CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Rhyan

Hours Later

Today certainly hasn't gone to plan.

After spending the morning relaxing with Sadie at the spa, we never expected to walk back into a blood bath. But putting all the skills I have learned so far into practice was great, and I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon.

So someone died, and that's not pleasant, but from everything Noah has told me about what went down and how Rocco was acting, it's a good thing that asshole's out of the picture. Now, we can enjoy the rest of our trip and not worry about Atlas until we get back to LA.

Noah has decided to make up for the afternoon events—even though they were fun—and he's taking me out to dinner.

Just us.

Maverick and Sadie are staying back in the apartment ordering takeout while Noah's spoiling me for my birthday. Though, from the sounds of it, he may have had some help with the details of tonight's festivities.

As we walk hand in hand toward the restaurant for our dinner, I can't help but cuddle into Noah's side. "How's the graze on your hip doing?" I ask.

He glances down, his hand gently rubbing the wound where the bullet only just missed him today. "It's fine, barely a scratch." He waggles his brows at me. "You should see the other guy," he quips.

I snort out a laugh. "Oh, that's dark."

He smirks, touching my lower back and shifting me toward the front door of a restaurant. "Okay, we're here."

Widening my eyes, I stare at how opulent this place appears. "This looks expensive. You sure you wanna eat here? I'm fine grabbing some sushi or something?"

Noah scoffs out a laugh, takes my hand, and then ushers me through the door. "You only turn twenty-one once, Rhy. You're doing it in style, baby."

A slow smile crosses my face, and I nod as we enter the lobby of the swanky restaurant. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling, sending sparkling shards of light cascading across the room. The crystal-accented gold furniture throughout the space makes me too scared to even sit on the seat because if I break it, the cost will be astronomical to fix. I glance at Noah, whose eyes are also wide. I lean into his side. "Not what you expected either, huh?"

He chuckles. "My man hooked us up."

Grinning from ear to ear, we approach the desk to greet the waitress. She smiles, her eyes meeting Noah's. "Good evening. You must be Noah?"

He dips his chin. "I am. Is everything in place?"

Her eyes shift to me, a slow grin crossing her face, and then she turns back to Noah. "Yes, sir. Everything is ready to go." She glances at me again. "Happy birthday, Miss. We hope you enjoy your evening with us."

"Thank you. I'm not sure I deserve all this, but I'll take it."

Noah guides my hand into his as the waitress leads us down through the hall, Noah leaning into my side. "You ready?"

I furrow my brows. "For what?" I ask as we walk through the hall into a larger dining room.

What shocks me is that there are no other diners and the way the room is lit with candles flickering, giving the room an amazingly romantic vibe. The smell of scented flowers ignites my senses as bouquets of various types are scattered around, even hanging from the ceiling like something you would see in some historical romance television show.

I walk around the beautiful room, taking in all the elegance—the small details seal the deal. Like the tiny dragonfly figurines Noah has sticking out of the flowers to make them look like they are flying.

Emotion overwhelms me as I turn to look at Noah. I've never had anyone do anything like this for me before . I can't help it when the tears glisten in my eyes, and I have to blink rapidly to stop them from falling.

Noah reaches out for me. "Shit! You don't like it? We can go—"

"No, no… I love it. No one has ever done anything like this for me before. No one's gone out of their way to spoil me like this. I just… I just…" I can't speak as I walk around looking at the flowers, gently running my fingers along the soft petals.

Noah slides in beside me, breaking off a blue hydrangea bud and handing it to me. "You're worth it. You're worth so much more. Happy birthday, baby." He leans in, tenderly kissing my cheek, but I turn my face, my lips pressing against his. My fingers thread into his hair, needing to let him know how much I appreciate this and him.

Our tongues collide, his hands sliding around my waist, holding me to him as a soft clearing of the throat reminds us we're not alone.

Slowly, I pull back from Noah, turning to look at the waitress. "Sorry. He has that effect on me."

She grins, gesturing for the single table in the middle of the room. "It's nice to see a young couple so happy and a man willing to go out of his way for the woman he loves."

Noah and I raise an eyebrow at the word love. Neither of us has said that to each other. The waitress realizes she's said too much, so she gestures to the menu. "We have the full menu available for you tonight, feel free to take your time, I will be out in a few moments for your orders. In the meantime, please make yourselves comfortable." She turns, quickly scurrying away.

Noah moves to a seat at the table, pulling it out for me.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," I tease, sliding into the seat before he pushes it forward like a gentleman.

He snorts out a laugh and moves to the opposite side of the table, taking his seat. Then slides the pre-poured glass of champagne my way. "A toast. To my girl. You're twenty-one, Rhy. You're going to do amazing things. I can tell by how you took charge today. By how you organized this trip. And how you've gone out of your way to include my mom in this, even though you've never met her. You're so incredibly selfless. This dinner… was the least I could do for you tonight. Happy birthday, dragonfly." He raises his glass, my heart beating rapidly at his beautiful words.

