“Do you want me to dance with you?”
Somewhere in my brain, I’ve frozen him in time, and he’s still the boy I knew in high school. It doesn’t make sense that he would even know today’s music well enough to dance to it.
I can’t fathom that he’s had his own life since then, and he’s probably danced with countless women in bars.
He’s probably taken them home.
He’s probably taken a lot of them to bed.
My stomach twists, souring my buzz. “I don’t know,” I admit.
He doesn’t react. He is too in control now as a grown man, but I’ve always been able to see under the facade. He’s reaching for me, and I’m running away.
I don’t want to run, but I’m afraid to stay.
The music picks up, and the lights start flashing as bodies around us react to the quickening tempo of the song.
He leans in close so I can hear him. “Dance, Liv. I’ll hold your drink,” his lips brush my ear, and a chill zips down my spine.
I’m dazed, watching him walk away and wishing he wouldn’t, but not being brave enough to tell him that.
Bodies collide with me, but it’s only the girls joining me on the dance floor. Thea smiles as she grabs my hands, forcing me to move my body while Natalie and Callie bounce around us, screaming to the song.
It’s all I need to let myself go. I don’t know how long I’m dancing or how many songs pass, but I know I’ve had one set of eyes on me the entire time.
My gaze washes over the crowd mid-twirl, and they always find his. Leaning his elbow against the high top table with that subtle, delicious smirk that tells me he’s thoroughly entertained by what he sees.
He never holds a grudge when I push him away. He’s always just watching and waiting.
This time, when my eyes lock with his, I can’t will them away, and my body gravitates towards him. His attention doesn’t stray as I work my way through the people dancing, and finally find myself standing in front of him at the edgeof the dance floor.
“Thirsty?” He holds out my margarita, and I nod.
I step closer, drinking straight from the straw without taking the glass from his hand. I blink up at him after I’ve gotten my fill, feeling my buzz surge inside of me as he stares at me through hooded eyes.
His lips part, but I interrupt before he can speak. “I’m ready for you to dance with me, now.”
His mouth closes and opens, but he doesn’t form a word before I slip my hands up his sides, pulling him towards the dance floor. He’s still holding my drink as my body resumes its chaotic free styling of the beat.
Everyone is dancing, jiving, grinding, but he’s watching me, fueling me as my body twirls. Heat kisses my waist, and I gasp in surprise, but the contact disappears quickly, leaving my skin tingling in its wake.
My hands dance in the air as I bounce to the music, and his palm covers my belly, spreading more tendrils of the warmth that I crave, and turning me liquid in his embrace.
Except the warmth evaporates when I whip around to face him, as if he was never touching me at all.
My lungs heave, transfixed by the lights and the noise, tuning out anything else that isn’t in this bubble of just the two of us.
I lean in, and his adam’s apple bobs, swallowing thickly as I steal another sip from my drink. His gaze shifts from my eyes to where my lips are wrapped around my straw, and he doesn’t blink as I suck the stray liquid from my bottom lip.
His jaw ticks as his teeth grind together, but I turn my back to continue dancing, pretending I’m impervious to the inferno behind me.
It’s only seconds before fingers brush my hip, and then I’m seared by a lingering palm on my back. Always brief, always respectful.
Never enough.
Another chorus and every woman in the room throws their hands up to shout the lyrics, and when mine go up, his calloused hand engulfs my side from my bottom rib to my hip, sending sparks across my belly.
I need more. I need both of his hands on me everywhere.
