Page 11

I tilted my head back, letting the music take over my body, as I tried to not be too obvious about staring up to the balcony.

Mr. Halifax was talking to one of his co-workers now. But his eyes were still on me. He was staring at me like he wished he was beside me instead of on a whole different floor.

Then come down here.

I arched my back into nothing but air, imagining he was behind me.

I swear his eyes darkened.

I smiled and closed my eyes, feeling the beat of the music.

Even without the shots, I would have felt drunk. On him.

I imagined his hands on my hips. His fingertips digging into my skin. His lips falling to my neck. Marking me. I tilted my head to the side like I was giving him access even though it was just in my head. It was too easy to imagine. And my heart was racing like it was actually happening. I snuck another glance up at the balcony. Was he imagining the same things I was?

I pulled out my phone. What I needed was a dance partner. Someone to make Mr. Halifax snap. It was one thing for him to imagine touching me. It was another to see someone else do it.

But Jacob hadn’t texted me back. I sighed.

“Whoever that is shouldn’t have let you come here without him,” a deep voice said as his hands settled on my hips from behind.

My eyes flew up to the balcony. But Mr. Halifax was still sitting there. Staring. The expression on his face unreadable.

I’d needed a dance partner. It was like I’d willed him into existence. “I was just texting a friend,” I said and shook my hips against the stranger.

His fingers tightened on my hips, the way I’d been imagining Mr. Halifax’s would.

“A friend wouldn’t have let you come here alone either,” the stranger said.

“I’m not alone.” I pointed over to Axel and Scarlett dancing.

Scarlett didn’t even try to hide her reaction to my dance partner. She fanned her face and winked at me.

I turned to see him, but he dropped his head lower, blocking mine from turning.

I laughed.

“You look just like someone I know,” he whispered in my ear, tickling my skin.

“Who?”

“Someone that will never be mine.”

“I know the feeling,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment. Matching the movement of my hips. Keeping me locked facing forward.

And then his lips skimmed the back of my ear. “The guy on the balcony?”

This stranger was very perceptive. “Am I really so painfully obvious?”

“No. But I’ve been watching you all night.”

My heartbeat kicked up a notch. Alarm bells would have rung in my head if Scarlett and Axel weren’t so close.

One of the stranger’s hands slid from my hip to my stomach, somehow making that wild feeling of anticipation multiply in my stomach. He pulled me tighter against him.

“All the good ones are taken,” the stranger whispered.