She couldn’t tell Jack the power she had over the trial. But maybe she should tell him she had concerns with the design. To give him that heads-up, at least, and maybe nudge him to look for the same issues she would be as the trial continued.
Avery caught herself staring across the room for long minutes. With a sigh she shut the lid of her laptop and gave up. Clearly, she needed something to clear her head. Fresh air and maybe a visit to somewhere she hadn’t been for a while. A place popped into her head, and she decided it was a sign that it might be just what she needed to get back on track.
A half hour later, jostling with others passengers as she stepped off the metro, she saw the sun was perilously low in the sky. She hadn’t torn out the door in record time to miss seeing the Sacré Coeur at sunset and headed in that direction in a near jog, only to bump into the back of some guy who stepped right in front of her.
“Oh, sorry!” she said, steadying herself.
“No, my fault. I’m trying to figure out how to get to the Sacré Coeur to see it at sunset, and I…”
She froze and looked up as the man turned, knowing that, incredible and ridiculous as it was, the man speaking was none other than Jack Dunbar. Saw his eyes widen with the same surprise and disbelief until he laughed and shook his head. “Why is it that whenever I need a tour guide, the best one in Paris shows up to help me?”
Fate. It was clearly fate, and why did it keep throwing her and Jack together? Should she even admit that was exactly where she’d been going? “I wish I had the answers to the universe. But somehow I don’t think you’ll be surprised to learn that’s where I’m headed, too.”
He looked at her a long, serious moment before he gave her a slow smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners, and the warmth in them put a little flutter in her chest. “You know, somehow I’m not surprised. And who am I to argue with the universe? Guess this means we’re going together.”
A buoyant feeling replaced the odd, unsettled feeling she’d had for hours. Bad idea? Yes. Something she could walk away from? Apparently not.
“Then we’ve got to hurry.” She grabbed his hand, knowing she was throwing caution away again. But how could she say no to the happy excitement bubbling up inside her? And after all, it was just a visit to the Sacré Coeur, right? “The sun’s setting soon, and we don’t want to miss it.”
“Lead on, Ms. Tour Guide. For tonight I’m all yours.”
JACK LOOKED AT the adorable woman dragging him through the streets and wondered, not for the first time, how he could have gotten so lucky to have met her before they’d started working together. A personal connection before a professional one got in the way of it.
The professional part was unfortunate, since he’d vowed he’d never again get involved with a woman at work. For just one more night, though, he’d let himself enjoy being with Avery. After all, here they were, together. And, smart or not smart, he just couldn’t resist.
“A lot of people think it’s really old, but did you know the Sacré Coeur was consecrated after World War I in 1919?”
“I didn’t know. Are you proving again to me that female scientists are well versed in many subjects?”
“I don’t have to prove anything about women in science,” she said in a dignified tone, “seeing as I’m not wearing orthopedic shoes.”
He laughed. “True. And they’re even bright green, which I’ve never seen in leather ankle boots.”
“Clearly, you live a sheltered life. Maybe you should get yourself some brightly colored shoes.”
“Somehow, I think my patients would worry about my skills if I dressed that way.” His eyes met her twinkling ones, an even more vivid green than her boots, and just looking at her made him smile. “You get to hide in your lab and behind your computer. I don’t.”
“You could wear them while your patients are under anesthesia.” She had that teasing look in her eyes that he’d found irresistible yesterday when they’d gone up the Eiffel Tower, then spent that magical time in his hotel room. That he’d found irresistible since the moment she’d grabbed his hand and led him to breakfast. That he had to somehow learn to resist, starting again tomorrow.
“Except most of my patients are awake during procedures, so I’ll stick with black or brown.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Here with you tonight.”
She looked up at him, an oddly arrested expression on her face. “Mine, too.” She stepped up their pace. “We’re almost there, and since January’s off season, hopefully there won’t be big crowds. Good thing the sun’s peeking through. I think it just might be a beautiful night.”
“It already is.”
A blush filled her cheeks as she realized what he was saying. And maybe it sounded hokey, but he meant it. His intense focus on work usually didn’t allow him to notice things like a beautiful sunset or, though he probably shouldn’t admit it, even a beautiful woman sometimes. But she’d grabbed his attention from the second he’d met her, and he didn’t know what to do about that.
She led him around a corner then suddenly stopped, turning her full attention in front of them. “Voilà! We made it! And, oh, my gosh, I think it’s about the most spectacular I’ve ever seen!”
His gaze followed hers, and the sight was beyond anything he’d expected. At the end of the street behind a beautiful old building with large columns, the Sacré Coeur rose high above everything else. Its numerous cupolas and spires were bathed in pink and gold from the sunset, emerging from the pale sky and looking for all the world like a stunning mural in the mist.
“That’s… incredible.”
“It is, isn’t it?” She took her hand from his, moving it to clutch his arm, holding him closer. He looked down to see her eyes lit with the same wonder he was feeling and that strange sense of connection with her, too, that had prompted yesterday’s memorable interlude. “I haven’t seen the basilica for a long time.”
He moved his arm from her grasp and wrapped it around her shoulders, wanting to feel her next to him. They stood there together a long while, staring as the pastels changed hue and darkened. Eventually, the sun dipped low, taking the color and light with it, and Jack turned to her, pulling her fully into his arms without thinking. “Somehow, I don’t think it would have seemed quite as beautiful if you hadn’t been here with me.”
She smiled and lowered her head to rest her cheek against his chest as she gazed down the street at the now shadowed church, and he couldn’t believe how natural it felt to hold her like this. Like they’d been together a long time instead of one day. Like there weren’t good reasons not to.
He stroked his hand up her back, sliding it beneath her thick hair to cup her neck. “How about we take the funicular up to see the city below?”
She lifted her head and leaned back to look up at him. “How do you know about the funicular?”
“What, you think you have all the dibs on tour guiding?” He tucked her hair under her cute hat, a yellow one this time, letting his fingers linger on the softness of her locks before stroking briefly down her cheeks. “I read a Paris tour guide book because I didn’t know I’d have a personal one tonight.”
“And yet here I am.”
“Yeah. Here you are.”
For a moment her green eyes stared into his until, to his surprise, worry and utter pleasure, she lifted herself up on tiptoe, slipped her arms up his chest and around