I couldn’t break eye contact. “And if I don’t know what that pace is?”
Stefan smiled. “Then you find out.”
I looked back at the street. “Do you come every year?”
“Yes.” He chuckled. “I live near here. It isn’t as if I could miss it.”
“And is it always like this?”
“No.”
That got my attention. “How is it different?”
Stefan stroked his beard. “It depends on what you’re looking for.”
I locked gazes with him. “And what amIlooking for?”
That smile did things to my insides. “Thatis what makes this interesting.”
I didn’t look away or deflect, but simply let that sit with me a while.
Then I smiled. “I’m beginning to think I might want to find out.”
Stefan’s smile deepened. “Good.” He tilted his head. “We could continue in that same educational direction, though perhaps with a different curriculum.”
My pulse quickened. “What did you have in mind?”
“Have you ever been in a gay bar?” he asked.
I nodded. “In Manchester.”
He cocked his head. “Canal Street?”
I blinked. “Have you been there?”
He smiled. “No, but I did watch a British TV series a while back, that was set around there.” His expression softened. “I was thirty at the time, and I’d never seen anything like it.”
“I visited a couple of the bars there. They… they didn’t do a lot for me.”
Stefan’s lips twitched. “I doubt any of them were likePrinzknecht.”
I recalled the bar from the previous night. “What’s so special about it?”
“You’ve seen a lot of leather around here the past few days.”
I smiled. “Like you said, you can’t really miss it.”
“And tonight, you’ll see a lot more.Prinzknechtwill be full of it.” His searching gaze sent heat barrelling through me. “Do you want to go?”
“If I say no…”
Stefan gave me an easy smile. “We go somewhere else.”
It was the lack of pressure that decided me.
“Then yes, let’s go.”
My heart slipped into a higher gear at the thought.