by Rachel Lacey
Ruby gulped, her gaze darting to his. “That does sound fun. We could go shopping and then to the theater. Wait, you’re a guy. You don’t want to go shopping with me.”
“On the contrary.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “I do.” Ruby wouldn’t be a fussy shopper, he could tell. In fact, he had a feeling she rarely splurged on herself, and he wanted to be the one who helped her find something stunning to wear for her night on the town.
“You’re full of it, Flynn Bowen,” she said, doubting his sincerity.
“I am, no doubt,” he agreed. “But I’m truly looking forward to taking you shopping tomorrow. I think we’ll have a wonderful day together.”
“I think so too.” She looked up at him with a sweet smile.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with that wanker earlier, but I’m awfully glad I bumped into you out here.”
Her smile widened. “Same, on both counts. I guess it all worked out. There’s an Ellis at every party, but the Flynn’s are much rarer.”
Her words landed on a soft spot in his chest that was tender from the judgment of his family over his inability to launch his career. He rubbed at it absently, marveling at the warmth traveling through him at the compliment. “Thank you.”
His fingers tightened around hers, and before he could second guess himself, he leaned forward, pausing to hover over her lips as he looked into her eyes, seeking permission. In their chocolate depths, he saw the same lust currently racing through his system. He pressed his lips to hers, just a quick brush of skin on skin.
Ruby’s lips were warm and soft, glossy with lipstick that left his own lips feeling slick and tasting faintly of candy. She exhaled against his mouth, a puff of warm air that blew away his resolve.
His eyes slid shut as he kissed her again, firmer this time, mouths moving together as he dropped his hand to her waist, drawing her closer. A little moan escaped her lips, and Flynn felt like he could probably kiss Ruby forever and never get enough. She was soft and sweet, but also strong and passionate and smart.
He lifted his head, grinning down at her as his heart tapped out a happy rhythm inside his chest. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
She blinked, her eyes dazed and glazed with lust, before smiling back at him. “Tomorrow.”
3
Ruby folded her bridesmaid dress and tucked it inside one of her packing cubes. Her suitcase was neat and orderly, but her brain was not. It was spinning so fast she felt dizzy. She would be meeting Flynn out front in fifteen minutes, and she hadn’t planned a single moment of the day to come. Or the day after. Or the day after that.
There wasn’t a spreadsheet to prepare her for the aftereffects of that kiss, which left her stomach feeling like it contained a hurricane. A very warm, welcome hurricane. What if Flynn expected her to spend the night with him after their day together in London? Did she want that? She didn’t not want it. But while he definitely lit her up in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time, she wasn’t sure she was ready to move that fast with him either.
Today was about having fun and seeing London, although she certainly wouldn’t object to another kiss if the opportunity presented. It was time to say farewell to the Langdon estate—and her friends—and embark on the next leg of her adventure. She had a hotel booked in London, but other than that, her itinerary was one hundred percent up in the air.
She zipped her suitcase and pressed a hand against her stomach. This had to be what it felt like when you jumped out of an airplane, that time of freefall before the parachute opened. Ruby never jumped without a net, without making sure she knew exactly how far away the ground was and how high she’d bounce once she hit it.
Today, she was taking a wild leap, and she had no idea how far she’d fall or what the bottom would feel like when she got there. Well, she imagined it might feel like Flynn’s lips and the warmth of his embrace. Safe. Secure.
Today, Flynn was her parachute. She didn’t know the exact specifications for how he operated or when he would catch her, but she was confident that he would catch her.
“Here goes nothing,” she whispered.
She stood and went into the bathroom to freshen up, reapplying her lipstick while she ignored the little voice in her head that told her she was being ridiculously girly. This was her adventure, and she was going to do whatever the hell she wanted. And right now, she wanted her lips to look perfect and shiny and plum-colored when Flynn saw her in a few minutes.
She shoved her lipstick into her purse, lifted the handle to the suitcase, and left her room. There were other wedding guests in the hallway, milling about as they prepared to leave the estate. She found Megan and Jake in the parlor, talking to one of Theo’s uncles.
“Morning, Ruby,” Megan called, waving her over. They’d seen each other briefly at breakfast, but everyone had been so busy recounting the highlights of the wedding and talking about Elle and Theo’s upcoming honeymoon in Tahiti that they hadn’t had much of a chance to chat.
“Hey.” Ruby rolled her suitcase over to them.
“So, you’re spending the day with Flynn?”
She nodded. “I am, and I’m looking forward to it. You guys have fun on your own and stop worrying about me.”
“I’m not worried,” Megan said with a laugh. “Well, maybe a little.”
“Don’t be.” Ruby gave her a squeeze. “Text me later, okay?”
“You know I will. Have fun,” Megan said.
“I’ll keep her from bugging the hell out of you all day,” Jake said, giving his girlfriend a good-natured nudge.
“Thanks,” Ruby told him. “Besides, you guys can just follow my hashtag if you want to keep tabs on me.”
