I laughed. “Well, despite Max’s demands, I don’t have a set curfew.”

“Good to know.” His hungry eyes ran over my face and down my body. “I want to keep you to myself for as long as possible.”

A slow smile pulled at my lips. “That sounds like a good plan.”

Reaching over he wrapped his fingers around mine. “Do you care what movie we see?”

“Hm. I like funny movies, action movies, or romantic comedies.” I paused. “Nothing that is going to make me want to cry or want to hurt the actors.”

“Right. No Nicholas Sparks movies.” He nodded his head.

“Most definitely not.” The last thing I wanted was to be snotty and miserable while on our first “official” date. Tear-inducing movies were out of the equation.

The ride to the theater was comfortable, and except for the driver and bodyguard it almost felt like the normal dates I had read about in books. We joked about movies, talked about our favorite actors, and even argued about music. And yet, the whole time his thumb traced circles on my palm, sending electric tingles up my arm. I’d never thought that someone who could affect my body in the simplest way would actually match me in other ways. And even the things we disagreed about seemed to make us fit. He hated pizza, I couldn’t imagine life without it. I loathed country music and it was all he listened to. He thought Donatello was a turtle, and I had no idea who Bob White was, but it didn’t matter.

We decided on a movie, purely because of what was about to play when we arrived. A romantic comedy that I had secretly been hoping to see but hadn’t wanted to ask. I hated to pick movies, unless it was with Sam. She and I always seemed to agree, and if it was something the other hadn’t seen, we trusted each other’s opinion. However, I hadn’t wanted to force David to sit through a sappy movie. Especially since we were finally on the date he had originally asked to do.

“You look relieved.” David handed me my ticket.

“I saw commercials for this and it looked good.” I tried to play it nonchalant, but he raised an eyebrow and smiled that damn smile I couldn’t resist. “Okay, I was hoping we’d get to see it! Jared Sutton is in it and I’m a sucker for him. I can’t help it.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I really did want to see that new spy movie instead. We could wait a half hour . . .” He started to take the ticket back but I hugged it to my chest.

“No way. It’s bought and paid for. A done deal.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to suffer through you drooling over another man.” He mock-sighed.

“Might work to your advantage.” I walked over to the concession counter and ordered drinks and popcorn.

“In that case, I won’t complain.” He reached over and took the drinks so I could carry the popcorn.

“Smart man.” I winked at him.

“I have my moments.”

The theater was dark by the time we went inside and we had to duck as we searched for seats so as to not block the view of the other moviegoers.

“Excuse me,” I whispered as we slipped past a couple sitting in the last row. The woman did a double take when she looked up at me, but didn’t say anything, just shifted her legs so we could get through.

We had perfect seats, right in the middle with no one blocking our view. It was shaping up to be a great night. Why hadn’t I gone on a regular date before? All of my other dates had been to formal occasions, or occasionally to the party of an important family or business. Never to anything normal like the movies.

David set his drink down in the arm farthest away from me, before handing me my drink. We missed the previews, but had made it just in time for the start of the movie. At some point during the laughing and the sweet parts, David’s arm had wrapped itself around my shoulders. As the end of the movie neared, happy tears slid down my cheeks and I tried to hide them. I loved happy endings. Life so often dealt us ugly blows that I wanted books and movies that left me feeling happy.

“You okay?” David ducked his head down to whisper in my ear. With his free hand he wiped away a tear from my cheek.

I nodded my head and sniffled. “Just happy.”

His arm tightened around me and I savored the feeling of being held. I might be a virgin, but I was beginning to realize it wasn’t just sex that was lacking in my life. Most forms of intimacy were foreign to me. Especially the kind where you could really relax and just enjoy that sense of comfort without worrying what the other person wanted.

I snuggled closer into his side, enjoying the smell of his cologne and the warmth that seeped through his clothes. Almost as if without thought, he turned his head just enough to kiss my temple, and my heart melted. It was something I had seen Alex do to Sam a million times; it was something you did when you cared about how someone felt or what they were thinking.

As the credits rolled, we stayed in our seats, not wanting to get caught in the crowd. So far no one had stopped me, or bothered us, and I was hopeful that would last for the rest of the night.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I frowned. I sat up and pulled it out in case there was some change with Selene. The text message was from Chadwick, and it wasn’t good.

“Everything okay?” David took his arm back and picked up our trash. “Is Selene worse?”

“It’s not Selene.” I turned the phone so he could see the screen. “We’ve been found.”

“What should we do?” David watched my face carefully.