Page 45 of Payback
I see her shiver from my touch as she takes another drink and replies, “Because you’re going to be awesome at this.”
I laugh at her response. “Are you that competitive?”
She licks a drop of champagne off her dark merlot-stained lipstick. “No.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
She looks at me with wide, heavily mascaraed eyes. “Because I remember what happened after the last time you and I danced together!” She covers her mouth and gets a guilty look in her eyes like she didn’t mean to say what she just said.
I open my mouth to reply, but we’re interrupted when Francesca instructs the women to join her. Ricardo directs the guys over to his side of the studio and I smile broadly at Allie’s parting words as I follow Mac. With one little sentence, she has given me hope.
Ricardo walks through the Viennese waltz steps with painfully slow directions. I’m not saying I’m an avid ballroom dancer by any means, but I know enough about counting that picking up choreography isn’t hard for me. Sadly, no matter how much Tanner and Mac try, the two can’t seem to tell their right feet from their left.
After several minutes of Mac screwing up, I get so frustrated that I grab him by the arms, force his hands around my waist, and dance the part of the female so I can lead him into taking the right steps. It’s maybe a bit more aggressive than Ricardo appreciated because he asks to step in, using my same technique but with a softer approach.
When he does the same with Tanner, all I can think is,Jesus Christ, these guys are supposed to be professional athletes. How hard is it to pick up a simple three-four natural step?
The longer they struggle, the less time I get with Allie. And after seeing her down that champagne, I’m dying to get close to her to speak with her when she’s less uptight.
Once everyone eventually gets enough of the choreography worked out, we’re able to rejoin the women.
Allie’s cheeks are flushed as I take her in my arms and slowly slide my fingers up the small of her back. I place one hand on her shoulder blade while the other hand clasps hers level with our shoulders. It’s not where I want my hands to be on her body, but I have plans for this evening and I need to stay focused.
Allie glances down at our feet, chewing her lip nervously. “I hope you’re wearing steel-toed shoes.”
“It won’t be necessary.”
The guys look awkward as Francesca and Ricardo busy themselves, going from couple to couple and fixing their holds on the women. There’s a lot of laughing going on, but my face is completely serious as I stare at Allie and try to get a read on her.
We go through the steps manually with the instructors, getting used to holding our partners with a strong gate and stepping in time to the sound of Ricardo counting into a microphone.
Finally, Francesca announces that she’s going to play the music that goes along with the choreography. “Dance as many of the steps as you can remember. If you forget, just keep dancing anyway. This is not a test!”
A minute later, the studio fills with the song “At Last” by Etta James. With no effort, I begin waltzing us through a series of four natural turns and four side-steps. The Viennese waltz is a quick tempo dance, but it’s smooth and the steps are simple. Once you have them down, it’s just a matter of repeating them over and over.
Allie is staring down at her feet, fretting over the steps.
“Just watch me,” I state softly into her golden hair that smells like flowers. She forces herself to look up as I add, “I promise I won’t lead you astray.”
She nods and bites her lip, and I wish it were my teeth sinking into that delicious piece of flesh. She feels good in my arms, responsive and alluring. Our bodies move fluidly together, even if she doesn’t know what she’s doing. As our heartrates increase with the action, I want to press myself harder against her so she can feel everything she does to me.
To give myself a break from the intensity of her eyes on mine, I twirl her into an underarm turn.
When she soars back to me, she has a shocked look on her face. “We didn’t learn a turn,” she exclaims, impressed by how easily she flowed through the movement.
“I needed some space,” I say with a shrug. “You were taking my breath away.”
Her eyes lower to my lips. “You can be really charming when you want to be, DeWalt.”
“You can be really sexy without even trying, Lis,” I reply. My thoughts take a dark turn as I glance down at her skirt flowing around her legs and think about how easy it would lift up for them to wrap around me instead. I shake away the image and add, “And you can be confusing and frustrating as well.”
“Confusing and frustrating?” she asks, her brows knitting together.
“You act like your family is a barrier, but they’ve pushed us together twice now.”
She looks around at the group, who are all barely dancing because none of them know what the hell they’re doing. Ricardo has pulled some of guys to the side for another mini lesson, and I cringe when I catch sight of Mac stomping on Freya’s foot. She howls in agony, so he drops down to his knees to rub the pain away. She whacks him on the head and yanks him back up to resume dancing.
In the corner, Vi and Sloan are sipping champagne and watching us with wide eyes as I continue moving us around the room.
