Page 205 of Dagger in the Sea

I’m usually a sensible girl. Maybe I should have made some excuse and headed out the door, but I didn’t. I liked the way he kept me close. I liked how his solid body moved against mine and led me through the music. His warm, heady fragrance ignited my insides as Kenny Chesney crooned softly about all the potential damage that could be done. It was nice to pretend I was just an ordinary woman dancing to “You and Tequila” with a sexy somebody at a bar off an interstate in South Dakota.

But I knew better.

I used to let go and have fun. Now, not so much. Sixteen years ago I had stopped harboring expectations for too much more than pleasantness in my life. I had learned the bitter lesson that low expectations were the best way to go.

Miller’s hand slid up my back. He led us off the dance floor and back to the bar where our drinks waited for us. The place was crowded now and much noisier. We leaned against the bar and stood closer together than before out of necessity. His one hand slid over my left hip and secured me close to him in the pressing crowd.

“How did you like Ohio?” he asked.

I still chewed on the sensation of his hand gripping me. Crap, what did he just say?

“Excuse me?”

“Your Harley tee.” Miller gestured to my back. “It’s from Ohio. That where you’re from?”

My lips curled into a slight smile. He didn’t suspect I was a native. “I worked at the store in Dayton for a couple of years a while back.”

I had been the general manager, actually, at that store and several others.

“No shit?” His eyes widened. “Careful, you’re turning into my dream girl, babe. You know everything about bikes?” He took a drink.

Dream girl? Wouldn’t that be swell? At the age of forty-two, I had enough baggage to charter my own cargo plane.

I laughed, and he gave me a quizzical look. “Not everything,” I said, “but let’s see.” My eyes slid down his long legs slowly and obviously before resting on his boots. He grinned as he swallowed his vodka, enjoying the stroke of my deliberate attention. “I know your boots aren’t the real deal.” I took in another mouthful of whiskey.

He nodded. “Not this pair, but I’ve got several others at home came straight from the source.”

I let out a laugh. “Going casual tonight then?”

“Hmm.” He crunched on another ice cube, his gaze locked on mine. “Now I wish I had put them on, to suit the occasion.”

“What occasion is that?”

“Meeting you, Grace.”

The firm, crisp way he said my name made my insides tighten. His eyes remained on me as he polished off his vodka then licked the excess off his lips. I wondered what those full lips would feel like pressed against mine. The need to know suddenly overwhelmed me.

“So are you from around here, ‘cause I know I haven’t seen you before?” he asked.

“You’d remember me?”

“Absolutely.” The edges of his lips curled into a slow grin that made my stomach dip.

“I’m from. . .around.” I made a twirling gesture with my fingers. “Plenty of around.”

“Like where?”

“Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado, Washington State.”

“That’s plenty of around, Grace. You like to keep moving? Or maybe you need to?”

I turned to face the dance floor in order to escape his penetrating gaze. “Change keeps the blood flowing, didn’t you say? It’s good for the soul, too.”

If I had any of my soul left anymore.

His eyes tightened.Here come the goddamn twenty questions now.

“You got any family?”

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