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Hours had passed, and I’d slowly begun to loosen up as Holt and I flirted shamelessly. I wasn’t sure if I was a natural or if he simply made it easy, but Lyric had been right. Flirting wasfun!
I just wished I could go more than two seconds without thinking about Laeth. Holt was amazing. He was funny and handsome. Only a dead woman wouldn’t be attracted to him. But there was no spark. When he touched me, it was nice and warm. But when Laeth touched me, my skin practically sizzled. I felt Holt press against me or brush his hand along my hip or back as he attempted to teach me to play pool, and instead of feeling that pressure in my belly, that dull throb between my thighs Laeth always stirred in me, I felt disappointed that it wasn’t my boss holding me like that.
“I can’t in good consciousness put money on this game,” Lyric continued, pulling me back into the here and now. “She’s a freaking disaster at this. I’ll wipe the floor with her.”
“Hey”—I pulled my face into a frown of offense—“I’m not that bad.”
She rolled her eyes playfully and put her cue stick on the table. “Please. It’s a toss-up which you’re worse at: pool or darts.”
“Darts!” several voices from around our cluster of tables called out. They might have had a point on that one. I’d tried my hand at darts before we’d moved to the pool tables, and, well... let’s just say there was a lot of ducking and running when I started throwing. In my defense, it was the beer’s fault that my aim was so bad.
Holt smiled his gorgeous smile that Iwishedmade my knees weak and placed his palm on the small of my back. “Come on, short stuff. Let’s try your hand at something else.”
“What are we trying now?” I asked, following along to wherever he was leading me.
“I’m gonna take you for a spin on the dance floor,” he said, his voice ringing with confidence that I certainly wasn’t feeling after that declaration. I tried to plant my heels, but he was so much bigger and stronger than I was that it did no good.
“Uh, Holt, I’m not so sure about this,” I said as we got closer to the small dance floor not too far from the juke box. Almost like it had been waiting for this exact moment, the song that had been playing ended and kicked over to something slower and much more romantic. “I’ve never danced before, and I have a feeling I’m not very good at it.”
He wasn’t to be deterred. Executing an impressive move, he clasped hold of one of my hands and spun me outward before using his hold to twirl me back in so we were chest to chest, without a centimeter of space between our bodies.
He held me to him with an arm wrapped firmly around my waist. He placed my left hand on his shoulder and clamped my right one in his large hand. “Don’t worry about that, sweetheart. You just follow my lead. I’ve got you,” he said in a deep, velvety voice as he stared down at me.
True to his word, he guided me into a gentle sway as our feet shuffled slightly. It wasn’t difficult to follow along, and I felt myself starting to relax. That was, until I looked up into his face. The way he was looking at me caused my breath to hitch and my skin to tingle.
“I have to ask you something,” he said ominously, his voice low, as though he didn’t want anyone else to hear what we were discussing.
I blinked at the change in his tone. “O-okay.”
“There anything going on with you and Harker?”
My breath stuttered at the mention of Laeth, but the beer had muddled my brain. “Harker?” I asked stupidly, even though I knew exactly who he was talking about.
“Laeth. Your boss?” he clarified, that last descriptor causing me to wince. One of his brows quirked up and his fingers clenched around my hand, telling me he hadn’t missed my body’s response, no matter how small it may have been. If I had to guess, he was probably very good at his job. “What was that reaction all about?”
“Nothing,” I squeaked, the lie in that one word so obvious.
I could tell he wasn’t buying it. “I feel like I’m missing something here. You two have a thing goin’ on?”
I wasn’t sure what constituteda thing, but I knew whatever the definition was, Laeth and I certainly weren’t that.
I shook my head. Unable to meet his eyes, I stared at the shiny pearl snap buttons of his gingham shirt. “There’s nothing between Laeth and me.” The beer made my tongue loose, and before I could stop myself, I snorted and rolled by eyes. “I’ve never even hada thing. How sad is that? Twenty-six, and I haven’t even been kissed, for crying out loud!”
I was sure I’d be humiliated by everything I’d just said once the warm, floaty, carefree feeling the alcohol had caused went away, but in that moment, the words kept pouring past my lipsof their own accord. I was on a full-blown tangent, and I couldn’t seem to stop.
“It’s like this big weight around my neck, you know? I just want to get it over with already.”
Holt let out a strangled choking noise. “Get what over with? Being kissed?”
I smacked my hand into his shoulder. “Exactly!”
Then everything stopped. All thought fled, the remaining rant evaporated like a drop of water in the middle of the desert, all because Holton Clarke leaned down and pressed his lips to mine in my very first kiss.
I froze in place, eyes wide with shock as he pulled me even closer, bringing me up on my tippy toes for better access. My lips parted on a gasp, and Holt’s tongue used that moment to slide into my mouth and brush tenderly against my own. It was... nice. He tasted a bit like beer and cinnamon. When he did it again, I copied, flicking the tip of my tongue against his.
I didn’t have anything else to base it on, but I liked it a lot. It felt good, being wrapped up in a strong man’s arms as he kissed me gently, like I was this fragile thing. I had to admit, for my first kiss, it was really nice. Holt was being a gentleman, and I appreciated that more than he could ever know, but I couldn’t shake the thought in the back of my mind that there was something missing.
As if reading my thoughts, he pulled back and stared down at me with a furrowed brow. Both of us were breathing a littler heavier, and my lips felt puffy from being pressed against his.
