“Okay,” she concedes, a sheepish grin working itself over her lips. “Just one though.”
She watches as her own cup is filled, then follows my lead as I hold the stem of my glass and give it a swirl for a few seconds, then lift it to my nose to smell before I take a sip. What has become a normal habit for me looks so goddamn adorable on her.
As she tastes the wine, she plasters a thoughtful look on her face, trying to decide if she likes it or not, and I can’t help but smile at her. Everything she does amazes me.
“I’m so proud of you,” I tell her.
Her face scrunches. “For drinking?”
“No,” I laugh. “For trusting yourself enough to try something that scared you.”
“Oh,” she whispers, a blush creeping to her cheeks. “Thank you.”
We tuck into our meal as food arrives, dissolving into conversation with a level of maturity that makes me forget that the woman sitting in front of me is only twenty-one years old. As we talk, her small hand rests on top of mine and she idly traces the veins of my hand with her index finger.
I would be fine with calling it a night here, taking her back to the hotel and spending the rest of tonight andtomorrow just holding her in my arms. That would be completely fine with me. But I promised her a night out, and I’m not sure when we’ll get this chance again, if ever, so I’m taking her out.
•
I guide Rowan through the busy hotel lobby, filled with people dressed in elegant formalwear, until we reach the doors to the massive ballroom.
“So we left our hotel to go to another hotel?” She snarks, and I playfully nudge her with my elbow in response.
“Buonasera, signore, signora,” one of the members of staff greets us as he and another staff member pull the large doors open to let us inside.
Inside the room, the light is not nearly as dim as it was inside the restaurant, but it is considerably more dim than in the lobby, and it takes a moment to adjust to the sudden change.
A handful of tables – not nearly enough to seat everyone inside – are scattered to one side of the room, leaving a large space open in front of the stage, where live music is playing, for pairs to dance.
“What is this?” Rowan asks, her eyes flitting around the room.
“An old associate invited us to a party,” I answer.
She scrunches her face at me. “You can be very mysterious sometimes, you know that?”
“Life’s more fun that way, I’ve learned.”
And suddenly, I do care about fun. About changing things from the boring day-to-day of my life. I care about finding excitement in things both big and small. I don’t think I’d realized just how much of that I’d lost over the years.
I take her hand in mine and guide her toward the dance floor, staying near the edge of it in case she needs totake a break and quickly get to a seat. Keeping her hand in mine, I wrap my other arm around her waist and pull her in close to me as she lets her head fall against my chest. Part of me hopes that she can’t hear my heart pounding over the music.
We sway and spin slowly together as the music plays, and I close my eyes for a moment while I hold her. I know I shouldn’t be falling for her – I know this can’t be real. But damn it if I’m not falling headfirst right over the edge for her.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” I ask her.
“I don’t think that really covers it,” she tells me. “I never could have imagined any of this.”
“I’m glad.”
“Are you? Enjoying yourself?”
“Yes I am,” I tell her. “Very much so.”
Another hour and a half flies by as we continue to move together, in perfect sync. The two hundred other people in the room have completely melted away, leaving the two of us the only focus in my mind. No one and nothing else matters but this, right here, right now.
I lift our joined hands to press a kiss to the back of Rowan’s hand and feel her trembling. I pull away from her enough to see that her face has gone pale and she’s no longer supporting herself. Just a second later, she starts to drop.
It’s happened a few times since she moved in, so I’m starting to at least know when she’s about to be down for the count. It was scary as shit the first couple of times; when she passed out in my office, I damn near called an ambulance. Now, I just try to catch her head and hope that she doesn’t land before I do.
