RUSH (City Lights, #3)(86)

“I still don’t see why you can’t just have a sit-down with your editor,” I told him Thursday night.

“I have to go. It’s the only way.”

“I don’t know what you mean. The only way?”

“To know if I have a career left at Planet X. If I still belong there.”

He gathered me to him then, holding me tightly and inhaling deeply, as if drawing strength from me.

“No more living in one dark room,” he said against my hair and I nodded. I understood. I wanted a fulfilling life for him. But the notion that Planet X wasn’t the way had dug its claws into me and wouldn’t let go.

*

The night of the party arrived and I put on my new dress: strapless with black chiffon that billowed prettily around my knees in diaphanous layers. I swept my unruly hair in a twist. A few tendrils escaped to frame my face but it looked like I’d done it on purpose. Armed with makeup techniques from Sasha, I gave myself smoky eyes and glossy lips. Black strappy heels gave me a few extra inches so that when I slow danced with Noah, I’d be tucked perfectly under his chin. He’d said there was a DJ and live music, and I’d comforted myself with a vow that if nothing else, I’d dance with him and fulfill some strange daydream I’d had since the very first time I met him.

I stepped out of my room and ascended the stairs to the third floor, bound and determined to be as optimistic as I could. It was completely possible going back to Planet X was perfect for Noah and that I was being ridiculous. Or maybe just nervous for myself. I’d been in New York City for five years, but ‘chic’ or ‘elegant’ weren’t words normally used to describe me, and I knew this party was going to be teeming with women who were both. Planet X incorporated supermodels in some of its shoots, and Noah had dated more than one during his heyday. I’d seen the photographic evidence firsthand.

“You decent?” I asked Noah as I stepped inside his room.

“I have no idea,” he replied, coming out of the walk-in closet.

“Oh,” I breathed. “Oh, wow…”

He wore a stylish black tuxedo with a narrow tie and a vest beneath his jacket that was somehow the sexiest article of clothing I’d ever seen on a man. He’d slicked his hair back with gel to give it a wet look, making his angular features more prominent. An emerald green kerchief in his jacket pocket set off the green in his eyes, turning them into gemstones.

“You look…devastating.”

He smiled crookedly. “I was shooting for ‘presentable.’”

“Then you overshot it by, like, a lot.” I straightened his tie and smoothed the corner of his kerchief, then ran my hands down the silky lapels of his jacket, and somehow he felt my mood though I hadn’t said a word.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“Nothing,” I said, forcing a laugh. “It’s just…you look so handsome and sharp, and I know there’s bound to be women there who are a million times more put together than me, and…taller.” I gave myself a shake. “Stupid. I’m just being vain and stupid.”

Noah laid his hands gently on either side of my cheeks, then carefully up to feel my hair, and the tendrils I’d let loose, and the small silver drop earrings I wore. He slipped his hands down to my bare shoulders. “Strapless,” he said approvingly, a smile ghosting over his lips. He trailed his hands down my back, until he found my dress, then around to my waist, feeling the material and letting it slide through his fingers.

“Color?”

“Black,” I managed, as his hands had left little trails of heat all over my body.

“Are you wearing lipstick?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to have to redo it,” he said huskily, and kissed me deeply, his tongue sliding against mine, his hands around my waist, pulling me to him.

I moaned softly into his kiss and when he pulled away, he was breathing hard. He pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re more than beautiful.” He caressed my cheek. “You’re the dawn, Charlotte, and no woman can hold a candle to you.”

“Thank you,” I croaked. “I was shooting for ‘pretty’.”

“You know I can’t do this without you,” he said, his eyes searching for mine in his endless dark. “And you know I need this. For us, not just me.”

“If it’s the right thing, Noah, then I support you.”

“It will be,” he said, and turned away, so that I only barely caught his last words. “There’s nothing else.”

*

The hired sedan took us through the New York night, where city lights glittered all around us and above us, stretching upward so high I couldn’t see their end. The Empire State Building was lit up with flashing blues and greens, painting the night sky above. Noah told me that Planet X had paid for the light show and had rented out the entire 86th floor outdoor observatory for the duration of the party. The ball itself was in the Grand Empire Ballroom on the 85th floor, newly constructed after a hedge firm moved out.

Midtown was a cacophony of honking cabs and pedestrians crowding the street. Our car pulled in front of the Empire State Building, a place I’d never stepped foot in, in my five years of living in the city. Elegant people in formalwear exited limos and sedans, stepping under the front awning, and through the doors amid art deco columns and glass.