Humbly Unforgettable

Raine crossed the threshold, and the restaurant adjusted itself. Low lights, candles and linen blanketed the space, but my attention was still pirated to her.

To the untrained eye, nothing was out of the ordinary. This was merely a dining room full of strangers: a waiter slowly polishing stemware near the bar, a couple lingering over dessert, a man at the corner table consuming his drink. Gone were the days of my detail standing watch in obvious ways. Now they blended in with civilians. It came at a heavier cost, but it allowed me to blend in with the public more easily. 

Raine paused just inside long enough to take everything in with a single sweep of her eyes. Entrance. Bar. Dining room. Staff. Exits. Me. The smallest shift graced her lips, though it was the furthest thing from a smile. Rising before the hostess could speak, I crossed the room. 

“Good evening, Dr. Gibson.”

Her gaze moved over me in that silent, exacting way of hers. “Mr. Hermès.”

Stopping a few feet in front of her, I took her in absent restraint. This time we weren’t performing in ballrooms. This time, her presence existed solely for me. Smooth caramel skin glinted against the soft lines of her deep brown dress. She’d made an attempt at modesty and failed. Her curves could leave a sober man drunk. She wore discernment the way other women wore perfume. And those eyes… Those eyes held the kind of radiance that could make scrutiny feel like devotion, dangerously close to worship.

“You came,” I noted.

“You sound surprised.”

“I don’t surprise. I appreciate.”

That earned me the first smile of the night. It fastened somewhere behind my sternum, subtle but there. When she denied the driver I planned to send, my doubts rose, but she was here now. And I was glad to see her. 

“I was curious,” she floated.

“About the restaurant?”

“About whether you could be interesting without the advantage of surprise.”

A laugh brushed my throat as I remembered the way I’d slid into her appointment roster. “That depends. Do you think preparation and ambush are the same thing?”

“I think some men do.”

She’d set her boundary loud and clear. I respected it enough to answer accordingly. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t.”

Her eyes locked on mine a second longer, checking the line for vanity, performance, or manipulation. Whatever she found made her nod as she softly said, “Show me.”

As I offered my arm, I was met with rejection. She looked at it, then me, choosing to walk beside me without taking it. That shit amused me more than it should’ve.

The table was private without feeling tucked away, close enough to the windows to catch the city glittering beyond the glass, and far enough from the center of the room. There was no crowding. No corner trap dressed up as romance. No roses, trying too hard. Just excellent food, and quiet service. I clocked the moment she noticed it all. The water was already poured. The candle trimmed low enough not to throw glare into her eyes. Once I got her seated, I took my seat across from her.

“This is very thoughtful,” she admitted.

“Thank you.”

An immaculate brow lifted. “You’re not going to pretend it happened by accident?”

“No.”

“Good,” she smiled. “I hate false modesty.”

“So do I.”

The server came by, took our drink order, and disappeared again while my attention remained where it belonged.

Raine studied me over the candlelight. “You clean up even better for companionship.”

“I’m relieved to hear it. I put in a heroic effort.”

That earned me another smile. “Did you?”

“I picked a tie, then rejected it. It was a brutal process.”

Her lips curved. “I stand corrected. This must have been a true sacrifice.”

I liked watching her settle into the night bit by bit. She didn’t let her guard down or drop her senses. She simply allowed herself to consider the possibility that she might actually enjoy being here with me.

“You look beautiful,” I let out.

Her gaze flickered assessingly. She was checking whether I meant it or whether I was just good at saying things women liked hearing. I said what I said, so I left it at that. 

“Thank you,” she said after a second. “And you look expensive.”

“That sounds less complimentary.”

“It isn’t an insult.”

“Then I guess I’ll treasure it.”

The drinks came. She took a sip and studied me. ‘So, tell me something true before I decide this whole evening is a well-designed social experiment.”

“Only one thing?”

“We can start there.”

Leaning back, I watched the candlelight flicker between us. “I wanted to see you again from the first moment I met you.”

“That sounds true.”

“It is.”

“And inconveniently direct.”

“I don’t think clarity is inconvenient.”

“I do when it’s used as a shortcut. Honesty does not equate to depth.”

“Touche.”

It was all I could manage. She’d caught me sidestepping trust for premature intimacy. Her fingers turned the stem of her glass slowly. My gaze dropped to her hands, which looked like they knew the difference between comfort and indulgence.

“What else?” she asked.

Regardless of the big shit she popped over our last few encounters, she enjoyed flattery as long as truth was attached. “You want a list?”

“I want to know whether your honesty survives follow-up questions.”

I smiled into my drink. “Yes, Dr. Gibson. It does.”

“We’ll see.”