I clink my glass to his, smiling so wide. "How'd I get so lucky?"

"Trust me, Rhy. I'm the lucky one in this relationship."

Reaching across the table, I grip his hand, looking into his eyes. "Have you seen what you pulled off here tonight, Noah? The guys back at the clubhouse don't do stuff like this. Just look at Mav and Sadie... their idea of a romantic night in is having sex all over our apartment while we're out."

Noah snorts a laugh, dipping his head in agreement because he knows I'm right. "Yeah, well, I wanted you to have great memories of this special birthday. Not just me almost getting shot at and… you… well, you know the rest." He stops because we're in public and don't need to rehash what happened with Rocco.

"Any time I spend with you will be a good memory, Noah. You need to stop worrying about what happened this afternoon. It didn't ruin my day. I swear."

He inhales, taking a sip of his champagne. "Okay, good. Then, let's order some food and have a nice dinner."

Smiling, I take a sip of the crisp-tasting champagne, then pick up the menu. "So, you couldn't have planned all this on your own. How did you get this venue and everything inside like this?"

Noah chuckles. "A little help from a mafioso called Matteo. One of his friends owns this place. Thought he was a douche when I first met him, but the guy turned out to be pretty decent."

Snorting out a laugh, I shake my head. "Trust you to sniff out the shady people in New York while we're here."

Noah shrugs. "As long as Matteo is on our side, that's all I care about."

The waitress steps up beside us with a pen in hand. "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes, I'm starving!" I gush.

Noah chuckles, then we order and continue to chat until our entrees are served. The waitress places our meals on the table, and when my cell beeps, my cell alerts me to a message from Dad. Noah continues to eat as I pull my cell from my bag. He called me while I was at the spa this morning to wish me Happy Birthday, but I guess he's checking in again.

Dad: Hey, baby girl, how was the rest of your day? The prospect and the others doing anything special for you tonight?

Clearing my throat, I widen my eyes, reading the text, not knowing how to respond. Noah lifts his chin and places a piece of braciola into his mouth. "So ah… Dad wants to know how the rest of my day went. I assume you haven't told Alpha anything… about anything , right?"

Noah coughs, practically choking on his food before he shakes his head, finding his breath. "No. Mav and I decided we wouldn't mention what happened until we got back. So you can enjoy your time away and not have Alpha and your dad telling you to come home. Unless… you want us to tell them?" he asks, raising a brow.

"God, no! If we tell my dad, he'll have a conniption. We have to wait until we get home so he can see I'm okay. Because you know he is going to freak out about it."

Noah sits back in his chair, letting out a long breath. I see from the vacant look in his eyes that he's thinking. He knows what happened today will cause trouble for him and Maverick when we return to Los Angeles.

"Tonight is about you. We worry about the fallout when we get back. Avoid the question about today and tell him you're out for dinner."

Clearly, Noah doesn't want to talk about what is going to happen when we get back to the clubhouse because I think we both know that he will be in a heap of trouble. But I will do everything I can to vouch for him. I won't let my dad or Alpha bully him or do anything too extreme—like throw him out of the club. Which, by the look of horror on Noah's face, this is exactly what he thinks right now.

Picking up my cell, I text Dad back.

Me: Noah's taken me out for dinner at a swanky restaurant. He pulled out all the stops. Feeling really spoiled. He's a great guy, Daddy. Having the best day!

I spin my cell around, showing Noah the message before I hit send, and the smile finally returns to his face. He nods, and I hit send, then slide it back into my bag. "Okay, no more phones tonight. You brought me here to celebrate, and I am having a wonderful time. After we finish dinner, you wanna take a walk down to Times Square? Take some pictures for your mom?"

"Baby, tonight is about you . Remember?"

Grinning wide, I nod, reaching out for his hand. "Yes, and I wanna make sure we get to Times Square before we leave to get some pictures for your mom. This will make me happy, Noah."

He tightens his grip on my hand, his eyes meeting mine, the air around us swirling while we stare at each other. The energy between us is palpable, my heart racing as thoughts of what the waitress said flash into my mind.

For the woman he loves.

The way Noah is staring at me and the emotions he has stirred in me, maybe the waitress saw something we haven't seen in ourselves.

But it's too early for love—isn't it?

Or maybe it's been growing, and we didn't realize it. We've known each other for a long time. We just haven't acted on our feelings until recently.

Maybe that's why it feels quick.

Noah clears his throat before he finally breaks his eyes from mine, the tension of the moment passing when he scrubs at his chin. "I'd do anything to make you happy, dragonfly. So, if that means we're going to Times Square, then that's where we're going. But first, dessert."

Giggling, I continue to eat my dinner so we can move on to something sweet.

We have Times Square to get to and memories to be made.