Page 34

Chapter 34

Declan

I know I should leave her alone and let her rest, but I haven’t been able to stop myself from peeking my head into my room to check on Hannah every half hour or so since we got back to my place. She hasn’t moved a bit since I laid her down, and I’m pretty sure she was out like a light again as soon as her head hit the pillow.

But she’s been out for a few hours now, and I don’t want her to sleep the entire day away, so I step quietly inside and lower myself down on the edge of the bed next to her as gently as possible. I don’t know how it’s possible, but somehow she looks even more beautiful asleep like this than she does awake. After that first night we spent together all those months ago, I never would’ve dreamed I’d one day have her in my bed like this, but here she is. It feels surreal yet perfect at the same time, like this was always destined to happen.

Some part of me has always felt that way, even when I really didn’t want to admit it, and that’s exactly why I kept going back to that club every night for weeks on end, hoping to find her. But then she dropped back into my life hundreds of miles away when I least expected it.

I didn’t do any of this today to try to win her over or anything, but I hope it at least lets her see how serious I am about her. About this thing between us.

Like she can hear my thoughts, Hannah stirs and lets out a little groan before she wakes, then turns her head to find me. She blinks away her sleep and confusion as she tries to orient herself and remember how she got here, then smiles when her vision focuses on me. My hand instinctively reaches out to brush her sleep-tousled hair out of her face.

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better.” She gingerly touches her fingertips to her temples, checking for tenderness. “I think the migraine finally passed.”

“Sleeping several hours has a magical way of doing that,” I tell her with a smile, and she groans as she brings a hand to her forehead.

“Shit. I guess there’s no way I’m getting that paper in on time now.”

I grin at her and lean over to tuck a lock of her beautiful dark hair behind one of her ears. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

Her brows crash together as she stares up at me. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t be upset, but after I got you situated here, I went over to your apartment to get the paper and took it to your professor.”

She sits up quickly, clearly showing that the migraine’s gone. There’s no way she could’ve done that a few hours ago. “You really did that for me?”

I stroke her cheek with the back of my knuckles. “I told you I was going to take care of you, and I meant it.”

“But… how? How did you get him to take it?”

I shrug. “Turns out your professor is a huge Aces fan. It didn’t take much convincing to let you turn that paper in late after I walked into his office.”

Hannah stares at me for a second, looking dumbfounded. “I—I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“Of course, hummingbird.”

I move off the bed to make room for her to get up. She stands and stretches, lifting her arms high above her head like she’s about to launch right into one of our yoga routines, but she just bends over to reach for her toes a few times before she straightens. The shirt she fell asleep in is all rumpled, and she frowns down at it.

“Sorry to ask you for even more, but do you maybe have another shirt I could borrow for a while?”

“Of course. Help yourself,” I tell her, gesturing at my closet on the other side of the room. As she makes her way over, I follow to flip the light on in the room so she can see. She pulls the closet open and stands for a second looking over all her options. She pulls out a couple of t-shirts, but none of them strike her fancy, so she keeps riffling through them until she gets to the very end of the rack. Then she lets out a little gasp.

“Is this…?” she trails, reaching for a mask hanging by its strings. She unties it carefully and turns around to hold it out in front of her face. As soon as it lines up with her perfect features, she smiles at me through it. “You kept my mask.”

She almost sounds like she can’t believe it, but she shouldn’t be surprised. Did she really think I’d get rid of it when she left it for me? But then my heart skips when I remember that the note she left is taped to the inside of the mask. She spots it at the same time and plucks it away, and I feel embarrassment twisting in my stomach. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about—I’ve already told her how much that night meant to me and how often I went back to look for her—but I still feel a little exposed.

“You kept both of these and brought them all the way with you to Denver?”

I shrug, willing my cheeks not to burn. “Like I told you, I never stopped thinking about that night. Or about you.”

Something I can’t quite pin down passes over her face at that, and her expression shifts as she unfolds the small piece of paper to read over what she wrote. She shakes her head and folds it back up before reattaching it to the inside of the mask.

“You have no idea how many times I rewrote that note. And I still don’t think I got it right.”

