Page 8 of Ride Me

“I don’t know why you think I don’t get nervous,” she said, frowning. “Any single woman with a few brain cells in her head would be a little wary on a Saturday night in the Quarter.”

As she spoke, an attractive man in an LSU sweatshirt tripped off the dance floor, too busy trying to look down Michelle’s tight black halter to notice the step.

Allegra sighed. “If I had your confidence and those breasts, I wouldn’t be nervous at all. And I wouldn’t need a chaperone.”

“Are you kidding?” Michelle adjusted her strap as an excuse to check out the fit of the man’s jeans. “I wouldn’t let you come to a place like this without a chaperone. You look like wolf bait, all innocent and dewy and ready to be someone’s main course.” She smiled and snapped her teeth. “Luckily, I can bite back while trying to protect you from yourself and your bad ideas. I’m a born multi-tasker.”

“Will you stop?” Allegra shook her head. “I don’t need protecting.”

“Says you,” Michelle clapped back. “Either way, I need a drink for this. After dealing with angry teenagers wielding finger paint all day, I could really use one. Maybe coming out wasn’t such a bad idea. I’m thinking I need a new distraction too.”

Michelle didn’t do relationships or boyfriends. She was committed to being single, and she had been for as long as Allegra had known her. It was her opinion that men as a species weren’t to be trusted, often admitting that if she didn’t enjoy the male body as much as she did, she would go after women instead.

“Double standard, thy name is Chelle.” Allegra crossed her arms. “You followed me out tonight to stop me from being distracted, but it’s okay for you? In what world is that fair?”

Michelle kept her gaze on the clumsy hot guy, who noticed her studying him and nearly dropped his beer. “In the real world where you don’t actually do distractions, even though your career was practically tailor-made for them. Fly in, have an adventure and some sex with the local eye candy, and fly right back out again. You were living my dream. Or you could have been if you didn’t care more about rappelling than ravishing.”

Allegra frowned and plucked at her sleeve again, wishing she’d worn something else. “A stranger in every port? That sounds so…”

Empty. Hollow.

“Your face right now is making my point.” Michelle lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t like one-night stands, but you never sat still long enough to have a real relationship, which left you in the strange position of dating buddies you trusted enough to sleep with for a few months, until you could part on friendly terms without feeling like the cow giving the milk away for free.”

“Thank you,” Allegra said dryly. “When you say it out loud like that I feel so much better about myself.”

Michelle sighed heavily. “I’m not judging. What I’m saying is this isn’t like you. All Rousseau does is one-night stands, Allegra. It’s all he can do.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re right. You need to know.” She rose abruptly from her chair. “And I’m going to tell you as soon as I grab us a drink. Maybe three. Then I’ll share a few things about your would-be Romeo that will make you happy I brought you the proper fortification.”

Michelle walked away, and a knot formed in Allegra’s stomach. What was she going to say? Michelle hadn’t given her this much grief about befriending Ben, and she genuinely seemed to dislike him.

Speaking of Ben, where the hell was he?

“Would you like to dance?”

She looked up at a twenty-something man with light brown hair, kind eyes and an open smile. He obviously hadn’t seen her walk in, or he wouldn’t be asking for a dance. Before she could thank him for the offer and turn him down, someone appeared at his side, towering over him.

“She is already taken, mon petit. Why don’t you go ask your friend over there to dance? He doesn’t look too happy to see you with us. And why would he? When we both know he wants you for himself.”

The man’s face turned beet red, his eyes widening as he studied the magnetic man who’d spoken. At this moment, she couldn’t imagine there were many people that could resist Rousseau’s pull.

And it was stronger than usual tonight. His sexuality rolled off him like heated steam as he stood with a sensual confidence she’d never noticed before. It made him even more appealing, and she hadn’t thought that was possible.

“Ex-excuse me?” Her would-be dance partner stuttered.

Rousseau arched one brow. “The friends you came with already know your secret, little man. They don’t care, but even if they did, why would you fight it? Why deny yourself the pleasure of his touch when he would welcome you?”

“I don’t know. My family thinks—”

“Family,” Rousseau scoffed. “They will get over it. But you won’t if you let him get away. Go. Now. Dance with him.”

Allegra’s jaw dropped when the man spun on his heel without hesitation, heading back to his table and holding out his hand to a shy, surprised-looking Latino. Oh my. She could see it in both of their expressions. The longing they’d been trying to hide. But how had Rousseau? “How did you know?”

He shrugged, his gaze still on the twosome as they walked to the dance floor, their steps slow as though unsure whether they were headed to the guillotine or salvation. “That one was easy to read. So much sexual repression and fear, like nails on a chalkboard. A waste of good life, if you ask me. He just needed someone to give him permission to follow his passions. The same as every other human I know.”

“Every other human?”

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