The French Kiss by Lauren Landish

Author:Lauren Landish [Landish, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-07T18:30:00+00:00

Wearing the dress I selected and a pair of heels, Autumn looks out the window at the lights glowing over the city as we drive through the night. She looks contemplative, thinking about us or what Jacqueline, said I’m not sure. But she’s with me. That has to count for something.

I make a turn, and suddenly, her face lights up. “That’s the Moulin Rouge!”

“The very same,” I reply, smiling. “Let me guess . . . you know the movie?”

“For a long time, the only French I knew was voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir,” Autumn admits, laughing. “Then I found out what it means. I can’t believe I was going around singing that when I was just a kid.”

I laugh, even as my body thrills at the words coming from her mouth. “Welcome to Paris’s Red Light District. War couldn’t stop it, religious revivals couldn’t stop it, pandemics couldn’t stop it.”

“It’s like Vegas meets Soho,” Autumn notes, looking around. “The glitz and glam have that edge to it, but there’s way too many innocent looking tourists to really make this place dangerous and lewd.”

I pull around to the back of a nondescript building and find a parking space in the private lot. Shutting off the car, I turn to Autumn. “Are you ready for a Paris adventure?”

She points at the building in front of us, which is bland by any standard but particularly in Paris, considering there is no architecture beyond bricks and a door. The windows are frosted over, not allowing anyone to peek inside. “That’s an adventure?”

I pin her gaze with my own, wanting to see every nuance of her reaction to my next words. “It’s an adult playground.”

My tone is clear, and I watch closely as several expressions cross her face. Shock, concern, and surprise all vie for dominance before something else breaks through . . . excitement.

“Yes,” she says. No questions about whether she can trust me, no questions about what this adult playground might be. Just a simple . . . yes.

Inside, I feel something important grow.

Together, we approach the door. It’s unremarkable, black steel that looks like a service entrance, if anything. The only sign that this could be anything else is the small symbol carved on the bricks above the doorway and the buzzer beside it.

I buzz, and a moment later the door unlocks. The security system is so good that I don’t know quite where the cameras are.

Inside is a single word, embossed on a golden plaque. Dungeon.

The inner door opens, and a guard in all black gives us a look. “Card.”

I reach into my wallet and withdraw the plain black card, handing it over to the guard who scans it before handing it back. Autumn gives me a look. “You’ve been here before?” she asks. “With other girls?”

She doesn’t sound insecure. No, she sounds jealous, and part of me likes that. She doesn’t want me with anyone else because she wants me for herself. But we both have pasts we cannot change.

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