Irresistible

Chapter 3: Wine and Eclairs

3

“Hey! Wake up! We’re here!” Nikolas awoke to Adrian’s loud but excited voice. The two had taken a private jet to Lyon, the city closest to Yvoire that had an airport. From there, they would drive for about 2 hours to arrive in Yvoire.

“Mm, I’m up. How long has it been since we landed?” Nikolas asked, yawning. Adrian looked at his phone and hummed. 

“About 20 minutes. The crew were unloading our luggage so I let you sleep a bit more. You looked like you really needed it,”

Nikolas stood up, stretching before looking back at Adrian. The brown-haired male was propped up against the window comfortably, scrolling through his phone.

“Come on. They’ve probably finished unloading everything. I have to meet with the person who will be driving us to the location to see how far it is,” with that, Nikolas walked to the exit of the plane, getting off the large aircraft.

The platinum-haired male saw many people gathered around the airplane with security blocking the paparazzi from attacking Nikolas. He heard Adrian get off the plane behind him, laughing aloud at the flashes of the cameras.

“It’s still so early in the morning yet these press dogs are here. One day I’ll go blind and it’ll be because of the flash on those goddamn cameras,” Nikolas mumbled and Adrian laughed again. The blonde knew he was right though. 

It was only 7 A.M. but the paparazzi were already here.

“Be a little glad that you get so much attention. People are dying to be recognized by the press, you know?” Adrian hummed and Nikolas stayed silent knowing that he was right. 

The two men made their way inside the private wing of the airport that Nikolas had reserved specifically for them. There, he saw Gabriel chatting with two of the flight attendants, who looked downright bored.

“Gabriel, thank you for coming to get us. Lyon is quite big and I was afraid we might get lost,” Nikolas joked, getting the older man’s attention. Gabriel turned to look at the tall Russian.

“Ah, Nikolas. Welcome. It’s your first time in France, right?”

“Actually it is not. I’ve visited Paris before for another business meeting but it is my first time visiting Lyon and Y-Yvioire?” Nikolas mentally slapped himself for messing up such a simple pronunciation and Gabriel laughed wholeheartedly.

“Oh sorry. My bad. Don’t worry about pronunciation. Even I mess it up sometimes and it is my first language,” Gabriel told Nikolas as he led him (and Adrian, who was following behind quietly) outside where a limousine was waiting. 

“I have another movie production to supervise but I have booked you a hotel in Yvoire for a couple of weeks. Stay for as long as you need, my friend. Henry here will take you to your destination,” Gabriel patted the shoulder of a man, whom Nikolas assumed was Henry and nodded.

“Alright. Thank you for your generosity. I look forward to your experiencing the French culture,”

With that, Nikolas and Adrian got into the limo with Henry closing the door behind them. The interior of the vehicle was as Nikolas expected: exceedingly fancy with overpriced bottles of champagne and to his surprise, even a small TV.

“Wow! This is so cool! Niki why don’t you ever get a limousine? Do you know how much I’d ride the hell out of it?” Adrian gushed, bouncing from seat to seat as he marvelled over the beauty of the car.

“I have no need for it. I can drive myself places because unlike you, I actually have my license. Besides, cars aren’t the only thing you’d ride the hell out of,” Nikolas smirked at his s****l innuendo and the brunette glared at him, the tips of his ears turning a bright red in colour. 

“Shut the hell up. Just because I’m an Omega doesn’t mean I’m a w***e,”

“I never implied that. What I implied was that you could ride a motorcycle or another fancy car,” Nikolas snickered when Adrian’s face turned red.

“S-Shut up! You know you meant it in a s****l way, you b***h,” the younger male mumbled, finally sitting down two seats away from Nikolas. Sometimes he wondered why he was even friends with the Alpha.

“Think whatever you want, Drivya. Apparently, this is going to be a 2-hour drive so you may want to get comfortable,” Nikolas said as he took off his blazer. He had tried to get Adrian to wear a suit as well, but the Omega had not listened to him at all. Instead, he had dressed sweatpants and a crewneck sweater.

“It’s comfy,” he had protested and Nikolas had only sighed, shaking his head but agreeing. 

“Mm alright. I’m going to take a nap since my airsickness kept me awake on the plane,” Adrian said, shuffling around before finding a small blanket under the seat. He smiled victoriously and wrapped himself up in it before immediately getting knocked out.

