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“Because you’re not working right now, and I have a job I need filled,” Sherman said slowly, as if his nephew wasn’t too bright. Dakota had to agree with Sherman’s approach. Ace wasn’t catching on too quickly.
“What?” Ace said again, looking more confused.
“Dakota is starting flight lessons next week, and she needs an instructor. I’m volunteering you,” Sherman said. “Is that clear enough?”
Ace gave his uncle a withering glare before his eyes focused on Dakota. She shrugged her shoulders. The ball was now in his court.
“I’ve got a lot going on,” he said. Dakota tensed next to him. She was feeling a bit rejected, not something she was used to—and she didn’t like it one little bit.
“What are you doing?” Sherman asked, his gaze narrowing.
Ace stumbled over words as he looked down at his feet. Wow! It seemed his uncle was shaming him. Dakota felt bad for him now. And she felt like the rope in a tug-of-war game she hadn’t asked to be in.
He looked from her to his uncle and then back to her again, and she could see the shift in his eyes. His uncle was challenging him, and it appeared he didn’t like to back down from a challenge any more than she did. That could be a bad combination for the two of them.
“You need a teacher, huh?” Ace suddenly asked, his attitude doing a one-eighty, the confusion and annoyance vanishing as his lips turned up. She had no doubt he was thinking of teaching her a lot more than flying. She flashed him an equally confident smile.
“Yep, it looks like it,” she told him before she winked.
Lust flared in his eyes, and Dakota wondered if she was playing with far more fire than she could manage. Even if that was the case, she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“Then I guess I’m your man. When’s the first lesson?”
The rest of the people around them might as well have faded away as they gazed at each other. The powerful connection between the two of them was so much more than she could handle, but that only made this whole thing that much more exciting for Dakota.
“Next week,” she said.
“I have all the paperwork,” Sherman said, breaking their intense connection. She was a little grateful to the man.
“Good. You can give it to me tomorrow,” Ace told his uncle, though his gaze never left Dakota’s.
“Then it’s all settled,” Dakota said, hating that her voice was a little breathy.
“This is far too much business on my wedding day,” Chloe said before she looked at her husband. “Take me out on the dance floor and hold me close.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Nick told her, immediately pulling her away from the group. Dakota was mesmerized by their love as she gazed after them.
“That sounds like a great idea. Let’s dance,” Ace said, taking Dakota’s arm and pulling her away, not giving her a chance to refuse.
Dakota liked a man who knew what he wanted and didn’t hesitate to get it. She followed him to the dance floor. When he pulled her into his arms, she let her mind go blank and allowed herself to do nothing more than feel.
It was the best decision she’d made in a long time. Being in Ace’s arms felt like being home. It was right where she belonged, and she’d learned long ago to chase her dreams and not fight them or try to analyze them too much.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Slow music played, and Dakota fit in Ace’s arms as if she’d been made just for him. Normally Ace avoided slow songs like they were the plague, but as Dakota melted against him, he knew it was the ultimate in healing after being analyzed like a bug on a slide since he’d returned. He could get lost in this woman—in the magic she seemed to bring with her very presence.
Yes, he knew he was potentially putting her in danger, and yes, he knew he was leaving again soon and shouldn’t make these connections, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself, and he was getting really tired of the internal battle. It was just a dance, he silently muttered.
He wished he could let go of the edge of danger he constantly felt, but too much had happened to him while he was away with the CIA. He understood his family wanting to know about it, wanting to understand why he’d been gone. They probably thought it had been easy on him. They were wrong. But Ace didn’t articulate that too well, so they looked at him as if he would bolt again at any minute—which he actually might. Being with Dakota, though, he felt a moment of relief from the guilt he was constantly carrying.
And though he did want to mend the fences he’d built between himself and his family, right now all he wanted to do was get lost in Dakota’s embrace. He wanted to selfishly keep her all to himself and not allow anyone else into their little bubble.
“Your family obviously loves you,” Dakota told him. He wondered if she was a mind reader along with all her other talents.
“I’ve been away for a very long time. It takes some getting used to, being around them again. My family certainly isn’t the hold-back kind. They will say what’s on their mind, and they will make sure you listen to their very emphatic opinions,” he told her.
“Is that hard for you?” she asked.