“Oh, I plan to,” Megan said, holding up her phone for emphasis.
“Talk to you later.” Ruby waved goodbye and rolled her suitcase toward the front door. The spinning, churning sensation in her stomach intensified.
Leaping without a net.
It was slightly terrifying, but once she committed to something, she was determined to see it through, and today was no different. Worst case, she and Flynn didn’t enjoy each other’s company as much in the light of day and would spend a boring day together. But she didn’t think that was going to be the case.
As she walked outside into the gray September morning and caught sight of Flynn leaning against the side of a sleek black sports car, she knew boring would be the last way she’d ever describe the day to come.
“Good morning,” he said, opening the passenger door for her. He had on jeans and a blue polo shirt that looked like a million bucks on him, his brown hair neatly combed, although a stray lock tumbled rebelliously onto his forehead. “Ready to have an adventure?”
“So ready.” She let him take her suitcase before sliding into the passenger seat. The inside of the car smelled like leather and Flynn, whatever scent it was that she associated with him.
He stowed her suitcase in the trunk and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Would you like to see a bit of the English countryside on our way into London this morning?”
“Yeah, that sounds great.” See? She was going with the flow, embracing the adventure.
Flynn started the car, telling her random facts about the sights they passed. He took her past rolling fields full of sheep and crumbling stone structures that looked like they’d come right out of a history book. They stopped at a castle built during the fourteenth century and took a quick tour. Ruby didn’t even try to contain her glee as she read over the plaques detailing the history of the structure.
“We’re standing where real knights once rode into battle. Look, you can see where a cannonball hit the wall.” The stone walls of the castle were pockmarked with scars from ancient battles. She posed for several photos, posting them to the hashtag she would be using to document her adventure, #RubyGoesRogue. She even let Flynn take a silly selfie of them together in front of the entrance.
“Something to remember our day together by,” he said as he texted it to her.
Flynn chatted easily the rest of the way into London. He had a knack for keeping the conversation going, while Ruby tended to be more concise with her words. She was perfectly happy to sit back and enjoy the landscape and Flynn’s descriptions of what she was seeing.
“Shall I drop you off at your hotel while I park the car?” he asked as they entered London’s bustling streets.
She’d gotten a quick look at the city when she arrived a few days ago, but it still impressed her. So much history. Everything seemed so grand and important. “Yeah. That would be great. I’ll check in and drop off my suitcase and then we can do some sightseeing.”
“Perfect.” He pulled the car to the curb in front of the rather ornate-looking front entrance of the Hilton where she’d booked herself a room.
“I’ll meet you in the lobby in a little bit,” he said. “Just come down whenever you’re ready.”
“Okay. Thank you.” She climbed out of the car as Flynn came around to help her with her suitcase, and the concierge met them to take her bag. She said goodbye to Flynn and walked inside, pausing for a moment to take in the grandeur of the lobby.
It just looked so…British. Everything around her had a feeling of old-world opulence, thick brocades on the floors and intricately carved moldings around edges and doorways. She approached the counter and soon was on her way to her room on the seventh floor, riding up in the elevator with the bellhop who had taken her suitcase.
She tipped him and let herself into her room, exhaling deeply as she sat on the bed. This was her first time traveling alone, and it was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. Having Flynn with her here today felt good, though. Letting him show her around didn’t in any way lessen her adventure, as Megan had said, and in fact, it might add to it. Surely, she was likely to see and do things with him as her tour guide that she might have missed otherwise.
She really appreciated that he hadn’t come up to the room with her. It seemed to cement her impression of him being a solid guy. It probably would have been fine if he came up, but she felt a lot more comfortable having this time to get settled on her own.
She freshened up, took a quick peek out of her window to see the view—more buildings—and headed downstairs to meet Flynn in the lobby. He sat on one of the plush chairs, phone in hand, lost in whatever he was looking at on his screen.
She stopped in front of him. “Hi.”
He looked up with a smile. “Ready?”
She nodded. “Where to first? I could go for some lunch.”
“You read my mind. I was thinking we could go over to Camden Market, find some food, maybe poke around in the shops a bit, if that sounds good to you?”
“Sounds great.”
“Okay. Would you like to take the Tube? It’s easier and quicker than driving in the city.”
“I’ve never ridden a subway before,” she told him. “Florida—where I grew up—is too low and wet to have anything underground, and Rosemont Castle is too far out in the mountains. So yes, let’s take the Tube. It sounds exciting.”
Flynn shook his head in amusement. “Never met anyone who found the Tube exciting, but it’s an experience, all right. Let’s do it.”
They headed outside. The weather hadn’t improved since they’d left the Langdon estate a few hours ago. Gray clouds hung heavy in the sky, threatening rain, but Ruby was beginning to suspect it was an empty threat, given that it had been this way for days now. The air was cool and moist, with just the faintest hint of drizzle, and she was glad for the lightweight jacket she’d put on over her shirt. The weather app on her phone told her that this was typical for London in the fall.
“Here we go,” he commented as he led the way toward the station.