Nikolas smiled at his best friend’s antics. He knew that Adrian got really bad airsickness but despite this flaw, the Omega had wanted to accompany Nikolas on the trip claiming that ‘if I don’t go, you’re going to kill yourself. By accident.’ and the Alpha hadn’t argued because he knew that it was true.

The blond man leaned back into his seat, staring at the scenery pass by before slowly drifting off to sleep despite the fact that he had just woken up.

- - -

“Sir, we are here,” Nikolas was once again woken up, but this time it was not Adrian who woke him up. Instead, it was Henry.

The Alpha sat up, blinking his eyes as he took in his surroundings. It was bright outside and the sun was high in the sky, lighting the scenery in its warm light.

“Huh?” the Alpha asked dumbly and the driver chuckled.

“We’re here. We have arrived at Yvoire. Sir Collet told me to give you a tour of the village but you and your companion had fallen asleep so I decided to take you to the hotel,” Henry informed Nikolas and the blonde male nodded. 

Henry left to take out the luggage and check them into the hotel while Nikolas took the chance to stretch and wake Adrian up. The brown-haired Omega was still fast asleep, looking slightly less pale than before and although Nikolas wanted him to continue sleeping, he didn’t want people getting the wrong idea like many times before. 

“Adrian. Drivya, wake up i***t,”

The brunette stirred, opening one eye groggily and glaring at the blonde Alpha who gave him a big smile.

“Morning sleeping beauty. We’re here so unless you want to sleep bent in a painful position, then let’s go,” Nikolas said as he pulled on his blazer. The blonde Alpha stepped out of the limousine and looked around, eyes widening at the beauty of his surroundings. 

Although the village was small, it was very friendly-looking and the silhouette of the houses and trees against the bright light of the sun was breath-taking. He already liked this place and he had been here for less than 5 minutes.

“It’s very beautiful,” Adrian remarked from behind Nikolas and the blonde nodded. He then turned to look at his best friend who had the blanket wrapped around himself, looking like a burrito.

“Yeah, it is. I already approve of the scenery. I don’t even think I need to explore,” 

Adrian just laughed as he left Nikolas outside. The blonde watched his friend leave before looking around one last time before heading inside the hotel as well. The inside of the hotel was just as magnificent.

Nikolas had thought that since the village was small, there wouldn’t be many hotels, but to his surprise, there were many options and it seemed that Gabriel had booked him two rooms in one of the best hotels in the village.

“Good morning sir,” one of the front desk staff greeted him in English, surprising Nikolas further than he already was. He smiled at the lady, who he assumed was a Beta due to her neutral scent, before looking around for Adrian and Henry.

He found Adrian sitting on one of the lounge chairs yawning while Henry was talking to one of the other front desk attendees talking in French. The Russian male could understand the majority of what was being said but when they began to speak a little faster, he had trouble comprehending the new language.

When he and Gabriel had first established a deal to become partners in business, a few years ago, Nikolas had thought it would be a good idea to learn the older Alpha’s language and boy was he glad he did. It would be very awkward and uncomfortable staying in a foreign country without being able to understand what was being said. 

“Alright, here are your room keys sir. This young gentleman will lead you and your companion to your rooms. Monsieur Collet told me that you can stay for as long as you want, so I booked you a penthouse suite instead of two just two rooms,” Henry handed Nikolas the keys as he stepped aside to reveal a younger-looking male.

“Hello my name is Jeremy and I will show you to your suite. Your luggage and belongings are already in the suite so please follow me,” the male said, in French and Nikolas blinked, slowly processing what was being said to him before nodding. 

“Adrian, come on. We’re going to our suite. Thank you for bringing us here Henry. Have a lovely rest of the day,” Nikolas thanked the driver, pulling out his wallet and retrieving a 100 Euro bill and tucking it into the older Alpha male’s breast pocket. The man was about to protest but Nikolas and Adrian were already moving away from him. Henry could only blink and watch in shock.

- - -

“Your suite is right through here,” Jeremy lead the two males through a big mahogany door into a giant flat. Adrian’s mouth fell open as he looked around, while Nikolas looked bored.

“Alright, thank you, Jeremy,” Nikolas said and the male nodded before leaving, closing the door behind himself. The Alpha turned his attention back to his best friend who was bouncing around in happiness. 

