The Start of Time

Chapter 40

Declan won't tell me the whole official plan for New York. He says it's a surprise.

I hate surprises, so I've decided to punish him by bringing half of my wardrobe to his house to pack. Maverick has two arm loads of hang ups, Declan is pulling out a suitcase large enough to fit in plus a small duffle bag, and I have two bags strategically slung over my shoulder.

"Why the hell do you have all this shit?" Maverick whines.

"Because somebody," I intensely stare directly at Declan, "won't tell me exactly what we're doing, so he now has to go through all of this shit with me until I have an outfit for every single day."

"Good luck." Mav sends Declan a sympathetic look before slapping him on the back heading directly out of the room.

He immediately pulls out a long winter coat—the only one I have. "You're definitely going to need this."

I set it off to the side with the cute but lazily efficient outfit for the plane ride.

"Ooh, what is this?" He says picking up two matching silky black bags.

"That," I tear them from his hand, "is a secret. Since you are keeping half of this trip from me, I'm keeping this from you. And if you look, then it gets left at home, and trust me, you don't want that. Got it?"

"Got it." Winking at me, he holds his hand up in surrender.

I wish I wasn't so minimalistic and organized. My plan to torture him is cut significantly shorter than expected because everything is officially packed and ready to go in less than an hour.

And that includes Declan touching just about everything going into my suitcase, a short make out session, and a snack break.

I wish I could say I was too excited to sleep, but somehow, I've managed to sleep nearly the whole plane ride.

"Hey, baby," he says softly. "We're here. Wake up. Look out the window."

Overnight flights would typically seem like a pain in the ass, but this may have been worth it. Even at this awful time of morning, the city is still alive. The lights glowing as if someone had sprinkled glitter across the whole city. It instills a sense of adventure and freedom, every tall shadow leading to a wide expanse of light.

It's heinously breathtaking in the sense that it holds the power of good and evil, adventure and captivity, fear and dreams, all at once.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but I'm sure that's how Declan feels right now. He's been trying to play it cool since we left, but be it the excitement or nerves or both, he's been restless for the past week. It's like his leg is always bouncing triple time to the beat of "Empire State of Mind."

My eyes move from one breathtakingly beautiful sight to another when they refocus on his soft green eyes. "I'm so proud of you."

"Why? I haven't even made partner yet."

"I'm not just talking about your job, loser. I'm just proud of you, in general. For working so hard to get where you are all by yourself. If you get to make possessive and borderline aggressive comments all the time, then I figured I could at least let you know I'm proud to call you mine."

Based solely on his expression, I think we've left him in the clouds as we descend, and he stays floating euphorically until we reach the hotel room to catch up on a little sleep before his meeting this afternoon.

He drops all his bags on the carrier, throws his sweats on the floor, and plops down on the bed to fall asleep in less than two minutes. It's so frustrating, and I have no idea how he does it. Even with the stress of work looming ahead, he's still able to sleep like a baby.