Together they walked down a set of stairs from the sidewalk that led to a station beneath the street. Ruby inhaled the damp, musty smell of the Underground. People bustled this way and that, a whole new city here beneath the city they’d left behind on the sidewalk above.
She and Flynn made their way to the ticket machine, where she purchased a visitor’s pass called an Oyster card and loaded it with enough money to last her a few days. They made their way down an escalator to the platform just as a train whooshed into the station, pushing a wave of warm, stale air ahead of it.
“That’s our train,” Flynn told her, and they joined the stream of people boarding the car in front of them. The inside of the train was shaped almost like the tunnel it ran through, with an arched ceiling. Its walls were plastered in maps with different colored lines to indicate the various branches of the subway.
Instinctively, Ruby sat across from the map so she could study it as they rode. She might as well get familiar with it now, because she would be riding alone tomorrow. She would probably spend two or three days here in London before venturing on to someplace new. The beauty of this trip was that she had an open-ended itinerary she could customize as she went, like creating her own graph. Point A to point B to point C, and she could determine the location of each point whenever it suited her, change them if she wanted to.
The doors closed, and an automated voice told them they were on the Northern line headed toward Edgware before the train moved forward with a jolt. Ruby reached for the pole in front of her to steady herself, listening to the high-pitched whine of the train as it wound its way through the tunnel. Outside the windows, it was pitch black, but inside the train car, everything was lit in a bright electric glow.
“It’s bigger than I imagined,” she said, tipping her head toward the map on the wall opposite them. It was a maze of different colored lines and too many stops to count. She’d need to download a copy of it onto her phone for navigating tomorrow.
“London’s a big city.”
They rode mostly in silence as she soaked in the experience, watching as people got on and off as they passed through various stations beneath the city. Finally, they arrived at Camden Road, and Flynn indicated that this was where they should get off. Whereas they’d descended from a busy street filled with tall, stone-faced buildings, they came out in a much more colorful section of town. The buildings were lower here, brightly painted, with vendors set up beneath their awnings.
“I’m starving,” Flynn commented. “What are you in the mood for?”
“Something…different,” she told him. “Something I can’t get at home.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, because you can get just about any cuisine in the world right here.”
“Okay.” She felt overwhelmed by the possibilities.
“This market used to be a distillery,” Flynn told her as they walked. “It was known for producing some of the world’s finest gin, as well as being a hub for all kinds of trade, due to its location here on the canal. I’ll show you the old—oh look, there’s the juice stand I used to visit as a boy.” He had a habit of interrupting himself, his words following whatever random train of thought his brain had taken. She found it—and him—ridiculously charming.
They ended up getting Venezuelan arepas, delicious corn wraps stuffed with savory meat and vegetables. Afterward, they bought edible cookie dough on cones and strolled along the canal as they stuffed themselves.
“I feel a little bit sick after all that,” Ruby said, pressing a hand against her stomach. “But wow, it was so good.”
“So, I shouldn’t suggest that we go shopping right away?” Flynn winked.
“God, no.” The last thing she wanted to do at the moment was to try to zip a dress over her belly full of cookie dough.
“Oh, I know just the thing,” Flynn said, snapping his fingers. “Are you a Harry Potter fan?”
She cocked a brow at him. “What do you think?”
She grinned. “You’d be right about that. So, what do you propose?”
“We can walk to King’s Cross Station from here, and—”
“Take our picture on platform nine-and-three-quarters?” she interrupted.
“Precisely.”
She tipped her face toward the still-gray sky and laughed. She was having so much fun she hadn’t even thought about plans or spreadsheets since she’d left her hotel room. The station came into sight up ahead, and she and Flynn waited in a short line to take turns posing with the trolley cart that led to the mythical, magical platform. Then they boarded a real train and headed across town to the London Eye.
“You said you wanted to do something thrilling today,” he said. “I thought this might fit the bill.”
“Oh, it definitely will.” She felt a tingle in the pit of her stomach as she looked at the huge Ferris wheel in front of them. The closer they got, the bigger it seemed to grow. Each capsule was enclosed in glass and held about twenty-five people, which sounded faintly claustrophobic to Ruby, but she wasn’t about to pass up the chance to go for a ride and take in the view of the city. “We have one like this in Orlando, but I’ve never been on it.”
“I imagine the views here are better,” Flynn said as he led her to the ticketing area, explaining to an employee that he’d booked a reservation online. When had he done that? The woman confirmed Flynn’s information, and then someone was escorting them past the line. They waited for a few minutes in a private area, while Flynn avoided her questions about what exactly was going on.
And then, they were being escorted onto one of the glistening glass capsules. Ruby had a moment of panic when she realized they had to step on while it was moving, but with Flynn’s hand resting reassuringly against the small of her back, she hopped on without incident, and the door slid shut behind them. Their capsule was empty except for her and Flynn, oval-shaped and rounded at the ends, completely encased in glass. There was a bench in the middle for sitting. Beside it, a bottle of champagne sat chilling in a bucket of ice.