Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,177

shoe thing first. Go get her.”

Jack leaned back and put his arm over Josie’s shoulder again. His fingers stroked the wispy hairs at the back of her neck. He shrugged. “Nah.”

After a few minutes, the blonde gave Jack another sultry look, which he didn’t catch because he was too busy checking out the dance floor. Josie watched the blonde frown, then glance over her again. The woman’s gaze took in Jack’s casually draped hand, and the way it toyed now and then with one of Josie’s dangling earrings. She arched her eyebrows and said something to her companion, an equally predatory looking brunette. Both women turned to stare at Josie, who by now had shivers running up and down her spine from Jack’s hand playing with her earring.

“Stop it.” She slapped at his hand. “You’re driving me nuts.”

He stopped touching the dangling silver chain at her ear and moved his arm. The blonde and her friend had moved off toward the dance floor. “Hey, we lost her.”

“You lost her.” Josie inched over on the crowded bench, ignoring the way the guy next to her seemed to take it as an excuse to fix a beer-bleary smile on her. “You took too long. She lost interest.”

Jack looked behind her to the dance floor again. One of his large hands splayed unconsciously against the chest of his tight gray t-shirt. His fingers tapped in time to the beat.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said absent-mindedly. “Hey, Josie, let’s go dance.”

“Yeah?” she asked, surprised. “You’re tired of The Game already?”

Jack’s grin was hot enough to melt butter. He leaned forward so close she smelled the mint of his gum mixed with the spicy, musky scent of his cologne. “Why? You got somebody picked out?”

His smell had suddenly become more intoxicating than the beer she’d been sipping. Josie swallowed against a dry throat. She pulled away, again bumping the man beside her.

“Not really,” she said.

Jack gave her a puzzled look. “You all right?”

She wasn’t all right, but Josie didn’t tell him that. “Fine. Let’s dance.”

“Let me hit the john, and I’ll be right back.”

He tugged a strand of her hair, then headed off through the crowd. Josie watched him go, the view from behind as delightful as that from the front. His dark pants clung just right to his tight ass, and the gray t-shirt fit him like a second skin across his muscled shoulders and back. Jack dodged the crowd with a liquid grace that melted her insides.

Stop it! She tossed back the last few swigs of beer and got up to set it on the table. She refused the guy next to her’s offer of another and ran her hands over her hair to smooth it from the tangling Jack had given it.

He’s just a friend. Your best friend. You used to bet each other you’d eat worms, for God’s sake!

With a shudder, Josie gripped the table’s edge. Something was wrong with her tonight, and she couldn’t blame it on the extra beer she’d consumed. She’d been feeling this way for the past few months… Hell, since she was being honest with herself, the past few years.

The thudding of her heart seemed to move in time with the throbbing dance music. The colored lights on the dance floor flickered in her vision, and Josie had to close her eyes for a minute, disoriented.

She felt him behind her before he said anything. She’d always been in tune with Jack, ever since they were kids playing hide and seek. Lately, though, her body was reacting to Jack’s presence a lot differently. Her nipples tightened, her belly dropped. She found herself imagining what it would be like to see him naked—and she’d seen him naked many times without bothering to notice it. Now she wished she’d paid closer attention.

“Ready?”

She turned. “Yep. Let’s tear it up!”

He took her hand to lead her to the dance floor. Jack was a big guy, standing just over six feet tall and solid with muscle. He made an easy path for them through the throng to the crowded dance floor.

Dancing was a sure-fire way to get the attention which would gain them points in The Game, but that wasn’t the only reason Jack and Josie danced together. Jack really loved to dance and he was very good at it. Despite his tough-guy appearance, Jack could cut a rug to rival Fred Astaire courtesy of a few years of dance lessons their mothers had insisted on. Jack and Josie had little opportunity to