Why were there so many slow dances tonight?
Holly longed for something fast and furious to burn off her awareness, to give her some space. But when the next one was fast, it was no better. Seeing Lukas’s body shimmy and thrust to the music while she did the same, created something elemental, primeval, between them.
Holly tried to deny it. It was only dancing, she told herself. But their bodies were in sync, moving, shifting apart, coming together. And at the end Lukas grabbed her hand, then spun her out and reeled her back into his chest so that his body spooned against hers as he wrapped her in his arms.
“Oh!” Holly’s body was trembling, her heart hammering. His hands cradled her breasts. One of his legs had slid between her own. Holly tried to get her balance, to pull away. But her overheated body wanted nothing to do with that. She turned to stare breathlessly up at him.
Lukas was breathing hard, too. His cheeks were flushed, his forehead damp, his hair tousled across his forehead. Her fingers itched to brush it back, to feel its silkiness between her fingers. Deliberately, she knotted those fingers into fists.
“Hot work,” he muttered. “Let’s get something to drink.”
“Yes.” Before she went up in flames.
He got them each a soft drink, and they stood watching as the next dance began. It was a slow one again. Romantic. If they danced now, Lukas would pull her into his arms. Holly felt her body trembling.
“Let’s sit this one out.” Lukas’s voice was gruff.
“Yes.” Holly nodded and took a desperate gulp of soda, praying that it would cool her down. But nothing cooled her down that night. Amid the kaleidoscope of lights and sounds, of fast dances and slow, she was seduced by the moment, by the night. She told herself it wasn’t Lukas making her feel this way. But she had to admit he had made it a night to remember. He’d been the Lukas she’d dared to dream he could be.
When the prom ended, several friends were heading off together for a late meal. Had she been with Matt, no doubt they would have joined them. Holly expected Lukas to breathe a sigh of relief, bundle her into his car and take her straight home.
But when her friend Lucy called over, “Do you guys want to come to Woody’s?” Lukas had looked at her.
“Do you?”
She hadn’t expected that, and was ready to say no, sure he’d had enough of the evening, of her. But before she could answer at all, he went on. “That’s what you do on prom, isn’t it? Stay out till dawn?”
Stay out till dawn? With Lukas Antonides? An inappropriate flutter of anticipation tickled her. “Well, I—”
He raised a brow. “Would you go with Matt?”
“Sure, but—”
“We’ll come,” he said to Lucy. He slanted Holly a grin. “After all, I’m standing in for Matt.”
So they went to Woody’s, an upscale version of a fifties diner, full of her classmates, all laughing and talking, still on a high from the dance. Lukas, to her surprise, fit right in. He talked sports and surfing and sailboats with the guys. He was easy and charming to their dates.
They squashed into a booth with three other couples. Holly would have been comfortable with Matt shoved in next to her, would have relaxed when he slipped an arm around her. But when Lukas did it, she could feel every inch of the hard muscles of his arm. She was more aware of the heat of his body pressed hard against her than of anything anyone was saying.
She was sure Lukas wasn’t aware of her with the same intensity. His knee bumped hers, then finally settled against it, and he didn’t seem to notice. He kept right on talking to Sam, Lucy’s date, even as his fingers played with a strand of her hair. If she turned her head even slightly, her lips would brush his fingers. Holly shivered and looked straight ahead. It didn’t mean a thing. It was just Lukas. He didn’t mean anything by it.
But her whole body was thrumming with awareness by the time they left Woody’s. The noise subsided when the door shut behind them. The night breeze on her heated skin made Holly shiver.
“You’re cold,” Lukas said. “Here, have my jacket.” He made to shrug out of his coat.
Wear Lukas’s suit coat still warm from his body? Holly shook her head quickly. “N-no, thanks. I’m fine. It’s lovely out here, isn’t it?” She did a pirouette in the parking lot, looking up at the night sky, trying desperately to get her bearings, to get her feet on the ground.
Lukas glanced up briefly, then looked straight back at her. “Not as lovely as you.”