by Meg Cabot
Which is when I forget that my heart is in my throat at the prospect of talking to him after all the nasty things I accused him of last night, and hurry forward.
“Let me see,” I say when I reach his side.
He jumps.
“Jesus,” he says, looking down at me in surprise. “Sneak up on a guy, why don’t you?”
I pull his hand from the stream of water gurgling out of the old-fashioned faucet. His knuckle, I see, is red and swollen. But the skin’s not broken.
“You’re lucky,” I say, looking down at his hand. “He says his teeth are loose. You could have cut yourself on them.”
“I know,” Luke says, reaching out with his left hand to turn off the water. “I should have known better than to aim for the mouth. I should have gone for his nose.”
“You shouldn’t have ‘gone for’ anything,” I say. I let go of his hand. “I had the situation totally under control, you know.”
Luke doesn’t even try to argue. He dries his hand on a nearby dish towel.
“I know,” he says sheepishly. “I don’t know what came over me. I just couldn’t believe he’d have the nerve to show up here. Unless…”
I stare at him. I can’t help noticing how thick and dark his hair looks in the bright shafts of sunlight coming down from the windows so close to the ceiling.
“Unless what?”
“Unless you asked him to come here,” Luke says, not meeting my gaze.
“What?” I have to start laughing at that one. “Are you serious? Do you honestly think-”
“Well,” Luke says. He lays the dish towel aside. “I didn’t know.”
“I thought I made myself pretty clear on the train,” I say. “Andy and I broke up. He only came after me because he thought I could bail him out of a financial situation he got himself into.”
“And…did you?” Luke asks. His dark-eyed gaze is steady on my face.
“No,” I say. “Although Chaz seems to be working on it.”
“That sounds like Chaz,” Luke says with a grin.
I have to look away, flustered by how handsome the grin makes him.
Then I remember that there’s something I’m supposed to be saying to him, so, feeling incredibly shy, I say it, fast. To my French pedicure.
“Luke. I’m sorry about what I said last night. I should have known you didn’t tell her,” I say. “Shari, I mean. About my thesis. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Luke doesn’t say anything. I look up, just once, to see if he’s heard me.
He is looking down at me with the most inscrutable expression I have ever seen-halfway between a smile and a frown. Does he hate me? Or can he possibly, in spite of my big, fat, stupid mouth-in spite of everything-like me?
With my heart hammering so hard I’m sure he must be able to see it through the silk of my dress, I look down again and say, keeping my gaze on his feet now, instead of my own-then regretting it when I notice the wingtips again-WINGTIPS! So hot! “And the thing with telling your mom about you getting into NYU. And about Dominique’s plans for the chateau. I mean, I was really only trying to suggest alternatives to turning this place into a spa. Like maybe renting it out to wealthy families who just want a nice chateau to vacation in for a month, or maybe for a reunion, or whatever. Honestly, I was only trying to help-”
“Well, actually, I’ve managed to get along without your help pretty well for the past twenty-five years,” Luke says.
Ouch!
Stung, I can’t help looking up and saying, “And that’s why you’re so happy with your career and your life and your girlfriend? And why Vicky looked so great in her dress and your parents seem to be getting back together and everyone out there is having…such a…fun time…”
My voice trails off as I realize he’s smiling down at me.
“Joke,” he says. “That was a joke. I told you I’m no good at them.”
That’s when he reaches out, pulls me toward him, and starts kissing me.
I’m in complete and utter shock. I can’t understand what’s happening. I mean, I can…but it makes no sense. Luke de Villiers is kissing me. Luke de Villiers’s arms are going around me, holding me so tightly to him I can feel his heart slamming as hard against his ribs as mine is slamming against mine. Luke de Villiers’s lips are raining thousands of tiny featherlight kisses on my lips.
And now my lips are falling open, surrendering to the onslaught of his. And he’s kissing me hard and long and sweet, and I’m clinging to him because my knees have given out entirely and his arms are the only thing holding me up. And his tongue is in my mouth, like he can’t taste me enough, and I can feel something hard pressing against me through the fabric of his trousers. And his hand, the hand he hit Andy with, is cupping my breast through the silk of my mandarin dress, and I want him to cup more of me, and I make a sound…
“Christ, Lizzie,” he says in a voice that doesn’t sound anything like the way it usually does.
And the next thing I know, he’s lifting me up and putting me down again on top of the closest wine cask, and somehow my legs have fallen open and he’s standing between them. The front of my dress is open, too. I don’t even know how he did that because those snaps are supposed to be hidden. And I can feel his fingers-and the hot sunlight streaming in through the high windows-on my bare breasts.
