Author's Note: Thank you all for the reviews and messages (I'm back home so I should be able to reply to your messages this weekend, finally!). I appreciate them. The review glitch is back so I can't reply to them right now. However I got them in my mailbox and was able to read them. Hopefully they will appear here soon.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Maura sat up in bed. She turned her back at Jane and stared in silence at the rain that was sliding down the windows of their suite. The wind was blowing hard and it made the trees bend rather dangerously.

The weather reminded her of Saint-Malo. It carried the same strength, the same violence. The only thing missing was the spring tide. Even the sky was dark as if it were midnight while it was barely 2pm. It was one of these days when the sun never really shows up, when the light remains bare and cold. Gray. Almost absent. A typical winter day in Paris. A bit early for the season.

Jane's fingertips running down her spine made her shiver. Maura didn't turn around to smile at her lover though. She remained focused on the windows and on the trees of the small public garden opposite the boulevard instead. The storm was hypnotizing. And it oddly rocked her to sleep.

They hadn't left their suite yet. As a matter of fact, they hadn't left their bed. The bad weather had pushed them to postpone the visit of the Rodin Museum and the uncertainty of the conversation that they had had the day before after visiting the Catacombs had pushed them into a frenzy of intense, lustful desires.

They needed to make love. Over and over. As if to protect themselves from the uncertainty of their future together. Building a shield of sighs and moans in order to face the harsness of a brutal reality.

They hadn't taken any decision but they had nonetheless made a step forward. Somehow. To an extent. Now Jane knew what Maura felt and Maura knew that Jane cared for her. A lot. It may make the difference in the end.

"I like your skin."

The remark caused Maura to giggle. She and Jane hadn't really taken the time to have a break until now and it felt nice to spend the day in bed. Together. Sweetly. They took advantage of it to discover each other under a different light, the one that only lovers share. There may be bitterness in their smiles, it still felt relieving and delicate.

Jane leaned up on her elbows. She came closer to Maura. Her lips brushed Maura's lower back and she began to trace a path of kisses down the curves of her hips.

Maura's body immediately reacted to the feather touch. Her breasts hardened and her breath became shorter. She closed her eyes in order to focus on her feelings. A bright smile lit up her traits. She felt at peace, and desired. There was no better feeling in the world.

Jane was a sweet lover. She always showed a lot of care even in the most intense moments, when the paroxysm of her orgasm took her to another dimension. She was very protective towards Maura and kept on covering her skin of endless kisses.

And gentle caresses.

She showed confidence as well. As a matter of fact, she showed a lot of confidence for a novice. It surprised Maura every single time because it had taken her a while to reach such degree of self-confidence herself. Maura was the one who had the most experience but Jane showed boldness.

"How did they touch you? How did the women touch you? The ones you met after Anita? You dated some, right? Of course, you did."

The question was anything but casual yet Jane had whispered it with a confusing nonchalance between two kisses, just as her left hand had started travelling up Maura's stomach. Jane was now sitting in Maura's back. She planted a kiss on top of Maura's shoulder and waited for an answer.

"What... What do you mean?"

Maura frowned. She looked down at the bed sheet on her left but avoided Jane's eyes. Her cheeks were burning. She was probably blushing.

Of course she knew what Jane meant. Her question was pointless. She was simply looking for an escape, for extra-seconds before giving Jane a proper answer.

"How did they make love to you? They probably had a lot more experience than I do... I mean... I can't compare it to anyone else... You can. What did they do to you? How?"

The shrug Maura gave Jane highlighted a deep uncertainty. Her shoulder rose like a wave before finding back its usual place in silence. She didn't know what to say. Nobody liked talking about exes, especially when said exes had remained hidden in the dark until now.

There was a reason why they were exes in the first place and that reason rarely was a glorious one. Maura didn't feel like alluding to the past, and to failed experiences.

"I don't know... It was different."

"Show me." The remark caused Maura to react. She turned around and looked at Jane. Jane didn't smile. She simply looked into Maura's hazel eyes with a rare intensity. "Show me what they did, and how."

Under other circumstances, Maura would have said that Jane was being bold but today wasn't like any other day. Just like Paris wasn't like any other city. And Jane's remark mostly sounded sweet. Adorable. Even amusing.

