Very few things in this new world she was determined to make a place for herself in were ever truly able to evade the attention of the dark-haired woman and those ever keen sage eyes that so reflected the very gaze of her mother. Especially when it came to the man that happened to be one of the bistro's familiar regulars. Of course Adelaide had been quick to notice a shift in Taylor's schedule ever since she'd opened those front doors to the city, to the world, and it warmed her heart to see him walk into the cozy second home of the French woman as soon as his work day with Townsend was through. Naturally, she'd raised a brow at the man playfully when he started bringing in a newspaper so that he could sit there on that couch and read those freshly printed articles with whichever drink he so desired in what was quickly becoming his corner for Adelaide's world. In truth, she had considered placing a "reserved" plaque on one of those little table for two, simply so that he would know without question that she wanted for him to feel as though he would always have a place there. Just as he would always have a place in her world, a much larger place than perhaps even he knew. Some would expect that Taylor's presence there during those busier hours, the clearly felt hunter green eyes on her slender frame as she would move with all the grace and poise she'd been taught from her youngest years on that estate to carry, the subtle acknowledgment of the man as she would stride over with that sultry and knowing smile as she would ask what it was he would like to drink that day, it would have only distracted the woman from her duties and responsibilities she had towards Beachside Bar and Bistro as well as her team, but it hadn't. If anything, his presence there only seemed to encourage the French woman to work that much more determinedly. Perhaps others might have had a hard time knowing that the one they cared for the way she did for Taylor would weaken their quality of work, but that was hardly the case with Adelaide. She took her new place in Sacrosanct very seriously, the ambition and drive burning like flames in those sage depths as she would set out to start yet another day of making the "bistro on the beach" the talk of the city. There had been a wanting to sit there with him for just a moment and share a stolen moment from behind Townsend to have with him, but she forced herself whenever that desire would have her nearly walking over to the couch in the corner to remember that with patience, there would come an opportunity where they could slip away like they had that night.

Yet, it was on those evenings that Taylor didn't walk through the doors of the bistro after his surely laborious day under the ever diligent eye of the Englishman that were a touch harder to remain entirely focused. It had surprised her at first when she realized how her heart would sink a little when the man wouldn't stop in as he so often did, how she'd missed him. It was a feeling she'd never had before, that silent pining for Taylor on those days when Townsend seemed successful in working him to the point of such exhaustion that he would simply return to his apartment instead. She never dared to try and hide that gentle smile and that gleam in her gaze when he would appear, often giving her that smirk she adored on his handsome features. That was perhaps the most amazing thing for Adelaide when her thoughts would carry her to that bond that seemed to only ever grow deeper and stronger between them. They hardly ever needed words to express how it was that they felt when it came to the other, a simple glance and smile being all that was needed to say the same things that so many words were often required to slip over the lips of others to ensure that there wasn't any miscommunication or misunderstanding. It was just so... easy for the French woman to show him how she felt in that moment, whether it was content or playful or... something more sultry and suggestive. After all, they were adults with those same physical needs that had likely been suppressed by the wounds that had once cut so deeply into their hearts. But now, when he made it so easy for her to forget for a while that she'd had a life before this city and ocean and a world around from the one she'd been born in, the dark-haired woman would be lying to herself and to the man she was so captivated by if she dared to try and say that she could not feel that magnetic pull towards him, that she did not often think of that night beneath the stars when she'd toyed with the hem of his pants and seen that fire of wanting flicker ever so fleetingly in those hunter green depths of his. Remembering the way that they'd kissed, it was a sensation that Adelaide could never forget, and very much found herself wanting to feel again. It had been practically indescribable, the way Taylor had made her feel in that moment. Those kisses had been passionate, gentle... She'd been kissed before, but never in such a way that made her heart quicken alongside breathing.

