AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d far overstayed my welcome, and every molecule in my being warned that I was getting too close.
“No way! It’s a dance party, Miss Charleigh. Don’t you hear the music? And my auntie has to have her best friend if she’s going to have a party.”
“Yeah, I have to have my best friend if I’m going to have a party,” Raven parroted, eyes wide. “Besides, I told you I was going to make sure you had a blast, and we’re just getting started.”
“Please?!” Nolan tugged at me again, his sweet little face pinched up in the plea.
Air puffed from my lungs, affected and light, and I swung my legs out from under the picnic table, whispering, “Okay, just for a little while.”
“Yay!” He jumped, brown curls bouncing around his cherub face, and Raven was locking her elbow with mine again.
I glanced back once as we strolled over to the dance floor that was about a hundred yards away, at this man who screamed volatility and still was so dangerously sweet.
Lights swayed above the dance floor, and I let go of the tension as Raven turned and took my hand. She shimmied her hips as she dragged me onto the edge of the floor. “I told you that you were going to have the best time. I mean, what could be better? Margaritas and tacos with your bestie and the most handsome little man on the planet?”
“That’s me!” Nolan shouted, right as he slid on his butt and spun himself around.
I laughed.
Laughed and laughed as Raven twirled me and Nolan spun on the floor around us.
The music alive and pounding through mysenses.
Hypnotizing.
Mesmerizing.
One song played out and then another.
I knew right then that my heart was in danger of overflowing.
I swore to myself it didn’t have a thing to do with the man I could feel watching us in the distance where he’d moved back to Kane’s tent.
And for a little while, I fully let myself go.
Dancing and dancing.
The beat of the music rolled through me in decadent waves. Vibrated through my veins and thundered through my body.
My laughter was unending as Raven kept trying to get me to copy her goofy moves.
“Like this, Miss Charleigh!” Nolan was back on his feet, his hands waving over his head as he twirled.
Raven twirled, too, and so did I.
Only I stalled out halfway around when I felt a disorder billow through the air.
The hairs prickled at the back of my neck.
Awareness thick and sticky and crawling over me like a bad, bad dream.
I was facing the lake that had darkened, and the bare light of the moon glittered on the surface. There were still a few people out on the beach area, though they were little more than silhouettes, their faces obscured.
There was nothing in particular that I could make out, but I couldn’t stop the cold dread from slicking down my spine.
Intuition kicking in.
I was such a fool. Such a fool. Getting complacent like this.
