Chapter 28 - chapter 28

*Louise's point of view*

Allowing Alex to gently guide me up the stairs to the restaurant, I fought internally with myself so as to try and suppress the tingling feeling ignited by his touch. We were not even touching skin to skin, yet, the contact still felt shamefully intimate.

I couldn't help but recall the moment we had earlier and had to concede that Alex was trying. We barely knew each other a week and I had already formed a sort of attachment. I could almost convince myself that we had become friends. Almost.

I knew that what we had was more than friendship and given the timeframe, it made me scared. Yet, every time I saw him shoot a glare aimed at davids head but refrain from verbally insulting him, I could not help the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. It was as if I had drank some hard beer, the warm feeling that descended upon me was, in a word, euphoric.

'Thank you,' I said smiling softly at him

'What for?' he asked as he wrapped his arm around me. It took great restraint for me not to burrow myself into his side. He smelt so good!

'I know how much you dislike David yet you compromised and allowed this outing to happen,' I said vaguely as I took his hand in mine. Comparing the size, I folded mine into his, giving it a soft squeeze. It was more than that.

Releasing his hand, I took the seat next to David. I had a thing about seating. I had to always face the door otherwise I got really bad anxiety. I was preparing myself for a lengthy argument from Alex but was pleasantly surprised when he simply pursed his lips and sat across from me.

I suppressed the urge to coo and pat his head, I had a feeling that it would not be appreciated.

'Is there anything you like sir?' A waiter asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I blushed slightly at the fact that I had spaced out before quickly grabbing the menu.

Almost instantly, I cringed at the amount of foreign words, I had almost forgotten that we were still in Paris, I couldn't want until we got to America, were I understood what I was ordering and eating. Looking at Alex discreetly through my lashes to, I found him with a scowl fixed on his face. I didn't understand why he was glaring so hard at the waiter, until I got the end of his sentence. Paling slightly, I sent a silent prayer up for the waiter before clearing my throat.

'I'll have your most Alcoholic white wine and the chiri- number 24,' I told the waiter, deciding to avoid myself the embarrassment and possible food mix up by the butchering of the pronunciation. 

I felt a small hand on my thigh and sharply glared at David who merely looked at me amused before discreetly pointed towards Alex.

Diverting my attention towards Alex, I was taken aback to find him glaring at me, anger shrouding his entire face. I almost flinched back in shock. Quickly running through the events of the day, I tried to figure out what I had done to possibly have put him into such a bad mood so quickly.

Lets just say, it didn't take a genius, nor a long period of time before I found the culprit. Sighing, I pushed back my chair before grabbing my hand bag and walking around the table until I was beside Alex, where I plopped myself down rather graciously. I could feel Alex's stare bore into the side of my face. I simply took his hand in mind.

'What?' He asked. He sounded like a little boy who had just lost his favourite toy down the pan. I absentmindedly played with his surprisingly calloused fingers as I tried to come up with some form of explanation for my actions.

'Compromise,' I simply stated. Before watching for the waiter that had my food, successfully ending the conversation before it got awkward.

I knew that Alex was somewhat possessive over me, I still didn't really understand why, but I was gonna assume some of it had something to do with his past, as our past always seems to affect our present and future.

But I wasn't stupid, I knew that the chemistry between us, was growing at an alarmingly fast pace, and while I may be doing everything  to try and combat it, the same could not be said for Alex. He had already made it abundantly clear that he wanted me, heck, he had already made it clear to practically every male in Paris that i belonged to him. Honestly, he was beginning to wear me down, either that or I was becoming lenient because it was beginning to seem like I craved his touch.

'Or maybe, Your just being honest with yourself and your feelings.'

I chose to ignore my conscious as I spotted our waiter come around the corner with our food and instantly, my stomach stood to attention, letting the world know that it disapproved the wait.

I felt more than heard Alex chuckled from beside, sending goosebumps through my entire being. I flushed in embarrassment before the drinks were served with the starter. I Hated drinking on an empty belly, it made the alcohol taste weird and affect me too much yet as my drink was placed in front of me; I could not help but take a big gulp to try and distract myself. That proved to be a fatal decision as I felt an extreme burning sensation go down my throat making my eyes water in the press. I looked around helplessly before David shoved his glass of wine in front of me, while Alex continued to laugh at my mishap.

Gulping the sweet red wine, it helped soothe the burn in my throat before passing it back David.

'Are you sure, maybe we should switch if you cant handle the alcohol,' David suggested.

I've never felt more insulted than then. I glared at David.

'Well excuse you! I am a full blooded Brit, drinking is in my blood!' I growled at him, ' I was just not expecting it to be THAT potent, otherwise I would not have downed half the damn thing so fast!'

'Calm down sweetheart,' Alex  said as he rubbed my shoulder gently.

'But he insulted my heritage!' I pouted, I didn't want to admit that while drinking was in my blood, I had never had anything as strong as that.

'Pumpkin, France has some of the most Alcoholic beverages in the world, and you just mixed some,' he said, slightly concerned for my well being, 'Are you sure, you'll be Okay?'

'Yes!' I grumbled annoyed at the both of them before taking a more tentative sip of my Alcohol.

'Dont say we didn't warn you,' David muttered under his breath but I chose to ignore him as I dug my fork into the brown thing on my plate.