I fixed him with a glare. "Everything?" I pressed meaningfully. "Did you mention I'm Black?" I didn't add. I didn't think I should have to.
He pulled me into his arms. "What's to tell? 'Hey Dahlia, I've met a woman who takes even less shit than I do but somehow stays completely un-cynical. I've met a woman who sees beauty and meaning in everything she does and sees and I hope she can teach me to see that in my own life.'"
His lips were only inches from mine. It would feel so good, so natural to close that gap. To kiss him. Right now. I should be kissing him. It was the only thought in my head.
And then he saved me from my indecision by kissing me instead.
The scalding heat of his lips on mine seared me right down to my core. With a rough stab of his tongue, he claimed my mouth as his, and went about exploring his territory. My body responded immediately, molding itself against him as he pressed me back against the plush seat. I was lost in the moment, in time itself and could barely make sense of anything except Liam's lips, Liam's tongue, Liam's hands on my body, his fingers delving, hot and bruising as he growled low in his throat.
My own yearning, numbed off since I left Tre, rose to the surface, hotter and wilder than I had ever imagined they could be.
I kissed him back, exploring his shape with my hands; his chiseled torso, the small mountains of his biceps, the rough hardness between his legs. I felt the textures and tastes of his skin on my tongue as I kissed him everywhere his skin was exposed, his cheeks, his chin...his neck. As a trembling gasp tore from my throat, he gripped me even harder, so hard that it hurt.
"Shay," he rasped, a ragged whisper into my neck.
Just then the car came to an abrupt stop and I nearly cried out in frustration. "We're here," Darius's rumbling voice called over the partition, and I swore he was interrupting us on purpose.
Chapter Twelve
My breath hung in a frosty white wreath around my head. The parking lot was packed with groups of people, lumpy in their winter jackets, picking their way carefully across the ice-littered pavement. I figured we were meant to follow them.
Darius fell into step several yards behind us, those damn aviators still obscuring his eyes, even in the dead of a wintry night. He was unnerving me tonight, that strange familiarity he had was even more apparent. I wondered if I had passed him in the street once, without realizing. Or maybe I had dreamed him. He gave me a strange sense of deja vu, made worse by how be behaved. He didn't act like a deferential staff member. There was an air of authority about him, and though he worked for Liam, I got the feeling that Liam wasn't always in control. Mysterious Darius -as I now referred to him in my head - did what he wanted.
Like staring me down right now. The heat of his obscured eyes was enough to make me flush in misguided embarrassment. Distracted, I stumbled on the ice.
Liam took my arm, firmly, protectively. "Thanks," I smiled. After the heat of the kiss we had shared, and now Darius's burning glare, the icy air felt good on my face.
I reached up and loosened my scarf a little, allowing the air to bathe my neck.
"Oh, don't do that," Liam murmured in my ear as we walked up to the entrance of the gardens.
"Do what?" I asked.
"Show off your neck like that," he said playfully. "You're going to get in trouble."
I laughed out loud as he held open the door for me. "I think I already am in trouble when it comes to you," I smiled, stepping through the door. His chivalry made me feel cherished and queenly.
That is, until he licked his top lip and eyed me up and down as I walked past. "I like your tits in that coat."
I glared at him. "You're an interesting juxtaposition, you know that? Half gentleman, half dog."
"Woof," he smiled, and took my arm again.
I blushed a little and tried to distract myself from his stormy eyes. "Why are we at Longwood Gardens? The Christmas display is over."
"You'll see," he said, looking proud.
I held my breath, remembering the magic of the butterflies. They seemed to have transferred to my stomach.
Liam paid at the window - no private event just for us tonight - and then held me close as we gave our tickets to the usher. "Enjoy," the old man smiled as he tore them in two and handed him the stubs.
"Thank you sir, we absolutely will," Liam smiled back, and once again I was struck by his odd mix of old-fashioned chivalry and potty mouth.
We walked out into the frigid gardens, under the dark winter sky. It was clear and very cold, with no moon to dim the light of the stars overhead. We were far out from Philly, which was only a faint orange glow on the eastern horizon, and for whatever reason it felt colder out here in the country. Liam slung his arm around me. "Too cold?"
"A little," I said truthfully.
"Here." He stepped off of the path. "Come this way."
A few feet off the main path was a little concession stand underneath a heating fan. Liam squeezed my hand. "Two hot chocolates please."
They were watery mixes in Styrofoam cups, but at least they were warm. "Hold this for me?" Liam asked, handing me his cup.
I dutifully held both of them as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a deeply engraved silver flask and held it out to me with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. I giggled and nodded eagerly. He glugged about a shot's worth into each Styrofoam cup and replaced the cap on the flask. "Cheers," he said, lifting his cup.
It tasted like whiskey and burned all the way down my throat, but the warming was instant. "Umm," I moaned as the shivers subsided. "Good thinking."
"Always be prepared," he said. "Boy Scout motto."
"You were a scout?"
"A bit," he said. "I really liked it, but Dahlia got bored with having to pick me up from meetings, so she pulled me out before I could start Eagle Scouts."
My nose twitched in spite of myself. I was starting to hate this woman, and I had never even met her. "Well it's a beautiful flask."
"Thank you." He took my arm again and we stepped back out onto the path. We were headed to the main greenhouse, an old brick mansion - an imposing Victorian pile that sat at the crest of a small rise. I had no idea what we were coming to see, so I turned my curiosity to Liam.
"Is it old? It looks old," I said. Maybe the flask meant something to him.
"It might be," he said. "I don't really know."
"Did your mother give it to you?"
He nodded. "Twenty-first birthday present. She said it was something I should have gotten from my father...if he had stayed around."
I startled. This was the first I had heard him mention his father. "Did you know him?"
He shook his head, exhaling a puff of condensation into the air. "No. Dahlia...well she kind of made it clear that he was not a subject she was willing to discuss. After a while, I finally learned to let it go."
"Like everything else?"
He looked at me, long and hard for a moment, his penetrating gray eyes even darker in the night. "Like everything else," he agreed, like he was considering it for the first time.
I leaned against him, feeling the warmth of the liquor opening me up. Feeling like he was opening up too. "You're making it hard for me to ever want to meet her," I sighed.
His silence spread out long and hollow. He still held me, but seemed stiff and far away.
Okaaay, maybe I misjudged. Maybe he wasn't opening up to me the way I thought he was. Or maybe he had been until I mentioned meeting his mother. I jumped the gun too soon, frightened him off. Dammit, Shay!
From up here you could look out over the dark, snow-covered courtyard. The topiary that usually graced the lawn was nothing more than a random series of lumps and bumps under the white blanket of snow. It was beautiful and eerie at the same time and I felt like there was some meaning to it, I just couldn't put my finger on it.
Liam interrupted my spiral of self-doubt by rushing to open the door to the greenhouse. "We're here," he said beckoning. "After you."
I turned away from the cold
and stepped into the warmth of the greenhouse...and a riot of color.
"Tulips!" I gasped.
They stood in rows, proud and tall in shades of red, orange and yellow. They were everywhere, bursting forth in the profusion of colors my winter-deadened eyes craved. I couldn't believe it.
"They forced the bulbs," Liam explained. "I heard about it on Channel 6 and knew you needed to see it."
"Oh my gosh," I babbled. The joy of the colors bubbled up in my heart until there was no room for anything else. I gasped and laughed like a child, running up and down the walkway, touching the flowers, inhaling the delicate scent, and feeling the soft petals against my fingers...my cheeks.