Page 94 of Never Stop

Over eight hours later, our Uber driver pulled in front of our hotel. It was a challenge telling him where to go. He didn’t speak English, and we didn’t speak French. Finally, I pulled the hotel confirmation out and pointed to the name of the hotel. It worked.

Brooke took in the scenery as we drove and I admired her. She was glowing. Even though she’d mentioned going on another cruise or going to Hawaii, I knew I’d made the right decision. Paris was possibly a once in a lifetime trip.

Cheyenne had left a voicemail message that she made it to Long Beach, and flying alone was awesome. I relaxed knowing she was safe, but I didn’t like the tone in her voice that came across as though she couldn’t wait to fly alone all the time. My baby girl was growing up, and there was nothing I could do about it.

“I can’t believe the Eiffel Tower is right there.” Brooke pointed at the large wrought iron lattice tower.

“I chose this hotel for that reason.” We started to walk to the entrance of the hotel, Brooke glancing at the Eiffel Tower as we did. Itotallymade the right decision.

The automated doors of the hotel opened, and we stepped up to the front desk. “Bonjour monsieur,” the brunette said.

Being in France might be more difficult than I’d anticipated.“Ahh, do you speak English?” I rubbed the back of my neck as I spoke.

The girl smiled. “I do.”

My body instantly relaxed. “We’re checking in.” After we had our room keys, Brooke and I wheeled our luggage to the elevator. “Last time we were going up in an elevator, I pictured stripping you of your white dress.”

Brooke grinned, hooked her arm in mine and leaned her head on my shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for getting you naked?” I laughed.

“No. Thank you for making me your wife and all this.” She waved her hand around the tight space. “I’m not sure how we can afford it, but thank you.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. I hesitated as we walked toward the number for our room. “The night of our bachelor and bachelorette parties, Avery, Gary and I entered a billiards tournament.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Well, it was more like a scam, but I ended up winning.”

She stopped walking. “You did what?”

My eyes widened as I realized she thought I put on the scam. “No, Brooke, these people were trying to scamus,” I corrected.

I watched her body relax. “Seriously?”

I smiled. “Yeah, but I totally kicked ass.”

We started walking again. “Didn’t know you knew how to play pool,” she said.

I shrugged. “Used to be how I made beer money.”

We stopped in front of our door, and I slid the key card from the packet and into the slot of the electronic opener.

“Maybe you can teach me sometime?”

I smiled, thinking about bending her over the table and fucking her.

We walked into the room, barely getting two feet before I realized it was tiny. So small, I wasn’t sure where we were going to put our two suitcases. “We’re paying a shitload a night for this?” I looked around, seeing the tiny seventeen or so inch TV on the wall, a queen-sized bed that looked like a Murphy bed, no end tables, and a loveseat that only half my body would fit laying down.

“I heard all European hotels are like this.”

“What?” My eyebrows furrowed.

“Usually they have two twin beds instead of a queen.”

I shook my head and chuckled. “We should have gotten two twins. It would have reminded me of the cruise.”

“Want to change rooms?” Brooke smirked.