L. Marie Adeline- S.E.C.R.E.T

“It’s a gift from a friend,” I said. But before I could pull my wrist away, she had one of
my charms pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
“I’ve got to have one!” she screeched.
“You can’t buy it!” I said, easing my wrist out of her grasp. “You have to earn it.”
Will pried me away from her and led me past the clog of spectators still at the door.
Outside in the brisk winter’s night, he threw his coat around my bare shoulders, then
pressed my back against the window of Three Muses, unable to wait any longer to kiss
me. And kiss me he did. He kissed me deeply, wholeheartedly, stopping every once in a
while as if to see if it was actually me who stood in front of him shivering in his
embrace. I wasn’t cold. I was waking up, my body shuddering to life in his arms. It is
one thing to be gazed upon by a man you desire, quite another by one you love. But—I
had to ask, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“Will … about you and Tracina …?”
“It’s over. It’s been over for a while. It’s you and me, Cassie. It should always have
been you and me.”
We let some tourists pass while I took in this heart-stopping information. You and me.
We walked a few steps farther and Will stopped me again, this time pressing me up
against the redbrick wall of The Praline Connection, where a couple of the wait sta
inside raised their eyebrows. Will Foret and Cassie Robichaud? they must have been
thinking. Kissing? On Frenchmen?
Will’s hands, his smell, his mouth, the love I thought I saw in his eyes, all made such
sense. I wanted him, all of him. He was already in my head and heart and now my body
wanted him too. When he stopped me in the street again and held my head in his warm
hands, searching my eyes for an answer to his unspoken question, I knew he heard my
wordless yes. We practically sprinted the remaining half-block back to Café Rose, where
Will’s hands shook so much he couldn’t unlock the door without dropping the keys,
twice.
How was it possible he was more nervous than me? How come I wasn’t nervous at all?
The Steps.
They cascaded in my mind. I could surrender, nally, to this man I had resisted from
the beginning. I felt fearless, brave, generous and condent enough to accept him. I
trusted Will, which gave me courage to face whatever our future held. And I was so
wildly curious to nd out what this man was like in bed, what we would be like
together. A new feeling rose inside me, exuberance, the ultimate promise of Step Nine.
We were joy in action.
We stumbled into the restaurant, laughing and kissing, tripping over the shoes we
kicked o in our rush up the stairs, Will frantically untying the back of my bodice, me
helping him off with his T-shirt, in a room that would never feel lonely again.
He was far from the timid lover I had imagined him to be. He was ferocious and gentle
all at once, and I reached to match him. I pulled him, kissing him with full force, leaving
no mistake about my longing. This man was mine. Standing above me, shirtless, his
beautiful arms and chest on display, he whipped o his belt. Then he threw his jeans
and underwear across the room.