“He looks like he’s being tortured,” Sophia laughed in Juniper’s ear, but there was something knowing in her expression. “Should we perform a rescue? I think she actually might wanna do a reach-around on him?”
Bodies pressed against them from every direction, the heat of strangers’ skin and breath creating a suffocating closeness - yet somehow when their eyes met, the chaos contracted to just the two of them, everyone else becoming mere shadows at the periphery.
Each time the crowd parted, their eyes would lock across the floor - his gaze finding hers like a lighthouse beam cutting through fog. Her pulse becoming visible with each glance, body unconsciously swaying toward him.
The silver-clad woman seemed to sense she was losing him, and Juniper could see the ferocity flash in her eyes as she made one last desperate attempt, pressing closer, her hands sliding up to his neck. But Daniel’s shoulders squared with quiet decision. He gently caught her wrists, leaning down to say something in her ear before pulling her into a brief, polite hug. They parted ways, the woman’s expression shifting from hunger to resignation, leaving Juniper awash in a confusing mix of relief and something else - something that felt dangerously like possession.
The woman retreated into the crowd but continued her dance, arms reaching skyward as she peeled away a piece of her silver ensemble, exposing the primitive gifts beneath - but Daniel’s eyes had already returned to Juniper, as if she were true north and he was a man lost at sea.
Daniel was already cutting through the crowd back to them, his focused intensity making Juniper’s chest flood with relief - like a woman watching her anchor return through stormy seas. His suit jacket hung slightly undone, the dishevelment making her throat go dry as their eyes locked across the floor. The music seemed to pulse with her racing heart, the crowd fading away until there was only him, only the electric space between them, only the certainty of his return.