I never heard the room door to my suite open, never questioned how he’d gotten the key. When strong arms wrapped around me and the scent of cloves from his soap and vanilla from my warped brain had washed over me, I knew who had intruded on my brooding.

“Is he back?” I inquired softly while staring straight ahead.

Houston’s tone was equally gentle and more patient than I’d been hours earlier when he answered, “No.”

I closed my eyes and squeezed them tight. “Please tell me where he is.”

“I don’t know, baby. I swear.”

“I’m not your baby,” I snapped.

As soon as I said the words, I burst out crying.

This wasn’t me. This was not me. What the hell had I allowed myself to turn into?

Houston turned me around in his arms and pulled my head back, using my hair as his handle. The wig I’d worn to meet Jericho this morning had been left discarded on my bed.

“Yes, you are.” Houston kissed my lips as if it would prove his claim. I shoved him away, and he yanked me back. When he pressed his mouth against mine again, I kissed him back, and we didn’t stop. “Have dinner with me,” he proposed after we ran out of air.

“I can’t.”

His brows dipped. “Why not?”

“I need to be here when Jericho comes back.”

“It’s being covered,” was all he said before forcing me back inside the bedroom whose balcony we’d stood on.

I pretended I didn’t, but I liked it very much when Houston didn’t take no for an answer. I also liked that he only softened for me. He was only warm and comforting for me.

Loren did whatever the hell he wanted and always encouraged me to do the same. That’s why he was my breath of fresh air, my ray of sunshine, my earthy spring breeze.

And Rich…oh, Rich. He was pure and sweet and good. Even when he was breaking my heart, he did it with the best of intentions.

Houston pulled me over the bed, and that’s when I noticed the red dress.

It was so fine that “gown” might have been a more appropriate term. It was short, silk, with a low-cut bodice and medium width straps. Next to it was a shoebox, and when I opened it, I found gold heels inside.

“You know my size?” I asked without looking at Houston.

Between Jericho ripping me in two and Houston attempting to piece me back together, I was afraid I’d just disintegrate altogether. I silently wondered what plans Loren had up his sleeve for me. Rich thought he’d failed to win me over, but he hadn’t.

I was the one who’d failed.

I should have told him the truth.

“I warned you before,” Houston said as he lifted my shirt over my head, “I never stop paying attention.”

Feeling my belly warm, I let him remove my jeans and stockings and then help me inside the fancy dress. He even pulled my hair into my usual messy top-knot, and I let him do that too. My ass hit the bed when he pushed me down, and then he removed the shoes from the box. I felt like a less innocent version of Cinderella when Houston slipped the first heel on my feet.

“Ready to go?” he asked when, at last, I was dressed for a romantic night with a man who was still my ex but held one-third of my heart in his palm.

I tried not to think about Jericho, who still possessed an equal share.

“Yes.”

I grabbed my jacket since fall had come to Paris. As I slipped it on, I noticed Houston’s apparel for the first time. His usual jeans, T-shirt, and double leather cords around his wrist were gone. The only familiar thing he wore was the pinky ring. Tonight, he wore dress pants and a white button-up with a gray knit sweater on top. He hadn’t gone all out as Loren had on our first date, but I knew he’d tried. For me. I also knew Loren must have helped him.

Security was waiting for us when we stepped from my suite and into the hall. I didn’t consider the implications of this date until Houston and I walked through the hotel’s front entrance, and the cameras began to flash.

It wouldn’t just be a rumor anymore.

With Houston’s hand holding mine, the world would know that I was fucking my bandmates. The names they called me and the assumptions they made—there would be no mercy.

And still, all I could think about was Jericho.

Where was he? What was he thinking? How could he just walk away?

Houston and I climbed inside the back of the black Suburban, and we were off with security trailing us in another vehicle behind. Neither of us spoke the five minutes it took to reach our destination.

I sucked in a breath at seeing the Eiffel Tower up close. It commanded your attention during the day, but it was even more breathtaking at night. With the golden lights, how could it not be?

I assumed we’d head straight for the top, but Houston had other plans. He took me to the second floor, where apparently, we had reservations. I didn’t have to be an expert to know that a place like this was usually booked weeks or months in advance.

Maybe he’d pulled some strings.

Or maybe he’d always known that he’d bring me here.

Had Houston been biding his time for our first date?

Ignoring the vanilla wafting in the air, I looked at him as he sat next to me in the white curved booth, pretending to peruse the menu. We both ignored the stares we’d drawn from the people who recognized us and even those who didn’t. With two guards hovering around, anyone would be curious.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“To eat.”

My chest tightened where a heart should no longer be. After all this time, after all I’d been through, I didn’t understand why I hadn’t just tossed the damn thing away.

“That’s it?”

He looked at me then, his somber gaze searching mine, and said, “No.”

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. Our waiter came, and we ordered drinks, our food, and then we ate in silence. Immediately after, we left the restaurant.

We were both too on edge to linger.

It was chaotic as hell, but eventually, we made it to the top of the tower. It was there the tension that had been brewing all through dinner exploded.

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me, and we didn’t stop even when we knew we were being photographed and recorded.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against my lips.

“No sweat,” I said as I swallowed the cherries. “I think the cat was kind of already out of the bag, you know?”

The look Houston gave me made it clear that I was provoking him. And then he sighed. “Fawn.”

“What are you sorry for?” I asked him with an evil smile. I already knew, but I needed to hear him say it.

“I’m sorry for not being a better man to you and a better friend to Rich. It wasn’t my place to tell you about Emily, but I should have fought harder to convince him.” Houston’s jaw tightened as he looked away, over the railing, and out to the city that promised romance beyond. “Even now, I’m conflicted. I chose him over you once, and I won’t do it again, but I ca—”

No longer indignant, I felt my legs tremble at the emotion in his voice and the words he couldn’t bring himself to say for fear of what they might cost us. Houston looked at me then, meeting my eyes, and I saw the decision not to lie to me again.

One by one, those shards pieced themselves back together.

The cracks were there, but I was no longer afraid of them. Instead, they served as a reminder that love wasn’t meant to be a pristine affair. It was meant to be messy and meant to hurt, but it would always mend if it’s true.

“I’m in love with you.”

It wasn’t what Houston had been trying to say.

But it was the truth his heart required.

Before allowing any others, he had to finally let that one free, and now my feet no longer felt like they were touching the ground.

“I need you to know that and for you to believe me. I need it because…I can’t pretend I’m not afraid of where he is and what he’s thinking. Jericho’s lived with this void, and once it has him, it…Loren’s looking for him right now, but…”

His fear mounted, making it harder for Houston to finish a thought, so why did I understand everything he was trying to tell me? Was it because I felt it too?

Did I really have to ask?

“Then let’s go,” I heard myself say to him. “Let’s go find Jericho.”

Houston’s surprise and his relief lasted for only a second before we were rushing hand in hand for the elevator to take us down. It seemed like an eternity passed before we reached the ground. Houston was on his phone checking for an update from Loren, and as we rushed outside and for the car, a new hour must have dawned.

Over my shoulder, I smiled up at the tower we had left behind as twenty thousand bulbs began to sparkle and wish us luck.

After reading the text that just came through, I quietly exhaled before pocketing my phone.

“So this is your plan then?” I questioned as I made my presence known. The hooded figure sat alone on the green bench, not caring who came along. “You’ll get arrested with your record, and she’ll take you back?” I snorted. “Think again.”