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But he didn’t respond, and for that reason, I was sure I had dreamt it.
This moment, however, I wasn’t dreaming.
“Julian?” I was foggy, already halfway panicked when I woke up to see him striding into the room in a grey suit, both his and my bag fully packed and set on the chest at the end of the bed. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and blinked down at the time. Barely eight in the morning. “Where did you just come from?” I asked.
“The last meeting. They wanted to move it up, and I didn’t want to wake you. You were smiling in your sleep.”
“Was I?” I couldn’t help smiling again now.
“You were. It was cute,” Julian smirked at me. “But we have to go now. We have a flight to catch in less than an hour.”
My eyes fluttered. “Really? So it’s… all done? Everything?” I was so disoriented for some reason. Perhaps the lack of sleep, though I usually functioned fine on minimal rest. I sat at the edge of the bed, processing everything at a delay as I watched Julian move around the room. But he finally stopped to tend to me when he saw how very lost I looked.
“Get dressed, Sara,” he said, gazing down at me as he cupped my cheek. “I need you ready to go as soon as possible.”
“Is everything okay? Did you finalize the deal?”
“All but. Everything will be finalized back in New York.”
“Aren’t you happy it’s done?” I grinned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“Very,” Julian answered, taking my hand and leading me to the closet. “But we can celebrate on the plane. We really do have to leave soon.”
I blinked at a lone dress of mine hanging in the closet, everything else apparently packed. I couldn’t help feeling strange and slightly thrown off by the unexpected rush, but when I glanced at Julian, I caught that devastatingly handsome smile as he knotted his tie. And suddenly, I forgot my worries.
“Okay,” I said brightly. “I’ll be ready to go in ten.”
From Teterboro Airport, Julian’s car picked us up and brought us straight to his riverfront penthouse in TriBeCa. All he’d said as we walked across the tarmac was, “Stay with me tonight,” and I was sold.
The fact that he lived in what looked like a high-rise palace was just a bonus.
From the cobblestone road, our car turned into a private drive-in courtyard, stopping in front of a towering arched entrance, where we got out. A warm glow greeted us when we walked into the double-height lobby boasting sculptures and artwork more beautiful than I’d seen in museums.
“Of course this is where you live,” I murmured mostly to myself as I walked beside Julian toward the elevator.
It required a key to even move to the top floor of the building, and when the doors opened, they did so directly into Julian’s stunning triplex.
“Whoa.”
I felt him watching me as I wandered in awe under the twenty-plus-foot ceilings, in the nighttime glow of the downtown lights sparkling in from the windows. They stretched from ceiling to floor, facing north, east, south and west. The panoramic view alone pumped my heart with adrenaline.
“Meet me on the terrace,” Julian said, nodding toward a glass door. “I’ll pour us some wine.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
Floating out onto the terrace, an almost tearful smile burst to my lips.
God. I’d lived in New York for almost ten years, and never had I seen a view like this. After my trip to Biarritz, this view was like a final reminder that there was in fact so much more out there.
Three times, I’d been stuck thinking this is it, so deal with it. The first time was in high school, the second was my freshman year in college, and the third was my backbreaking tenure at June Magazine.
I kept letting myself think that I’d seen it all, and I knew all my options.
Never had I been so wrong, and never had I been so happy to be.
“Enjoying the view?”
I turned to find Julian holding two glasses of red as he came out to join me.
