Page 42 of Never Let Go

I blinked at him. “You are?”

He chuckled and inclined his head, and he squeezed my hand when I slid it into his. “Don’t worry. The lesson isn’t included in the time for the date. They did ask you to make yourself available a little longer this evening, didn’t they?”

“Uh, yes. They did.” I withdrew my hand when he let go. “I guess I just thought we’d have more time together.”

“You will,” he assured me. “The lesson is only for the first twenty minutes. You’ll be spending the other one hundred minutes with your date, who has already arrived and is in with my colleague, Tess.”

“Tess?”

He chuckled. “You have nothing to worry about. She’s my colleague, but she’s also my wife. She won’t make any moves on your man.”

My eyes grew wide and I wanted to tell him he’d misunderstood, but the truth was that he hadn’t. As soon as I’d found out that Tyler was with another woman, I’d been jealous. My cheeks flushed and I ducked my face behind my hair, following my instructor into the studio.

Soft lights were on in the ballroom he led me to, and I was glad I was at least going to be learning in a place where I could see. After I set down my purse, he swept me right into his arms and I soon found out that the tango was an even more sensual dance when you were doing it than it looked when you saw it on TV.

My heart was racing at the prospect of getting to do this with Tyler real soon. Alone and in the dark. My breath even caught a little as I thought about it, my body growing achy in all kinds of places. By the time Ricardo led me to a ballroom across the hall, I had to admit that my body was much too eager for this.

I swallowed it down, though. Distracting myself by trying to find my bearings after Ricardo left me alone in the dark, I focused on my breathing. “Hello?”

“Amanda?” His deep voice rang out and my heart skipped. “That is you, right?”

“It’s me,” I confirmed softly, putting my hands out ahead of me and wondering just how the hell we were supposed to find each other. “Are you okay? It’s, uh, it’s been a few days.”

“I know.” A low chuckle rumbled out of him and it made me smile. “I’m sorry. That stuff I had to take care of just ended up taking a little longer. How are you? Just keep talking. I’ll use your voice to find you.”

“Just don’t fall over something.”

He chuckled again. “I won’t. Tess has assured me there’s nothing on the floor to fall over or in our way. They’ll be bringing in takeout a little later, so for now, it’s just us and the open dance floor. How was your lesson?”

“Strangely exhilarating. Yours?”

“Exhilarating? Do I need to be worried about you and Tess’s husband?” I could hear he was teasing, but I wanted to set his mind at ease anyway.

“Definitely not. I’ll admit that I might’ve been thinking too much about getting to do this with you. I wasn’t really paying much attention to him.”

“Same here. Have you ever done that before?”

“The tango? No, I haven’t. You.”

“Me either,” he said, his voice much closer to me now. The next thing I knew, his fingertips brushed against my waist and an involuntary shiver passed through me. “There you are. Hi, Amanda.”

“Hi, Tyler,” I murmured, looping my arms around his broad shoulders before I slid them to his neck. “Is it weird that I’ve missed you?”

“Nah. I’ve missed you too.” His arms snaked around my hips and he tugged me into him, letting me feel the strong chest I’d only barely touched before in that moment when we’d kissed. The scent of him was becoming familiar, feeling like a comfortable, masculine embrace as it enveloped me.

I smiled as I rested my head against his chest, half just hugging him and half dancing as he started swaying while he held me. “Is this weird? Are we weird for missing each other when we don’t even know what the other looks like?”

He chuckled, his chest vibrating against me as he tightened his grip on my hips. “Maybe we are. The better question is whether you care. Because I don’t. It is what it is. I missed you, I’ve told my friends and family about you, and I really don’t give a shit if anyone thinks that’s weird.”

“Really? I’d love to say I don’t care either, but I, uh, I told my mom about you and she wasn’t too happy.”

“What? Why not? Is it about me, or because of Sight Unseen?”

“Sight Unseen,” I admitted. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just too foreign a concept for her. What did your mom say?”

He chuckled, pausing for a long beat before he shrugged. “You know, it took her some time to get used to it, but now that she is, she’s a fan. She’s been keeping an eye on the company and she’s seen the results.”

“She’s been keeping an eye on the company?” I frowned. “Why?”