to be judged for something you spent endless hours giving your everything to and he seems mostly okay with it. It’s admirable. I open my mouth to tell him just that when a man with a mic walks to the middle of the front row to address the theater.
We amble out of the theater, Lucas taking long strides and practically dragging me with him.
“Did you see their faces! That was amazing!” My heart pounds in time with my steps as he keeps us walking.
“Lucas, you’re jerking my arm out of the socket,” I say as he keeps his stride. “That part where you imitated Bruce Willis with Yippee Ki Yay, was hilarious.” My man is possessed by movement, and nothing I say seems to be reaching him. I barely managed to fill out the form with my feedback before he yanked me out of the theater.
“Hey,” I order after another agonizing minute of silence. “Stop.”
“We’re almost to the limo,” he says in a tone I can’t decipher. Paul pops out of the driver’s side just in time to get the door open before we climb inside. Lucas covers his face with his hands. I sit there, breath heaving, watching him have what looks like a panic attack. After seconds of indecision, he finally brings his eyes to meet mine.
“They were clapping, Lucas, that movie was amazing, and I don’t even like action.”
His grin lights up his face, and it’s then I see it. He’s happy.
Throwing myself in his arms, we embrace as he buries his head in my neck. “You scared me,” I muffle into his neck as he holds me tightly to him. “Why did you run off like that?”
“Adrenaline,” he answers on an exhale. “I had to get rid of some of it.”
“So,” I pull away. “You believe me?”
“You’re biased, but I want to believe them.”
I don’t take offense. “Then believe them.”
He grips me tighter as relief washes over him, the adrenaline leaving when he sags against me. He cares about his work, he truly cares about the work he’s doing, and my respect grows.
“Let’s get you a drink.”
He pulls away, nodding, eyes full of light. “Night’s not over, beauty.”
“More surprises?”
A thousand-watt smile is part of my answer. “Let’s not waste this anonymity.”
Lucas escorts us toward the door entrance of The Sayers Club after texting Nova in the limo. The doorman is obviously expecting us as he gives us a thorough once-over and grunts out an, “Epic.”
“Ready, Gladys?” Lucas keeps his gaze forward to avoid my scowl. My neck is itching after our sprint to the car.
Once inside, we’re ushered by one of the bouncers through the crowd and seated at one of many cherry leather couches, ours close to an empty stage.
“Oh, think they’ll have music?” I ask as we take a seat. A waitress is already standing in wait for our order.
“Hope so. We’ll need to be as close as we can get with your hearing problem,” Lucas says, placing an order for a shot and a beer. I do the same and meet his confused eyes.
“No wine tonight?”
“Gladys doesn’t drink wine. She’s a beer girl.”
He gives me an amused grin, and the waitress takes off with our order. After a few minutes of visual crowd surfing, Lucas pulls me into his lap, and we get a few odd looks. Visually, we’re the oldest people in the club, and I can’t help myself when I press the button on my cell phone to check the time. “Oh, honey, it’s ten fifty-five. You haven’t taken your pill,” I lean in and waggle my eyebrows, “you know the blue one.”
He rubs his erection against my ass, and I mock a gasp.
“Oh, my, it’s a miracle.”
“I’ll show you a miracle.”
“This isn’t appropriate, you know. We’re not setting a good example for these kids.”
“No, this is the perfect example to set,” he says, running his fingers under the back of my shirt and strumming them along my skin in a seductive caress.
Drinks delivered we hold up our shots, and I propose the toast.
“To you. Congrats.”
“No, not to me. Sorry, I made one of our dates about a movie.”
I lower my shot. “What? No. That’s…no. This is amazing. You think I don’t want to be a part of it?”
He shrugs. “It’s a movie, Mila. I’m not exactly changing lives.”
“I disagree entirely. If anything, you’re creating an escape for a few hours, that’s something. And music, movies, books, they all have the power to change a lot, or at the very least,