Daydreaming of him was always the easiest part of her day when she would find a quiet moment, perhaps as she would stand there leaning against that painted deck overlooking the sand and saltwater while she enjoyed a small cup of coffee before resuming her usual shift at the bistro. There was so much that she wanted to experience with him, and some of those things felt so cliché to her. The woman she'd been a couple months ago would have surely scoffed at the woman she was now, so captivated by another when there had been a point in her life that she had been almost entirely and unquestionably certain that she would never need or want a man in her life. She would have quickly refused to believe that there would be anyone out there in the world who could captivate her so, would have been rooted in that stubborn disbelief that out there somewhere just waiting to be found was a soul that she would give that once broken and fragile trust she'd hidden from the world that only ever wounded it. Time and time again, it had given her nothing but reason to keep those walls up around her, sage eyes guarded against the outside as the spirit within craved to be set free, to fly away and never look back. When she'd finally taken that freedom she had desperately wanted, needed, it had been an incredible feeling. It had been like she could finally breathe at last. It had been a rush and a relief all in the same moment, like being caught up in a whirlwind of excitement and pure bliss knowing that miles and miles of land and sea separated her from a life that she had only grown to loathe more and more as the days came and went. She'd been so sure in that moment, on that first day where she'd finally broken free of those metaphorical chains once responsible for weighing her down, there wasn't a feeling known to mankind that could take her higher than that one singular moment. That day, when she'd arrived within the border of Sacrosanct and realized that she would now be able to live her life as she wanted to, she finally had the one thing she'd wanted more than anything and nothing would ever be able to bring her so close to that sense of complete happiness she could only dream of finding while she'd been on that estate.

Just when the dark-haired woman thought that she had it all, when she'd been so very certain that all she would ever need was that sweet and exhilarating freedom, Taylor walked into her life. What had once been a future she'd imagined where she would stand there alone on the edge of The Grand Canyon to watch the sun rise, feel the cool mist of Niagara Falls on her skin, chase the sun behind that far horizon and dance beneath all those stars of the milky way without someone there beside her suddenly shifted in a way that she never would have imagined. What had once been a world where she defied every doubt that her parents had held in her, showed the world that she was so much more than a woman with noble heritage who had once led a life of luxury with almost anything and everything to her beck and call, had become something else entirely. She would challenge the world, blaze her own path, that would not change. But now... she was realizing she'd found someone that only fed that flame in her. It was not that she had been waiting all her life for a moment like the night she and Taylor had crossed paths. No, it was nothing that cliché, like the girlish fantasy of sitting there in a tower waiting for the prince she'd seen in her dreams to come and find her, rescue her from everything that she was running from. Adelaide had always been the hero in her own story, her own champion that fought her own battles, but there was a comfort she hadn't felt before in knowing that Taylor wanted to be there, not to fight for her but rather to fight them with her. Never in a million lifetimes had she ever even considered the possibility that she was only half a heart and soul without another to make her whole. And yet, here she was, endlessly captivated in all that Taylor made her feel, in all he made her want. She hadn't realized just how it would feel to want someone there beside her as she moved through the chapters of life that had yet to be written. She never could have guessed that suddenly she would find it hard - if not painful - to see the wonders of the world without someone to share them with.

Of all those suitors she'd seen, never had there been a man in her life that hadn't tried put themselves before her, thought they were the ones that could weave the story that she would one day leave behind. They'd wanted to define her, make her the woman that she was, and it was that sense of self-importance and superiority, that arrogant pride and willingness to deceive in order to obtain what it was they wanted which had left Adelaide wary and even defiant to such a point that she would hardly give them a chance to plead their case. The truth of the matter was that it had become disdainfully easy for the French woman to see those empty shadows within the windows to each man's soul, and that was all the evidence that she'd needed to push them away, fiercely even if they would continue to pursue that which she blatantly refused to give them, refused to give to anyone. Before Taylor, love was something that the she had been certain was not meant for her. Not because she would have to give herself to someone and learn to place trust in another, but because she simply couldn't believe that any of the men who'd tried to win her would ever understand what filled each steady heartbeat that drummed softly within her breast. If she was going to give herself to someone, she wanted it to be someone that didn't just want to help her heal or learn to trust again. She'd wanted someone that understood, someone that didn't just say "I can't imagine what that must be like for you" and instead would tell her through words or actions "I know what you've been through, I've been there too". If she couldn't find that, then what was the point in falling for another? What Taylor did was more than anything anyone could have ever tried to give her. He didn't want to try and guide her down a certain path, he wanted to travel those bends with her. He didn't think that she needed rescuing, and instead of trying to fight her demons for her, they fought their demons together. It was like he knew that she didn't need him, and she didn't, but, she wanted to be with him. He wasn't trying to be the hero that she didn't need â€" or so she thought, only time would tell if this, too would change â€" and that was what had the woman who never thought she would love someone very much falling for him. It wasn't "with" or "without", it was "together" that she hadn't known her heart wanted all this time. And he gave her that.

