entered the kitchen. “Is everything okay in here, boys?”
Both of them turned on her with hard, flinty eyes. Kelly almost turned tail and ran the other way.
“Forget it,” Nathan snapped. “Like I give a shit what wine we serve. I’m not arguing with you.”
He turned and stormed off, heading for his basement. Kelly turned toward Ryan to find out what had happened, but caught sight of Ronun over Ryan’s shoulder.
The world vanished. There was nothing but his eyes, his smile. She was drawn toward him without noticing her feet were moving. When he smiled, it was like the sun cracking through the clouds after a week of rain. Warm, welcome, and full of hope.
Eighteen
Kelly drifted past Ryan as if he'd suddenly become invisible. From the corner of her eye, she noticed his grin and knew he wasn’t offended. Everyone knew she was falling head over heels for Ronun, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it quite yet.
Holding Ronun's gaze as she moved toward him, she couldn’t imagine a single reason why she should continue to resist. Okay, so she'd thought he was kind of a jerk in the beginning. But that was before she knew she’d been tormenting a living being instead of a statue. The fact that he was under a curse would have been enough to darken anyone’s temper. Add a bit of bodily disrespect to that, and it was a recipe for catastrophe.
His gaze ran down her body, his eyes widening and pupils darkening. Anyone who looked at her that way had to have forgiven her, right?
“Enjoying the party?” She breathed a silent sigh of relief that her voice was smooth and even. And that she didn't giggle.
He cast a look around the room, quickly spinning all the way back to her again. It was like he couldn’t stop looking at her, and Kelly had no problem with that at all.
“Just got here, but it looks nice.”
Nice? Never in the history of her party-throwing had anyone ever called one of her parties ‘nice.’ Killer, epic, a nuisance to polite society—all descriptions she'd heard plenty, but never nice.
He tried to give her an easy smile, but it got stuck. Uncertainty flashed across his face and Kelly grabbed his elbow before he could trip over his own tongue again. She didn’t want their special moment foiled by a fit of nervousness gone wrong.
Grabbing his hand, she dragged him toward the dance floor, hurrying to get them grooving to the beat before either of them could say or do something clumsy. As comforting as it was to know he liked her enough to be nervous talking to her, she didn’t want to see him embarrassed.
Or me, she thought, wryly. If the moment gets awkward, you can bet I’ll stick my foot right in it.
Better to dance. Let their bodies do the talking. She put her hands loosely on Ronun’s shoulders and his hands stroked her waist. Her hips moved to the rhythm of the music but Ronun seemed tense as he barely rocked side to side.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, having to lean in and raise her voice for him to hear.
“Not much of a dancer,” he said with a self-conscious shrug. “Being made of stone twelve hours a day… It makes you kind of stiff, I guess.”
A million comebacks flashed through Kelly’s mind and her hands tightened on his shoulders. The moment was almost unbearable torture.
Which part of you is stiff? How stiff? Stiff for me?
“Oh, okay.”
She bit her tongue so she wouldn't accidentally blurt out every dirty thought in her mind. Swaying back and forth for a minute as she thought about her next move, she couldn't help noticing Ronun’s body getting harder as he tensed up against the rhythm of the music.
Imagine how hard he could get if I teased him a bit more… No, no, stop thinking like a damn teenager!
When true discomfort showed on Ronun’s face, she finally got her shit together. She wasn’t drunk—for the first time in forever, where parties were concerned—and this was not one of her one-night stands.
She ran her hands down his arms and grasped his hands, squeezing them.
“Come on,” she murmured in his ear. “Let’s go upstairs.”
Conversation was impossible on the move. The stairs were so crowded they had to walk single file and Kelly knew he was too close to be admiring her ass. It was a pity but getting out of the main room quickly was more important than shaking her tushy.
Hopefully, I’ll have plenty of