Daniel reached for the door and ushered Addison past an astonished Erica. Addison opened her mouth to offer an apology and an explanation, but Daniel whisked her away so fast she wasn’t able to say anything except for, “Good-bye, see you Monday!”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
No pressure, Addie, this day only has to go perfect, she thought to herself.
Addison's hand shook a little as Daniel opened the door to his truck and reached in to help her out. She smiled at him and turned so he could slide a hand around her waist and guide her down to the pavement. She could have gotten out of the truck on her own, but she knew he liked helping her. Or at least he liked touching her every chance he got. And truth be told, she enjoyed his touch just as much. She caught his hand after he closed the door and engaged the locks on the truck.
She breathed in the crisp morning air and grinned up at him. "What do you think?"
"About what?" he asked gruffly.
"About my favourite place in the whole city," she replied, tugging on his hand and encouraging him to follow her into the city park.
He followed her reluctantly. "It has trees," he grunted.
"Yes, very observant," she laughed. "It also has benches, tables, walking paths, a few statues and a river winding through it. Generally people call these things parks."
He stopped walking, forcing her to stand still too. "Your favourite place is a park?"
"Uh huh."
"Why?" he demanded.
Addison frowned a little. She was hoping he would be a little more impressed with her special place. She should have known better. So far the only time she'd ever known Daniel to be impressed was when her clothes came off. But dammit, she was trying to communicate with him, clothes on.
She shrugged. "It's peaceful here. There are no demands on my time, I can wander around or just sit and listen and smell to my heart's content without any pressure to be somewhere else. Everything just sort of recedes and I can be myself here."
He didn't say anything for a minute and she wondered if maybe she reached him. Then he said, his voice cool, "I meant, why did we come here?"
"Oh," Addison said, somewhat deflated. Then cautiously, "We're on a date. I thought we should try again, only this time I'm taking you to places that I love that I think you might like too. I want you to get to know me better."
"No," he said instantly. He grabbed her arm, turned on his heel and began dragging her toward the truck.
Addison struggled to keep up and would have tripped over the uneven paving stones, except the grip on her arm was extremely firm. She gasped and clutched at him with her other hand, nearly losing her knit purse in the process.
"Please, Daniel," she begged. "Just for a little while?"
"Fuck," he snarled under his breath. "I hate when you use that word against me, you know I can't fucking resist you when you say it like that."
He turned on her and gripped her arms tightly and spoke, his lips close to hers, his voice tight with tension. "Just tell me why you insist on doing this to yourself."
She brought her mittened hand up and rubbed it against his chest. It wasn't terribly cold out, but cool enough that she liked to cover her hands so they would stay nimble for her cello. "I need to know if you can... if you can like me outside of the bedroom. I know you don't do dates, but you do want some kind of relationship. We're together every night and I don't see an end to this. Unless you plan on ending it some time soon. Maybe you don't want a traditional girlfriend, and that's fine, I won't force you to label what we're doing. But I need to know if we can at least like each other."
He didn't say anything for a long time, just held her in his eerily still way. Finally, he said, "I think it's bullshit Addison, but if it's what you want I'll do it."
She grinned happily and clapped her hands together. When he loosened his grip on her arms, she broke free, grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him in the direction of the tables. "Pick one that has a game board built into it."
He did as she told him without question. She took a seat and commanded him to do the same, then she reached into her purse and pulled out a bulky paper bag full of wooden chess pieces. As she started feeling the pieces one at a time and pulling them out of the bag to place on the board, he asked her, "You carry these around in your purse?"
She laughed. "Not usually. I haven't actually been here in a while. I used to come here quite a bit before I got hired on at the orchestra, when I was between jobs. I actually used to live right around the corner from here so it was easy for me to wander over and see if anyone felt like a game."
"You lived in this area? Could've been killed just going out for groceries, let alone looking for a companion in the park," he snapped. "Fuck, you have the instincts of a baby, Addison."
She sighed and continued placing pieces on the the board. "We're trying to have a nice day here, Daniel. Would you mind please watching your language? That was a long time ago. I was young and reckless when I first moved here to the city, I wasn't particularly interested in living safely. It was also hard for me to make rent, so I had to live where rent was cheapest. Besides, you can't tell me you never took any stupid chances that could've gotten you killed. You’ve spent a good portion of your life living dangerously for a paycheque. And last time I checked, I wasn't the one who was shot four times.”
He grunted something that sounded like "we're not talking about me," but she couldn't be sure. She finished setting the board and then raised a brow pointedly at him. She'd set the white pieces in front of him so he could go first. She knew they were white because she had carved little wedges into the bottom of each piece on the white set.
"How do you even know I can play?" he asked.
