He leaned over soon after Josie started rallying them to break off in pairs for her Reels, close enough for his voice to slip just for me. “Want to get some air?”
My nod was a Pavlovian response, and I’d just pushed back my chair when Grayson stood up and clinked his ring against the side of his beer.
“I just want to say thanks, on behalf of all of us, to Theo Bouchard, the man of the hour.” He paused to make way for more cheers and mild ribbing. Theo stiffened beside me, although I couldn’t think why. Then Grayson continued, “He may have almost cost us the game… again, but he sure made up for it by then going on to also be worthless in the fight that broke out afterward.”
Everyone laughed, the other guys tossing their opinions into the mix while Theo just sighed through a smile, rubbing his jaw. My heart ached for him. I knew it was all in good fun and this was how they were with each other, but I also knew how he’d been pushing himself these past few weeks. How badly he wanted to vindicate himself with the team.
“Dance with me,” he murmured. It wasn’t an order. More like a temptation wearing the shape of a question.
“Hell yeah, let’s dance!” Tucker jumped to his feet. How he’d heard Theo over the noise, I couldn’t guess.
But he was out of his seat and grabbing my hand before I had the chance to respond, dragging me toward the dance floor. Chairs scraped, and a flood of Surge players followed us.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Theo was still sitting, jaw set in the kind of annoyed composure that made something warm unfold low in my stomach. His teammates were oblivious, except Hunter, who slanted a knowing look between us before following the group.
The music swelled, and bodies moved around me, all of us dancing with each other. Tucker spun me in a circle I wasn’tprepared for, nearly knocking Cass into a barstool. Even McAvoy was on the floor and having the time of his life, apparently.
I caught Theo’s expression where he sat. Frustration. Amusement. Want.
All of it aimed at me.
Swept up in the high of the moment, I lifted my hand without thinking too hard about it, and curled a single finger at him in a come hither motion.
He didn’t move at first. Just held my gaze, brows tipping into the slightest sulk, like he was committing to the bit purely out of spite. Then the corner of his mouth twitched. Almost reluctantly. Breaking into the kind of smile that made my whole body feel much too warm.
Theo stepped forward. One beat. Two. Cutting through his teammates with an ease that suggested he wasn’t above shoving Mason if necessary. When he reached me, he didn’t touch me, but got close enough that the space between us felt like it had a pulse all its own.
The dance floor shifted. Bodies pivoted, jokes flew, someone bumped into me from behind, and Theo used the motion to slide a half-step nearer, his arm brushing mine like the most casual accident in history.
“You’re enjoying this way too much,” he said near my ear, his voice low enough to get lost under my skin and the music.
“Someone’s got to,” I shot back, keeping my tone light even though every part of me was tuned to him.
Another shuffle in the crowd, another excuse for proximity, and then his hand found the small of my back. Quick, stealthy, gone before it could be called anything. My skin still warmed under the ghost of it.
Then the song changed into something bass-heavy, the kind you felt first in your sternum and then all the way down. The floor vibrated. The air thumped. It threaded through my spine, and I swore I felt Theo react to it at the same moment I did.
He leaned in, not enough to risk anything, just enough for the wordless acknowledgment to pass between us.
This. Whatever it was. It wasn’t going anywhere.
And even though my head was slightly abuzz with that whiskey sour and too many emotions to process in a single moment, I felt safe to be in this, here, with him. With everyone around us, we were practically invisible. The trembling bassline throbbed through my body like it was coming from inside me and not the gigantic speakers suspended from the ceiling.
Emboldened, I stepped into Theo, taking in the warmth of his form that was now being made to move in a slow, teasing rhythm to the grungy beat pounding around us. I moved too. Partly because I couldn’t help getting infected by the music and partly because it felt like Theo and me were basically one person, and where he went, I had to follow.
Without losing the beat, Theo took my arms and wrapped them around his neck. I glanced around to see if anyone was watching—namely Hunter—but they were all caught up in their own fun to care. So I decided I didn’t care either.
Happy I wouldn’t let go of his neck, Theo’s hands slid back down the bare skin on my arms, making goosebumps shoot out all over despite the stifling heat of the overcrowded bar. Down my arms, my sides, until they finally came to rest on my ass. Then he shifted so his thigh pressed up between my legs.
And I just about died.
No sweatpants to guard me from the pressure this time. Nothing but the scant lace of my underwear to separate him from the fiery heat building in my core.
The feel of him consumed me as the racy tempo rose up, and Theo pushed down, making me grind even harder against him. The rhythmic motion, the smell of him, the sensation of his strong arms around me… It all had me hovering on the verge of euphoria, the incessant beat driving me closer to the edge. The melodic switch signaled the onset of a bridge in the song, and I once again felt pressure from his hands on my hips. This time they made me turn around.
I gasped, a shiver coursing through me as the air hit the wet spot between my legs. I instantly missed his thigh, but relished the way his hands moved freely over the rest of me.
