For what? How far are you planning to go tonight?
“Okay then,” she muttered again, chewing on her lip as she watched Zeta and Elisa hurry away from the crowded dance floor.
Hmmm.
Owen stopped beside her, his very nearness making her pulse quicken. “So we’re really dancing?”
She gave him an askew look. “Are you that scared?”
“Maybe,” he said with a laugh.
“Sorry, buddy.” She snagged his hand again, threading her fingers through his. “It’s now my mission to see you dance. It’s imperative.”
He opened his mouth, but she didn’t let him talk. Instead, she dragged him to where most of the people bumping and grinding to the music were grouped together. Making her way through the crowd, she found the spot that felt right and pivoted on her heel, lifting a challenging eyebrow at him. “Ready?”
Sucking in a deep breath, he rolled his shoulders, his neck, and stretched his triceps and quads. Even with the stingray pinned to the front of his shirt and the relatively baggy khaki shorts he wore, Bria couldn’t help but notice his subtle muscles flexing and coiling with the playful routine.
She wanted to touch them so much.
He looked at her, doing a small toe-to-toe shuffle. “Ready.”
A laugh bubbled from her. “Why do I feel like you’re conning me right now?”
Around them, their fellow partygoers continued to dance, the current song loud and frenetic.
“Just moving your body so it feels good, right?” he said, starting to widen his subtle toe-to-toe shuffle. “Like this?” His hips and arms moved with it, not even close to being in time with the music. He closed his eyes, affecting an over-the-top enrapt expression and began clicking. Also not in time to the beat.
Bria couldn’t help but laugh again. “I hope you teach math better than you dance.”
He opened his eyes, fixed her with those hazel-green eyes of his and smiled. “I do.”
“Good.” She began to move to the music herself, holding his gaze.
“Can I ask a question?” he shouted over the noise.
She nodded.
“Was that Shaggy?”
A thick lump filled her throat. “That was Shaggy.”
He considered the answer for a heartbeat. “And he hurt you at some point?”
“He did.”
“Fair enough.” He continued to dance. “Remind me never to hurt you.”
She smiled. God, he was easy to like. “Okay.”
The music thumped out its wild, thrashing beat.
Any second now, it’s gonna change to a slow dance, and everyone will partner up, and we’ll be forced to press out bodies together, like in all those corny prom scenes in movies.
Bria prepared herself. If she had to press her body to Owen’s, she could handle that. The soft-toy stingray would keep her libido tempered somewhat, surely?
The music didn’t change.
But, holy crap, Owen did.