“Sorry for scaring you. I’ll just, uh, go find a hotel. Do you know any around here?” He picked up his pack and did his best not to stare. He’d only ever seen Melanie presented to perfection, both as a model and at that afternoon lunch a few months before. Here, she stood in a t-shirt with no makeup and her hair mussed, and she was even more astonishing, as if by dropping the French accent she was truly revealed. Breathtaking. It was just as difficult to not stare at her delicate, patrician features as it was to not stare at her legs. The power of those intense blue eyes that so defined her public image were no less powerful in private.
She shook her head, “I arrived here just a few hours ago. I only know the hotels uptown.”
They shared a smile. Uptown in Seattle was all of a dozen block
