This room gives me the odd feeling of being trapped, just like my room in Boston. Only here, I have no balcony. I can barely pace. From wall to wall, it’s only a few strides.

I move over to the window and stare down at the twinkling lights in the distance, at the serene water, and at the lone figure sitting on the edge of the pier.

Emmett.

I’m wearing a pale pink slip as a nightgown, but I worry if I take the time to change, he’ll already be gone.

I don’t even bother with shoes.

I rush over and take the doorknob in hand, carefully turning until I feel the latch give way. A faint creak spikes my blood with panic, but my grandmother sleeps on, undisturbed.

On tiptoe, I sneak past. It’s exhilarating and silly. I shouldn’t be made to feel like a deviant teenager just because I want to go out for a nighttime stroll, and yet I can’t shake the feeling. I peer over at my grandmother’s sleeping figure once more before I carefully open the door that leads out into the hall, and then I slip out.

Not everyone is sleeping. Voices carry from downstairs; the night’s festivities haven’t ended. I race down the central staircase, holding on to the banister as I scurry along the cold marble floor, and then I make a break for the door that leads to the backyard.

I’m aware that I could be watched. Quite a few of the villa’s bedrooms have views of the lake and pier and gardens, but I suspect everyone who isn’t drinking down in the sitting room is already sleep. Except for Emmett.

My bare feet are quiet on the grass as I curve around the topiaries and the gravel path, then I follow the slope of the yard down toward the pier. He’s sitting in his bathing suit, one knee bent up so he can rest his elbow on top of it.

“If you’re trying to scare me, it won’t work. I heard you coming a mile away.”

I freeze.

He turns slowly over his shoulder, lazily dragging his gaze down my short nightgown and bare legs.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“No one else would dare to bother me at this time of night.”

“If it’s a bother, I can go…”

His sincere gaze captures mine.

“Don’t make me ask you to stay. I will, and it won’t make either of us feel good.”

He turns back to the water. I hesitate for only a moment before I pad on bare feet until I make it to the end of the pier, right beside him. I bend down and take a seat, draping my legs over the edge of the wood so my feet dip into the cold water, barely up to my ankles.

“So you stay away all day just to visit me at night?” he asks, knocking his foot against mine under the water’s surface.

“I couldn’t sleep.”