finally makes eye contact, his eyes still blazing - primal and feral, a glimpse of a brawling adolescent. Holy shit. He scrutinizes my face. What is he thinking?
"Are you okay?" he asks finally.
"Yes." I rub my palm, trying to dispel the sting, and bring my hands down to his chest. My hand is throbbing. I have never slapped anyone before. What possessed me? Touching me wasn't the worst crime against humanity. Was it?
Yet deep down I know why I hit him. It's because I instinctively knew how Christian would react seeing some stranger pawing me. I knew he'd lose his precious self-control. And the thought that some stupid nobody could derail my husband, my love, well, it makes me mad. Really mad.
"Do you want to sit down?" Christian asks over the pulsing beat. Oh, come back to me, please.
"No. Dance with me."
He gazes down at me impassively, saying nothing.
Touch me . . . the woman sings.
"Dance with me." He's still mad. "Dance. Christian, please." I take his hands. Christian glares after the guy, but I start to move against him, weaving myself around him.
The throng of dancers has circled us once more, although there's now a two-foot exclusion zone around us.
"You hit him?" Christian asks, standing stock-still. I take his fisted hands.
"Of course I did. I thought it was you, but his hands were hairier. Please dance with me."
As Christian gazes at me the fire in his eyes slowly changes, evolves into something else, something darker, something hotter. Suddenly, he grabs my wrists and pulls me flush against him, pinning my hands behind my back.
"You wanna dance? Let's dance," he growls close to my ear, and as he rolls his hips around into me, I can do nothing but follow, his hands holding mine against my backside.
Oh . . . Christian can move, really move. He keeps me close, not letting me go, but his hands gradually relax on mine, freeing me. My hands creep around, up his arms, feeling his bunched muscles through his jacket, up to his shoulders. He presses me against him, and I follow his moves as he slowly, sensually dances with me in time to the pulsing beat of the club music.
The moment he grabs my hand and spins me first one way, then the other, I know he's back with me. I grin. He grins.
We dance together and it's liberating - fun. His anger forgotten, or suppressed, he whirls me around with consummate skill in our small space on the dance floor, never letting go. He makes me graceful, that's his skill. He makes me sexy, because that's what he is. He makes me feel loved, because in spite of his fifty shades, he has a wealth of love to give. Watching him now, enjoying himself . . . one could be forgiven for thinking he doesn't have a care in the world. But I know his love is clouded with issues of overprotectiveness and control, but it doesn't make me love him any less.
I am breathless when the song morphs to another.
"Can we sit?" I gasp.
"Sure." He leads me off the dance floor.
"You've made me rather hot and sweaty," I whisper as we return to the table.
He pulls me into his arms. "I like you hot and sweaty. Though I prefer to make you hot and sweaty in private," he purrs, and a lascivious smile tugs at his lips.
As I sit, it's as if the incident on the dance floor never happened. I'm vaguely surprised we haven't been thrown out. I glance around the bar. No one is looking at us, and I can't see Blond Giant. Maybe he left, or maybe he's been thrown out. Kate and Elliot are being indecent on the dance floor, Ethan and Mia less so. I take another sip of champagne.
"Here." Christian puts another glass of water before me and regards me intently. His expression is expectant - drink it. Drink it now. I do as I'm told. Besides, I'm thirsty.
Reaching over, he lifts a bottle of Peroni from the ice bucket on the table and takes a long drink.
"What if there had been press here?" I ask.
Christian knows immediately that I'm referring to him knocking Blonde Giant on his ass.
"I have expensive lawyers," he says coolly, all at once arrogance personified.
I frown at him. "But you're not above the law, Christian. I did have the situation under control."
His eyes frost. "No one touches what's mine," he says with chilling finality, as if I'm missing the obvious.