Page 44 of Directing You
“Rosa,” I said, my voice a graveled ghost of what it usually sounded like. “One date can be hidden from the media. One night together to see if this is worth exploring.”
Her smile flickered like a dying flame. “I think we both know that one date will be really good. And we’ll be left in the same spot as before. Wanting two different trajectories in life.” She swallowed and I followed the musculature of her throat with the movement. “I just wish—”
“Hey,” Mark said, and I could have punched him in the fucking broad nose right there for interrupting her. “Got a couple of shots for ya from the ladies at the end of the bar.” I glanced up to find the girls who had come over for a selfie giving me a shy wave. “And I brought one for you, too,” he winked at Rosa. “Didn’t want you feeling left out.”
“Both of these are for me?” I gestured to the shot glasses of Jack Daniels sitting on the bar in front of me.
Mark shrugged. “Guess so. They each wanted to buy one for you… and they were very specific that both were to go toyou.” He tapped the top of the bar twice before heading back toward waiting customers.
Rosa lifted the shot glass between her delicately pinched fingers. “Well… cheers?”
I swallowed, lifting my own glass as she tapped the rim against hers. I didn’t want the shot. I just wanted her to finish her original thought.What do you wish for, Rosa?But I was chicken shit. And instead, I threw my head back and swallowed the burning whiskey in one gulp… then downed the other just as fast. One drink was quickly turning into one night of drinking… but Rosa was right. Will thatreallyruin my reputation? My diet? My meal plan? Will letting loose for one stupid night ruin me? No fucking way.
“There you go!” Rosa laughed, squeezing my shoulder. “Must feel nice to cut loose a little, huh?”
I laughed and pressed the back of my hand against my lips. It had been a long time since I’d done shots, let alone shots after already having a couple drinks beforehand.
“Awww,” Rosa said. “Don’t worry, Tripp. I’ll take care of you tonight.”
“If only that were true.” Heat sparked in my chest, and God knew, it must have been the alcohol talking. Her eyes widened and our heavy breathing synchronized, if only for a moment.
A tiny raindrop fell from the sky, landing on her nose.
I muttered a curse as one hit me on the cheek, then the knuckles. I glanced up to the sky and sighed, snapping the collar of my jacket higher around my neck as I glanced quickly over at Reid and Hazel, still in the middle of the dance floor, kissing, dancing, without a care in the world. Hazel wore a beautiful silk white dress and Reid was in one of his favorite suits… though for the life of me, I wasn’t sure where he had dropped the jacket and tie in the midst of celebrating. “It’s going to rain all over them on what was otherwise a perfect wedding,” I groused.
“Are you kidding?” Rosa stared at me incredulously. “This is evenmoreperfect!” As she glanced up at the sky, more raindrops fell, watering down her cocktail glass. Instead of squealing or making a run for it, Rosa threw her free hand into the air, and tilted her face to the sky, welcoming the raindrops as they continued to fall on us. Her laugh rang out and was so ridiculously joyful and beautiful that I felt my initial sourness over the weather softening.
“All right, look, I’m all for optimism. But how is thismoreperfect?”
“Because,” she said, “getting caught on the beach in the rain? It’s like right out of a movie!”
I would have rolled my eyes if anyone else—literally anyone—had said that. But Rosa seemed so giddy. So delightfully, genuinely happy that I couldn’t bring myself to burst her bubble.
The DJ switched the songs, and everyone around us squealed in delight as the Pina Colada song came on. Anyone who wasn’t already dancing rushed the middle of the floor, and I smiled as my best friend took his new wife in his arms and kissed her deeply as rain fell around them.
I chuckled and looked again to Rosa. “Okay… maybe it is a little romantic.”
She grabbed my hand and I ignored the sudden jolt of awareness that surged up my limb from where her fingers came in contact with mine.
“C’mon,” she laughed with a tug on my arm. “Wehaveto dance. It is literally written into the lyrics that we dance in the rain.”
“Actually, it’s getting caught in the—”
She didn’t let me finish as she yanked me to my feet and dragged me to the middle of the dance floor. Admittedly, dragged might be too strong of a word. I was pretty sure I’d have followed Rosa anywhere.
We moved together on the dance floor, and while neither of us was overtly sexual or inappropriate, we just… fit. She threw her hands into the air, bouncing around, and my hands fell to her hips as they swayed and hit each beat of the music perfectly.
When she turned around, she continued dancing, her back to me. Her curly hair fell over one shoulder, the smooth skin of her neck and ear revealed, so close to me that I could smell the mixture of her shampoo and the perfume she wore. I leaned in and whispered, “Tell me what you were going to say before. What you wish for…”
The lean column of her throat tightened—one of Rosa’s tells that she was nervous—and she wet her lips before answering. “I wish that for one night, we could be different people. That you weren’t Noah Tripp with a strict diet, and an image, and a brand to uphold. And that I wasn’t Rosa Alvarez, daughter of a senator. I wish we could just be two people who met, got drunk, and had an incredible night together.”
My head spun and I wasn’t sure if it was the boldness of her statement or those two shots beginning to hit me. Molten lava replaced my blood and I felt my cock get hard. “But you said you didn’t think we could—”
“I know. I know what I said. But it doesn’t change the fact that Iwantit. Even if it can’t happen.”
I swallowed hard, and in the position we were in, with Rosa looking over her shoulder at me, our mouths were so close that all it would take was an inch of pressing forward to take her lips in mine. “So, what now?”
Her gaze wandered my face. “Now…we dance.”
