Page 21 of Every Move You Make

“You’re gorgeous, you know that?”

Can he hear my heart pounding against my chest? Can he feel the vibrations from my body causing the entire restaurant to reverberate? He’s too close to me, yet not close enough.

He feeds me another spoonful and laughs softly. “Now might be a good time to say something similar back to me.”

“Oh,” I say breathlessly. “Y–you have a nice…face. It’s a good face.”

He takes a bite of the crème brûlée and smiles. “Watch out, Shakespeare.”

“I mean, I…” My eyes travel from where he’s licking his bottom lip to his surprisingly long lashes. “I could get lost in your eyes. I want to fall into them like Alice in Wonderland.”

Dell looks pleasantly taken aback. “There you go. You sure know how to make a boy twirl his hair.”

Throwing caution to the wind, I tuck a long strand of hair behind his ear. My fingers gently comb through his silky mane until I catch myself playing with the ends. I’ve never touched his hair before—and now, the idea of stopping feels wrong.

“I like your fingers in my hair,” he hums.

“I like you,” I whisper without thinking.

Dell’s eyes snap back to me as something invisible shifts between us. He clears his throat and pulls away only a few inches, but those inches feel like a mile. “You’re really good at this, Robyn. Flirting, that is. Let’s, um…” He swallows and looks around for our server. “Let’s get the check and move on to the next phase of our date.”

“There’s another phase?”

Ten minutes later, the two of us are walking under the streetlights when he takes my hand in his. The warm summer night air is nothing compared to the heat of his palm. “You really did great at dinner, Robyn.”

“I don’t know,” I grouse. “It felt more like flailing.”

“Well, if that’s flailing, keep doing it.” He smirks down at me and squeezes my hand a little tighter. “It was very charming.”

He’s my dating coach. My flirt coach. The man I pay to keep my body in top-performing shape.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?” I ask. “I’m not sure how much farther I can walk in these heels.”

“I know. It’s not much farther. Have you ever been to ChaCha’s?”

Lightning strikes through my body at his question. “I love ChaCha’s! We’re going dancing?”

“We are,” he grins effortlessly. I wiggle in delight like a dog that’s just found her favorite toy. “I thought you might enjoy that.”

“You ain’t ready for this,” I taunt, letting go of his hand and stopping on the sidewalk topop, lock, and drop it.

His chuckle is loud and carries down the old street. “Come on. Let’s see how you are in a club setting.”

When we walk into ChaCha’s, I’m immediately thrown into all the memories I’ve made here over the years with my teammates. We usually end up here after wins, for birthday parties, and breakup blowouts. I’ve never had much luck here with guys, though. I’m not sure what Dell has in store for me, but I’m excited.

Thankfully, ChaCha’s isn’t the hottest or newest club in the city, so there’s no line outside. This place is slept on, I swear. The best music. Affordable drinks. Queer-friendly.

When the beat of the music becomes my own heart’s rhythm, Dell hands me a margarita and takes a drink of his own. I’m gonna ace this part of the date. Before I can sayanything, he’s holding my hand again and pulling me to the dance floor.

“Alright, girl. Show me what you got.”

Chapter 9

Secret Security

Isaiah

My knuckles rap on the partially opened door to find Jeremy typing away at his computer. He’s one of the bar owners I work for. It’s a tiny office above his Irish bar downtown, and it’s filled with holiday decorations, boxes of liquor, and clean rags. It’s one of five bars my company, Alliance Security, works for. Instead of bars hiring and managing their own security, they hire us to take care of everything. It also gives the neighboring bars a sense of community, knowing one security team is keeping an eye out for the same riff raff from place to place.

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