“That’s it.” He smiled down at her. “I’m buying you a new dress. Your hands are like ice.”
Annie smiled with uncharacteristic nerves and shook her head. “It’s not the dress,” she admitted. “It’s the dancing. I go cold when I’m nervous.”
Nate couldn’t help the look of surprise that spread across his face. His eyebrow arched high, his eyes narrowing at her. “The Barracuda, nervous? Never.”
Annie was tough. She could take on every man in this room and beat them thoroughly. No doubt, she’d do it in stilettos and a skintight skirt. And yet the idea of dancing made her go cold in fear?
Annie wrinkled her nose and shifted in his arms, struggling to find a natural position. “Don’t say that too loud.” She leaned in. “It’s one of my secret tells. All the players will come up with lame excuses to touch me if they think it will give away my bluff.”
Nate chuckled, easing her into his arms, their bodies close but not quite touching. He wasn’t sure he could take it if she pressed the full length of her against him.
Not here, at least.
He glanced around the room at the men watching them from the bar before meeting her unsure blue eyes. “Something tells me most of these men would need little excuse to touch you.”
His firm hand guided them to the rhythm of the band playing. Annie was hesitant at first but fell easily into the motion. The song was slow with a slinky beat that the body couldn’t help but respond to.
After a few moments, she leaned in and placed her head on his shoulder. Nate closed his eyes, hugging her closer and changing their motion to a subtle shifting of weight on his feet.
It felt so good to just hold her.
He leaned down to plant a kiss in the silky strands of her hair and breathed in deeply, letting the warm, seductive scent of her fill his senses. It was eerily familiar, like a distant memory he couldn’t quite place and yet its name rested stubbornly on the tip of his tongue.
Annie was so soft in his arms. She fit there perfectly, as though her body had been made for him. It was the most comfortable feeling in the world, like slipping into a warm bath. He let himself submerge in the sensation.
Soon, the rest of the dancers, the musicians...even the room itself faded into nothingness. It was just Nate and Annie in each other’s arms. Why did it feel as though he’d never held her like this before?
Perhaps because he hadn’t. Yes, he’d made love to her. He’d explored every inch of her body. But never truly held her. Not like this. Annie was like a hummingbird, always flitting from one flower to the next. She was beautiful to look at, but you couldn’t hold her. If you tried, she would vanish again. He’d learned that lesson the hard way.
Annie sighed, nestling deeper into his chest.
Nate’s jaw tightened at the small cooing sound she made into his lapel. It was the same contented sound she made as she fell asleep. He remembered it in that instant. It had been so long since he’d heard it and at the same time, like yesterday that he’d made love to her.
The last night they were together she’d curled into a ball and had fallen asleep while he was in the shower. When he returned, he’d stood for a good half hour watching her sleep. He’d been mesmerized by her loveliness, her well-fortified facade wiped away by sleep. Her coal-black lashes had fluttered gently against her flushed cheeks, her kiss-swollen lips mouthing sleepy, confused words into her pillowcase.
His heart had nearly burst with pride when he realized she was his.
Nate had almost woken her up to make love to her again. If he’d known how quickly she would vanish from his life, he would’ve. He’d thought, foolishly, that he had all the time in the world to be with her and so had let her sleep.
Perhaps tonight he would make up for lost time and pick up where they’d left off.
He shouldn’t have gone there. The instant heat flooded his groin, his body going from relaxed to uptight like the flick of a switch.
Annie noticed the sudden change as his body tensed, lifting her head to look at him with concern worrying her deep blue eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The ballad came to an end, another upbeat song on its heels. People came and went on the dance floor, but Nate held them both in place. A slight shift of his body pressed the hard length of him against her stomach. “Nothing,” Nate said with a wicked grin.
Annie’s eyes grew wide before her lips twisted into a knowing smile. “I think we should go upstairs and do something about that.”