Why on earth did you use the word romantic?
Ellie flushed as she watched Baz’s dark eyebrows rise up his forehead and his lips twist in a sardonic smile.
The husky tone of his voice seemed more guarded than amused, though, when he said: ‘If you’re looking for romance, I’m not the right guy, Ellie. You of all people should know that…’
It was a warning, plain and simple. But the fact he’d felt the need to issue it moved her somehow. Was he trying to protect her? The girl who had once failed to protect him.
‘I know, Baz,’ she said, but then she went with instinct and brushed her thumb across his cheek. Tenderness made her heart swell when his jaw tensed. ‘But I think we both deserve some luxury tonight, don’t you?’
It was a fanciful thing to say—a throwback to their shared past, which didn’t exist now, because they weren’t those lost children anymore. But it felt right when he clasped her fingers and dragged them away from his face, appreciation and awareness shining in his eyes.
He pressed his lips to her palm, never breaking eye contact, then chuckled.
‘Yeah, let’s go get Lord Westwick’s sheets dirty,’ he said.
She laughed, her heart floating, even as adrenaline charged through her system.
She didn’t do anything even remotely delinquent anymore, but somehow with Baz it felt exciting to be that wild child again, for one night.
Maybe Baz’s cynicism wasn’t because he didn’t believe in love, but because he didn’t believe he deserved it. The way she hadn’t, for so long, until she’d come to Westwick and finally found a place where she could belong. Be valued. Be somebody.
He parked the bike beneath the front stairs and helped her dismount. She gripped his hand to lead him up the stone staircase to the entrance. She found the old copper keys in her purse and unlocked the heavy oak door.
As they crept up the sweeping staircase to the first floor, the moonlight shining through the stained glass windows casting colourful shadows on the new carpeting, she felt giddy with purpose—and the thrill of doing something forbidden and important.
Tonight, would be her and Baz’s reward for turning their lives around from where they’d started. A way of celebrating their success, together. And even if she never saw Baz again—which she probably wouldn’t, because he had always been wild and untamed and that didn’t seem to have changed—she didn’t care.
She wanted this to be special for them both. And she had no regrets. Not one.
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