“Wow! Look, Niki! They even gave us complimentary bottles of wine!” Adrian said as he held up a wine bottle. “I have no idea what it says on it but it seems expensive and you know that expensive stuff is usually always better than cheaper stuff,” the Omega blabbered as he looked around the suite kitchen for a wine opener. 

“Let me see,” Nikolas took the bottle from the brunette as he continued to look for a corkscrew, muttering about how they gave them wine bottles but no opener. Nikolas rolled his eyes as he read the label on the bottle.

“Produced and aged for 7 years by the Beaux Family Company,” the Russian male read out loud in French and Adrian only hummed in confusion.

“What the hell does that mean?” he asked frustratedly as he opened a drawer, letting out a victorious cheer when he finally found a corkscrew.

“It means that it was produced and aged for 7 years by the Beaux Family Company,” Nikolas translated into Russian for the Omega, who nodded, not paying attention as he snatched the bottle out of the Alpha’s hand. 

“Whatever. Do you want any?” Adrian asked as he pulled out the cork. The blonde man shook his head, watching as his best friend poured himself a good cupful of his precious drink.

“No, I’m good. I need to go meet up with Gabriel’s team in a few hours. He said they were already here so I’ll need to go down to meet them. Besides, it’s only…” the Alpha glanced at his phone before continuing. “It’s only 11 in the morning and you’re already drinking,” Nikolas said and Adrian just shrugged, sipping the dark red liquid and humming in satisfaction.

“This is some good wine though. Try some later. You’ll love it,” Adrian said as he lounged on the couch. Nikolas just laughed, shaking his head as he grabbed his luggage from beside the door. He rolled the two black suitcases into a room, which he claimed as his starting now, before taking off his shoes.

He decided to take a warm shower and dress in something a bit more comfortable before going to meet the rest of Gabriel’s crew. With that thought in mind, he took off his clothes and hopped into the shower, not bothering to unpack his suitcase.

- - -

“Ah, Mr. Kirilov! We were waiting for you,” Nikolas turned to see a man, most likely a Beta, with dark red hair that looked unnatural and brown eyes. His eyebrows furrowed when he did not recognize the man.

“Sorry, but I do not recognize you,” the Russian male replied back in English and the red-head laughed.

“No worries my friend. I’m Jacques and I’m the one in charge of the costumes. The rest of the team said they’ll meet us down by the cafe a few minutes away from here. Shall we go? I can show you around a bit if you’d like,” the man suggested and Nikolas nodded gratefully.

“Yes thank you. That would be very nice,”

The two made small talk as Jacque showed him what was what as they passed by some touristic scenes. Within 5 minutes, they were in front of the cafe that Jacques had mentioned.

“The owner is a good friend of mine so feel free to order whatever you’d like. It’s on the house. Besides, you need to try the eclairs they have here. They are delicious!” Nikolas nodded and order an eclair along with an Americano while the red-haired continued to man babbled on and on about how good the food in France was. The blonde Alpha paid no mind to him.

Instead, he looked around the inside of the cafe and his eyes landed on a small boy, who by the looks of it, was an Omega. The boy wasn’t doing anything that would catch anyone’s attention. Nope. He was sweeping behind the counter, doing his job yet Nikolas couldn’t keep his eyes off the small, angel-like boy. It was as if there was some kind of tugging bond that kept him from looking away, but sadly he was brought out of his trance by Jacques’ loud voice.

“Oh look, there they are. Guys here!” the red-head called over to a group of people who walked over to where the two were sitting down and began introducing themselves. Once everyone had introduced themselves, Nikolas got straight to business.

He decided that he would come back later and see what was so interesting about that boy. Something about him intrigued Nikolas even if he hadn’t got a proper look at him and he had felt some sort of connection.

Maybe he's my-  Nikolas shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts. There was no point in bringing your hopes up just to have them crash down on you. He pushed the crazy beliefs out of his mind before he started to speak.

“Alright, so Gabriel asked to take a look at the scenery and I haven’t been here for that long, yet I already like it. Also, please send me the script and the budget of the film. I have to start setting dates for auditions,” the blonde Alpha said soon, they were talking about business rather than food.

Maybe I’ll come here tomorrow morning with Adrian. He can help me figure out if he’s an Omega or not and he can help me figure out just what I felt because it sure as heck didn’t feel normal.