Zydeco music fills the air for a minute as we pass a crowded bar. “The way it pulses and throbs with energy.”
“Kinda like sex.”
My head snaps, and I glance at him. “I suppose.”
He takes my hand and points to the bar. “Wanna go in?”
“Yeah.”
The place is packed and humid, thick with the press of bodies. There’s an African American woman with a slinky black dress and a sultry voice at the front singing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”
The crowd moves in a wave.
Caden looks back at me. “Too crowded for you?”
“Nope.”
His fingers tighten on mine, and he swings me around, pressing me to his front and putting his large palms on my hips. He leans down and whispers in my ear, somehow making him easier to hear than if he was yelling. “Want a drink?”
I nod.
His hands fall from my body, and there’s a coolness at my back without him. With my eyes on the stage, I let the woman’s voice carry me away. I begin to sway right along with everyone else. We’re all moving, and that pulse and throb takes hold of me.
I feel free, loose. Like magic.
“You’re a hot little thing,” an unfamiliar male voice says from behind me.
I look over my shoulder. A cute guy that looks to be in his early twenties is giving me the eye.
I shake my head at him, waving. “You’re a baby.”
He smirks, raising a brow. “Hardly.”
I laugh. “Are you even out of college?”
He’s all lean hips and chiseled features, the kind that are only afforded newly minted adults.
He leans in close to me. “I’m in law school.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course you are. You probably go to Harvard.”
He grins. “Stanford.”
“So predictable.”
He hooks a finger into my belt loop. “Wanna dance?”
“No, she does not.” Caden appears holding two bottles of beer, his expression stormy.
I shrug. “Sorry, junior.”
The younger man gives Caden a look. “I don’t see a ring on her finger.”
“You’re not going to see much of anything if you don’t get your hands off her.”
Well, this is interesting. I haven’t caused a ruckus in forever. At home I’m just Cat, barely even a woman. And now look at me.
The guy cocks a grin at me. “I’m a modern man. I’ll let the lady decide.”
Caden raises a brow and gives me a look like he’ll consider taking me over his knee if I don’t tell this guy to fuck off.
I can’t help it; a giggle escapes my lips.
“Caaaaaaat.” He drawls out my name in warning.
I’m not going to lie. I consider it, just to teach him a lesson—just to show him not all men are willing to take the backseat and a passive role in pursuing me.
Junior waggles his brows. “I’m a real good dancer.”
I think back, trying to remember a time when I wasn’t weighed down by poverty, responsibilities, or expectations. A time before I had to watch everything I did. A time when I wasn’t restrained.
What would that girl have done?
You know what? Maybe Caden needs to be taught a lesson.
“Keep that beer cold for me.” I wink at him and turn to the younger man. “Come on, junior. Show me what you’ve got.”
I get a secret kind of pleasure when I hear Caden growl before I disappear into the crowd.
Caden
As Cat wanders off with the manchild, I contemplate my next move. Because she’s clearly issued a challenge. Why, I’m not totally sure. But I know enough about women to know she’s thrown down a gauntlet, and if I don’t pick it up, it doesn’t bode well.
The only real question is the reaction she’s hoping for.
We’ve had a very nice evening.
It’s been casual and fun. We talked about work, the growth of the business, the crops, the restaurant opening, and the new group interested in stocking the rum.
I kept everything light and easy.
She relaxed around me for the first time.
I thought we were getting somewhere, so why exactly has she decided to go dance with some dude in his twenties?
She’s not interested in him. I overheard her conversation, and she was as dismissive with him as she appears to be with most men. So her actions must be about me.
Should I go after her and cut in? Or hang back and wait?
My instinct says to hang back, to play it cool, because that’s what I’d do with most women. I don’t chase. I make them chase me—keeps them more motivated.
Except Cat doesn’t respond the way other women do.