Page 40 of A Fool's Game

“And now?”

“And now I’m on a new journey. Less lonely, I hope, although just as uncertain, I suppose. But it feels different. Instead of trudging forward, dreading my future, I feel like I’m wading into some kind of electric darkness. I still don’t know what’s going to happen, just like last week, but I’m excited that I feel like I can leap off that cliff.”

A smile spreads over my face as he starts to use familiar language. “You looked up your card.”

“I looked up a lot of things.”

“And?”

“And whatever spell you’ve put me under, I’m not searching for the antidote.”

Our gazes lock, and the moment is so heated, I’m worried the table might spontaneously combust. This man just told me that he’s in, for whatever happens. He’s going to push throughthe fear and try us on. It’s more than I hoped for. More than I was brave enough to ask for.And now that he’s mine, I want my hands on his body.

“Do you want to dance?” I ask.

His eyes dart to the small dance floor at the back of the bar and then back to mine. “Definitely.”

He finishes the last of his drink and then stands and holds out his hand for me.

I take a sip of my own and accept.

He starts to pull me away, but I pause and reach for my glass once more, downing the entire thing while the warmth from his hand around mine sends chills through my body.

As soon as I set down the empty glass, Ainsley pulls me in close, the hand holding mine wrapping around my body and holding my back firmly to his chest. “I’m not driving you to drink, am I?”

The slightly teasing words, whispered right into my ear, send another wave of hot and cold through my body.

“No,” I whisper, trying not to melt into his arms. “You just…you just make me want to be more courageous than I think I am.”

He gives a slow pull on my hand, causing my body to spin and face him.

“It’s funny, I’d say the same thing about you.”

There are only a handful of couples swaying to Sadè as Ainsley pulls me to the center of the dance floor, the temperature rising as we enter the shared body heat. He slides one hand down to my hip, keeping my hand clasped in the other and takes the lead, swaying us to the erratic rhythm of the song.

“You’re a good dancer,” I say stupidly, just needing something to say to break up the crystals forming in my chest cavity.

“Thank you,” he answers, stepping back and guiding me ona smooth spin and then back into his arms. “I don’t do much dancing.”

“I imagined you growing up dancing at balls.”

He laughs softly against my chest. The vibrations alter my heartbeat. “You lived at my house. Did you ever see any balls?”

“No,” I whisper, chastising myself for having said something like that. I don’t want to talk about our tragic childhoods, soI press my body closer, and the move has the desired effect. Ainsley holds me tighter and doesn’t speak about the past again.

“I would have done just about anything to get you in my arms,” he murmurs instead.

“A-all you had to do was ask,” I stutter out, the closeness of him, the heart melting statement, it’s all nearly too much.

“I’m still trying to figure out the right question, love. The one that gets me the answer I want.”

The song ends and another one starts, a soft, moody beat that keeps our bodies swaying at the same rhythm.

“Try,” I say.

“Will you come home with me tonight?” he says almost instantaneously.

“No,” I say.

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