Nari swallowed. Why did it seem like Yoongi was breathing down her neck? Every little hair was standing at attention.
The door was locked, but she hadn’t removed the key. She was nervous. Afraid to turn around and face him.
“Are you having trouble with the lock? I can try it if you need some help.”
His voice was sounding in her ear. He was directly behind her.
She swallowed again to try to remove the lump that had just materialized in her throat. Then her voice came out in a hoarse whisper.
“No, no. I’m all right. It’s locked.” She drew out the key and slid it back into her purse. Then she zipped the pocket shut.
“Ready?” he asked.
He enjoyed being around her, but he found himself growing tired. Maybe all that wine was finally getting to him.
She nodded.
“At least the rain stopped,” she murmured.
She turned towards him, and they began to walk. A couple minutes later, as they stopped walking to wait for the first stoplight, he noticed her take off her shoe and rub her foot. Then she slid it back on before they crossed the street.
At the next light, she removed her other shoe, and her thumb dug into the pad of her foot. A soft groan escaped her lips. Then, a sigh as she continued to rub the aching ball of her foot. Again, she put the shoe on before the light changed. They walked the remainder of the distance to their apartment building in silence.
As they entered the elevator together, she whispered, “Can you please hit fourteen?”
Then she bent and took off both her shoes. She sighed loudly. Then she lifted one foot while she balanced on the other and began to massage the first foot. She leaned back against the wall of the elevator and closed her eyes.
“Your feet really hurt, don’t they?”
She opened one eye to catch his gaze before she nodded. She grimaced. “I worked a double shift today. On a regular day, my shoes are barely adequate. But on a long day like today, they give my feet fits. They’ve been aching all afternoon and evening. I can’t wait to sit down.”
As though she needed to provide evidence of that statement, she suddenly slid down the wall until she was sitting on her bottom on the elevator floor. She groaned with relief.
“Why didn’t I do that as soon as we got into the elevator?”
Suddenly, the elevator stopped on the eleventh floor. She glanced up. “Is this your floor?”
They were the only ones in the elevator.
He nodded. Then he hit the button to close the doors. She glanced sharply up at him. He shrugged.
“I want to make sure you get home safe.”
She stared at him, trying to discern his motives. Was he a player? A stalker? A rapist? Or just a guy who was genuinely concerned someone would accost her during her flight up the next three floors?
“That’s completely unnecessary. I make this trip alone almost every night. I’ll be fine. But thank you for your concern. It’s sweet.”
Sweet?
No one called Yoongi sweet.
“You don’t get a night off?”
“Not usually. We’re low on waitresses, so I usually end up covering an extra shift.”
He frowned. “You deserve a night off.”
She smiled. “You’re sweet.”
She had just called him sweet. Again. He leaned back against his wall of the elevator. He must be dreaming. He must have drunk too much wine and passed out at his piano again. He smiled lazily at her.
And she felt her heart lurch. There was something about that gummy smile that had just reached out and wrapped around her heart tugging it towards him. She took a deep breath, but all the air seemed to get stuck halfway down. She wasn’t some naive, high school miss whose head was easily turned by a charming guy. Not by his gorgeous grin, his smiling eyes, or his beguiling words.
She was nineteen and had lived independent of her parents for nearly a whole year now. And she’d spent long enough working around inebriated men to become quite skilled at avoiding them. So why did she find herself drowning in this man’s enigmatic gaze?
“What’s your name?” he murmured suddenly.
She glanced down at her name tag. She was still wearing her waitress uniform and its accompanying placard. His eyes followed hers, and he smirked.
“Nari,” he whispered. “How apt. You truly are a peerless lily.”
She arched one delicate eyebrow. How on earth did this guy know the meaning of her name? And how was he acquainted with the word peerless?
“Let me see,” he murmured before he began to slowly recite a poem.
“Beautiful Nari,
My lovely lily.
The skies are starry.
You drive me silly.”
She giggled. “Did you just make that up?”
He nodded.
She felt oddly touched. She simply stared at him for a moment. He returned that intense gaze. Finally, she blinked.
“Found in a cafe,
Nearly half past one,
Don’t know what to say,
Would you be my sun?”
Her lips quirked. “Would I be your son? I think, sir, that you are drunk, after all.”
He squinted hard at her. “What?”
The elevator instantly shifted and then dinged. The doors rumbled open. She glanced at the floor number. Then a big grin split her face.
“This is my floor. Thanks for seeing me home. It was chivalrous of you, but I can make it the rest of the way on my own.”
But she found that she couldn’t even rise from the floor unassisted, for Yoongi was suddenly bent over her as he held out his hand towards her. She glanced up at him, but she couldn’t figure out how to decline the offer of his help without being rude, so she slipped her hand into his. Even before he drew her towards him, at the first contact of his skin sliding across hers, she felt a zing slip from his fingers into hers. That little spark started a fire under her skin that burned all the way down to her belly. She gasped.
Yoongi quirked his dark eyebrows at her in question, but she found a ready excuse.
“The door is closing!”
He hauled her quickly to her feet, released her hand, and spun around to hit the button to open the doors again. He managed it in time. The doors slid open again.
She walked through the doorway with a “Thank you” tossed over her shoulder. She had to evade this guy. His eyes were too speaking. So were his fingers.
She wandered down the hallway towards her rooms. Outside of her door a moment later, she fished through her purse for her key. She slid it into the lock and turned it. And was suddenly aware of that masculine presence breathing down her neck again.
Terrified, she clutched at her purse, unzipping it with her hand without glancing down at it. She reached in and slid her fingers around the can. When she was ready, she spun around. And came eyeball to eyeball with…the guy from the cafe! Whose name she had neglected to ask for.
As she was preparing to pull the can from her purse and do some damage to his bronchial tubes, he suddenly grinned and held up her shoes.
“You forgot these,” his low voice rumbled in her ears.
“Oh!” Still refusing to let loose of her can of defense, she reached out with her left hand to take her shoes. “Thank you.”
His eyes slid over her face. She was so lovely.
“You’re welcome,” he murmured. Then, “See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” she echoed as she opened her apartment door and entered, sliding the door shut and locking it.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. She could still see his own gorgeous pair of mahogany eyes. They were still speaking volumes to her. And raising the hair on the back of her neck.
