To the guest who posted about 8 reviews (I'm assuming it was the same person!) Thank you for making me laugh :) . I'm glad to see you're keen for the next chapters! :) To let you know:

I post Sunday and Wednesday, usually before 7pm my time which is Pacific Central Time. I can post as early at 12pm my time but depends on my schedule which changes all the time. Also Ch13 is a chapter you will want to read. Just sayin'. I have at least 5 or so more chapters planned, but how many depends on how much I end up writing when I get to writing it as I'm only about 2 chapters ahead at this point (scary!)

Thank you to all who have written reviews, I so enjoy getting them even if it's just a word or a line. :)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Clara awoke with a headache and crystal clear memory of what had happened. She was mortified. Marina just laughed , kissed her and told her that there was nothing to be embarrassed about but that next time she showed up naked in her bed, she would be in trouble. Clara thought she wouldn't mind being in trouble with Marina.

They were at the gallery from 8.30am and worked solidly throughout the day to finalise the details of the opening that night. They returned to the hotel in the late afternoon to get ready for the 8pm start. Clara took the opportunity to call Ivan again. He'd just sat down to lunch with Cadu and told her excitedly about how they were going to the beach in the afternoon. She listened to his childish voice prattle on and she thought about Cadu's threat to take him away from her. The thought had played in her mind the entire trip, never quite silenced and she feared what this would mean when she got back. She asked if Cadu could talk. As she had hoped, he wouldn't say no with Ivan there although he greeted her reluctantly and they spoke only briefly.

"Are you okay? How's your heart, have you taken your medication?"

A pause at the end of the line and then the sound of his footsteps and the clicking of a door.

"You don't have the right to ask me that anymore."

The rest of the conversation was just as hostile and Clara understood why but her heart sank. She couldn't bring herself to broach the subject that needed discussing most. Later. It could be for later.

After she hung up she closed her eyes and wondered if things could have played out differently but she suspected not. She pushed them aside, these were things for another time because she was in Paris and there was an exhibition to get to. She wouldn't let anything mar this.

xxx

She entered Marina's room to find a vision. Her hair twisted up, a fitted, knee length dress that hugged her curves, a pair of killer heels and diamond earrings that danced enticingly in the low light. Marina seemed to appreciate Clara's outfit just as much, the black strapless chiffon dress that fell to her feet, revealing a silky decollete that Marina ran her hands over and kissed appreciatively, leaving goosebumps in her wake.

"You look divine, Clara."

The dark pools of her eyes coveted her figure and Clara felt a shiver down her spine, a flutter in her stomach, Marina's hands warm and solid as they came to rest on her waist. She felt the air between them begin to crackle. Her chest rose in a shallow breath as Marina moved in close, almost but not quite touching, until their lips were millimeters apart. Clara could feel Marina's breath on them.

"We should probably get going or we might never make it." Marina breathed and then stepped away. Clara took a moment to compose herself.

They arrived at the gallery with time to spare and through the window she could see people were already lining up outside. Clara's heart began to beat double time. She still hadn't seen her photos and she looked the line of people and realised they were about to see her in all her naked glory. She hoped the word glory could be applied to it. She wondered what had possessed her to agree to attending the opening.

"Are you ready to see your photos, Clara?"

Clara nodded mutely.

"Close your eyes" Marina said and taking her by the hand, she guided her to the corner to where her photos hung, their heels clicking on the hardwood flooring and echoing through the empty space. "You can look now."

Tentatively she cracked an eyelid. She looked. She stepped closer. There she was, naked, in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest. It looked like she had been caught, captured in a brief moment before she disappeared again amongst the trees. Her smooth tanned skin seemed to glow, her hair falling thick over her shoulders but it was her gaze that most arrested her. She was looking straight down the camera, her eyes clear and deep. This photo, Clara remembered was amongst the final shots that had been taken, when she'd felt brave enough within herself, relaxed enough to stand up, to reveal herself entirely to the camera's lens. She studied her body, noting the imperfections but oddly feeling perfectly okay about them, in fact liking them, for it was within those imperfections that the rawness of the photos really took shape. This was not an airbrushed, romanticises portrait, there was something edgy about it, in keeping with Marina's iconic style.

"Well?" Marina asked and Clara realised she'd just been standing there in silence looking at the larger than life picture for some moments.

"I... like it. I didn't think I could, but I do. I like it a lot."

Marina clapped her hands and hugged her. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that!"