Lustful gazes would linger from time to time when those single men would come into the bistro, their reason for walking through that threshold unknown to the woman and yet she treated them as she did each of her customers even in the wake of that keen awareness. Kindness, warmth, respect, these were the emotions that would flicker across those sage eyes, but there was never anything more than that. Despite the fact that she and Taylor weren't necessarily official, Adelaide still not quite sure where it was that they stood other than that there was certainly something much deeper than friendship that had her thinking of him too many times in one day to count, the French woman had not the slightest interest in those who cast her those looks she was far too familiar with. And should one of those men think to find a boldness in them, Adelaide hardly hesitated to show that fire which burned beneath the surface. There was only one man that she cared for, and though she knew he believed himself to be so undeserving of her affections, she'd promised Taylor that she would wait for him until he could see what she saw in him. It would be a lie for her to say that she didn't wish that he would sooner rather than later, each day seeming to make it a little harder for her to keep that figurative distance between them. A part of her wanted Taylor to walk up to her, take her in those strong arms of his, and kiss her in front of the whole city. Just maybe, he might. One day. She was nearly torn between daring to make a move of her own on him, but she always seemed to hesitate. What if he truly wasn't ready? What if he felt like she was trying to push him? The last thing that she wanted was for him to leave because she'd been too forward. He hardly seemed to falter that night when she'd toyed with the button of his jeans that night, but it was a risk that she hadn't been willing to take. Until tonight.

She can see the way that he seemed to want her touch, and while it soothed his own fire, it only emboldened her own. They were both alone, and being alone with only those feelings of yearning could prove to be almost dangerous in a way. However, it was a danger that Adelaide was far from worried about. As she trails her hand along his chest and stomach, feeling the hardened muscle there had her wondering if perhaps it would be she that was might dare to take advantage of the man she felt so strongly for. Perhaps it was Taylor that needed protecting tonight from her... She can hear him swallow that knot in his throat that rose there, and as he ushers a soft groan as she continues in her explorations of his strong build, those more intimate thoughts finding her almost reflectively beneath the way he reacted beneath her hand. Her daring smile grows into something sultry at his remark and raised brow, hardly missing the wanting that flicker across his hunter green gaze as he gives her a teasing smirk."What if once wasn't enough for me?", she purrs in those soft, lilted tones as she grows ever bolder, moving those slender fingers to find that button to his jeans once more, toying with it only briefly as she allows for hooded sage eyes to fall to his lips for a moment before returning to his own gaze, that look more than enough to let him know just what she was thinking. With Taylor, there were no secrets that she kept from him. His next words have a gentle note of laughter tumbling from her lips now as she sees his eyes illuminate with humor as they so often did."You'll get there. Especially if I have anything to say about it. Besides, I think he may have an idea of how I feel about you", she says in an almost cheeky manner as she studies that cozy little place he'd made for himself and, for a moment in time, she dared to wonder what it might be like to share a home with him before everything shifts once again.

Unable to miss the way that he seems to look at her when she closes that already small space between them, his words only rising in her that recklessness he seemed to bring out in her, she can't help but admire him for the way that he seemed to hold onto the control she was surely testing. Any other man would have surely taken advantage of this opportunity, and yet it was almost as though he fought it every step of the way. How unfortunate for Taylor that her own desires might not give her that same strength, that coquettishness only intensifying was his hand brushes ever so gently against her own. Her words have him smiling, a light finding his gaze then as he corrects her, lifting a single brow as that deep chuckle leaves him. She wanted to ask him why it was that he would say she was the one pulling the strings, but before she can even part her lips, he has her breathless for a moment, distracting her entirely in that moment and all she is able to do is smile up at him as he moves away to set the bottle on the counter. As he shows her into the kitchen, his reply has her smiling at him in a wordless challenge as she lifts a brow at him."You should know better than to challenge me so, mon cher", she purrs teasingly at him then as she follows him around the apartment. When he brings her to the bedroom and she finds that soft king-sized bed, those thoughts find her once more as she turns to meet Taylor's gaze as he leans against the doorway. Sage eyes glitter daringly as she openly takes him in once more, unable to deny just how the way he stood there had her wanting him. They were adults, and obviously neither had saved themselves for marriage... so what was the harm? She almost felt ashamed for thinking of such things. Almost. For Adelaide, it would be far from a simple act. But was it what he wanted? Gods know that she had seen the same yearning in his eyes, she simply had yet to mention it. Though, that was certainly subject to change in a moment like this one, where it was Adelaide that perhaps the one content with those more loose restraints she typically practiced.

He chuckles then, shaking his head as he replies to her accented words with a smirk on his chiseled features as she practically slides over the soft surface to find her head on that pillow, nearly nuzzling deeper into it like a feline having found a new favorite place to exist. And how she very much wanted to exist here, remembering those daydreams of waking up to have Taylor be the first she saw in the morning. As she gives him that sultry look, she can almost see a rigidness to the man as he far surpassed the average male willpower when it came to a beautiful woman nearly calling him to join her. Melodic laughter slips through gently parted lips as sage eyes glitter in the dim light that bled into the bedroom from the hallway."Is something wrong, Taylor?", she queries impishly before she finally sits up in that bed, pulling one slender leg partially towards her, pausing there for a moment before she pushes herself up from the bed, closing the distance between them once more as she flutters those dark lashes up at him, black heels long forgotten at the foot of the bed. She doesn't stop before him, though. Instead, she moves to press herself against his torso, one hand exploring the sinew of his chest as the other dares to slip slender fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, harmless â€" for now."You seem... tense. Perhaps now might be a good time for a drink?", she whispers, tilting her head up to stare into those hunter greens, that sultry smile hiding nothing as those sage eyes glitter in wild and flirtatious delight, all the while she continues to let her hand brush against him, now venturing along his shoulder and down to the bulge of his bicep and back.