Sienna was scandalized. “Are you crazy? Do I look like I want to spend the night in a French jail?”
“It’s fine. I know the owner.”
“Okayyy. But, be that as it may,” she pointed down to her body, “do I look like the kind of woman who can scurry over fences?”
A small side gate swung open easily. “No, you look like the kind of woman who walks through gates, like a lady.”
“You opened it from the inside? Do you want to get into more trouble?”
“Better to be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb,” he philosophized.
“I’d rather not be hanged at all,” she grumbled, but followed him in anyway.
He walked to a large control panel against a wall, popped open the cover, and examined it closely.
“What,” she griped, “apart from bartending, you’re also a carnie?”
He smiled smugly at her. “Years ago, I once put in a few months on a low-level, hands-on job here. Learned the ropes from the bottom up.” With the flick of a finger, the lights on one quadrant of the park lit up. “Great. We have power.” Another quadrant lit up, and then another. There was a dullboomas each large bank of lights fired up.
Sienna recognized that she had two choices: she could either continue bitching and whining about the admittedly odd situation, or she could give in to the allure of watching lights go up all over a completely empty park that was now open for the amusement of two people.
She scurried behind him, reaching out to take his hand.
“Favorite ride?” he demanded.
She pointed. “Ferris Wheel.”
They walked towards it, as eager as two kids. “You aren’t going to scream, cry, or throw up, are you?” he asked warily.
She answered scornfully, “In your dreams.”
He paused at the control desk, and then announced that the wheel was going to start up in one minute. “Hurry!”
They leaped in and buckled up, just in time to hear the great monstrosity groan, creak, and begin to move. She felt her excitement rise again. Reaching out, she grasped the safety bars in front with both hands, but Max was faster. He trapped her hand in his, bringing it to his lips. It was an incredibly erotic experience.
As they rose, the view opened before them, lights twinkling as the city darkened.
“Beautiful,” she breathed.
His eyes were on her face. “Yes.”
Again, she sought refuge in deflection, calling herself a coward even as she did so. “What if it stops, and we get stuck up here?”
“It’s programmed. We won’t.”
“But what if we do?”
He was still kissing her fingers. “Then the last thing we see before we die will be the most magnificent view in all of Aix—”
“Max!”
He laughed. “Then,mon minou, I would clamber down the metal frame like Spiderman, and ensure that you are rescued.”
“You’d better.” Reassured, she leaned towards him and kissed him, surprised that the nippy air around them had cooled his lips and cheeks. He kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her, and they held onto each other as the gondola swayed.
“That’s one off my bucket list,” she murmured. “Kissing on a Ferris Wheel.”
He looked pleased. “Wow. First bike ride, first kiss all the way up on a groaning metallic wheel of disaster—”