rumba requires some serious chemistry! Who’s got it?”
“They do!” Grandma Joyce pointed to me and Ben.
Every head in the dance studio turned in our direction.
If I’d had a tail, it would have been between my legs.
Eliza raised an eyebrow. “I guess we shall see then.”
Grandma Joyce leaned in from the other side. “This dance is for you. Nobody has more chemistry than the two of you. One of these days you’ll admit it.”
“The truth shall set you free.” Grandpa Wayne smiled at my grandma.
“And it is for couples who want to add some serious fire to their love lives!” Eliza added.
I held up my finger toward my grandma. “Don’t say it.”
Eliza glanced in our direction. “Ben! Please come and be my wonderful volunteer again.”
Seriously?
Ben walked to the front of the room to volunteer again.
His earlier words about Eliza calmed my jealous thoughts.
She gave me the creeps.
When Eliza began to dance with Ben, I couldn’t help but notice his hips.
Wow.
Grandma Joyce leaned in. “Look at the way he’s moving those hips. It’s hypnotizing.”
It was hypnotizing and that’s why I wasn’t able to form words to give my grandma a verbal answer. Hopefully, she wouldn’t notice.
She placed her hand on my shoulder and studied my face. “Are you drooling, dear?”
I laughed and played it off. “No!” Maybe.
Eliza and Ben finally finished dancing, and he returned to my side.
She clapped twice and started another song for the rest of us to dance.
Oh, dear.
The way we moved together, in harmony, was doing something to me.
Call me crazy, but I felt sexy in Ben’s arms, like we were meant to dance this dance.
Slow-quick-quick. Slow-quick-quick.
I felt alive.
I felt heat on my cheeks.
I felt something under my foot.
“Ouch!” Ben said, wincing.
“Sorry!”
I normally wasn’t such a horrible dancer, but he did that to me.
He distracted me.
Just keep your eye on the ball. You’ll be fine.
If only it were that easy.
My thoughts were scrambled, kind of like the dance moves.
Slow-quick-quick. Slow-quick-quick.
Now, I knew why they called it the dance of love.
It was slow, deliberate, and we were much closer than we were when we danced salsa and the cha cha. Ben held me and moved me with confidence, like I was his, like he wanted me.
It is for couples who want to add some serious fire to their love lives!
She was right.
I was burning up.
Slow-quick-quick. Slow-quick-quick.
Someone needed to remind me why I only wanted to be friends with this man, because I didn’t have a clue.
He leaned in and dipped me. “You’re driving me crazy, lovely Lori. You’re wearing that perfume again.”
I nodded. “Yes.” I could barely get the words out.
“I told you the effect it had on me. Why would you continue to wear it if you only wanted to be friends?”
That was a good question.
I didn’t have an answer at the moment.
“There are only two possible reasons,” Ben continued. “One, you want to torture me. Or two, you want to be more than friends, but are scared or just don’t want to admit it.”
I scoffed. “You think you know everything.”
“Maybe not everything, but I’m pretty darn sure you want to kiss me again, almost as bad as I want to kiss you.” He glanced at my lips.
I looked away and swallowed hard, because he was right.
“Eye contact.” He grinned.
I returned my gaze to his, thinking about what he had said earlier.
I knew full well the effect my perfume would have on him when I sprayed it on my inner wrists, the base of the throat, and behind my ear lobes.
Why would I do such a thing? I must have had about ten thousand songs in the database called my brain, but one particular title popped into my head to answer the question.
“I Want You to Want Me” by Cheap Trick.
And I certainly wasn’t going to deny it. I wanted Ben to want me, even though I wasn’t sure I would let him have me. Weird, I know, but there was nothing in the world like the feeling of being wanted.
The song ended and Ben winked at me.
There was a flutter in my belly and my limbs started to tingle.
Then Ben surprised me with a last-second dip.
His body hovered over mine.
Ben’s face and lips were just inches from mine and I couldn’t look away.
We were both out of breath, gazes locked, in our own worlds.
In a room of approximately thirty people, everyone else just seemed to disappear.
My willpower was fading faster than my favorite pair of jeans.
There was only one thing I could do at that point.
I reached