dance floor, her skirt whisking around her legs. She reached up to brush her hair away from her face, and her mouth turned up in an inviting smile.
He smiled back, wondering what she had in store for him now. He touched the button. It was a song title.
Save the Last Dance For Me.
Chapter 19
As the band started playing a slow, sweet song, Luke stuck his phone into his pocket and rose from his chair, taking the most direct route across the dance floor, dodging people left and right. When he reached Shannon, she was still wearing that smile.
He closed his hand around hers and led her to the dance floor, then pulled her gently around to face him. As he slid his hand around to her back, she skimmed her fingertips to his shoulder, then flattened her palm against it. Twining the fingers of his other hand with hers, he pulled it against his chest.
They didn’t dance as much as they simply swayed to the music. With each second that passed, they moved a fraction of an inch closer to each other until her breasts grazed his chest. He stroked his hand up and down her back.
Ah, God, it felt like heaven.
“Told you I couldn’t dance,” she said against his ear.
“You dance just fine,” he murmured. “Just fine.”
He inhaled her scent at the same time he moved his hand gently over her back, imprinting his mind with both of those sensations. Her hand felt so soft inside his, and he hoped his calloused fingers weren’t scraping her tender skin.
“People are watching us,” Luke said.
“I don’t care.”
“Will you regret it tomorrow?”
“No. Never.”
“Even with your mother watching?”
“That doesn’t bother me, Luke. And it won’t ever again.”
A cool evening breeze swirled around them, drawing them even closer together. Luke felt as if they were the only couple on the dance floor. He’d never heard the song before, but it was pleasant and soothing and it felt as if it was playing just for them.
He slid his hand up and tucked it beneath the hair at the back of her neck, stroking his thumb back and forth. She sighed softly and lay her head against his shoulder. He closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the sensations. But when he opened them again, he glanced across the dance floor and saw Loucinda looking back at him. She caught his gaze and held it. In the span of a single second, her hard, unyielding eyes told him no matter what he thought, he wasn’t one of them. That he never could be, no matter how Shannon felt about him.
Just seeing that expression on her face stirred up Luke’s old feelings of inferiority all over again. In the end he knew what would happen. Long after he was gone, her family would still be there, and sooner or later Loucinda would make Shannon pay for whatever she did tonight.
Finally the music wound down. Shannon pulled away and looked up at him, her blue eyes shimmering in the dim light. He had the sense of people looking on, but they seemed to fade away to the edges of his vision until all he saw was her. Then, in the middle of the dance floor with the whole town looking on, she did something he never imagined she would.
She took his face in her hands and kissed him.
It was a long, soft, sensual kiss that no one watching could have mistaken as a quick kiss between friends. He knew he should pull away. Hold her at arm’s length. Ask her if she knew what she was doing. But he just couldn’t bring himself to make her stop. Then she eased her lips away, trailed them along his cheek, and whispered in his ear.
“Come to my apartment.”
Yes.
As the crowd dispersed, Luke told her he’d parked just a little bit illegally and needed to move his truck. Shannon told him she’d say good-bye to her friends and meet him at her apartment. Their hands were still clasped together as they walked away from each other. Shannon waited until the last second before letting go, and even longer before she turned away. Her eyes were tempting, her smile full of promise.
Luke walked across the square and down Rainbow Way to the intersecting street where he’d parked, hoping the sheriff and his deputies had been far too busy that night to even think about issuing citations. But as he came closer to his truck, he saw something far worse than a parking