Dinner came in courses and conversation. Somewhere between the first plate and the second, the evening stopped feeling like a contest and started feeling like something else. The acuity never faded. I wouldn’t have wanted that. Instead the acuity got warmer. The banter stopped feeling like steel on steel and started moving more smoothly. A game both of us were enjoying enough to keep playing.

“So you spend all day listening to people unravel,” I said.

Raine glanced up from her glass. “That’s a way to put it.”

My hands flexed free of themselves, and her eyes followed. “What else would you call it?”

“It’s not always unraveling.” Her lips softened. “Sometimes it’s people circling the thing they should’ve said three sessions ago.”

“And you sit there and wait them out?”

“I guide them.” She gave me a look over the rim of her glass. “There’s a difference.”

“I’m sure there is.”

“There is,” she repeated, amused now. “Clinical work is strange like that. You can spend an hour with someone in the most intimate corners of their mind and still know nothing about what they’d order for breakfast.”

“That sounds like torture.”

“It’s more like boundaries.”

I smiled. “You say that like you’ve had to defend them often.”

“I have.” She set her glass down carefully. “People hear therapist and assume access. They think that because my work lives in emotional depth, I must live there with everyone. I don’t.”

“No?”

“No.” Her gaze held mine. “Listening for a living takes too much out of you to give it away carelessly.”

I leaned back slightly, realizing this was yet another reason why she was so guarded with me. “So what does it take out of you?” 

She was quiet for a second before responding as if she needed time to compose an answer. “Attention. Energy. Sometimes whole pieces of a day. There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from listening with your full mind while people barely hear themselves.”

“That sounds lonely.”

“It can be.” She shrugged. “It’s not tragic. Just… draining.”

“And still you do it.”

“I’m good at it.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

Her cheeks lifted with the threat of a smile. “Confidence looks good on you when it isn’t being used like a weapon.”

“That implies it sometimes is,” I grinned.

“It absolutely sometimes is.”

“I’ll let you have that,” I chuckled under my breath. 

She tilted her head. “The harder part isn’t listening, though.”

“No?” I shot back, sipping my drink. 

“It’s staying gentle without becoming too open.” Her voice lowered, quieter now. “You can’t do what I do if every person gets to leave fingerprints on your spirit. But you also can’t do it well if you go numb.”

I watched her for a moment. “So you’ve taught yourself how to stay soft without letting people take pieces.”

“I’ve taught myself how to stay kind without leaking.”

“That,” I said, “is a dangerous level of self-awareness.”

Her eyes warmed. “Only to men who confuse access with intimacy.”

“And which one do you think I am?”

Slow and knowing, Raine smiled. “I think you’re still deciding what you want me to believe.”

Again, I grinned, feeling the night melt into something we were both enjoying. Raine asked me about myself. I answered her questions honestly because she deserved that.

Yes, I have children, all adults who resent me to one degree or another. 

Yes, I worked too much.

Yes, I preferred solitude to meaningless socializing.

No, I didn’t cultivate mystery for sport.

That one made her look at me with dry amusement. “You expect me to believe that?”

“I expect you to believe I don’t do anything for just one reason.”

It was the baseline of the man I’d become and the most honesty she’d gotten from me the entire evening. 

“That answer was suspiciously elegant.”

“It was also true.”

She took another sip of wine. “Hmm.”

I let her redirect when she wanted to, without crowding the silence. The difference between being listened to and being managed mattered to a woman like Raine. I knew that much already. What I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed holding back. Control for its own sake had never been that interesting to me. Control in service of care felt a hell of a lot better.

The second course came. Butter-poached lobster with saffron beurre blanc, preserved lemon, and fennel pollen. She tried it, closed her eyes, then opened them again, looking faintly annoyed with herself.

“Is it good?”

Her lips twitched. “Don’t gloat, Prodigy. It’s unbecoming.”

“I would never.” I palmed my chest.

“You already are. It’s all over your face,” she smirked, rolling her eyes.

“My face is both handsome and innocent.”

That earned me her first real laugh. Not the soft breath she’d given moments earlier. Not the small smile she’d been allowing me all evening. An actual laugh. Real, sudden, and unguarded enough to hit me somewhere in the fucking chest. For a second, I forgot the room around us. And she realized she’d given me something real and shook her head as if to free herself from it.

“I think I found her.”

“Found who?” she shot back, gaze sharpening. 

“The woman who laughs like she means it.”

“Be careful,” she warned. “You’re inching close to charm.”

“I’ve been accused of worse.”

“I believe that.”

“I figured you would.”

By the time the plates were cleared, the room had relaxed around us. Her shoulders lost some of their earlier tension. She sat deeper in the chair now, a heel hooked against the rung. Her hands didn’t look braced for impact anymore. Somewhere amidst the verbal sparring, I was winning. Noticing made me more careful. She could lean into physical intimacy, and I wouldn’t reject it. She could decide to leave abruptly, and while I’d miss her, I’d accept it. Regardless of how the night ended, I wanted it to end well. Desire didn’t have to turn greedy just because it was answered.

