I feel her shiver.
“And now, if I may…” I pull her in to me and hold her tightly.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s music.”
“I can hear.”
“And we’re at a dance.”
“Exactly.”
“Our school dance.”
“I guess you could call it that.”
I hold her against my body, one hand on her back and the other linked with hers. I move slowly – I don’t know if this is the right music for a slow dance, but I don’t care. I’ve been dreaming of this exact moment for more than twenty years, and I don’t plan to let it just slip out of my grasp again.
“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this.”
She tilts her head, looking at me. “To dance with me?”
“To take you to the dance. To be your knight in shining armour, to bring you flowers,” I finger the floral corsage I’d bought her for this evening, “and…”
“And what?”
“And to show you that I’m not the bad boy you think I am.”
She smiles warmly. “So, what are you, then?”
“I’m the man who loves you.”
She bites her lip gently, batting her eyelids.
“I’m the man who will love you forever; the one who will give you everything you always dreamed of.”
“Maybe I already have everything I’ve always dreamed of.”
Now I’m the one smiling.
“Maybe I’m exactly where I want to be with the man I love by my side.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She nods.
“Do you want that man in your bed later, too?”
“I want him wherever he wants me.”
I squeeze her tighter to me, sighing onto her lips. There’s an unbearable throbbing between my legs, held hostage by my too-tight boxers.
I rest my forehead against hers and close my eyes, enjoying the warmth of her breath tickling my lips, her sweet, sensual smell which overpowers my senses, and the feeling of her body as it vibrates against mine.
“Niall…” Her melodic voice makes me open my eyes. “Look.” She nods to our right, where my daughter and Carter are dancing. They’re not pressed together like us – thank God – but they’re intimate all the same. It’s just the right amount of intimacy for me.
“Do you think she’s okay?”
