Page 50 of Not Part of the Plan
“Is she seeing anyone?”
“No one serious. But she appreciates a man who can keep up with her around the dance floor.” Emma left him pondering her suggestion and tracked down Niko who was capturing Mrs. Nordemann kicking up her bare feet on a table with a piece of cake in her lap.
“You’re officially off duty,” Emma said, handing him the beer.
She saw the glaze of his eyes and knew he’d found his way back into it all. The grin she flashed him was pure cockiness. “Looks like someone’s remembered how to be a photographer.”
The teasing brought him all the way back to her. “No one likes a smart ass,” he countered.
“Not true. You like me, and you’re well aware that I’m a smart ass.”
“You’re my friend. I’m required to like you, warts and all.”
She took a fortifying sip of martini and set her glass on the table well away from Mrs. Nordemann’s bunions. “Dance with me, Nikolai.”
It took no convincing for him to put down his camera, take her hand, and lead her out onto the dance floor. The sun was setting, and the band shifted into a slow, smooth song about love and heartbreak. Someone plugged in the strings of lights looped around the tent casting a soft glow over everyone beneath it.
Niko fit her body against his, and the rightness of it zipped through her like electricity. They danced closer than friends, closer than they should, but Emma didn’t want to pull back to put that space between them. She wanted him close enough to touch, to taste.
“What’s gotten into you, Emmaline?” Niko asked, his lips moving against her ear.
“Just listening to my elders.”
“Whatever they said to put you here, I agree with one-hundred percent,” he said, his voice husky. He ran his hands up and down her sides, fingers splaying over her hips and waist. “You look like a goddess.”
“You look like a very enjoyable bad idea.”
He pulled her hand to his mouth and laid his lips across her knuckles. “Emma, you’re sending me mixed signals,” he warned.
“I know,” she said, biting her lip. “I’m thinking.”
“Thinking about revising our friendship?” he asked.
She nodded.
He bent her backwards in a dramatic dip. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Think fast,” he suggested darkly.
“Nothing would change,” she stipulated. “You aren’t planning to give up your life and move to Blue Moon, and I’m not leaving here.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves with the time we do have together.”
“How much longer are you going to stay?” She wasn’t asking for planning purposes, Emma realized. She was asking for her. “You’ve obviously had some kind of breakthrough today, thanks to your incredibly intelligent friend.”
“Incredibly intelligent, sexy, stunningly beautiful friend,” he corrected her.
“I like all those things about me.”
“I do, too. And I’m planning to stick around a while longer. We can’t know for sure that I’m completely cured.”
“That’s true,” Emma mused. “We should take our time and make sure your recovery is a permanent one. We don’t want to rush anything…”
On impulse, she pressed her lips to his neck and felt him go hard everywhere against her. His fingers dug into her hips. “I have never wanted anyone or anything the way that I want you.”
“When you say it, it doesn’t sound like a line,” Emma whispered back.
“Emmaline, everything with you is real.”
“You guys are kinda ruining the formation,” Evan hissed at them, appearing from nowhere. Emma realized they were surrounded by dancers including Aurora, Caleb, and Evan’s junior high girlfriend, Oceana, all of whom were doing the same steps. The song had changed at some point to one with a peppy beat, and neither of them had noticed.
