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He looks at her like she hung the moon into the night sky just for him. The comparison makes her twist her mouth. She's not usually that vivid with her imaginiations. The round lanterns of the street festival do look like little moons, though, and she's had three cocktails.
The people know his eyes smiling or hardened, on magazines and posters. America's favorite ladies' man.
He looks at nobody the way he looks at her.
It is just dark enough for him to become a little brave, the way he rarely is in the daylight. He is shy around her, skittish. She has tried to train it out of him, and outside of their interactions, she has succeeded. His ego is beginning to become a problem in the company, or so she has heard. With her, he is different.
He is trying hard to be gentlemanly, in the old-school way they want him to be. Every little stone step has him automatically extend a hand to help her over it. He orders her drinks, but always asks what she wants. They allowed him to wear civilian clothes for their night out, and when he sees her shiver, he gives her his jacket.
The people around them do not recognize him, and for that she is grateful. It's humiliating enough that he openly acts like her lover despite very clearly being twenty years her junior. She wants so much to feel flattered by his attention because it is rare for her these days.
Madelyn Stillwell does not do relationships anymore. She gave up on dating after realizing she'd forever have to weigh the offers of men (and potential fathers of her potential offspring) against the way their faces would look with their eyes burned out of their skulls. Her charge is a possessive man, and he does not tolerate competition.
She knows all of his crimes. After all, she is the one cleaning up after him.
But there are no crimes in sight tonight, just the softness of his eyes and the way he leans into her space - shy as a school boy about to kiss his prom date.
She obliges him and connects their lips. She knows he dislikes the taste of alcohol, is sensitive to it, and that her mouth must burn him, but the noise he lets out is pleasant, and Madelyn's smile feels real even to her.