A tingle shot up her spine at Darius’ low chuckle. The sound of his voice sounded almost musical to her ears with the slight tilt that his accent put on his words. Although they had yet to really reveal that much about themselves to each other, Chloe could feel a certain physical chemistry between them right away. Whether that could develop into something more throughout the next week would have to be seen.

Her heartbeat increased as Darius glanced down at their intertwined fingers, almost expecting him to pull away from her but he did not. It was a pretty upfront gesture on her part but she was reluctant to release his hand. That smooth warm skin felt so nice against her own. It had been forever since she had enjoyed the company of a man as closely as this. Her mother had tried to play matchmaker over the years, introducing Chloe to friend’s sons or cousins or relations without much luck. None of them could compare to Darius so far though. They had all been too self-serving or greedy or slobbish or any number of things that told her right away that they hadn’t been right for her. Would it be crazy to dream that Darius was the one? Did love at first sight exist? He had many admiral qualities right away—polite, caring, calm, strong, and of course good looking. What sort of other qualities did he have that she didn’t know about? Hopefully she would get the chance to see further into her personality over the course of the next week.

“Bien sur !” Chloe responded with a smile. Her poor French accent sounded terrible to her own ears and she cringed slightly but maybe he would find it cute. It was kind of fun to be able to practice her French. Noticing the book Darius set aside, Chloe’s eyes lit up. “What are you reading?” she asked, motioning to the book with her free hand. She could tell the title wasn’t English but she couldn’t read it from where she stood.