Page 23 of Dance This Song With Me?

Right?

Whoa! I dug my heels in, coming to an abrupt halt, as realization hit me.

My heart started pounding at a fearsome rate, as if it were going to burst right out of my chest, and I had the terrible sinking feeling of having screwed up. Bigtime. This was, in fact, not where I wanted to be at all.

"What're you doing?" Damien asked, striding back and reaching for my hand to pull me along.

"I... I've changed my mind," I gasped, out of breath, and shrugging off his hand. "I don't think this is a good idea after all."

"What the fuck?" he glared at me, like it was inconceivable that someone would turn him down. Yeah, I got it. I had pretty much come on to him, but... now I was thinking more clearly, he was also kind of a prick.

Why had I chosen him when I could have had Emilio? Not for forever obviously, but the way he'd been looking at me tonight, I was sure I could have had at least one more night with him. And the way we'd lit the night on fire the one time we had been together....Jeez, Lucas, you're a dumb ass. What the fuck was I doing here?

I needed to get myself out of this situation and go find Emi.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said, struggling to come up with an acceptable excuse but not wanting to tell him I wanted another guy - that would have been extra shitty. "I don't know what I was thinking. I don't even know you. I shouldn't ..."

"We don't have to go far. The restrooms are just down here. There won't be anyone there. Not that anyone cares what we do back here anyway."

Ugh, that sounded like this wasn't the first time he'd snuck out the back with someone. More like it was a regular occurrence. He was objectively handsome with confidence in spades, so it might well have been. But I wasn't interested in being one in a line of many.

"No," I repeated, backing away until the hard concrete of the wall slammed into my back. The corridor was deserted, as it was only used by the event organisers, all of whom were currently out in the main hall. I felt a slither of unease, muscles tensing, and my heart rate picked up. My hands balled into loose fists, just in case.

"You're a jerk," he sneered, obviously annoyed but thank god he wasn't going to make something of it. "Don't come near me again." Then he turned and stalked down the hallway. The door closed behind him with a sullen thud and I sagged against the wall, eyes closing in relief as the silence of the corridor surrounded me, the muffled strains of the music faintly audible through the door.

My ragged breathing sounded loud even with the music in the background. A couple deep breaths, and the slow expansion and contraction of my chest steadied me. My heart rate began to slow. After one more fortifying breath, I pushed away from the concrete and headed back into the hall to find Emi.

Carefully ignoring Damien who was now dancing with a girl near the DJ's table, I made my way around the dance floor, eyes scanning quickly over the mass of moving bodies.

By the time I'd circled the entire room twice, I'd come to a disappointing conclusion: Emilio had left the dance, and if he'd noticed me leaving the hall earlier, then he left it thinking I had gone off with someone else. Could I possibly screw the night up any more than I had?

◆◆◆

Ding-dong.

The old-fashioned electronic bell croaked out its warning somewhere deep inside the house.

I shifted nervously from foot to foot, my shoes making an obnoxiously loud scratching sound on the verandah boards. Minutes seemed to tick by. There was a rustling in the garden, something moving around in the dark. The sudden rattling of the door knob made my heart stutter, and light flooded the spot where I was standing.

"Oh hey," Emilio sounded the flattest I'd ever heard him, so unlike the guy I knew who was always so full of energy and life.

"Hey. Can we talk?" I asked, nervously chewing my lower lip.

He hesitated. Then pulled the door open wider.

"Sure. Come in."

I waited, stomach in knots, while he quietly closed the door behind me and then led us down the hallway. It was significant that he hesitated as we reached the door to his room but then continued walking, leading me instead to another door further along. Standing in the doorway, he gestured to me to enter, then followed me in. The room was a shared living area, with a large sofa and a couple of single chairs arranged around an unlit gas fireplace, and a desk and chair over by the window. A small bookcase along one wall contained a few books that appeared to be reference or study books. A stack of vinyls occupied the floor next to a record player.

"Sit down. My housemates are home tonight," said Emi as he closed the door, "but they won't disturb us unless I scream." His lips twisted into something that was supposed to be a smile at his joke, but didn't reach his eyes. He gestured to the furniture and then sat on the big sofa. I didn't know whether to sit with him or take one of the one-seaters. Instead, I stood there like a dork. To still my hands I shoved them roughly in my pockets.

Silence dominated the room.

"Well?" Emi asked eventually.

"Um." This was awkward. It was hard to look at him, watching me with those dark brown eyes that I'd seen go almost black with passion. What if it turned out he didn't feel the same as I did?

Then everything just spilled out in a rush.