Aurora patted the seat beside her, the place he'd been when they'd first arrived.  She waited to see if he'd come without her making it part of the dare.  She watched as he moved over to her side of the table, their bodies so near that they were touching one another, if only barely.  She felt it again, that unmistakable pull towards him which she felt when she had fed him the custard.  Her skin lit up as if lightning were racing all across it and she could barely restrain herself long enough to explain.  

As a means to slow herself down, she took Billy's hand in her own, rubbing the back of it with her thumb.  It was as if she were memorizing the feel of his skin against her own.  An innocent thing, but one she knew he obviously wasn't outright opposed to based on what he'd done a moment ago.

"I intend to kiss you now,"  she whispered.  "The way I wanted to when I fed you the Creme Brulee instead.  The kiss isn't my dare.  I would never dare someone to do something like that.  Instead, I'm going to use my dare to have you save me from making an idiot of myself, like I sometimes do.  Whether that's before my lips pass over yours even once, or some time after ... I won't be mad, I promise.  I just don't want to mess this up."

She looked down as the color rose in her cheeks.  "I really like you... a lot and as much as I want to kiss you before this date ends, I'd much rather know that it was going to happen again.  So... I dare you to stop me before I make a mess of things between us."

She lifted her chin, her amber eyes meeting his before she closed them, her body rising up in the seat beside him moving slowly towards his lips.  He would either stop her before the kiss started, stop her after a bit of kissing, or maybe her $100 bill would end up back on the table and she'd be the one deciding when she was done kissing him.  No matter how it ended, Aurora was fairly sure she'd won this game, and that excited her almost as much as the idea of being kissed by Billy.

Billy had nodded just once to signify he understood. And then their lips touched. For a brief moment he thought about stopping her, but what she had asked was to not make a fool of herself. And so they continued for just a moment. Long enough that Billy was out of breath, and took in her scent. He let it fill his nostrils and invade all sense of being. He could not place it, but he held it tightly. He would remember it for when he needed it next.

Then he lifted his hand and placed it gently on her cheek. Truth be told his one hand engulfed most of her head, but he was as gentle as he could be about it. He slowly lowered her back onto the seat and he inches himself back. Not far enough that they were no longer touching, but far enough that she knew it was time to stop. Much as he did not want to.

"Aurora, you're brilliant."

He let the words hang in the air and he felt like the smartest man in the world. He had stolen the words from the dictionary, but he put them together at the right time. And so he smiled, and he took her by the hand once more.

"I have no idea what to say or do next. I don't want you to leave, but I really got some shit I should do. I'm not like your parents. I don't have a whole host of guys working for me. I pretty much run most of it, and the couple things I don't Integra and Kenzi are there for those. It's just us holding this whole thing together. Plus, you got stuff to do."

Billy slid the rest of the way out of the chair and put both of his hands out to help Rora up.

"You don't need to excuse yourself."  She said with a smile.  "I'm well aware the operation doesn't run itself.  I've had a lot of chances to see the administration side of a successful family at work."

She disliked that her parents were so much a part of this discussion, but she supposed there was no way around that.  "Tell you what... I think my schedule is more open than yours.  And since I'm going to spend my whole day tomorrow second guessing everything that happened tonight and how much I probably screwed the pooch... I'm going to let you call me when you're free.  Or maybe, you could just call to say hello if you have a moment.  Or ... send a note?  Surely you got some runner who can find his way to Vassar."

She reached into her purse and pulled out a pen and a small bit of paper.  She wrote down her phone number.  "We just had the line put into the apartment building."

She gave him the slip of paper.

"I'm so glad I came."  She admitted.  "It's been... years since I had a proper date and none of them ended with a kiss quite like that one."  

Again she was blushing.  

"Walk me out to my guys?"

Billy furrowed his brow at the mention of second guessing things. Had it not gone well? What did he do wrong? He thought things were going well. He sighed. He was never a good judge of these things and clearly he still wasn't.

"Of course I will. I can't very well leave you here in my part of the city to fend for yourself. That would be the worst way the end this. I do have a feeling, for your own safety though, you might want to either get angry, or punch me in the nose. We both know your men listen, but I'm willing to bet money that they talk too. They are less likely to say as much if they think you didn't have a good time, or you handled it yourself."

Billy had men who followed some of his own for protection, but that meant they also reported back. It was very likely the same here.

Aurora laughed.

"I'm NOT punching you."  She didn't want to tell him she was seriously worried she might hurt him.  

"Trust me, these guys don't work for my mom or dad.  They work for someone else entirely and he has zero say in who I choose to spend my time with.  And trust me, I've got far worse hobbies than having dates with gentlemen who have the good sense to ask me to punch them in the nose after a lovely dinner."

She paused the door.

"You know... you're pretty brilliant yourself."  She put a hand on his chest as she'd seen her mother do to Gavin so many times before, playing with his tie absently.  "Thank you for the incredible dinner and the amazing company.  I'm going to be thinking about it all night tonight.  I probably won't sleep a wink."

