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“If you think you can scare me away, you will learn I’m not like most guys,” he told her after several moments.
She gave him an intense stare before leaning her head against his chest and swaying with him as the song merged into a new one. Luckily it was still a sweet, mellow beat, so he didn’t have to release her just yet.
Ace slowly moved the two of them through the crowd, spinning them as easily as a dancer from the twenties, his footwork perfect, her steps matching his with ease. His body was hard and his heart was racing, and he still didn’t want to let her go.
The air thickened between the two of them, and Ace couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t find the will to end their dance and let her go. In a few hours’ time, he’d fallen under this woman’s spell, and the thought of their perfect night ending was enough to make a cold sweat break out on his neck.
Ace might not be looking for love, didn’t even know if he would recognize it if he were to find it, but he wanted something more from this woman than just a single night. He might not want forever, but he wanted more than just a single moment. And that was dangerous territory for him and for her.
Ace felt worried about the intensity of his feelings for this woman. To ease some of his anxiety and let air into the cocoon the two of them had formed in the crowd of people, he grabbed her hand and spun her in a circle before pulling her back to him. Her laughter was his reward, and then the song changed, a fun beat filling the room.
More people around them began dancing, laughter and talking surrounding them. He thought about pulling her from the room and taking her somewhere they could be alone, thought about all the things he’d like to do with her, but he was afraid of how he was going to feel if he made this moment any more intimate than it already was.
“You are full of surprises, Ace, and you have made this wedding a lot more fun than any other I’ve been to,” Dakota told him as they continued dancing.
“You are bringing out something in me I didn’t even know was there,” he told her. “Or it could be the whisky I’ve drunk all night.”
She smacked his arm. “It’s all me. Besides, I’ve been told that alcohol simply allows us to do what we aren’t brave enough to do without it.”
“I’m a superhero, baby. I’m not afraid of anything,” he said.
“If you just add a little chest pounding to that statement, I might believe you,” she said.
He pounded his chest, knowing he was willing to do just about anything to make this woman laugh. It was sweeter than the music playing and the wedding cake combined.
“You know what, Ace?” she asked with a mischievous smile. He was afraid to respond. He was quickly learning he didn’t know what would come out of her mouth next.
“What?” he finally asked.
“You smell delicious. I could lean into you all night and simply smell you.”
Ace’s arousal pulsed at her words.
“You are trouble, Dakota,” he told her. “Why couldn’t you have said this stuff while we had a nice empty hotel room all to ourselves?”
“Because then I might have done something I would regret in the morning,” she said with a wink.
His mind was once again filled with images of the two of them entwined together, sweaty and naked. This night was going to be the death of him if she had her way about it.
“Damn, woman, you are killing me,” he told her. “And trust me, there is nothing we would do together that you’d have any regrets about.”
“Good. I’m finding it’s quite fun torturing you,” she admitted.
“My family might kill me if I haul you away over my shoulder, but then again, it could certainly be worth it,” he said. But his words also brought to mind all the villains he chased. They might literally kill her if they thought they could get to him because of it. That didn’t sit well with him—not one tiny bit.
“There might be a closet nearby we could sneak into,” she told him as she bit her bottom lip, driving him crazy.
“Ace is very familiar with closets,” Nick said with a laugh, interrupting the two of them.
Unbelievably, Ace felt his cheeks heat as he refused to meet Dakota’s eyes and vowed to punch his brother again. That might just have to become an Armstrong wedding tradition. Too bad it looked as if Nick would always be the one getting hit.
“I feel there’s a story here,” Dakota said with laughter that surprised him, though he didn’t understand how he could still be surprised by anything that came from this woman’s mouth.
“Well, you see—” Nick began, but Ace cut him off.
“Dakota doesn’t need to hear stories of the past,” Ace warned.
“Oh, she certainly does,” Dakota professed.
