The joke landed wrong. Too close to the truth. Dakota saw it register in her face—the flicker of something darker beneath the charm.
“Jayden—”
“I’m fine.” She said it too quickly. “Really. Equipment fails. It happens. The crew said?—”
“I know what the crew said.”
Something passed between them. An acknowledgment that neither of them fully believed the official story.
The music shifted to something slow and sultry, and couples drifted toward the makeshift dance floor by the pool.
“Dance with me,” Dakota said.
Her eyebrows rose, surprise, clear and genuine, flickering across those striking whiskey-brown eyes. “What?”
“Dance with me.” He held out his hand. “Unless you’d rather keep making small talk about luggage disasters.”
“Yeah, well, my so-called small talk hasn’t exactly netted me my missing suitcase. I practically have a whole new wardrobe.” She looked at his proffered hand for a moment, then smiled and took it.
Her hand fit like it belonged there.
“I didn’t take you for a dancer,” she said as he led her toward the pool.
“I’m not.” He turned to face her, one hand finding her waist, the other still holding hers. “But I’m making an exception.”
They began to move. Nothing fancy—just swaying to the music, the purple-blue light playing across her face, the warm night wrapping around them like a blanket. Other couples moved nearby as the sense of her swept over him. The weight of her hand in his. The warmth of her waist beneath his palm. The way she looked up at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read.
“You scared me today,” he said quietly.
Oh—the words came out before he could stop them.
Jayden’s expression softened. “Yeah. That was . . . Well, good thing you were there.”
He blinked at that. And couldn’t stop himself from pulling her closer. Not quite an embrace, but near enough. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sheesh, he was making all sorts of crazy promises. But the words hung in the air between them.
Jayden looked up, met his eyes, her gaze searching his face.
“I won’t let anything happen to you either,” she said.
Oh.
Something in her tone seemed, well, not playful.
Honest.
As if she really could protect him.
He didn’t know what to do with that. So he nodded and put his cheek on her head, and let the warmth of her seep into him, that terrifying, exhilarating sense of falling into something he couldn’t control.
Then her phone buzzed.
Jayden stiffened. Pulled back slightly, reaching for the phone in some hidden pocket of her dress.
She glanced at the screen. “I need to take this.”
“Everything okay?”