"It's like I see that it's me and yet I see it objectively as though it isn't. I don't know how you did it, but you did Marina, you captured the element of Earth within me."

"You have to give yourself credit, Clara. You captured the essence of it and I just photographed it. It's in eyes that we see it. Look. So proud and fierce and yet the longer you look the more compassion can be seen. There's a duality that plays out that I love. You are Gaia. Mother Earth."

"Thank-you, Marina." Clara said, slipping her arms around her waist and resting their foreheads together, "Thank you for everything – for showing me who I am and who I can be. For recognising it in me. For giving me the courage to step into that. I can never express how much that means to me, my darling."

"You're welcome, Clarinha." Marina said and kissed her.

They moved through to the main entrance where the photographers and invited guests were already eating the hors d'oeuvre being passed around by waiters in crisp white shirts and black waist coats. Marina greeted people she knew, speaking in a mixture of French and English that Clara couldn't understand but she didn't mind, she stood at her side their hands interlaced and she glowed with a quiet serenity. She felt full to overflowing with gratitude.

When the guests had all but arrived, Edouard tapped his glass, said a few words and then they were free to walk through the exhibitions. It wasn't long before Marina was being approached, effusive words or congratulations tumbling form their lips and a number of times they turned to look at her, recognition on their faces and then they were shaking her hand and speaking in rapid fire French. Clara, at first, felt supremely self-conscious. She stuttered 'merci' and didn't know where to look, unable to overcome the thought that these strangers knew what she looked like without clothes on. But she found, as the evening wore on, that she was actually okay with that – somehow. When she stopped to figure out why, she discovered that it was because the things that were making her self-conscious - her qualms, her inhibitions - were actually not even hers. They were the qualms and inhibitions of others that she'd picked up at some point in her life and worn like a second skin. It was only as she came face to face with these guests expressing their enthusiasm and admiration for something she would have spurned doing not six months ago, that she realised she had the right to be proud of what she'd done. She didn't have to feel ashamed anymore, the way Cadu and others like him felt she should. And with that realisation she shed that ill fitting skin. The old Clara, the one who thought herself unexceptional, plain, small was entirely discarded on this night; the transformation that had begun when she'd first felt Marina's eyes on her was completed. She was now a woman standing fully in her own power. She smiled and returned the guest's handshakes and Marina stood to the side, a look on her face like she couldn't be more proud.

Eventually the crowd began to thin and Marina turned to Clara.

"You want to get out of here?"

Clara nodded.

"Are you up for a little adventure?" Marina asked.

They collected their jackets from the cloakroom and stepped outside. Marina hailed cab and then they were speeding through the Parisienne night. As they turned down the Quay d'Orsay, it came into view and Clara turned to Marina.

"Are we going to climb that?"

"We can hardly visit Paris, without coming here, don't you think?"

They were dropped off and there it stood, towering above them, La Tour Eiffel, illuminated in a golden light. The usual crowds were absent at this late hour, a handful night tourists littered the vast base of the tower and it took them only a few minutes to purchase their tickets. Soon they were riding up the elevator to the third level, stepping out onto the iron structure some 300 meters above the ground. Paris sprawled in all directions, the night lights winking at them as they criss crossed their way down the streets, the headlights of cars tiny as they moved about below.

"It's so beautiful!" Clara cried enthusiastically, leaning against the railing and breathing in the cool spring air. Stepping in behind her, Marina slipped her arms around her waist.

"It's my favourite view of Paris." she murmured into her ear.

Clara could see why. Standing so high above the world, seeing everything so far away, it put everything in perspective. It's all small stuff. Up here her worries and concerns seemed less pressing because it would be okay. The arms that held her, made her feel like whatever came their way, it would be okay. She felt a lightness suffuse her and she laughed. They rocked together.

"Ah, Marina." she sighed. "I can't believe I'm actually here, in Paris, with you."

"I'm so glad you came. You have no idea how happy that makes me."

"Me too."

"You know, there is one thing that I would very much like to do." Marina said.

"And what would that be?"

"To kiss the woman I love."

"On the Eiffel Tower in the most romantic city in the world? How very sappy of you, my darling." Clara said smiling and turned in her arms. "But who am I to begrudge you such a simple thing?"

She cupped Marina's face, looking into her eyes and kissed her. They wrapped their arm around each other, their lips parting, their embrace deepening, leaving them breathless, alive and free, savouring this delicious moment at the top of the world.