And I can’t stop kissing him, or running my fingers through his thick dark hair when his mouth starts traveling down my throat, then dips below to scorch the skin on my breasts. All the places where the sun is touching me, his lips are touching me, too.
Until suddenly he mutters, “Christ, Lizzie, you haven’t got on any underwear,” and I say, “I know, I didn’t want visible panty lines,” and he puts his lips there, too.
And on top of the cask I feel as if the sunlight is piercing me all over-but piercing me in a good way-and I look down through half-lidded eyes and think how bizarre it is that Luke de Villiers’s dark head is between my legs-but bizarre in a very good way-and then I don’t think about anything at all for a while except the sun, which seems to have turned into a supernova, right there inside Monsieur de Villiers’s cask room.
And then Luke straightens and wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close against him and my legs wrap around him and I feel his naked chest beneath my fingers and wonder how. And then he’s inside me, thick and hard, and it feels even better than when his mouth was there, and we’re moving against each other in just the right rhythm, with him burying himself more and more deeply in me, and me trying to get closer and closer to him, and he’s kissing my neck and shoulders where the sun is hitting me, and suddenly there’s sun all over me, like I’m being showered in golden sun drops, and I cry out at how good it feels, and Luke does, too.
And then as he stands there, holding me slickly to him and panting in my hair, I realize that we just had sex on a wine cask.
And that it was fantastic. I didn’t even have to worry about taking care of my own good time! Luke totally made sure I had one. Or two, actually.
“Have I mentioned,” Luke wants to know when he’s caught his breath, “that I think I’m in love with you?”
I laugh. I can’t help it.
“Have I mentioned,” I ask, “that the feeling is mutual?”
“Well,” he says, “that’s a relief.” He doesn’t move, and neither do I. It feels good to stand like that. Or, in my case, sit.
“I should also probably tell you,” Luke says, “that I decided to go ahead and enter that program I got into at NYU.”
I wonder if he can see my heart leap inside my chest. Although I try to sound casual.
“Really?” I say. “That’s funny. I’m moving to New York, too.”
“Well,” Luke says, leaning his forehead against mine and smiling, “isn’t that a coincidence.”
“Isn’t it, though?” I say, smiling back.
A little while later, we slip hand in hand from the cask room just in time to see the bride and groom cuttin
g the multitiered cake. Agnes, spotting us first, rushes over with a tray of champagne glasses, and we each take one and stand, side by side, as Vicky and Craig feed each other the first piece.
“I hope they don’t cram it into each other’s faces,” I say. “I hate when they do that.”
“Plus,” Luke says, “then you’ll have chocolate stains to get out.”
“Don’t even say that,” I say, shuddering, and hug his arm.
“Why, hello,” Shari says, appearing, with Chaz in tow, a minute later. “Where did you two disappear to?”
“Nowhere,” I say quickly, blushing to my hairline.
“Oh, right,” Shari says with a knowing smile. “I’ve been there.”
“What are you talking about?” Chaz, clueless, wants to know. “You’ve been here the whole time. I’m the one who had to take that freak to the train station. I’ve decided that from now on, Lizzie, I’ll be screening all your boyfriends. You can’t be trusted to choose your own.”
“Is that so?” I say, exchanging an amused glance with Luke, who puts his arm around me.
“I’ll give you a hand with that, Chaz,” Luke volunteers. “I think Lizzie is more than you can handle on your own.”
Chaz, spying Luke’s arm around my shoulders, narrows his eyes at us.
“Hey,” he says, “what’s going on?”
“I’ll explain it to you someday, baby,” Shari says, patting him on the arm.
“Nobody ever tells me anything.” Chaz pouts.
“That’s because you’ve got to go straight to the source,” Shari says.
“Which is?”
“The LBS. Who else?” Shari says, tipping her head in my direction.
Which is right when an extremely tipsy Ginny Thibodaux spies me and hurries over to plant a kiss on my cheek.
“Lizzie!” she exclaims. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I wanted to thank you for what you did for my Vicky. That dress-it’s beautiful! You know you’re a lifesaver, don’t you? I’ve never seen anything like it. Why, you ought to open your own business!”
“Maybe,” I say with a smile, “I will.”
In conclusion, we have seen the important role fashion has played in the development of world culture and history. Starting from strips of fur worn for warmth and protection by cavemen gathered round a fire, to Prada shoes worn for their beauty and cachet by the modern working woman at a cocktail party, fashion has, over the centuries, come to be one of man’s-and woman’s-greatest and most interesting accomplishments.
This author in particular looks forward to seeing what surprises and innovations await her in the world of fashion-and beyond-in the coming years.
History of Fashion
SENIOR THESIS BY ELIZABETH NICHOLS
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