It was the first time he'd demanded she address him that way in public. It wasn't likely someone would overhear, but it still gave her a tiny thrill.
Geoff let her go to take Chris's card and put both on the tray for the waitress to process. Chris pressed his lips back to her wrist. "More than just our date," he said, glancing up at her through his thick lashes. "Our girl."
Geoff nodded, stroking her hair. The words sank into her like sunlight. She didn't mind helping with the check, but it flustered and pleased her that they'd thought of it as yet another way to show her how things had changed. She belonged to them.
The dance club wasn't far from the restaurant. Being Friday night, there was a good crowd. Young couples in outfits similar to what they were wearing hung out on the outdoor patio, dancing and talking, laughing. Once they squeezed in the front door and paid their cover charge, Chris shouted in Sam's ear that he was going to grab a beer. "I'll cop us a place next to the dance floor and watch you guys from there until my steak digests."
She relayed the message to Geoff. They watched Chris make his way through the crowd. He got inviting smiles from the women, a double take and second glance from many of the men, thanks to his size. Chris's lips moved over the usual niceties like "Excuse me" as he wound his way around them. He was always polite.
"It's amazing how much he can eat without gaining an ounce," Geoff grumbled in her ear. "But he should cut back on the red meat."
"You should both stop eating meat," she informed him as they made their way to the dance floor, his hand firmly closed over hers to keep them together. "I've told you all the reasons why a million times."
"Yes, but if God didn't mean for us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat," Geoff said, his standard John Boy and Billy radio show punch line. She rolled her eyes but let it drop. They ate a lot less meat since she'd started planning meals, so she contented herself with that.
For now, she prepared to enjoy dancing with Geoff. The first time they'd ever gone dancing together, it had astonished her when Geoff had hauled her out onto the floor and danced half the night away with her.
When she finally had to take a break, out of breath, Chris had entertained her with the story of how Geoff had acquired those skills, to Geoff's disgust and her delight. In college, he'd fallen in lust with a girl who loved to dance. Since most straight white males refused to dance, and Geoff was the kind of man who seized an advantage when it presented itself, he'd immersed himself in Internet tutorials. The result was he could mix and match steps, and he'd become the girl's favorite dance partner--in and out of bed. Until a month later, when she fell hard for a Latino exchange student and followed him home to Central America.
"Geoff never could completely master the rumba, and that was his downfall," Chris had said with a straight face, right before Geoff fired a balled-up napkin at him to shut him up. "Either that, or she discovered there wasn't any truth to the rumor that the way a guy moves on the dance floor is how he moves in bed."
Actually, Sam was finding that to be pretty accurate. Geoff was decisive and fluid on the dance floor, his grip firm and strong, his touch caressing as it slipped away on the turns, then brought her back for more. When the crowd increased so that they had to dance in closer quarters, she was all for that. In the past, when they'd danced together, they hadn't gotten too body-to-body, her trying not to be too obvious about her attraction to him, and him trying to honor that weird guy code with Chris. Tonight she didn't have to worry about any of that.
So when he turned her back toward him, she came full up against him, and was thrilled when his arm slid around her waist, low on her hips to hold her even closer, bodies brushing intimately. His hand dropped to caress her buttock, and she put her hands on his chest, spreading her fingers out over it and beneath the buttons of his shirt to explore the man beneath.
Unable to resist, she slipped the next button so she could put her whole hand on his heart. He bent and kissed her, the raw heat telling her that her Master wasn't as cool as he'd projected. She moved against him, a blatant provocation to the evidence beneath his jeans, and he chuckled against her mouth. He gave her ass a hard squeeze then eased her back, keeping them dancing.
On the turn, she glimpsed Chris sitting on a stool along the outskirts of the dance floor. She waved him over, since he seemed to be finished with his beer. He shook his head, and she insisted with a more enthusiastic wave, bouncing on her toes.
"Let's try this." Geoff brought her back against him in a decisive move that drove her breath from her and reminded her of a similar step Antonio Banderas had done in Take the Lead. Despite the rumba, Geoff had no problem with tango moves, for sure. Banding his arm around her waist, Geoff moved them in a sensuous rock, down and back up, and nudged her hair aside to kiss her throat. His thumb caught in the waistband of her skirt, other fingers spreading out over her hipbone. His fingers weren't between her legs, but the way they were fanned out over her pelvis was highly suggestive of it.
She suddenly wished they were at one of Flo's private parties, so he could do the things that would definitely get them thrown out of here.
"Look at him, Sam," Geoff said against her ear.
"Keep your eyes on him, let him see how aroused you're getting. It will bring him to you. To us."
She did. The movement of the dancers between them and Chris gave him teasing glimpses of what Geoff was doing to her. The pressure of his hand holding her, the teasing of his lips at her throat. It kept her wits scattered and her coordination questionable. His strong arm held her up, though. Chris's eyes were fastened on them as her lips parted.
Geoff spoke against her flesh again. "All I can think about is the taste of that frosting on your lip. It makes me think about the cream between your legs, about how wet you must be now, because you're imagining everything you want tonight. And I'm going to keep you waiting, because I like the things you do when you're crazy hot and aroused, when you trust us with everything you want and feel. Tell me who I am."
"My Master," she whispered. Chris's eyes flickered, and she wondered if he'd read her lips. He rose and started in their direction. She couldn't have said what song was playing, but it had a primal drumbeat that made her flesh tingle in a million places, and the guitar riffs strummed across the nerves in her abdomen and thighs.
"Who is he?" Geoff demanded, grip tightening.
"He's my Master, too. I need both of you."
"Well, he's coming to grant that wish. I'd show him proper appreciation."
Because of how Chris came through the crowd, she had to smile a little, and she thought Geoff did, too. People tended to shift instinctively to make a path for a larger-than-normal person, but on top of that, Chris had such a laid-back way of moving, it was like watching a river flow.
When he reached them, Geoff continued to hold on to her waist, but Sam slid her hands up to Chris's shoulders, lifting on her toes to kiss him, too. He obliged, bending to meet her and curling one of his hands around hers on his T-shirt. Her other hand dropped to his belt to hold on.
He started to sway with the rhythm of the music, taking her with him. Despite his comment about crowds, Chris did enjoy the people-watching and the music, so it wasn't the first time they'd been out dancing before. He would dance if she coaxed him, though usually only a song or two. He wasn't wild and fancy, more of an adherent to the Will Smith Hitch technique. Step right, step left, with some hip and shoulder rhythm.
With her hands on him, she could feel the move and roll of his body. His eyes held simple enjoyment of the moment and a smoldering awareness of the sexual undercurrents between the three of them.
Knowing they belonged to each other like this, indulging it in a public venue, confirmed what had happened over the past week was real, and growing. Evolving. It also turned her on in ways she hadn't expected. Maybe she was far more of an exhibitionist than she realized. Of course, in this crush of people, it was likely their three-way dynamic wasn't really discernible, so it was probably more the idea of it happening in a public venue, rather than it being noticed, that was getting her even more aroused.