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“Celebrities,” Remy said and rolled his eyes dramatically. Vivi scowled and smacked him on the arm then leaned toward him, like she wanted to kiss him, before remembering the driver might see. Instead, they watched each other for a moment, eyes wide and happy and wanting. Remy felt his stomach twist in a terribly pleasant way and took a deep breath.
“Here we are, Miss Swan,” the driver said in a thick French accent. He got out of the car without ever looking in the rearview mirror—come to think of it, Remy had never seen any of her drivers’ eyes flick toward him. He suspected this was contractual. Vivi gathered her purse and waited for him to open the door. Remy, for the first time, waited for the driver to round the car and open the door for him too. It made him feel simultaneously like an asshole and like royalty.
One of Vivi’s security guys approached her, and they spoke quickly, their eyes always darting along the horizon, waiting for a telltale camera flash or the oddly still, catlike freeze of someone steadying their cell phone camera hand. They saw neither, and within a few moments, Remy and Vivi were standing at the base of the Eiffel Tower, at a cherry-red elevator. An older-looking French woman with an Eiffel Tower–embroidered shirt waved them on then climbed on behind them, holding down a series of buttons with a bored expression on her face. They arrived at the tower’s first landing, disembarked, and all three of them moved to another elevator—this one bright yellow.
This was repeated once more—disembarking, walking to another elevator, the woman climbing on behind them and pressing a series of buttons. If the woman knew who Vivi was, she didn’t show it—in fact, she barely looked at them. They couldn’t see the city from here, despite the fact they were going ever higher; the iron structure’s many bars and landings and supports meant it felt more like they were being lifted inside an enormous robot than a national landmark.
“Excuse me,” Vivi said politely, as they reached what Remy knew was the final elevator—both because of a sign reading SOMMET/TOP and because unlike the others, this one went straight up, rather than at an incline. The woman didn’t turn; Vivi repeated herself.
“Oui?” the woman said, smiling politely but with a fair degree of disinterest. Remy decided she clearly didn’t know who Vivi was—which, he suspected, was why someone had elected her to be their guide to the Eiffel Tower after dark.
“Could we take the last one alone?” Vivi asked, flashing a bright smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry,mais no,” the woman said. “I am not allowed.”
“Are you sure? We wouldn’t tell, obviously. We can be back down in a few minutes.”
“I will be removed from my job,” the woman said, shaking her head.
Vivi nodded, still smiling. “I understand. Are you sure, though? I’m happy to pay you for the trouble.” Before the woman could react, Vivi was swimming through her purse. She emerged with a purple bill she barely looked at. The older woman was still protesting but nonetheless took the bill from Vivi’s fingers. Remy didn’t know his euros from one another, but as the woman folded it into her shirt pocket, he saw500in big indigo letters.
“Celebrities,” he muttered playfully in Vivi’s ear, and her eyes sparkled. The woman reached onto the elevator and provided quick operating instructions that were essentially identical to those of any elevator anywhere.
“Twenty minutes,” she said. “No longer.”
“Of course. Thank you again,” Vivi said sincerely and stepped onto the elevator. Remy followed, and they stood a foot or so from each other after Vivi hit the Up button, as if they wanted to prove to the woman that their request for privacy had no illicit undertones. She smiled at them politely as the doors rumbled shut.
Vivi was in his arms immediately.
Not just in his arms—in his skin, in his lungs, in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he’d reached for her or she’d reached for him, but suddenly they were pressed together as the elevator took them into the sky, mouths together, tongues flickering across lips. They’d kissed so many times before, but this kiss had a current of hunger rather than experimentation. Vivi’s hands ran up Remy’s back then looped around his shoulders. She pulled herself higher against him, and the shift in her weight caused him to stumble backward till his back hit the elevator wall. She laughed, a single sound, before she kissed him again and then pulled herself farther up—
Remy had fought the urge the first time, but with the wall supporting his weight, he couldn’t fight it now—he wrapped his hands under her legs and lifted her against him. Her legs clasped around his waist, locking her there, and he could feel her hip bones pressed to his.
The elevator slowed then rolled to a stop. Vivi pulled away from his face, and they smiled at each other, neither moving to set Vivi’s feet back on the ground. When the doors opened, they relented; Vivi released her legs and slid away from him then turned to face the city.
“Wow,” Vivi said. Despite the elevator’s glass walls, they’d been too preoccupied to watch the city growing small beneath them as they ascended. Now, it splayed out, and the nicknameCity of Lightsfelt particularly apt. Paris looked like it’d been coated in glitter, or stars, or fairy dust. So far from everyone else, the world was silent, save for the chilly fall wind whipping around them, whirling Vivi’s hair into a cyclone around her head. She brushed it away and stepped up to the rail, resting her hands through the large diamond shapes made by the wire that kept anyone from leaping into the sparkles below.
“It’s so much prettier up here,” Vivi said in a near whisper. “This is amazing.”
“Why didn’t you come before now?” Remy asked, stepping up behind her. He ran his hands down her arms then rested his chin on the top of her head as they both studied the world below.
Vivi shrugged, her shoulder blades carving up and down Remy’s chest as she did so. “I didn’t have anybody to come with.”
“You could’ve brought a friend,” Remy suggested.
Vivi made a breathy, laughing sound. “This isn’t the sort of thing I want to see with a friend.” She paused for a long time then said, quietly, almost like she was worried hewouldhear, “I think I was waiting to see this with you.”
Remy closed his eyes, because the smell of her hair was more magnificent than anything he was seeing just then. He cleared his throat, because if Vivi was brave enough to say that aloud, then he was brave enough to say his immediate response aloud. “I think I was just waiting on you.”
Maybe it’s me.
Yes, it’s me. It’s you. It’s us.
Vivi turned away from the city and stood on her toes to kiss him; he put a hand to the back of her head, raking his nails gently through her hair.
“I think…” Vivi began huskily, keeping her lips so near his that they brushed against each other as she spoke. “I think we need to go back to the hotel after this. Or maybe right now.”
Remy nodded, his stomach and lungs and heart and ribs crumbling in his chest. He felt alive and electric and animal, and his toes kept curling and uncurling in his shoes. He spoke gruffly into her ear. “Let’s go now.”
