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“You promised me a dance,” he said.
I took the napkin from my lap and placed it on the table, then met Melanie’s gaze. She was smiling, but there was something in her eyes I didn’t understand.Concern? Fear?
“I always knew Saxon was the smart one,” Garrett said, and there was a tinkering laugh from Melanie that sounded more like relief.
How odd.
I turned to look up at Saxon and placed my hand in his, then stood. I knew he was only doing this to get us both away from the table. I’d much rather be dancing with him than feeling as if I was being watched and judged by every person at that table.
Thankfully, in my inner-city school, ballroom dancing had been offered one semester as an alternative to physical education. I was one of four students who took it, and that was the only semester that the dance instructor donated her time to the school. Her goodwill had been short-lived, but it had lasted long enough that I felt confident enough to dance with Saxon.
As I fell in step with his lead, I managed to relax and enjoy myself. It had been a while since I’d danced, and never had I done so outside of the school gymnasium.
“You’re good at this,” he said to me.
I tilted my head back so I could look up at him and smiled. “You expected me to step all over your feet, didn’t you?”
He smirked. “Maybe.”
His hand was warm on my bare back, and our bodies were close enough that they brushed against each other; however, there was no spark. It was comfortable. Easy. I trusted Saxon. He wasn’t complicated or full of himself.
“You handled yourself well with Garrett,” he told me.
I sighed, thinking of how nervous and uncomfortable I’d been. “I’m just glad it’s over,” I admitted.
Saxon leaned closer to me then, his mouth hovering near my ear. “Blaise is headed this way,” he whispered, then straightened back up, holding me away from him so we barely touched at all.
Before I could respond to his information, another hand was on my back—lower than Saxon’s hand was—and Saxon stopped dancing. He let my hand go and stepped back with a smile, then gave me a nod before walking away from me. Confused by the sudden change, I turned to see Blaise behind me.
His teeth were clenched tightly, causing his chiseled jaw to stand out even more. He turned me toward him completely and pressed my body against his as one of his hands threaded with mine. I had never danced like this before. Never this close to someone else. The arms holding me felt like iron bars, but I didn’t intend to try and break free of them. My mind was turning so quickly that I had little time to adjust to the change when we began to move.
I lifted my eyes from his chest to meet Blaise’s eyes. They were hard and cold. As if touching me and dancing with me were being forced upon him at gunpoint. I stiffened, and his gaze dropped to mine. The darkness in his eyes made me feel breathless. As if I knew I should be terrified, but instead, I was intrigued.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
We both knew he didn’t want to be dancing with me, and it couldn’t be for his father’s sake. He didn’t care what Garrett thought of him.
“Dancing, Madeline,” he replied through his clenched teeth.
“I can see that, Blaise,” I replied with a forced smile. “I meant, what are you doing, dancing with me?”
His hand flexed as it rested on my back, but he said nothing more.
I decided to finish the dance. Get it over with. Whatever point he was making would be made. We continued on in silence. The only thing changing between us was my traitorous body enjoying the feeling of his. I told myself any man who was built like him would feel the same way and that my body didn’t take into account personalities.
I tried to focus on anything else in the room to distract me when my eyes found Trev’s. He was watching us closely, and I could tell he seemed worried about me. I managed to give him a reassuring smile. The song would end soon. I would survive this.
“The dress fits you perfectly,” Blaise said in a low voice, startling me. I hadn’t expected him to speak again.
My eyes flew back up to meet his. He wasn’t looking at me, but his jaw moved, and I knew he was aware of my gaze on his face.
“Melanie buys my clothes,” I told him, feeling as if I should say something.
It appeared as if a smirk wanted to tug at his lips, but he managed to stop it. Either that or I had imagined it. Blaise inhaled deeply. I was in tune with every move he made. Even his breathing. I didn’t want to be. This meant nothing to him. He was being forced to dance with me. That was all I could think of that made sense.
“Where did you learn to dance?” he asked me.
This time, when I looked up at him, our eyes met. He was watching me. The green was darker in this lighting. Almost like a storm cloud over the sea. He was waiting on me to answer him. Nothing more. But my heart sped up, and when I opened my mouth to speak, I forgot my words.