"No. I like it better now. I like it better the way you do, the way you touch me. The way you kiss me. It's better with you."

Jane slid her legs around Maura's waist. She sat closer to Maura with a quiet fluidity. Their respective bodies – intertwined – began to feed each other of their heat. Jane resumed her kissing. Her hands moved anew along Maura's skin. She wasn't good at talking, at expressing her desires and her feelings. Thus she preferred to concentrate on her gestures.

They spoke for her with a bright glory.

...

"You look tired. And pale. Are you okay, Janie? You're not sick, are you? Is Maura dragging you around every night? You're not twenty anymore. Slow down!"

Jane forced a smile. Of course she wasn't sick. She gave her mother a nod and tried to push away that uncomfortable feeling that had begun to stick to her chest the moment her mother had appeared on the screen of her iPad for their Skype call.

Guilt.

Jane felt guilty. Guitly for remaining silent, for hiding something important – if not just paramount – to her mother. Sometimes the words were there, just at the edge of her lips. She could almost feel them. But a desperate cowardice always pushed her to remain quiet in the end.

It wasn't easy, even less when she didn't know where all this would lead..

"I'm fine. We're fine... We've visited... Plenty of stuff. France's a great country. You'd love it here, you know."

Words. Random words that – once assembled together – made sentences that were just as random. Jane was filling empty spaces with little nothings when what she really wanted was to yell at her mother that she was finally happy. Happy with Maura, happy in her arms.

That she would have spent the rest of her life kissing Maura if she had been given the choice.

She wanted to say it but she didn't manage to say it. It was very frustrating, and painful.

"But you're coming back here, right? You're coming back here in..." Angela leaned over the table. She squinted her eyes at a sheet of paper that she was holding. "In ten days. You're not staying in Paris, are you?"

Jane laughed but her laugh fell flat. Her mother's question wasn't as innocent as it should have been. It was actually very meaningful for Jane. Too meaningful.

"Of course I'm coming back to Boston." The name of the destination hit the air a tad too harshly and it took Jane aback. She hadn't said 'home'. She had been a lot more neutral. Subconsciously. "We're coming back in ten days, that's right."

Ten days. The countdown had begun and Jane had the feeling that she and Maura had way too many things left to do and see before leaving Paris.

She liked France a lot but she couldn't imagine living in Europe nonetheless. Her family was in America and Jane wanted to be there. Yet the truth was that she didn't want to leave Paris either. She was stuck. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.

"Ten days and you still have to visit the Eiffel Tower."

"Oh god, ma'! Why are you so obsessed with it?!" Jane rolled her eyes. "We'll go there. It's fine. It's all fine."

"I'm not obsessed, Jane. I just find it strange that you haven't visited the most famous monument of the city while you've been there for two weeks already! And where's Maura?"

Jane swallowed hard. She cast a glance at the bed, in the distance. Maura was there, lying naked under the bed sheet. Her hair was a mess and her cheeks were pink. Her lips full because of all the kisses they had shared. Needless to say that she couldn't talk to Angela right now.

"She's working."

"Working?! I thought she was on vacation... Oh, Jane! Can't you just tell her to stop at least once in her life? The two of you are so alike... Workaholics. That's what you are: workaholics. What a waste of time! Why don't you try to have a life outside of your job instead? You should try it, you know. 'Cause it's worth it. It really is, Jane."

I know.

Jane opened her mouth but the words stayed trapped in her throat and frustration began to boil in her lower stomach. She couldn't agree more with her mother because the life her mother was talking about was exactly the one that she was having now with Maura.

"I gotta go, ma'..." Jane took a deep breath. Her heart was beating fast and it caused her voice to sound too shaky. "I'll make her slow down. I promise you I will."

"Alright. Take care. Oh, by the way... The name of the perfume that I want is... Do you have a paper to write it down?"

Jane nodded. She grabbed a note book that Maura had set down on the coffee table and wrote the name of the fragrance. But her mind was somewhere else. Her mind was stuck on these few words her mother had just said.

To slow down.

Jane looked up at Maura anew. They didn't need anything but this: to slow down. And to start living. Yes, it was time for a new beginning.