Setting her napkin down, she looked at me for a long second. “You’re not quite what I expected in person.”

“That could be a compliment or an insult. Clarify, please.”

“I haven’t decided which answer flatters you more.”

“I’m not interested in flattery, Raine. Just as you stated at the start of the evening, I’d rather hear your truth.”

With a tilt of her head, she smiled. “You’re gentler than you were when we first met.”

“I was never unkind.”

“No,” she agreed. “But you were…” She paused, choosing the word. “Intentional in a way that got very close to invasive.”

Again, my lips tipped upward. “I won’t insult you by arguing.”

“You agree too easily.”

“I agree when I agree.”

She waited expectantly for that old masculine parlor trick where accountability became smoke. Silence answered her instead, and something in her went quiet. “Why are you gentler now?” she asked.

Because I want you comfortable. Because I admire you too much to reduce this to mere strategy. Because the first time I saw you, my instincts sharpened, and tonight I wanted my hands open.

But that was entirely too much to let free. What I gave her was simpler.

“Because I’m not trying to win an evening,” I explained. “I’m trying to know you, Raine. The stakes are different.”

Her gaze didn’t shift, but something passed between us. She looked away first, needing a second to hold what she’d heard.

When dessert came, she asked, “Do you ever get tired of being the most self-possessed person in every room?”

“Is that what you think of me?”

“I think you’re practiced.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“No,” she said softly. “It isn’t.”

There was no accusation in it. Just discernment.

My fingers curled through my goatee. “Yes.” The truth slipped out, and with it, her expression changed.

“Yes?” she repeated.

“Yes, I get tired of it.”

The candlelight moved over her face. In it there was no pity, thankfully. She’d tempered her overeager curiosity, too. When I looked at her, I simply saw attention.

“It’s useful,” I let out. “It’s served me well. But useful and easy aren’t the same thing.”

She didn’t rush to fill the silence or dress the moment up as some big confession. She just stayed with me there, which was rarer than most people realized.

“There aren’t many places,” I continued, “where I don’t feel like I need to account for every variable before I sit down.”

Her eyes held mine. “That sounds lonely.”

It was the quietest thing she’d said all night. I could’ve dodged it. Could’ve turned it into wit and stepped neatly out of range. Instead I allowed my truth to pull up a chair and sit between us. “It can be.”

Something in her face gentled. Raine was no fool. She didn’t suddenly think I was harmless. She’d simply recognized something most people failed to grasp about me. The price of perception. The exhaustion of being deeply awake in rooms built for shallow people. The discipline it took to stay engaged when so much of the world felt loud, careless, and dull.

“I think I’ve found the thing we have in common.”

“And what’s that?” I leaned forward.

Her thoughts stewed as she traced a fingertip along the stem of her glass. “Discernment as self-preservation.”

That pleased me so fucking much I laughed under my breath. There weren’t many people who could see me in the ways I saw myself, but she did. “That’s annoyingly accurate.”

“I specialize in accuracy.”

“I noticed.”

Her gaze flicked up. “Did you?”

“I noticed a lot about you.”

“That sounds scary.”

“I prefer attentive.”

“For a man like you, those might be the same thing.”

“Not tonight.”

My words settled between us. She heard the promise in them. More importantly, she heard the restraint.

Time turned silkier. At some point, my hand ended up near the middle of the table, and after another moment passed between us, clever enough to pull a smile from her, her fingers brushed mine. It was a small touch. One easy to deny. But neither of us denied it.

Her skin was soft, leading me to wonder what other places she’d grant me permission to touch. I turned my hand slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, and let my knuckles graze the inside of her wrist. Breath shifting with the movement, she looked at my lips, then back at my eyes. Awareness lit there, but she didn’t shy away from me. 

“I should ask you something,” she said.

“You can ask me anything,” I let out, knuckles circling her wrist now. 

“That’s a reckless offer.”

“I trust my ability to answer.”

She smiled faintly but breathed in deeply before speaking again. “Do you want me because I interest you, or because I don’t move easily?”

“Both. At first, the second because it pointed to the first. Now, the first because I enjoy you more every minute I sit here.”

For a pregnant stretch, she watched me, looking for the cracks. Performance. Vanity. Manipulation. She found nothing. 

“And what,” she asked, “do you plan to do with that?”

“I plan to pursue you.”

The air between us tightened with clarity. I kept going before she could mistake my directness for a trap. “Without presuming. Without crowding. Without insulting your intelligence by pretending I want less than I do. Raine, I want you.”

Her gaze went warm enough for me to feel it down my spine. “You’re fluent in this, I see.”

