Free Good As Dead (Dying To Meet You Book 1) by C.P. Mandara Page B

you?” she whispered, although she was almost afraid of his answer. The older a vampire was, the more powerful he was purported to be.
    “Old enough.”
    The hard look in his eye told her she would get no further through that line of questioning so she transferred her attention to the road. The traffic was even worse than before but he was right, the Arc de Triomphe was beautiful. A massive stone arch standing around fifty metres tall and rising majestically into the soft dawn skyline. It was housed on a giant roundabout and spinning her head around, she saw roads leading off in all directions. She gasped. It must have been one of the biggest road junctions in the world.
    “The foundations took two years to lay and France went through four architects in the course of its construction. Twelve avenues lead off from the triumphal arch, and the thing is so large someone managed to fly a biplane through it.”
    When she looked at him in disbelief, he smiled. “It’s true. They captured it on a newsreel.”
    She had no time to ponder on that crazy thought because their driver had turned off onto one of the lovely tree-lined little avenues that surrounded it, and she could do little but marvel at the cinemas, designer shops, and cafés that decorated the length and breadth of it.
    “It’s supposedly one of the most beautiful avenues in the world and translated, the name is Elysian Fields . It’s two kilometres long so if you’re a girl who likes shopping, I guess it is a bit like heaven.”
    Lainey could well believe it. The glittering lights of Christmas could be seen everywhere, strung from the trees and the beautiful regal buildings. The architecture was breathtakingly exquisite. Stone balustrades and arches decorated the long street with beautiful glass-fronted stores and old-fashioned lampposts dotted along at regular intervals. Even in the heart of winter, Paris had a charm that could not be supressed.
    “Am I going to be doing any shopping whilst I’m here?” she enquired, with an almost imperceptible dose of sarcasm.
    “You know exactly what we’re going to be doing, darling, until I have my answers but the good news is you’ll probably enjoy it.”
    When Mercer’s gaze captured hers, her cheeks fired up with heat so she swung her head towards the window hoping he wouldn’t notice. His soft laughter confirmed otherwise.
    “Tell me what I want to know, Lainey, and I’ll leave you alone.”
    Believe me, it’s not something you’ll want to know . Of course, she wisely kept her thoughts to herself.
    His fingers reached out to stroke her cheek and though she wanted to recoil from his touch, she held her ground. It was no use trying to disguise how affected she was by his presence, he already knew. Those sensitive ears of his could already hear her heart thundering in her chest, and he wouldn’t miss the little gasps of breath that she couldn’t contain at his touch. She could only be thankful that he couldn’t read her mind. That would be a disaster of the grandest order. There was only one thought uppermost in her mind right now—escape. How hard could it be?
    He didn’t speak again until another large landmark loomed into view. “Ah, la Tour Eiffel! One of the grandest manmade structures in the world…fancy a climb? I hear there are over six hundred steps to the second tier, but the view over Paris is apparently well worth the effort.”
    Lainey almost missed his words for as she stared out of the window she couldn’t help but be fascinated by the sheer magnitude of the iron lattice tower. Covered from top to toe in bronze paint against the backdrop of an early dawn, it shone with incandescent light. Even now at this early hour of the morning, several people were milling around to admire its beauty.
    “It’s the tallest structure in Paris and weighs around ten-thousand tonnes. It took three years to build, but the engineers did the job properly. It’s still here.”
    Lainey snorted. “It would