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The strains of a Bee Gees song were fading away as the DJ’s voice spliced into the gap between songs. ‘And here’s one I don’t get too many requests for.’
Like a herd of antelopes, everyone paused, heads tilted as they waited for the music to begin. All around me, people hesitated as they tried to identify the song and then decide how to dance to it. But not me. I’d recognised it from the first few chords.
I waited, and a moment later felt the touch of a hand on my shoulder. It tapped lightly as though he was cutting in. I turned around with a smile and nodded my head towards the DJ.
‘I take it that was you?’ I asked, as theMoulin Rougeversion of ‘Roxanne’ throbbed out through the speakers.
‘Guilty,’ admitted Finn, his hands reaching for mine. ‘It was the only tango song I could think of.’
‘I amnotgoing to tango,’ I warned him.
In response, Finn pulled me against him, lifting my arms to gently position them around his neck, while his hands slid down to my hips. We began to dance, following a beat, although not the one the musicians were playing.
We swayed together on the dance floor, which had emptied considerably due to his unusual song request. I could feel the strength of him as we moved in infinitesimally small circles under the neon lights. Someone’s heart was beating really strongly in their chest; it could have been mine or his. What was harder to ignore was the effect we were having on each other. My breathing was fast, coming in excited, snatched gasps, while Finn’s body was reacting to our closeness in a way that made me extremely grateful for the low lighting.
‘Thisisn’thow you tango,’ I whispered, tilting my face towards him, so close that he could have kissed me if he wanted to – and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he really, really wanted to.
‘It’s howIdo it,’ he said, his voice far huskier than usual.
We made it almost to the end of the song, and although the suggestion could have come from either of us, I was really glad that he said the words before I did.
‘Do you want to get out of here?’
*
I had only a hazy memory of leaving the party and tumbling into a taxi that had fortunately been passing as we emerged into the cold December night. I expected the sudden change in temperature to act like a bucket of cold water being thrown over us, but we were beyond burning by then. We were molten.
Finn kissed me in the back of the taxi in a way I’d never been kissed before. It was a real struggle to remember there was a driver with a rear-view mirror just a few feet away, because my hands were only just under my control.
Finn peeled a note from his wallet without even looking at the denomination. From the grateful ‘Thank you’ from the driver, I suspected it might have been a fifty.
We kissed by the lifts and then tumbled into the carriage with his arms still firmly clasped around me. We were alone for the first time since leaving the dance floor, and as our kisses deepened in intensity, we fell back against the wall of the carriage. I inadvertently selected every button on the control panel with my back, and the delay as we stopped on each floor before reaching mine felt like torture.
It took me four attempts to line up my door key with the lock, and that had nothing to do with the alcohol I’d consumed earlier. I was drunk, but not on anything that had come out of a bottle. I was higher than I’d ever been on desire and had long since crossed the point where stopping was even a consideration.
I only hoped Finn felt the same.
He pushed my front door shut, and it was as though a starting pistol had sounded in my head. My hands were tugging off his jacket and fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. To my shame, I heard at least one ping softly against the wooden floor.
And then came the moment I’d been dreading. Finn’s hands reached up and fastened around my wrists, stopping me. I groaned against his mouth, but there was a strength and control in him that I couldn’t fight.
‘I don’t want to stop. Don’t make us stop,’ I pleaded.
‘Are you sure, Gemma?’
‘Do you really need to ask me that?’ I replied, aware I wasn’t exactly playing fair as I pressed myself against him.
This time it was his turn to groan.
I felt weak and yet at the same time more empowered than I’d ever felt in my life. ‘Do you want me?’ I asked with a confidence I’d never felt with a man before.
‘More than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything,’ Finn said, lifting me so all that separated us were a couple of annoying layers of fabric.
I wound my arms and legs tightly around him as he carried me to the bedroom.
20
THENIGHTBEFORECHRISTMAS
