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“That’s good,” she said, looking down at her feet. It was too hard to meet his eyes right now.
“Quite,” Anton murmured, and raised the bottle of champagne to his lips. He tipped it back, draining the last of it in a long gulp. He set the bottle on the table and then nodded to the outskirts of the clearing. “That doesn’t mean I’m not attracted to you. Care to walk with me?”
“Love to.” The response escaped her before she even had time to process, and she swallowed hard, choosing to blame the champagne and s’mores she’d inhaled for dinner. When she fell into step beside Anton and their fingers brushed, she knew it wouldn’t have mattered if she ate an entire box of graham crackers, because not even their supposed medicinal origins could have dampened what she felt. It was like electricity. The heat and charge of their attraction jumping from him to her and back again so fast that it left her dizzy.
And now she was going to go on a walk with him in the woods? What was she thinking? She sighed because, duh, she wasn’t thinking. She was just letting herself do what she wanted. She was letting responsible Grace go long enough to dothis one thing.
She chanced a look at him and jumped when she found him looking at her with an intensity she couldn’t quite place, for the sole reason that a look like this had never been directed at her. It was unlike the looks he’d sent her way earlier. Those had been intense, yes. But this…this felt different from anything else she had ever experienced.
Grace was the best friend, the one baking a cake and offering a warm plate of lasagna when a friend had a bad day; never had she been the focus of a look like this.
This was magic.
Why was he looking at her like that?
They walked in silence. Grace had only begun to wonder where they headed when Anton steered them toward the brightly lit path leading back to the tram cars. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about keeping her footing in the near darkness.
“So…” Anton tucked his hands into his pocket. The sounds of laughter and talking faded behind them.
“So,” Grace echoed.
“Now you know I’m attracted to you,” he said. He didn’t sound embarrassed or sorry. He was just stating a fact.
She nodded. “And you know I’m attracted to you.” she said and then added, “Still.”
He chuckled. “Yes, still. I’m not sure how I managed that, but I’ll take it.”
Grace didn’t say anything, just kept walking. She didn’t know how it had happened either, or that she had been the one to say it out loud. She was attracted to him. Yup.
“It kind of feels good to say it. All that dancing around we did before was,” she cleared her throat and shook her head. “I didn’t like not saying it, is all.”
“Even with the way I acted before, you're still attracted to me?”
“Somehow,” she said, “but I have terrible taste in men. You should know that.”
“You really know how to make a guy feel special, Grace.”
She smiled and they kept walking. The gravel crushed underfoot, and for a moment Grace said nothing, savoring the quiet of the night. A gentle breeze blew her hair around her shoulders, and she relaxed in the stillness of the forest, all her cares on hold for the time being.
“I suppose that’s one way to look at it,” she agreed, “but now what?”
He came to a stop. They had made their way back to the tram cars and stood at the base of the trail, the twinkling path at their backs.
“Funny you should ask.”
“And why is that?”
“Because, I have a proposition for you to consider.”
She tilted her head to the side. “And what might that be?”
“That we have a fling,” he said.
She should have expected nothing less from a well-known playboy. It didn’t matter that she’d thought she knew him. What did you really learn from someone from months of emails and a precious handful of phone calls, anyhow?
She should have known what a man like him might want, asking her to walk alone on a fairy light path. Should have known that it wouldn’t mean to him what it did to her.
She swallowed and met Anton’s gaze with an unwavering stare. The forest sighed and breathed around them, making her forget that they were only feet away from a roaring bonfire party. In this moment there was only them. Nothing else mattered. Nothing but Anton’s question was important.
