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Daniel had already made it through to the other side. “Use mine.” He held out the card, and I leveled him with a look that would have reduced anyone else to rubble. I pushed past the annoyed man behind me and walked over to the machine by the wall to add a little cash. I dug in my purse, finding four dollars at the bottom, and smoothed out each bill by vigorously rubbing it on the metal edge of the machine. Twice it spit the dollar bills back out, and I tried my trick once again. “I’m trying to give you money,” I grumbled to the machine. “You’d think you’d be grateful and accept it any way you could get it.” As if it had ears to hear, the bills disappeared.
This time the turnstile offered no resistance, allowing me through. Daniel was waiting for me as if he had all the time in the world, following as I led us through throngs of people to my train. We’d just missed one when we approached the platform, so we stood close to the edge, first up to get on the next one.
“Hold this.” Before I could push my bag into him, it hit a brick wall of arm muscle he’d folded over his chest, lightning fast.
“Add please to the end of that, and you’ll get a lot further,” he said, tossing my words back at me verbatim.
“Please.” I gave him the most sugary sweet smile, and he took the tote from me. I rummaged around in it while he held it open. “How was your day?” I pulled out one black ballet slipper and then the other. Bracing my hand on his shoulder, I lifted one foot off the ground, slid off my heel, dropped it in my bag, and replaced it with a ballet shoe. My big toe peeked out through the hole I’d worn through the leather, a jagged island of red nail color in the space where the nylon of my stockings should have been.
I repeated the process until I had both ballet shoes on. When I put my foot back on the floor, I noticed Daniel wasn’t breathing, just staring at me. That was the thing about eyes the color ours were. They were easy to hide behind. It was difficult for anyone to read beyond the onyx, even for someone trained in the art, like me. The black depths were captivating, a distraction the average person never got past.
I peeled my fingers off of his shoulder and watched air fill his chest again. It occurred to me I’d never voluntarily touched him, and my own insides were buzzing like mad. A man like Daniel wasn’t one to let contact—or anything—-affect him. I wondered if it wasmytouch or if he just didn’t like it in general.
“Getting more interesting by the minute,” he finally said.
“I’ll take that back now.” I held out my arm for him to hang the straps on, but he clutched it in his large hand.
“Allow me. It weighs more than you do.”
I put a hand on my hip, and his eyes flickered with interest. “Did no one ever teach you a thing about women?” I asked, exasperated.
“As a matter of fact, they didn’t.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m here to help you,” I told him earnestly. “Neverevermention a woman’s weight. Even if you don’t mean it in a derogatory way. You might think it’s a nice thing to say something like, ‘Oh, you’ve lost weight. You look fantastic.’ Seems innocent enough, right? All she hears is that you thought she was fat before, even if you didn’t. It’s a no-go topic, Princess. You can thank me in five years when your eyes are still intact because no female has clawed them out.”
“What else do I need to know about the opposite sex?” He was amused, a cocky smirk on his face. Daniel probably had more knowledge of women in his pinky than I did as a whole.
“Oh no. You’ve gotten your free piece of advice. This isn’t an all-day buffet.”
The sound of his laughter was drowned out by the approaching train, and for once I wished it could have waited another second. Eliciting that laugh from him seemed the equivalent of winning a gold medal. I was filled with the sound, my already stellar mood enhanced because I had gotten a laugh out of the no-nonsense Daniel Elliott. It seriously competed for the best part of my day, and I’d had a pretty damn good one.
The doors to the subway car opened, a few people exited, and I pushed my way in, making a beeline for a vacated seat. Daniel sank into the one beside me, and I seized my purse from him, settling it on my lap.
“On your way to a performance?” he asked, pointing his chin at my worn out ballet slippers as if he’d just noticed them.
“Cute,” I said, pretending to be unimpressed by his wit. “For your information, these are comfortable.” Although they really weren’t much better than walking barefoot on the streets, they were a vast improvement over heels. “Obviously, you have no fashion sense.” Obviously, I was lying through my teeth. The man looked amazing in whatever he wore. It was kind of disgusting what he did for a suit.
“It is true I am most definitelynoton the cutting edge of high fashion,” he said dryly.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who appreciated the gorgeous package that he was. The woman seated across from us wasn’t even trying to hide that she was staring, her lips slightly parted as she was imagining exactly what was underneath that power suit. Daniel didn’t notice his observer, his eyes trained on me like I was the only other person on the planet.
I shifted in my seat, though I met his gaze head-on, as if all that intensity didn’t affect me in the least. “Then you’re really in no position to comment.” Something about him made me extra sassy, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
My phone pinged inside my bag, and I pulled it out to find a text from my carrier that a payment was due or my service would be suspended.I couldn’t get a signal down here if my life depended on it, but the damn phone company is going to get the message through when I owe them money.I snapped the phone shut, hoping Daniel hadn’t seen that. The bill wouldn’t be paid for at least another week.
“You dropped this.” The nosy bastard was holding out a wrinkled piece of paper that he’d unfolded. “Where is it?”
“New Zealand.” I’d printed it off the internet. I snatched the photo from him. The mountains were so majestic in the picture that every time I looked at them, they took my breath away.
“Did you take that?”
“No. But someday I will,” I told him confidently, folding the paper back into a square.
“What’s all that?” He indicated the rainbow of writing that covered the back of the white copy paper.
“The places I have to visit someday. I want to spend at least a month on the South Island. I mean, I’d like to see the north one too. But the south is what I want to visit first.”
“May I have a look? Please?” he added, and I felt a small victory that he was doing something for me that he didn’t for anyone else.
