“No.” I laughed. “But I guess that works,too. I was thinking when you asked me: ‘Who said tonight was over?’ ”
“Hmmmm.” Hannah smiled up at me. “Well, one, I don’t do public displays of affection. Usually. And two, I never have sex on the first date.”
“Wait, that’s a lot for me to process in my second language. You’re considering this a first date?”
“Maybe. I guess we’ll have to see how it goes. It could be our first date. Could beour last date.”
“No pressure.”
“Exactly. Just so you know, I’m grading your every move.”
Christ, she was hot. And challenging. And complex. Somehow I didn’t think I’d be able to figure her out in just one week. A girl like her would take time. Time I sadly didn’t have.
Hannah rubbed her cheek against my chest. “You’re really good.”
“I know.” I drew her a little closer to me until I couldfeel the curve of her breasts pressed against me. “Which part impressed you, though?”
Hannah laughed softly. “At dancing. Most guys are so stiff—they can’t even do the generic sway thing without breaking out into a sweat, but you’re fluid. Easy.”
“I should be.” Since our kiss I’d unconsciously moved us into a basic box step, despite the pumping music throbbing around us. “Monsieur Legrand would’vemade me run laps if I couldn’t perform a simple box step.”
“Who is Monsieur Legrand?”
“The dance master at Eton. He was a wily old ass. I think if they would’ve let him, he’d have whacked us with that whip he always carted around.”
“Eton? Isn’t that like a boarding school?”
“Oui. In England. My brother and I were shipped off at thirteen.”
“But that’s so young. And in a foreign country, too.How did you cope?”
I shrugged. It had been scary at first. “I had my brother with me. We were inseparable.” My voice grew husky. “He made everything bearable. And our mum is English, so it didn’t feel like it was so far from home. We spoke the language and were big enough to play at being men. We had it better than our older brother. He was shipped off to Switzerland at ten. Alone. Eton was acakewalk in comparison.”
“Oh, my god,” Hannah whispered. “I don’t think I could even fathom being so far from my family. I don’t think they’dletme move so far away. You should’ve heard the crap they gave me when I moved out of the house to my own apartment three miles away. You’d’ve thought I was moving to Timbuktu.” A shadow moved over her face, and she frowned.
“But that’s good, right? Thatyour family loves you so much? That they want you close.”
Hannah tipped her head back to look at me in the eyes. “It’s suffocating. They want to know everything. Pry into my life. Want me to report back on what’s going on, daily. I can’t make a move without them commenting. It’s gotten so bad I’m pretty sure they’ve hired someone to follow me around.”
I could relate, but I couldn’t tell Hannahas much. How could I explain how suffocatingmyfamily was without revealing my identity? What possible explanation could a twenty-eight-year-old man give for having such a stuffy family without sounding like either a mama’s boy or the spare to the crown prince?
So I said nothing.
Hannah buried her face into my chest again. “This is nice.”
I hummed in reply. It really was. Nice. And relaxing,except for the hard-on Hannah’s proximity was giving me.
She sighed. “But sadly, it’s over.”
“What? Wait, why?”
“Because my ride is leaving.” Hannah pulled out of my arms for the second time that night, then nodded toward her table.
I turned and saw that Rachel was standing on her chair, waving at her watch like a maniac. Hannah stepped toward the table, and I grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Wait, you don’t have to leave.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid I do. Rach and I have a rule. When we go together, we leave together. We never leave our drinks unattended. And we never go home with a guy we just met at a bar.” Hannah stopped and rolled her eyes. “So, I guess we have more than one rule.”