She chuckled and looked out the window at Tiny and Tim waiting by the car.

"Daisy, by the way."  She added.  "You didn't get a truth to ask me my favorite flower ... you know, for our next date."  

She smirked.

"I just thought you might like to know." 

She turned to the door and let him open it for her.  Exiting out onto the sidewalk with Billy at her side, she let him walk her to the car and she paused to give him one more smile before climbing in the back seat.

"Goodnight, Billy.  I look forward to seeing you again... soon, I hope."  Tiny paused to see if Billy had anything more to add and after he was finished with his goodbye, the goon shut her car door to take her away.

The car pulled away from the curb and rolled down the dark streets of Detroit.  Aurora leaned back and closed her eyes.  As the street lights illuminated her face and passed away, flashes of the evening replayed in her mind.  The hum of the road beneath the tires put her into a near-dream-state where she could almost feel his lips on hers again.  

Tiny looked in the rearview mirror and nodded to Tim.  Tim glanced back to see the foolish grin on Aurora's face and gave his partner a knowing grin.  Tiny shook his head.  They'd seen this before with another Luciano girl.  There was never a dull moment protecting a Luciano though, and the two turned their attention back to the road ahead of them as they took the exit out of the city and headed northeast towards Port Huron.

The car turned down a long dirt road.  The rumbling down the rural road jostled Aurora to consciousness again.  She'd fallen asleep and was dreaming of dinner.  She stretched and looked out the windows at the thick wilderness all around her.  This wasn't the pretty, sparse woods that existed around Hollowood.  This was thick, dark, tangled limbs and vines rooted in the black mud of a swamp.  She narrowed her eyes.

"Where are we?"

"Near Port Huron."  Tiny said.  "About two minutes from your mother's house - where you said you wanted to go."

"Mom has a house in the middle of a swamp?"

"No."  Tim chuckled.  "Beyond it."

A short while later the swamp gave way to a clearing and a massive house set on a beach.  Across the water, she could see the lights of a city distantly and a bridge that she presumed must go off towards Canada.

"Woah."  She breathed.  "How come we've never come here before?"

"Your mom doesn't bring people here... often."  Tim admitted.  "Been a long time I bet.  Place probably doesn't have a bit of food to eat."

"That's okay, I'm not hungry."  She said as the car stopped and she opened the door to step out into the chill night air.

Tiny got out and turned back towards her.  "Last person I know she brought here was your father... that was back when I was still on her detail.  Not sure anyone else even knows it exists.  Both your fathers.  That's about it."

"Damn."  Aurora marched towards the house.  Tim produced a hidden key and unlocked the door and Aurora stepped in and turned on the lights to reveal the shock of her life.  The young Byrne woman gasped at the sight.  

Isabella Luciano had always been a woman who had collected things, sentimental mementos from her life, Hollowood was full of them... but Aurora could see now that it was only a small fraction of her mother's collection.  Trinkets of all shapes and sizes decorated every inch of the home - some expensive looking things but many no more important than a matchbook from a bar or a mug from a hotel. 

To the untrained eye it was a hoarder's haven, a home full of junk that had no serious value but to Aurora's eyes, it was the story of her mother's life from the time of her childhood to the present.  As telling about her mother as the journal Billy had was about his father - but where Billy had Lordian's words, Aurora had found images and physical items that hinted at the person Isabella really was.

The walls were covered in artwork, done by her mother, of people and places - many that Aurora did not recognize or know.  Some, however, overwhelmed her at a glance.  Her father's face was in many of the works... but Uncle William was there a great deal too.  She and William at various stages of their lives, Aunt Tara, Salvatore... and Marie.

"Are all the rooms like this?"  She asked her bodyguards as they finished a sweep of the house, ensuring it was secure for her.  

Tim nodded.  "All of them."  

Aurora put a hand to her lips.  "You should have told me what this place was before we came here... I'm not sure she would like it much if she found out you brought anyone here."

"Probably not."  Tiny agreed.  "But we and she could be dead tomorrow and then how would you have ever known about it?"

Aurora glanced at Tiny, prepared to give him a piece of her mind.

"And I saw how much that journal impacted you." Tiny finished.

Aurora's words died on her tongue.

"We'll take shifts keeping watch through the night."  Tim said.  "I'll be on duty first.  I'm going to walk the grounds.  Tiny is in the room at the end of the hall if you need anything."

Aurora looked around, her eyes lingering on this and that, marveling at the wonder she'd stumbled upon.  Silently nodding to Tim's words.  The two men left her alone to wander through the tokens of a woman's entire life and she began to learn more about her own mother than she ever dared to dream she could before finally finding her way to a bedroom and a good night's sleep.  Dreaming dreams of what her life might yet look like in the years to come and if she'd be remembered in the same way that people like Lordian and her parents would be.