“He’s had too much to drink,” Teddy explained, pulling James’s attention.
“That’s my date he’s insulting,” James growled. He hated that Weston was hitting on Daniel, but to use that sort of language... “He’s going to find himself missing some teeth if he doesn’t treat her and all the ladies properly.”
Howard nodded. “I’m going to call him a cab once he’s finished eating. This isn’t the kind of evening I had expected.”
“Me either,” James agreed. Howard excused himself and headed off toward Weston’s table. The ladies had moved on to a room in the back of the pub, and James hoped Daniel was all right. It was clear that Daniel could take care of himself, but James and Weston were going to have a real problem if Weston didn’t back the hell off. James ordered a soda and wished it was something stronger. He needed something to calm his nerves. Although what James really needed was to keep Weston away from Daniel. He took a sip and shook his head. Everything was becoming more complicated by the second.
Chapter Ten
Daniel didn’t spend a lot of time with women...well, at least not groups of women. His time in Chicago was spent with men who dressed as and imitated women. That was very different from being included in one of their rites of passage...as it were. One thing was most definitely true: these ladies were wild.
“Do you always act like this?” he asked, seated around a small table that was already piled with empty glasses. They were on their second, and hopefully final, stop while the guys had stayed at the pub. Daniel checked around the room, looking for the small handbag he’d come in with, but he didn’t see it. A lot of the girls had placed their bags behind the bar, and he craned his neck to see and wondered if someone had placed his with the others. That was the one thing that made him nervous. Inside was his real ID, just in case there was trouble of some sort.
“Are you kidding?” Holly asked as the music changed, and she whooped, grabbing Daniel by the hand, dragging him out to the dance floor. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years.”
“Really?” Daniel asked over the music, giving up on any sort of conversation as they danced to the thrumming beat. He loved to dance and would usually let go and be one with the music, but tonight, he felt as though he needed to be on his toes.
“This is awesome!” Holly called, lifting her hands in the air, whirling around as she rolled her hips. Daniel smiled and kept dancing, enjoying himself for a few minutes. It was wonderful being in the company of women. Sure, they could be catty sometimes, but he found a sense of acceptance with them that was more difficult with most men. It had always been that way for him. When he was in school, most of his friends had been women. He’d had a few guy friends, but mostly they were the boyfriends or people in the extended circle of the women. He always felt that women had few expectations of him. Guys wondered if he was interested in them, and had been plenty ready to beat the crap out of him if they thought he was. Even the gay guys had stayed away because he was just too gay, even for them. This was pleasant and fun, especially when more of the ladies danced into his orbit, and he simply let the pounding beat of the music carry him away. Suddenly, the music ended, and the women all drifted to the nearby chairs. The room went dark, and one corner of the private room of the bar burst to light with a stripper dressed as a police officer, muscled body bulging in his uniform.
“Damn, I want me some of that.” Holly hurried over as the music changed to a pulsating beat and the police officer began to dance. Daniel let the ladies move around him to get closer, standing toward the back.
He smiled and then chuckled to himself. This guy could most definitely benefit from dance lessons. Who in the heck hired a stripper who couldn’t dance? Daniel snickered as the huge guy rolled his hips. The ladies cheered, but all Daniel could see were the awkward movements. Granted, the guy was stunning, deep tan, huge muscles threatening to burst out of the shirt that strained to contain them. The women didn’t seem to care if he could dance or not, whooping and screaming when he pulled off his shirt, whirling it overhead as he finally got into the rhythm of “It’s Raining Men.” The yelling grew louder as a number of the ladies joined him. Thankfully they left their tops on.
“Not interested?”
Daniel hadn’t heard anyone come up behind him. “Not really.” He smiled at one of Holly’s friends. “I have a cop of my own.” The words were out before he could really think about them, and Daniel felt himself blushing under his makeup. The truth was that if James were up there, he would be enraptured, but while this guy was nice-looking—if a little too muscle-bound—he wasn’t a certain police officer who had taken up residence in Daniel’s dreams.
He shouldn’t allow these kinds of thoughts to take root, for his own sake. James wasn’t out to his family. That wouldn’t be a problem in Chicago; they could be themselves there. But Daniel was not going to pull out the Daniella persona every time his family came to visit or when they were expected to return here. That wasn’t going to happen. Daniel had spent a great amount of emotional energy coming to terms with who he was, and going back into the closet wasn’t something he was prepared to do. Being here was a job, Daniel reminded himself, and once they left, the job would be over.
“I see.” She sipped her wine. “I’m Rachel.”
“Daniella.”
Rachel nodded. “So you’re James’s date. I heard you were pretty.” She took another sip and set her glass on a nearby table. “I’ve been wondering about the kind of girl that James would be interested in.” There was something in her tone that left Daniel suspicious about her. She seemed too intent. “I had a crush on him through high school, and James never showed the slightest interest...in anyone. He dated a few girls, but his heart didn’t really seem to be in it. I always wondered about the kind of person who would turn his eye.”
Daniel nodded. “I see.” Of course, Daniel knew the exact reason why James had behaved as he had. James wasn’t interested in any woman, at least not the way Rachel had hoped he might be.
“Tell me, is James a passionate man?” She was fishing now and clearly had ideas about James and what he might be like. She probably figured that since he hadn’t been interested in her, James wasn’t interested in anyone. It was a dead-on conclusion, but one Daniel needed to dispel.