Fireworks, wasn't that the simplest way to put a word to that feeling, that rush that felt so right despite the admittedly short amount of time they'd known one another? It had taken everything she'd believed about that fabled thing called love, and shattered it. No, there was still no what that what has happened so quickly between them was "love at first sight", but maybe, just maybe, it was something not to unlike the "true love" that filled so many of those children's fairytales. When the cab stops there on the corner by that small apartment complex and she climbs out of it, that was when the usually fearless Adelaide falters for only the smallest of moments as each step closed the distance between her and the man she wanted to see. Why it found the French woman then or what it was that had sparked it to life ever so fleetingly in her wasn't something she understood entirely, but it gives her pause in those strides as she watches those drawn curtains as if she might see his shadow. What if he didn't want to see her? it hardly seemed likely, and yet she couldn't help but wonder from a second if maybe she might be intruding on time that he might want for himself. Perhaps he was on the phone with his mother he'd mentioned a time or two before, and the last thing that Adelaide wanted was to invade whatever space the man would want for himself. Most everyone had that part of the day where they did not want to be disturbed, when they would find a peaceful moment in this hectic city life to finally allow themselves the chance to unravel and be themselves without having to worry about someone watching them. Even though Taylor seemed just as eagerly the spend what time he could with her, that did not mean that he preferred his nights to be quiet. Adelaide would always read a little before finally sinking into those coves of her bed, so she knew how that "alone time" could be something precious and would entirely understand if perhaps the man had a similar evening ritual that shouldn't be interrupted by the dark-haired woman. She could have just placed the liquor in his saddlebag, but that wasn't want she wanted. It doesn't take her long to tell herself that she was already here and so there was really no sense in suddenly changing her mind. If she truly wasn't interrupting something, then she would leave. It was as simple as that. Quickly shaking away that silly and nonsensical - yet surely entirely normal - moment of hesitancy that had managed to unsettle her for a fraction in time before determinedly grasping firmly upon that boldness she was hardly ashamed of having about her when she was around him, she finally finds herself on that welcome mat draped across his doorstep.

Only a moment passes by when suddenly she can hear the soft sounds of movement behind the door mixed with what sounded like the television somewhere in the apartment. Then, the clicking of locks being undone steal her attention, sage eyes glittering brightly as the door creams open slowly before he's standing there in the doorway. He leans against the doorway almost lazily, those hunter green eyes hardly trying to hide their appraisal of that professional ensemble she often wore when she knew she would be working in her bistro. Adelaide hardly minds such a gesture from Taylor though whereas before him, back on that estate just outside Paris, she would have been quick to make it fiercely known that she wasn't a show dog meant to be judged for conformation. No, instead those sage depths grow sultry as a coy smile dances across those dusty rose-colored lips while she also allows for her eyes to openly take in the way that his shirt hugs against the toned muscles she'd seen once before and felt against her when he'd held her close on their hillside, dark lashes blinking slowly up at Taylor. They flicker downward ever so slightly as the man seems to bite his bottom lip in a fashion that easily told her of the thoughts that were likely responsible for that near mischievous look in those hunter green eyes that lock with sage. Familiar tenor tones have that coy smile taking on an impish look as she lifts a brow in turn before taking a bold step closer to him so that they are only a breath away."Hello to you as well, handsome", she purrs smooth, accented up to him in a whisper as though she were telling him a secret, that daring fire ignited in her sage depths. When he invites her in and steps aside, she shifts that glass bottle into one hand so that she could keep him from seeing it, lifting the other hand to brush against his cheek, feeling the stubble there."That's not a bad look for you, my dear Taylor", she ushers impishly as she brushes past him, fingers trailing along his jaw only to fall back to her side when she's standing inside his little apartment.

Glancing only briefly around, she turns on her heels to face Taylor as he teases about how she might have forgotten that he'd sent her the address, even going so far as to imply playfully that she might be be interested in seeing it. She moves to place that free hand on her chest, a false frown pulling at her lips then."Taylor! You wound me so with such doubts that I would want to see your home", she says with mock pain in her silken words, though she can hardly maintain it for long as that coy smile finds her again as she closes the distance between them when he's closed the door behind him, sultry gaze wandering over him for only a moment until it settles over his hunter greens. Finally, she brings that bottle from behind her back, lifting it to her chest so that it is between them now."And of course, I simply had to bring a housewarming gift", she says warmly now in that lilted voice as she gestures to the bottle of amber tequila. How the man always brought out that forwardness in her, made her feel as though she didn't need to be anything, anyone other than herself. What's more, that trust he had stolen so swiftly from the woman only seemed to reach a depth that she hadn't imagined. Before Taylor, after the betrayal that still left a bitterness in her heart, she had been so certain that she would never feel so... safe - something she had never believed that she would ever need to feel because of someone other than herself. Already he'd opened those floodgates to the darker emotions that she hadn't even confessed to Townsend, gave her a sense of comfort that she hadn't felt before. Tilting her head up to him, she lifts an arched brow up as that softness fades in wake of the playfulness that returns."Am I interrupting anything, or do you have a spare moment to show me around?", she says teasingly in those accented words as she stands there with only that bottle of tequila dividing them, watching him curiously beneath dark lashes as that daring smile dances across her lips.