Chapter Seventeen Damion #2
“Dear God, look at your face,” I said, smiling in spite of myself. “Do you actually love this?”
“No,” she said, her grin so big it made her eyes all squinty. “This is madness and I can’t imagine anyone liking it, but I’m also amazed that I’m here.”
“Isn’t this where you wanted to go?” I asked.
“That’s not what I mean. I mean I can’t believe I’m actually standing here, in this place,” she explained breathlessly.
“It’s dirty and disgusting and absolutely magical, because for my entire life, as far back as I can remember, I’ve seen some version of this on-screen and on New Year’s Eve.
It’s like the center of the world, the place everyone who isn’t from here has witnessed from their living rooms. So even though it’s madness, it’s surreal that I am actually standing here.
It’s like the intersection of my imagination and reality or something. ”
I looked at her animated face, at eyes that were practically dancing with excitement as they took in the lights, and I almost felt… moved, as bizarre as that sounded.
But I’d never gotten it before.
My entire life, this hellscape had been a great big question mark to me. I’d always wondered how anyone could like this or why in God’s name people would want to sit on those Times Square steps and watch the madness transpiring around them.
But she kind of made it make sense.
I was familiar with the awe of traveling to a place you’d only imagined, the thrill of actually standing in that spot. I’d just never considered that Times Square might be that spot to some people.
“I’ve never thought of it that way before,” I said, looking around, trying to see it through different eyes.
“Probably because you’ve always lived here,” she said, then added cheekily, “Maybe you need to get out and expand your horizons a little.”
“Oh, this from Nebraska,” I said to the little wiseass with the know-it-all smirk. “Tell me everywhere you’ve been, world traveler.”
She bit down on her lip and raised her eyes before saying, “Florida, Nebraska, and New York.”
“Wow,” I said. “Quite the explorer.”
And quite the shitty liar.
People with millions traveled, so her admission was a dead giveaway.
She was New Money if she’d never been anywhere.
I trailed her closely, watching as she took flyers from everyone who offered them and said, “No, thank you,” to three separate tour bus operators instead of just ignoring them like I’d suggested.
Which made them follow her and try to convince her she needed to ride.
Which made her utter, “No, thank you,” three more times.
“Back the fuck off,” I finally had to growl at the especially obnoxious one when Julia wasn’t looking, because he wasn’t giving up.
“Relax, man,” the guy said.
“I will if you do,” I said, pushing him out of the way as I walked by.
The crowd was growing tighter as we tried making our way forward.
“Do you have an actual location in mind, or are we just perusing here?” I said, trying to squeeze through the people I was suddenly shoulder to shoulder with.
And that’s when I saw it…
We were nearing the theater district. Just as people were heading for the Friday night shows. Rookie mistake.
Shit.
The great mass influx of Broadway showgoers was beginning.
Which meant there was a crush of people heading toward us.
But Julia kept forging ahead, going against the grain and slowly creating distance between us, distance that was immediately filled with pedestrian cross-traffic.
I wasn’t sure why, but it made me nervous, the way she was disappearing from my line of sight while being swallowed by the crowd. I grabbed the back of her shirt, barely able to reach it, and I jerked her toward me, snaking my hand around her waist to stop her forward motion.
But the movement made her body crash into mine.
Anchoring her against me, her back to my front.
Oh God.
Suddenly my face was in her mass of sweet-smelling curls, my palm on her stomach, my every brain cell exploding from the close proximity of her.
Her.
She looked at me over her shoulder with wide eyes, and I needed to release her. But the way she was looking up at me, so close with the longest lashes, rendered me unable to fucking move.
What is happening?
“It’s a little nuts right now,” I said into her ear, my voice stupid raspy, what the hell. “Stay close.”
She nodded, looking slightly shaken.
Yeah, same.
All I’d been trying to do was keep her close so she didn’t get trampled, yet suddenly I had a handful of Julia Nebraska that I wasn’t hating. Her clean-sweet scent wrapped itself around my head and made me drunk, I swear to God.
Under the influence.
It was the only explanation, because this was her, for fuck’s sake.
Her.
A guy in a NASCAR jacket and cowboy hat bumped into us—idiot—and suddenly I was no longer holding her steady.
Which, like, thank God and also dammit.
But it left me no choice.
I had to.
I grabbed her hand and linked all five of my fingers through hers, squeezing hard. Which wasn’t holding her hand, for the record—it was me holding on to her hand to keep her out of harm’s way.
Her eyes shot to mine again, her gaze no less questioning than when she’d been in my arms.
“That way,” I said, my voice still doing that gravelly thing as I pointed toward the cross street. “Let’s go.”