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She smiled at him, finding it easy to do so. “I can’t deny this is the most interesting evening I’ve ever spent with anyone. I’ll never forget it.”
She lowered her eyes behind a spray of lashes then lifted them slightly to take a peek at him. He was smiling. He smiled at her often. She liked it.
She tilted her head a fraction and caught Lancaster staring at Sebastian as if he were the devil himself sitting right there in his living room. He gathered himself quickly enough and returned his attention to Mr. Simeon, who was busy telling him something.
“Where is your favorite place to eat?” Sebastian was asking her. “We can go there.”
“Where is it you two wish to go?” Lancaster moseyed over as if he hadn’t been listening.
“To dinner,” Sebastian told him. “I would like to start this night over.”
“Ah, well,” Arthur began with a gracious smile. Noelle thought he was a handsome man. “Please allow me to help. I can use my magic here. The walls are made with a blend of titanium and carbon steel. Magic cannot be detected.”
“What do you wish to do?” Sebastian asked.
Arthur—Mr. Lancaster started speaking something in another language. He waved his arms a time or two and when he was finished, a hole in the wall appeared. Beyond it was the night sky, clouds lit up by the full moon before they passed across it.
Sebastian took her hand. And turned to look at her. “Let’s do it.”
She nodded. She liked adventure. This was her dream coming true.
They stepped through and felt their clothes change. She wore a snug, black Donna Caren dress and Louboutin heels. Her hair was brushed up and sprayed and pinned until a hurricane couldn’t pull a hair out of place. But when she touched it, it felt soft.
“Wow,” he said. His voice cracked a little. “You look…beautiful.”
“You look good, too, in your Armani suit.” She wanted to tell him that she didn’t care what he wore, but it might make her seem eager. But really, with his hair left down like a reminder that there was something less tamed beneath the flair and fashion, she’d rather he wore nothing.
To her right, the Eiffel Tower was lit up and looming over people sitting at tables beneath it. That’s where they were going!
“Okay, wow!” she said as they were escorted to small candlelit table covered in white silk, embroidered with colorful dancing men with spring flowers bursting to life around them.
Everything was so expensive and beautiful. They drank from crystal glasses, ate from fine china and sterling silverware. They sipped two-hundred-year-old wine, and ate the finest food, like Beluga caviar and some kind of rare salmon that Noelle knew she’d dream about.
“This is more like it,” Sebastian said, sitting back in his chair when his meal was done.
“Oh?” She laughed as a soft breeze fragranced with freshly cut flowers floated by. “Is this something you would plan for a date?”
“No,” he answered “I don’t think this is you. Perhaps once in a while, aye. We all like to be pampered. But stay with me a little longer and I will pamper you in more intimate ways.”
Her veins went hot. She felt her cheeks go up in a blaze. “All that and a gentleman, too,” she muttered, smiling.
“Tell me,” he said, setting his glass on the table. “Who is the Noelle Upton the camera does not know?”
She hadn’t spoken about her life in years—to anyone. She’d never let herself get close to anyone before, but she felt as if she’d already shared so much with him. If she lived through this, no other guy would ever give her a night like this one.
“I’ve had to be tough. It’s easier for the men to get ahead, unless you look like Barbie. All of us women have been through it. You work hard and the man who works with you gets ahead faster. This story would have changed all that for me.”
“Your time will come, Noelle,” he said, sounding convincing.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“Aye. That the accolades of others don’t satisfy the way you had hoped. That ache to be fully content can only come from yourself and the Almighty. I can tell you that you are well loved on the eleventh floor of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, but you have to be convinced of your worth before you can demand what you deserve.”
“Yes.” She sat back, thinking on his words. “Convinced of my worth. You’re right.”
“Here is to your happiness.” He lifted his glass and clinked it with hers.
“So what do we do to help King Arthur?” she asked after she sipped her wine.
