“And now?”
His chin touched my shoulder. “Now, I’m living for me. For the future.”
He did something next that had me watching his hands, our hands when he took that thick ring he always wore off his finger. The one with the gorilla. I’d never asked about it, figuring it was just a ring.
But now, he took my hand, placing it in my palm.
“I have friends… brothers,” he corrected, shaking his head. “They give these to their girls, and I get it now.”
“What is it?”
“It’s our power,” he said, nodding. “What we believed for so long to be our power. It seems so long ago now.”
He folded my hand around it, kissing my fist.
“I am living for today,” he continued. “For the future and every day with you that follows.”
I opened my hand, looking at the ring. Smiling, I fingered it before looping my arms around his neck.
“I don’t want you to give me your power.” I touched his lips. “I want to share it. Share each other’s.”
He hugged me too, little space between us. Cupping the back of my head, he drew his body on top of me again. We lived in the moment. Those futures. It was the first time I’d ever forgotten about my past, and he did that.
And I had a feeling he would as long as I needed him to.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bri
Ramses had tickets for the Russian ballet on their tour in Chicago. The tickets he’d gotten from a colleague, and the night out had been a celebration for us both. It was the day before finals week, commencement at the end of the month. We were going to tell Evie soon about us and tonight, we just wanted to be a couple. I wasn’t thinking about consequences or if someone would see us. I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted an evening out with my boyfriend, and since I happened to love watching ballet in New York, that was what we’d decided to do.
Ramses passed the car off to the valet, and after we both checked in our coats, I escaped for a little potty break before the show. I came out to find him standing in front of the grand staircase leading up to the theater, hands in the pockets of his tailored trousers. He wore a tuxedo tonight, a handsome black with the crisp bow tie to match. The hems hit the hard curves of his solid frame, my man never looking so dashing, debonair. He was James Bond with Ryan Reynolds’s boyish charm, sweeping around on his patent leather shoes to find me.
He pressed a hand to his heart, feigning death as if he hadn’t seen me before, as if he hadn’t escorted me inside himself.
I’d admit I cleaned up nice, the dark gown a smooth silk over my body. I also tended to be a fan of slits, and this one cut high.
Ramses wasted no time beneath the paintings of angels and gods donning the vaulted ceiling, one hand to smooth over my thigh while the other darted into my hair. He pressed just a light kiss to my temple, but a purposeful one, his thumb teasing the highest point of my slit. “Have I ever told you how fucking sexy you look in black?”
The growl in his voice held promise, his lips brushing my cheek before finding my eyes. He took my hand, kissing that.
I shook my head at him. “Only about twenty times since you picked me up.”
And that was a guess, his smile a warm one as he laced our fingers. He leaned in. “Then it looks like I’ve got some making up to do. Not nearly enough.”
He placed another kiss to my hand before extending his arm and hiking up my dress, I took it.
Ramses’s tickets turned out to be for his family’s box.
Because apparently, he had one of those.
His client’s tickets hadn’t been nearly as luxurious, but once I expressed interest in coming out, Ramses had decided to give them to his secretary for her birthday gift, I guess.
I suppose she was probably in the vicinity somewhere, and Ramses and I took two out of the six seats available to us exclusively. Once again, he wasted no time in placing his arm around me, and with the box’s curtains drawn, he placed a hand on my thigh. We settled into the first act, and I had to say, I wasn’t really watching all that much.
I played with Ramses’s fingers mostly, the ones hanging off my shoulder. The other time I spent looking at him, and he winked whenever he caught me. This was the first time we’d really been out together, no pressures or worrying about anyone catching us. Not that I really worried about that too much anymore. Times of the past just seemed so far away, and I leaned into him, just enjoying the show. It was lovely, of course, hypnotic. By the time the intermission came, I’d nearly drifted off between the calming nature of the show and Ramses’s heat. Ramses shifted, and I sat right up.
He was checking his phone now that he could and excused himself to take a call since we had a few minutes. I guess he missed something important at work.
“Be right back,” he said, kissing me before taking the call out of the box, and I decided to check my phone during the wait.
“Brielle?”
I angled a look back, and my eyes twitched wide, completely sitting up when Evelyn came in with a man I didn’t know. He wore a tux, like Ramses, older, and Evie herself wore a lovely gown of a dark purple, shimmering crystals on it. She looked completely surprised to me, handbag clasped beneath her gloved fingers, and I had to have looked like a deer in headlights. She frowned. “Dear… What are you—”
“Mom?”
Stopped where he stood. Ramses exchanged a glance between his mom and whoever she’d arrived with before looking at me. His brow arched. “What are you doing here?”
I had no fucking idea what to even say at this point.
Oh, fuck.
Heart like someone reached in and squeezed it just to play around. Evie directed her eyes in her son’s direction.
“Why I’ve come to see the show, of course,” she said, her look curious. “In our family box. Though, we were late and missed the first half. Sweetheart, you know James from the country club.”
This James extended a hand, which Ramses quickly took.
“Right. Yeah,” Ramses returned, his expression also curious before twitching back to his mom.
His mom, who now had her attention directed at me. I stood, and her finger flicked my way.
“Have you two come together?” she asked, placing that out there. Ramses, in a quick step, crossed the distance over to me. I started to say something until he took the initiative.
“Actually, yes.” He hovered a hand behind me, but I noticed not too terribly close. In actuality, he let it fall rather quickly before forcing a hand over the dark fade of his shaven head. “I had tickets. A date that fell through.” He clasped his hands. “Anyway, I ran into Bri on campus. Mentioned them. She said she enjoyed the ballet so here we are. Tickets not wasted.”
Here we were indeed.
He’d lied for me, completely, and I hated it as much as I failed to correct him.
Because in that next moment, I watched his mother and my friend’s expression shift warm. No confusion, her smile quaint and full. This new scenario obviously made sense to her, and I was a coward. I was afraid for an alternative.
Whatever that may have been.
Evie’s previous thoughts had obviously been her own, but this situation now appeared to be perfectly acceptable to her. She placed her hands together. “Oh, how nice, Ramses.”