“Old-school?” he asked, wrinkling his nose.
“Um, you like things that are a little more traditional, from an older time in the past.”
He fought back a grin. She had no idea. “I suppose that’s true.”
“So where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he said. He’d looked up restaurants and decided on a French establishment downtown. It would be fancy and a long enough dining experience for him to get to know her.
Dante had said he should try and figure out more about her past, see if there was anything he could do for her to help her, and really work to understand her.
Dante had said until he really understood his mate, he hadn’t been able to win her.
And that made sense in some ways. If Kelsey was going to be Adrien’s—and she was—he wanted all of her. Her secrets, her past, her dreams.
Especially her dreams.
When he had his powers back, he could make them all come true. Sure, he’d be expected to help humanity now and again, but his main focus would be on his mate.
No one should expect otherwise.
They drove in his car, and he saw her adjust her tunic before putting the seatbelt on, as if she wasn’t used to her new clothes.
It was kind of cute.
While they drove, he asked her about how shopping with Robbie had gone, before the bathroom incident. She didn’t want to talk about what was going on with Robbie, and he wanted to respect that, even if the whole situation worried him.
Still, with his strength, he was sure he could handle whatever came their way. He probably wasn’t going to let her out alone again with Robbie, though.
“Here?” she asked, and he noted a sudden nervousness in her voice as they pulled into a street parking spot in front of the restaurant he’d chosen.
“Yes,” he said. “There a problem?”
She jerked her gaze at the row of restaurants and shops across the road, then looked at her hands in her lap and shook her head. “No, it’s fine.”
He got out and came around the car, opening her door and reaching out a hand to help her out. When she took his hand with her soft, much smaller one, he felt that odd warmth from before again.
He’d never been that impacted by physical touch. Never been a particularly lustful individual. But apparently, with the right person, even the smallest thing lit him on fire.
If this longing he was feeling now was anything like human women at the club felt looking at him, he could well understand their desperate, imprudent actions toward him.
He sort of wanted to be imprudent when it came to Kelsey.
She smiled up into his eyes as she took his arm and walked with him to the front door of the restaurant. The man at the entrance, dressed nicely in a suit, looked them over.
“Reservations?”
“For Adrien,” he said. “For two.”
“Right this way,” the man said, leading them to an intimate little table toward the back of the restaurant, where they would have privacy.
It was lit mostly by candlelight and one large chandelier overhead, and he loved the glow playing over his mate’s skin. Her face was pretty and soft, her arms bared by the tunic, curvy and sweet.
She sat and awkwardly opened the menu, then gasped when she saw the prices. “I can’t possibly. This dinner is going to cost what I used to make in a week!”
He laughed. “Of course you can. I’m paying, and money isn’t one of my problems.”
She looked at him over the menu. “Then why are you working at Date-A-Dragon? And I still need that name explained.”
He shrugged. “I have my reasons. I’m mainly there because of a mutual friend I have with Citrine. He practically didn’t give me a choice.” He gave a wry grin at how close to the truth that was.
She sighed. “I still don’t understand it, but I guess I can respect you having your own reasons.”
“So where did you work before this?” he asked, wondering who had paid so poorly.
“Well… just a restaurant. But I did manual labor in a stockroom. See, the temp job I was working had ended abruptly, and I had no idea how to make rent. Someone I’d worked with saw me outside the temp agency and said they knew of a place that was hiring. And even better, it came with an apartment.”
“I see,” he said, setting aside the menu and clasping his hands in front of him as he listened.
“The problem was I showed up and the apartment was owned by the boss. Who liked to come by once I was living there.”
“That’s wholly inappropriate,” Adrien said.
The waiter stopped by at that moment to get their drink orders, and Adrien had to encourage Kelsey heavily to get whatever she wanted.
He did appreciate she wasn’t the type to greedily take advantage, but he also sort of wished she would take advantage of everything he could give.