Warrick instantly shifted us away from them, holding me tight into his chest as he glanced over his shoulder while they laughingly apologized.
We looked around to see the dancing area was completely packed.
Taking my hand, he led me back to the blanket. "That was…intense," he said, looking at me sheepishly.
"Yeah." I nodded.
He reached out to run his fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry if it was too much."
I grinned, which seemed to make him relax. "Not too much. Surprising, but that's a good thing sometimes."
He nodded, causing his hair to fall into his eyes. He pushed it away distractedly, then his eyes found mine again as he ran a hand for the hundredth time along the top of his head. "Too shaggy?"
Pursing my lips, I tilted my head from side to side, analyzing. "Your hair, your call. But maybe a bit."
His chuckle was rich and deep. "I get lost in work, and don't notice when my hair is out of control. Sometimes I kind of lose track of time, then somebody tells me it's the middle of the month and I'm shocked."
I shrugged. "That just means you're a hard worker."
He shook his head in an exaggerated way that made his hair flail around and made me giggle far too loudly. "I don't mean to be a scatterbrain. Actually, no, it's the opposite. It's a super focused brain. I have to set a timer to remind me to drink water, or I get dehydrated. There's a different beep at noon, so I shuffle to the kitchen in the lab to find food."
"Are you okay out here in the big bad world?" I laughed.
Warrick's grin sent my stomach off kilter. It was not natural for a man to be that sexy, and have absolutely no clue about it.
"That's one of the reasons I'm trying to get out and do more," he explained. "I have people around me now who have taken over a lot of the busywork. So I don't even have things like buying food to distract me these days."
The drumming changed, becoming slower, deeper. Warrick reached out to take my hand. "Distract me now, please, so that we don't end up making a spectacle of ourselves on this blanket. What made you want to study engineering and robotics?"
"Don’t forget children's psychology. That’s my minor."
His incredible green eyes looked mossy in the dim light. "What an interesting combination. What's your end goal?"
"Children's toys."
He blinked hard, then beamed. "Brilliant. Go on."
With anyone else I would have felt put on the spot, but as an inventor, I knew that he would be one of the few people who understood.
"There are many children who, for whatever reason, feel rather isolated. There are plenty of toys like dolls or animals that help children interact. None of them is designed to help a shy or quiet child speak up more. I'd love to design a friendly robot doll that was built specifically to help with language, sharing feelings, and helping a child discover their true self, in case they don't have any friends."
Warrick squeezed my hand and nodded. "Brilliant." He stared down at our hands for a moment, then nodded again. "Brilliant. I'll help you, if you like."
"Oh…" My palms felt sweaty as I instinctively shook my head. "I don't…I mean, I don't even have proper plans and things. It might take years for me to figure out what I really want to do."
"That's fine," he smiled. "I can help as much or as little as you like." He rolled his eyes. "Beny, my lab manager, keeps suggesting that we take on some different projects."
"That's really sweet of you, but things like that cost an absolute fortune, even just to develop."
Warrick shrugged. "My money people keep telling me that my company and investments are growing in leaps and bounds. I'm pretty sure that Darryl, my accountant, said something about dropping a few million into new projects to balance out some things."
He glanced shiftily from side to side before whispering, "I don't pay attention to the money stuff. All I know is there's a lot of it."
He really was a mad scientist. Why was that so endearing?
We looked around to see everyone pulling out bottles of homemade liquor as the drumming started to turn into a party.
"Should we go before it gets rowdy?" Warrick suggested.