It was a moonless summer night.
She had been walking aimlessly around the ball room, not feeling like she really belonged.
There weren’t any people here that she knew.
Unlike the rest of them she had not grown up wealthy, and if it hadn’t been for her current job, she would never have attended such an extravagant party. She felt a little lost, no one seemed to have noticed her. She eventually decided to enter the gardens to get some fresh air.
It was a beautiful night, and if she hadn’t been alone, she probably would have appreciated it even more.
As it was, it only reminded her of her own loneliness as she stood there dreaming, allowing her thoughts to drift away.
She had been so preoccupied by her own thoughts that the sound of another voice made her jump. Whoever it was laughed in amusement at her reaction and her cheeks grew warm as she turned around to see who it was.
She felt like she had been sucker-punched; in the time she had been here she had never seen such a handsome man before.
Whatever reply she had been ready to give disappeared as she stared at him.
Her reaction seemed to please him.
This probably wasn’t the first time that a woman had been speechless in his presence.
His lips curled up slightly and she found herself tracing the movement with her eyes.
It took her a moment before she remembered that he had asked her a question.
”Aurora. Aurora Loomingdale” She said breathlessly, trying to calm her beating heart.
This was the first exciting thing that had happened all evening.
The way he said it told her this was no inexperienced fumbling teenager but a man who was used to receiving a lot of attention for his good looks and knew how to command a room.
The sensible thing to do would probably have been to walk away, but for once she didn’t feel like being sensible. Instead, she smiled back and thus invited him to close the distance between them, which he did. He was even more breathtaking up close.
”What do you say we get out here?”
He smiled wolfishly at her, and her heart started beating faster in her chest.
She nodded wordlessly, afraid that her voice would tremble if she spoke and reveal how much his presence affected her.
He started walking and she followed him without saying another word.
When they walked into the shadows he turned and pulled her against him, making her lose all sense of time and space until he was all she could think about. She’d never felt like this before.
Had never been so captivated by another human being.
Oh, she knew she was being foolish but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t stop herself from drinking him in, from noticing how charming he was.
She felt like she was drunk on his presence, everything he said and did was wonderful and made her breathless. She supposed this must be what love felt like, or the beginning of it anyway.
She didn’t fool herself into thinking this meant anything to him, he didn’t seem like the type to get attached very easily. If anything this was probably just a one-time thing, a way for him to relax and have a good time. But for her this night was not going to be as easy to forget. It would be branded in her memory forever, a magical night that she would never forget. A memory that she would revisit in the nights to come, whenever she felt lonely.
