“Will you dance with me?”
Barry leaned closer until their arms brushed up against each other.“If you want to press your body against mine, you don’t need to use dancing as an excuse.We can turn this off and do a different kind of dance.One without clothing.”
Mac felt her breathing turn choppy.She had heard some come-ons in her life, but this one was by far the best.One she was tempted to take him up on right now, despite her hunger and the fact they had made love not even an hour ago.“We can do that kind of dance later.I need to fuel my body.”
“I hear fish is an aphrodisiac.”
“That’s an old Greek tale; it’s not true.”
“I’m curious to put it to the test.”
“We can try it.”It wasn’t like she needed an aphrodisiac to get in the mood.She just needed to be near Barry, and she was ready to go.
Mac held her hand over the pan.It felt warm enough.She laid the fish down and watched it as she danced in place while waving the spatula around.
Barry took her hand and pulled her back away from the stove before spinning her around.“What are you doing?”Barry pulled her back to him, their chests colliding together, and he started swaying them back and forth.
“Dancing,” he said as if it should be self-explanatory.His hand rested on her hip as the other took the spatula from her hand to set it down, then interlaced his fingers with hers.
“I thought you said you only dance if you’re required to.”
“But you looked so pretty when you asked, I didn’t have the heart to deny you.”
“Aw.”Barry pushed against her hip to signal her to spin under their joined hands.When she came back, Mac cupped the back of his head and swayed back and forth as she sang with the song.
As the last chords faded, Barry dipped her over his arm, similar to how he had when he’d kissed her after she’d come off the boat.
“You’re a good dancer,” she praised before lifting her head and kissing him sweetly.It started small then grew like the rising tide in the evening.Mac released Barry’s hand to cup the back of his neck with both hands as she tilted her head to the side to take more control of the kiss.
Her lips parted, and Barry’s tongue dove inside.Mac met him stroke for stroke until the smell of something burning reached her nostrils.
Oh no, dinner.Mac pulled back and looked over at the stove to see a lot of smoke coming from the fish.
She pushed from Barry’s arms to grab her spatula and lift the fish from the pan.It wasn’t burned.but it was more cooked than she’d planned.Whew, that had been close.Barry was definitely good at distracting her.
“Is it salvageable?”Barry asked, glancing at it over her shoulder.
“It looks like it.Might be a little overdone but not by much.It could have been worse.”She glanced over at the rice as she moved the pan off of the burner.“This is ready for the peas.”
Barry moved before she did and grabbed the bag, making sure to measure it out before adding it.
“It just needs a few minutes to cook and dinner will be ready.I’ll set the table.”Mac opened the top drawer of the cabinet next to the fridge and grabbed utensils.She already had place settings on the table.
Since some of her students came over to go over research at night, she made sure they were fed, so the table was always set for four, even if she didn’t use all of the place settings.
“What would you like to drink?I have some beer, or I have water.”Mac didn’t drink soda or like sugary drinks.
“Beer is fine,” Barry called over his shoulder, keeping his focus on the rice and peas.
Mac grabbed two beers out of the fridge, popped the tops, and set them on the table before rejoining him to check on the rice and peas.“Looks good.”She grabbed two plates from the upper cabinet to her right and served up their plates.
“Smells really good.”Barry brought the plate to his nose and took a deep inhale.
“It is.I can’t have rice or peas any other way now.”She led the way to the table and sat down.Barry took the seat across from her.
Mac moved her rice around with her fork to cool it down and watched Barry as he took a bite, wondering what his reaction would be.He didn’t say anything before he took another bite.
“Good?”she asked, curious to know what he thought.
