Adrian’s is midnight blue, his collar open the barest amount, enough to see his throat.
They are all looking at me. Like I'm the thing they've been waiting for.
William comes forward. He takes my hand, raises it slightly, and prompts a slow twirl. The skirt lifts and settles. When I come back around, his eyes are all-consuming.
"I just knew this dress would look amazing on you," he says. "I wanted your tattoos to be on full display."
My hand goes instinctively to my back. I feel the edge of the fabric, how low it sits, the exposed skin from my shoulders all the way down.
He chose this. He looked at the parts of me I keep hidden and he chose something that puts them in the light.
William is still looking at my back when Carter's hand settles at my waist and guides me inside.
When I step further inside I can see that there are no lights on.
Only candles.
They're on every surface, the credenza, the window ledges, clustered down the wide steps to the living area, the stone shelves.
The glass walls are retracted fully and the canyon is just there, open, the black and silver shapes of olive trees on the private terrace, small lights threaded through the branches like they grew that way. The fire pit is lit.
I stand in the middle of it and feel the precise distance between this room and my real life.
Adrian is watching me from across the room. He makes a loose gesture that takes in the candles, the terrace, all of it.
"I thought it would be romantic," he says. "I mean, candlelight dinners are one of the most romantic things. I googled it."
The laugh comes out of me real and involuntary.
Carter asks, "Did you enjoy your spa?"
He's standing near the steps that lead outside to the patio, watching me steadily. And just like that I know the spa was his idea.
"I did," I say. "I think I might develop an addiction to spa treatments. I had never had one before."
I feel that thank you is not enough but I say it anyway “Thank you. For everything. It’s really making me feel special”
Adrian says, "You are special." Simply, directly, and for one moment underneath the ease of him there's something unguarded and entirely real.
Then he claps his hands once. "Well, there is more. Carter, where is this amazing chef that—"
A voice from the kitchen: "Thisamazing chef's name is Elias Kassianis."
Adrian closes his eyes and grimaces in regret for the way it just came out of his mouth
Elias comes around the corner, straight to me and takes my hand bringing it toward his lips.
He doesn't quite make contact.
It's nothing. It is genuinely nothing.
William makes a low sound beside me.
Carter's arm wraps around my waist and pulls me flush against his side in a single smooth motion. His hand is warm through the fabric at my hip.
Elias looks at me with the calm of a man who has seen it all and smirks. Only at me.
"I have prepared you a fantastikós meal," he says. "The table is set outside on the private terrace. Would you like me to stay and help, or would you rather do it yourselves? Buffet style?"
