up Piper's spine until they disappeared into the yellow mane, concluding the journey they had started earlier in the evening.
The phone started ringing just as she was about to respond to Piper's proclamation, making the blonde woman groan in annoyance. But hey, it wasn't like she wanted to receive those urgent phone calls at all hours; of course she would rather romp in bed and compose her own working schedule like before. It wasn't her fault if it was rather hectic out there and she couldn't simply control when they needed her.
Since Piper appeared to be in no mood to collaborate and wasn't moving a muscle, Alex had to roll them on the bed once more so that she ended up on top and could detach herself from the girl's grip. Hurriedly, she got up and snatched the phone from the desk.
"Yeah."
While the voice at the other side of the line gave her instructions, she glanced at the blonde, who was still lying on the bed, motionless, albeit with a somewhat serious expression, as if she was waiting for something. However, Piper reacted immediately the second Alex hung up and turned on her laptop. The girl sprung from the bed, huffing in frustration, and proceeded to take off her dress and put on more comfortable clothes.
"Babe, could you get me something else to wear too?" asked the brunette, trying to pay no attention to Piper's little display of anger.
"Sure," the blonde answered, perhaps too loudly, and unnecessarily opening and closing every drawer in the dresser. "Are you going to be busy all night again?"
They were standing on opposite sides of the white bed, with Piper at its foot, wearing some adorable checkered pajamas, and Alex standing by the headboard, just in her underwear. In another context, that premise could have been the start of something good, especially because the blonde looked so damn adorable in those pajamas - Alex had grown unaccustomed to seeing her with any kind of nightly wear. She caught the small bundle of clothes that Piper tossed at her and put them on, shrugging at the girl's question.
"Well, Pipes, it is what it is, you know? It's a bit of a rough patch, but there'll be more time."
"Yeah…" the girl breathed out, rather than pronounced the word, and walked out of the bedroom.
The brunette threw her head back and sighed, feeling a pang of worry in the mouth of her stomach, but relaxed upon hearing the very distinguishable rattle of dishes and silverware. Following the sound just to make sure, Alex grinned when she peeked through the kitchen doorway and saw that Piper was trying to cook something - the key word being "trying". Both housework and handiwork were not among the blonde's strong suits. To confirm that, she only needed to remember the corpse of their toaster back home, which Piper had intended to repair with a fucking hot glue gun, and Alex had found it so fucking hilarious that she didn't have it in her to throw away the deceased machine.
It had been an excellent idea to rent an apartment this time, and now she was even more convinced. The fact that it was someone's home and not a hotel gave Piper some sense of domesticity, like it was their home. It appeared to keep her somewhat rooted, not drifting around like in other parts of Europe, a matter which hadn't been helped by Alex's own absence. No, the gorgeous flat in the very nice neighborhood was doing wonders for the girl, and so Alex found the relief that she needed to return to the bedroom and get to work.