Page 172 of My Five Daddies

“Nah,” he says, grinning. “Not at all. But nobodydid.”

“That’s true. I seem to recall you wearing sweatpants toschool.”

“Hey,” he says, laughing. “I was anathlete.”

“Sure. You were also aslob.”

“Glad to see you’re all grown up at least,” he says, eyeing my body. Normally I might feel self-conscious, but right now I don’tmind.

“You’re all grown up yourself, you know,” I say, and I mean it. He looks fantastic in an expensively tailored suit, probably bespoke. It fits him like a glove, accentuating his every perfect muscle, and it makes him look fancy and incontrol.

I hate to admit it to myself, but he looks fantastic. “Of course I look great,” he says in my ear. “Hey, let’s godance.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “Seriously? Youdance?”

“Of course I do,” he says, laughing. “Girl, I’ll show you just how good of a dancer a Navy SEAL canbe.”

I laugh as he pulls me up from the seat and tugs me out toward the dance floor. I don’t know what I’m doing but I feel so good as I follow him out there. We start to dance together, and although I feel a little self-conscious at first, at least Jackson wasn’tlying.

He’s a good dancer. He moves his hips and pulls me toward him, gliding along my body, and I fall into his rhythm. Soon, we’re dancing close to each other, eyes locked as one song turns into two. We sway and move to the music, keeping pace with everyone around us, although it feels like we’re alone in theworld.

“Remember this?” he says in my ear. “Sophomoreyear.”

I can’t help but smile to myself. “We danced for hours,” I say tohim.

“Yeah, we did. You looked amazing. Reddress.”

I laugh again, remembering that dress. I pull him closer to reach his ear. “Your suit was toobig.”

He grins at me. “It was mydad’s.”

“Of course itwas.”

We laugh together, and he tips his head closer to me. He grabs my waist and pulls me against him. I can feel his hard body pressed against mine and my heart is racing through my skin, threatening to make me freaking passout.

I tip my chin up toward him, not thinking about it at all. His lips are so close to mine, and I know he’s going to kiss me. God, I haven’t tasted that kiss in so damn long. I can remember the last time, it was just like any other day. I didn’t know it was the last time back then. Sometimes I wish I had known, so that I could have savoredit.

Now though, I have a second chance. I can taste him again, feel the way it used to feel. I remember kissing him was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It made me alive, made everything seem so muchbetter.

He left me, he broke my heart, but he’s here now. And I want to taste him sobadly.

“Hey,you!”

Jackson turns away from me. Holly Hart appears next to him and they hug quickly in greeting. She waves to me and says something tohim.

He frowns at me and says something to her. She waves and heads off back toward the table, but the moment isgone.

I don’t know what I was thinking. He turns back toward me, but I step away. “Sorry,” I say to him, shaking myhead.

“Tara, holdon.”

But I’m already turning and walking away from him as fast as I can. I don’t want to run and I’m definitely not going tocry.

I don’t know what I was thinking. I can’t just let him back into my life like this. He broke my heart. I’m not ready to trust him, not yet. Seeing Holly just made me realize how much I still don’t know abouthim.

Maybe he makes me feel like my old self, but that girl is gone. I’m a different person, and so is he. I can’t just fall back into oldhabits.

I hurry away from him, trying to keep ittogether.

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