“It’s the truth.”

She smiled, and this time there wasn’t any defense in it. “You really do have a bad habit of making sincerity sound indecent.”

“I can work on my tone, if that’s what you desire.”

“Please don’t. Indecent can be intriguing.”

“Mmmm,” I growled.

 *

Outside, the city met us in cool air and headlight glow. The doorman opened the door and wind moved around us and lifted a strand near Raine’s temple. Streetlight silvered the line of her cheek. We stood under the awning for a second, neither of us quite ready to break what settled between us. The valet hadn’t arrived with her car yet. My driver waited up the block, dismissed with instructions not to hover. Raine held herself against the cold, though it seemed more like she was holding herself in a thought. Slipping out of my blazer, I draped it over her shoulders.

“Thank you. This was a very nice evening.”

“It was.”

Her eyes fluttered up to mine. “You planned it well.”

“I cared how you might experience it.”

The honesty of my words changed her eyes. A charged silence bloomed as we stood there, two monuments against the wind. I stepped closer, lifting my hand as I paused near her jaw. “Can I?”

Her gaze dropped to my lips. When it came back to my eyes, there wasn’t any uncertainty there. Just awareness and choice.

“Yes.”

My fingers grazed the side of her face, brushing under her ear. She took in a breath just before I leaned down, and kissed her. It was just enough pressure to learn the shape of her lips, the softness of it, and the way she answered after that first second when surprise gave way to decision. Her hand came to the front of my shirt, resting there like she wanted something solid under her fingers while the city blurred around us.

The kiss intensified.

A slow tilt of her head granted her lips permission to part further. My thumb brushed her jaw as my tongue savored her flavor. I took my time, tasting slowly, drawing out the sweetness until want turned rich and aching. Traffic noise went distant, silenced by the impossible pleasure of feeling a woman like Raine soften. She carried herself with too much self-possession to melt entirely, and that made every small yield feel intimate as fuck. Her softness came with discernment. That care made it burn hotter, made it mean more, made me want to hold the moment open and live in it a little longer.

Raine leaned into me, draping her hand to the nape of my neck, brushing soft fingers at the spot. Gathering that invitation against my palm, I angled her closer and kissed deeper until her breath broke against mine. Her tongue, small and velvety, brushed mine, revealing that she wanted me more than she let on. Her fingers tightened near my neck, composed even while she yielded. I kissed her again, slower and hungrier, committing the shape of her lips to memory while the city blurred into brass, shadow, and smoke.

When I pulled back, it was only far enough to see her. Her eyes stayed closed for a breath, then opened. That dangerous, beautiful shift was present again. She’d become less guarded and more involved. Pecking her lips, she answered back with a hunger she’d kept under lock and key. Her hands wrapped around my neck as her tongue pushed forward to dance with mine in encore. When we stepped back to catch our breath, I could see the want in her eyes. 

“You,” she breathed heavily, and her voice carried a softness it hadn’t earlier, “you’re so compelling without the advantage of surprise.”

Smiling despite myself, I palmed my chest. “I’m relieved.”

“That wasn’t permission to get arrogant.”

“Then I’ll stay humbly unforgettable.”

She laughed under her breath and shook her head, but her hands stayed on my shoulders another second before falling away.

Her car pulled up to the curb. As the valet driver got out, the spell thinned a little, though it didn’t break. As I walked her to the door, I stepped back to give her room for entry. If I’d had it my way, she’d be in the back seat of my ride, getting slammed onto my dick. If the kiss was any indication, Raine wanted me just as badly, but tonight required patience. She’d given me a glimmer into her world, but we weren’t there just yet. 

“I’d like to see you again, Raine,” I spoke as she buckled herself in. 

She looked at me like the question wasn’t whether I wanted that. It was what she was going to do with the fact that she wanted it too. That beautiful mind of hers was hard at work. 

“I’d like to see you again, too,” she finally admitted.

“Soon.”

Measured and real, her smile surfaced again. 

“You’re very certain.”

“I am.”

For the first time since she’d walked into the restaurant, her face held anticipation without any shadow under it. Desire was complicated by intelligence. Interest illuminated by risk.

“Goodnight, Prodigy.”

“Goodnight, Raine.”

Closing the door, I stepped on the curb to watch the taillights carry her into the moving dark. The night felt sharper once she wasn’t in it with me anymore. Slipping a hand into my pocket, I surveyed down the avenue. The city—my city was lit up like circuitry, every window holding some private life, private ache, or private hope.

For a man like me, hope didn’t usually show up gently, but tonight it did. It tasted like Raine’s lips and lived in the way she looked back.

“Sir, would you like us to begin moving out?” One of the men from my detail approached from the shadows to ask.

“Send a car to Raine’s home. Make sure they stay all night.”