“The way you two look at each other reminds me of how I used to look at your grandfather, Barry. Like he was the only man in the room.”
Barry grunts, holding out his hand. “I guess we better dance, then.”
I bat my eyelashes. “You can do better than that.”
Dolly claps her hands together with joy.
Barry’s lips twitch, but his amusement slowly fades and indeed, he looks at me like I’m the only person in the room. “I’ll be miserable until I’m holding you, princess.”
Breathless, I take his offered hand.
I don’t even feel my feet as he guides me out onto the dance floor, and it has nothing to do with the wine. No, he’s the intoxicating one who pulls me close on the amber-lit dance floor, just as a slow song begins to play. I wrap my arms around his neck, which naturally brings me high on my tiptoes, his arms banding around me to bring me ultra close. “I thought you didn’t know how to dance,” I whisper, feeling weightless and tingly, the front of his suit pants rasping against my bare thighs.
“I don’t. I’m winging it.”
“Ah, you’ve got whiskey courage.”
“No, I’ve got Petra courage.” He gathers me in tighter, burying his face in my hair and inhaling with a gruff sound. “You’ve been fucking incredible tonight, you know that?”
Goosebumps prickle my spine and the back of my neck.
Even after everything I just learned from Dolly. Even after several reminders to myself that he doesn’t want to get serious with someone as young as myself, I nuzzle closer. After all, I still have a role to play.
Right.
Just a role.
“You’ve charmed my family, especially my grandmother. I can’t thank you enough for that. Giving her that…peace. Christ, you’ve lit up this entire room since you walked into it.” His heart pounds rapidly against mine, his warm breath coasting over my ear and making me shiver. “I don’t feel…like an enormous freak when you’re next to me.”
“That’s because you’re not one.”You’re perfect.“You have to possess a lot of courage to be a Green Beret. This is a different kind of courage, though. Being social. Belonging. I’m glad I could help you do that.”
“Yeah. Me too.” He scrubs a flat down my spine, groaning when he obviously wants to caress my bottom, but he can’t, because we’re in public. With a pained laugh, he scans the dance floor around us, which has slowly filled with people. “It’s a real kick in the ass. Going from pitied to envied in the space of an hour.”
I lift my head, nose wrinkled. “Envied?”
“Look around, Petra. Every man in here wants you.”
“That’s not…” I trail off when I make eye contact with a group of men huddled by the bar. A couple of them are watching me over the rims of their drinks. “Oh.”
“They’re just waiting for this song to be over, so they can have a turn.” I yelp softly when Barry leans down and bites the slope of my neck. “I will break every bone in their bodies before I let one of them touch you.”
His jealousy makes my tummy flip, and I push up higher on my toes, barely checking the impulse to wrap my legs around hiswaist. “You’re the only one who can touch me, baby,” I whisper against his chin. “But maybe you should kiss me, so they get the message.”
Barry starts to breathe hard, his arm banding tighter around the small of my back, flattening me so tight to his body, I can feel his sinew through my dress. “Here?”
“Just a kiss,” I murmur, playing with the ends of his hair. Staring at his hard mouth while lust spreads in the deepest parts of my belly. “Donotlet your dick get hard, though. I mean it.”
His tenses, and I watch the pulse leap and race in his neck. “Why?”
“We’re in public, Barry. You’re not allowed to get an erection.” I touch the barest hint of my tongue to the seam of his mouth. “Or I’ll have to punish you.”
I have no idea what’s gotten into me. But it’s the same thing that got into me in the bathroom earlier. When I told him to apologize to me on his knees. I’m not sure why being in charge gets me so worked up, but I think it has a lot to do with him being fully capable of subduing me and yet…he doesn’t. He puts himself under my control.
“How will you punish me?” he chokes out.
“It’s a secret,” I whisper.
For several seconds, Barry labors to breathe. “Petra.”