“I don’t know about that. I kept it, after all.”

She smiles at me for a second and takes another longing look at the mask before she returns it to the closet and hangs it back up where she found it. She reaches for the nearest of my sweaters, and although it’s obviously too big for her, when she slides it over her head it still looks perfect on her—just like everything else.

“Do you mind if I get some air for a second?” she asks, gesturing past me at the sliding glass door leading to the small balcony beyond it.

“Sure.” I step over to the door to unlock and open it, and although it’s late October, a gust of unseasonably warm air rushes in.

Smiling, Hannah walks past me out onto the balcony and rests her hands on the railing, staring out at the view and letting the wind lift her beautiful dark hair. Watching her like this feels like being part of some Hollywood production, like the starlet of the day is standing on my balcony and getting her glamour shot taken. I step out behind her and settle onto one of the chairs I keep out on the balcony.

She sighs and turns around, resting her back against the railing. “This is amazing. You’d never get me off here if I had something like this.”

“Well, anytime you want to enjoy it, it’s yours.”

Hannah smiles and sits down across from me. We sit admiring the view and enjoying each other’s quiet company, and I don’t feel like I need to say a word. This is perfect. We don’t have to say or do anything. As long as I’m spending time with her, that’s all I need. But when I glance over at her and see how tired she looks, worry twists in my stomach. She’s been pushing herself super hard since I got to town, and I’m sure that isn’t new for her, but I don’t want her to burn herself out.

Maybe it isn’t my place to ask, but I’m genuinely concerned, so I decide to test the waters.

“Can I ask you something?” I say slowly.

“Sure,” she says as she leans back in her chair and her eyes flutter shut.

“Is studying law what you really want to do?” She sits perfectly still in the chair with her legs extended and her hands resting on her stomach, but inside, I bet her mind’s going a thousand miles an hour. She takes several seconds of quiet before she finally opens her eyes and brings them back to mine.

“No, it isn’t,” she says so quietly that I barely make out the words. It’s probably the first time she’s ever said it out loud, but I highly doubt it’s the first time she’s ever thought it. “But I have to stick it out with school. Law’s not my passion, but I want the stability that a career in it will bring me.”

“That’s understandable. But there are lots of other paths to stability. Based on what I’ve seen, I think yoga could do that for you too.”

Hannah considers me for a second, turning my words around in her head. “Maybe, but I don’t want my parents to constantly worry about me being able to provide for myself if I tried to start my own studio. And I know they would.”

“I think you could do anything you put your mind to, and I’m sure your parents think so too.”

She smiles at me, but the soft hiss of rain cuts off the conversation. Hannah doesn’t seem like she wants to go inside, but I don’t want her catching a cold when she’s already running so low, so I stand up. “We should go inside.”

Hannah stands up too, but she walks over to me and takes both my hands in hers to squeeze them. “Stay here with me. Please?”

I look down into her gorgeous blue-and-green eyes as they search my face, silently pleading. She looks absolutely stunning with the setting sun’s rays hitting her perfect skin and rain drops falling around her, giving her a halo. I can’t tell her no for anything, so I pull her into my arms and lift one of her hands with mine to lead us in a slow dance. She chuckles as she follows my lead, and although there’s no music, I hear a symphony in my head.

Because as we slowly sway, our bodies and hands pressed together in perfect sync, I feel something powerful swelling between us. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it’s a pull, a gravitation like she’s the sun in my solar system. Like she’s everything I want my life to revolve around. And in so many ways, she already is.

It feels just like that first night we met, when we crashed into each other at Opal and Oak. Even though she was wearing a mask, her beauty just about knocked me on my ass. But she’s just as gorgeous and alluring on the inside. As we dance among the raindrops, I’m more convinced than ever that we were supposed to meet, that something like fate brought us back together here in Denver.

And I’m done resisting it.

I lean down to kiss her, and she meets me halfway. I swear I feel sparks fly when our lips touch, and the whole world fades away as I lose myself in the feeling of her soft, full lips moving against mine.

When we break apart, she looks up at me with her eyes on fire. “Now take me inside.”