Unexpected

Chapter Fifteen

THORNE 

It started out as any other challenge. How long would it take Cress to succumb to his charms now that she was no longer Rapunzel? He didn't want to be with a girl who only liked him because she was drunk. No, that wasn't any fun at all. It even made Thorne feel a little cheap. Still, his experience with Cress at the Masquerade and then in the elevator, of all places, had sparked something inside of him.

He wanted more of this girl. She messed with his mind. In a good way.

He realized that he was a bit too eager that night when she forced him to watch Tangled. While he'd expected it to be easy to find an opportune moment to go in for a kiss, none had come. His imagination had run wild thinking that she'd be quite ready to become tangled herself—with him of course—once the movie had ended. That had been a joke. Cress had jumped up from the couch, claimed to be exhausted, and ushered him out. He'd made sure to grab his coat on the way out.

Maybe it was because they'd already made out at the Masquerade. Maybe it was because he knew they were both attracted to each other and there was this underlying tension between them. Maybe it was because he thought he'd earned her trust in the elevator. Maybe it was just the desire for her that snuck up on him, despite her poor choice in films.

Looking back on the situation objectively, though, he didn't know why he'd expected anything else to happen. It wasn't like she'd given him any of the right signals throughout dinner. She hadn't fawned over him like the other girls did. And she certainly hadn't thrown herself at him whenever he smiled or teased her. Quite simply put, she was different than the other girls he'd pursued.

But this was not an ordinary wooing situation, after all. Despite the short time they'd known each other, they already had a bit of a complicated history, and a large misconception of the other. Well, at least Thorne had a misconception of who Cress was. He certainly had never pretended to be anyone else. This, he decided, was probably what was keeping him on his toes. While Cress was right in front of him, a part of him still yearned for Rapunzel from the dance. He liked both of her personalities, with the exception that Cress wasn't exactly making it easy for him.

A little more than two weeks into it, he decided that hanging out with Cress wasn't exactly hard work. On the contrary, he was actually rather enjoying getting to know her. Considering that he was someone who got bored rather quickly with the women he dated, this was something in and of itself.

Cress was a fascinating person. Her views on many topics surprised him. She was incredibly smart, even outside of her profession, and he enjoyed listening to her muse about all sorts of subjects. For some reason—maybe related to whatever was keeping her in therapy—she sometimes had a harsh view of reality. And yet, this softness and innocence about her still reined everything in so that she mostly stayed hopeful. Cress had all these big plans and dreams about things she was going to do with her life once she saved up enough money to "get outta here." A part of him even wanted to talk Kai into giving her a raise.

Though at their first dinner he hadn't perceived her to be very flirty, he learned that she had her moments in that area as well, which Thorne loved. As he'd gathered in the elevator, she was actually quite introverted, but with a little coaxing he could sometimes get this feisty attitude out of her. He liked to call that the Rapunzel side. It made it easier for him to keep his thoughts straight.

He loved to tease her because it was far too easy to make her blush. The more they hung out, the more at ease she became, and the more she opened up to him. He started getting better at understanding her moods, and no longer felt blindsided by her like he had in the elevator. And she was just so cute and sexy that it was hard not to want to be around her. He constantly found himself intrigued by the unique woman in front of him: part shy, part naïve, part wise, part strange, part vixen.