“I can guess what it is,” he managed to respond, which he saw as an achievement given that he could hardly breathe.
“I’m sure you can’t.” She rested her palm on his chest, over his heart, and looked up at him.
“You want me to promise to get out there and start dating.”
“Wrong. I want you to stop always looking for a person’s hidden bad side.”
“It’s the way I’m made. It’s not something I can turn off.”
“Of course it is. Your work has made you that way. You need to make a distinction between work and real life.”
They swayed together, eyes locked, insulated from the people around them.
“If I told you to start being more suspicious of people, could you?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think it would be a very nice way to live.” She snuggled closer and he tensed and then let his hand slide to her back.
He felt the warmth of her skin through the thin fabric of her dress.
The dress he’d bought her. Silk and sin.
Giving up on restraint, he drew her closer still, molding the soft curves of her body against the hard planes of his. She slid her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. Easy. Natural.
Desire rushed through him, brutal and sharp. He reflected on how a person could want something so badly even knowing it was a mistake.
He should let her go. He should make some flippant comment about needing to talk to people and mingle, but he didn’t. He held her closer, blanketing himself in her warmth, taking what he could, while he could. He didn’t hear the music and he didn’t see the people dancing close to him. He didn’t care what other people thought or what they said. He didn’t want to think about them, or about Sallyanne.
All he cared about was dancing with Eva and making this moment last as long as possible.
It was like lighting a candle in the dark. He didn’t know how long it would take for the flame to burn out, but until it did he was going to savor every moment of the light.
Beams of light played over the ceiling of the room, turning Eva’s hair to shiny gold.
Her head was bowed and all he could see of her face was the sweep of her upturned nose and the soft curve of her mouth.
The music changed again but she showed no sign of wanting to move away and he had no intention of letting her go, so they danced on, locked together, the rhythm of their bodies following the rhythm of the music. He wondered why he’d never before realized that dancing could be almost as intimate and personal as sex.
He felt the light touch of her fingers on the back of his neck and the warmth of her body against his palm, and he knew in that moment that he didn’t want her to go home with anyone else.
He wanted her to go home with him. And it had nothing to do with protecting her. Those reasons would have been selfless and his were all selfish.
Because they were wrapped together so intimately, he was aware of the change in her, too. He could feel it in the way she held herself, in the almost unbearable tension of her slender frame.
“Let’s get out of here.” He murmured the words into her hair, half hoping she’d resist. “Unless you want to stay? This ball was your dream.” He asked the question and felt her
still in his arms.
She lifted her head and he felt the warmth of her breath on his cheek.
“You want to leave?” Her words were a whisper in his ear. “I wanted you to meet someone interesting.”
There was a long silence while they both wordlessly admitted what they already knew.
Finally, when the tension had almost suffocated them, he eased away from her and looked deep into her eyes. “I’m with the only person who interests me.”
She swallowed. “Me, too.”
Pretense, humor, reticence all fell away and were replaced by naked honesty.