The word stuck to my tongue, choking me. We had spent all day together, exploring and dining. He’d bought me clothes, for Pete’s sake! But… a date? Why would someone as worldly and gorgeous as Riley ever consider me dateable? Had he done it out of pity? An apology for whisking me away to his other-dimensional abode? Perhaps, but it was impossible to think it could be anything more than that. Especially now, when from the best I could tell, he’d up and left me—

“Get your things, we mustn’t be late.”

Riley’s cool, seductive voice snapped me out of my miserable reverie. I looked up at him, gaping dumbly as he leaned his forearms on the back of his chair, looking down upon me with both impatience and—

Affection?

“What’s the rush, I thought we couldn’t get the—you know—until midnight?” I said as I struggled to gather my bag.

“That is still the plan, yes. But curtain is at eight.” And with a devilish smirk and a flourish, he produced two theatre tickets from the inner pocket of the blazer that fit him like a dream.

Two tickets to Phantom of the Opera.

I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth in shock. “You must be joking!” I cried.

He blinked—suddenly the impossibly suave, unknowable creature was replaced, and his slight head cock made him seem like a confused little puppy. “Is this not pleasing to you?” he asked, stiffening as if preparing for a blow.

“Not pleasing? Riley are you kidding?” I yelled, and without thinking, I leapt forward, throwing my arms around him as if he were only Bree or Vik.

It was a mistake, a glorious, horrible mistake. My brain shut down as the proximity to him sent a wave of longing through me. My arms instinctively drew me closer to him, and the heady smell that was distinctly Riley—of fresh salt breezes and deep, murky seawater—filled my nostrils, setting my nerves on fire.

Only then did I realize that if I thought he had been stiff before, he was a plank of wood now. Crap! I panicked and threw myself away from him, my chest heaving as I did. “Crap, I’m… I’m so sorry, Riley, I just got so excited. I’ve always wanted to see Phantom,” I babbled. “I just can’t… I just can’t believe you… remembered.”

His nostrils flared, but he seemed to soften once there was distance between us. “Andromeda, you just mentioned your love of the thing this afternoon. I am old, but I am not senile,” he droned, and I smiled sheepishly at him.

He checked the clock on the wall. “Now quickly, before we are late,” he ordered.