"No, absolutely not. I don't do one-offs, at least not intentionally. But…"
"But what?" Guy wanted to know. "I thought we had something special."
"We do. It's just…" Trish felt flustered and unsure, like she was taking advantage. "It's really kind of you, but I'd feel like I was imposing-especially on such short acquaintance. We only met a few hours ago."
Guy reached over and took Trish's hand in his. "You would not be imposing. I swear. We just thought you might prefer to stay here with us rather than in your friend's apartment where you'd be all alone."
"Other than for sleeping and a place to leave my stuff, I won't be there very much. Most of my time will be spent seeing the sights and maybe doing a little shopping. I think I mentioned there are a couple of day trips I want to take to Chartres and Versailles. If I can, I'd also like to do an over-nighter to see the chateaux of the Loire."
"You can do all that just as easily from here," Carlos put in. "And if you ask Guy nicely, he might even loan you his car."
A look of pain crossed Guy's face, and Trish laughed. "I don't know Paris or the surrounding area, so I think I'll play it safe and leave the driving to someone else."
"What about the evenings?" Carlos wanted to know. "You can eat at many of the restaurants by yourself, but you can't go alone to any of the famous ones or to a club. I wouldn't recommend the cinema either-at night, those places are full of perverts looking for lonely women. And sitting alone at a café can also result in unwelcome attention."
"Really?" Convinced Carlos was being over-protective and doing a little chest beating as well, Trish raised her eyebrows and faked a wide-eyed, innocent look. "You mean someone might actually try to pick me up?"
"A beautiful woman like you, I guarantee it," Carlos affirmed, his expression almost a scowl. "I've watched how some of those vermin operate. Especially with pretty tourists. They lead you on, grab your tourist dollars and, they hope, your passport, which they can sell, and then vanish into the night."
"Are you trying to scare me?" Trish asked. She knew the first rule for a woman alone in a foreign city was to do nothing she wouldn't do in her own hometown and while she'd gotten carried away with Guy and Carlos' charms, from here on she intended to follow that rule. Of course, she'd imagined herself wandering around the streets in the evenings to see the lights and the nightlife. Now a tiny surge of apprehension invaded her thoughts, and she realized she was every bit as naïve as her last boyfriend had claimed. Paris might be the city of love and a romantic's dream come true in many respects. In reality, Paris was also just another big city with all the same inherent problems and dangers lying in wait for the unwary.
"Is it working?" Guy asked.
Trish grimaced. "I guess. A little bit anyway. I'm a big girl. I don't take candy from strange men, or get into their cars, or-"
"You got into mine," Guy reminded her.
"That was different," Trish defended herself. "We'd just deplaned from an overnight flight, and you were met by a chauffeur-driven limo. If you'd pulled any funny stuff, I could have tracked you down through the airline. What I meant was, if, for example, I was walking along a lonely street at night, and a car stopped and the driver offered me a lift."
Carlos refilled his coffee cup from the cafétière. "What would you do if that happened?"
"There are so many variables, I try to make sure it doesn't. Either I drive myself, or I call for a taxi. I don't take stupid chances." She paused. "But to be honest, I hadn't thought about the perils of Paris by night. I guess my head was so filled with all the glamour and the romance, I forgot it's just another big city, so it didn't even occur to me to bring a couple of books for something to do in the evenings."
"All the more reason why you should come stay here with us," Guy said, smiling. "We will do our best to make Paris everything you dreamed of and more. We both work all week so you'll have to amuse yourself in the daytime, but there will be no boring evenings or weekends, I promise. What do you say?"
Three weeks spent making love with two handsome, charming, and sexy men like Guy and Carlos sounded to Trish like her idea of pure heaven. It would be Christmas, her birthday, and having all her dreams come true at the same time. "You're making me an offer that's very hard to resist, you know that, huh?"
"Then don't resist. Just say yes."
"You're quite sure about this?"
Guy slipped an arm around Trish's waist and pulled her in close. "Never more sure about anything. The only problem is our company owns a chain of boutique hotels and vacation rental properties, and this being the start of tourist season, it's also our busiest time of the year."
"Meaning you can't take a few days off to play tourist guide?"
"We can try, but it might be difficult."
"How do you feel about me staying here, Carlos?" Trish wanted to know.
"No arguments from me." Carlos chuckled. "I'd love for you to stay here with us. As far as I'm concerned, you can stay however long you want. Provided, of course, you continue to make the salads. Guy always complains I use too much oil."
For the next three weeks, Trish's life became a whirl of sightseeing, shopping, eating, and making love. The better she got to know Guy and Carlos, the more she liked them, and she knew, despite the constant reminders to herself this was only a vacation and to keep things light, she was rapidly falling in love with them both. By the end of the third week, falling had become fallen hard, and she knew leaving Paris and returning home would be beyond difficult. She even considered avoiding what she knew would be a heartbreaking and emotional goodbye by leaving the day before while they were still at work and spending the last night alone at the airport.
Except she knew it was just as hard for Guy and Carlos, and they would both be terribly hurt if she pulled a stunt like that. They'd treated her like a princess and catered to her every whim, and already it was hard to imagine life without them.
Since it was Trish's last night, they'd planned to go out somewhere grand for dinner, but none of them had much of an appetite. Instead, Carlos made a simple pasta dish and Trish her usual salad, while Guy sat on one of the kitchen stools and watched.
Trish noticed both men were unusually quiet. There was none of the usual banter that always flowed so naturally among the three of them while they prepared dinner-no laughter, no jokes, and no discussion of the day's events.
Finally, Guy stood up and came over to where Trish was busy assembling the salad. After removing the knife from her fingers, he took both her hands in his. Bringing them to his mouth, Guy kissed each finger in turn. "The first time I saw you…when I sat down next to you on the plane, I said something to you. I don't remember now what it was and the words aren't important, but it was enough. We exchanged glances, and right away I knew."
"You knew what?"
"That something had clicked between us, and my life would never be the same again. I think you felt it, too. Am I right?"