“Thank you, Armando.” Maddie smiled, though it seemed forced, and Dan cocked his head to the side. He had no idea what the guy said and he wasn’t sure he liked that Maddie did. Of course, she’d minored in Spanish in college, so he shouldn’t be surprised. Still, it didn’t thrill him that the two of them could carry on a private conversation about God knows what and he’d be clueless. Somehow that little detail bothered him more than the guy putting his hands on her.
But, he reminded himself, he trusted his wife implicitly, therefore he’d have to restrain his inner caveman. Taking a hearty pull from his beer, he shook off the agitation. She wanted to have fun tonight, then they’d have fun.
“Have you been here long?” Armando asked, still holding Maddie’s hand.
“No. First drink.” She lifted her glass and then sucked most of the unnaturally blue liquid down in one long slurp, as if she were nervous. Which beckoned the question—why would she be nervous? She’d been completely comfortable with the man earlier in the day. Was there something going on Dan wasn’t privy to?
Armando chuckled and plucked Maddie’s empty glass from her hand. “Let me buy you both another round.” Excusing himself, he shuffled off to the bar.
Grateful for the moment alone, Dan pulled Maddie close again. “Babe, why don’t you let me in on whatever’s going on in that pretty head of yours, because the second I think I’ve got you figured out, you flip like a switch right before my eyes.”
Maddie placed her hands on his chest, her fingers spread wide. Obviously avoiding his gaze, she looked to be completely fascinated with her fingernails. But her lower lip, pinched between her teeth, gave her away. Yes, she definitely had something on her mind.
“You know how I am. If you don’t just come out and tell me, I’m going to overanalyze every little clue you do give me until I figure it out.”
He felt, more than heard, her heavy sigh and unless his senses were playing tricks on him, her fingers were shaking too. What’d she have to be anxious about? The wedding was over, the pressure off. It was just the two of them here and, while saying ‘I do’ had been wonderful, this time alone with her was what he’d looked forward to the most. He wanted her to enjoy these few days just as much as he hoped to. But whatever she wasn’t telling him wasn’t allowing the good time he wanted for either of them.
She glanced up at him almost tentatively, her normally bright eyes stormy once again with that hesitation he couldn’t puzzle together. “I think I’d rather you tried to figure it out.”
“I’ve been trying, babe, and I’m clueless. Narrow it down for me?” He slid his hand up the back of her neck and into her hair. She shuddered and her eyes fluttered shut as goose bumps prickled along her chest and shoulders. “You obviously still want me as much as I want you. That much I’m sure of.”
“That’s never been a question.”
“But there is a question, isn’t there?”
Her eyes sprung open and she took to biting that pretty pink lip again.
Damn, if he didn’t want to do the same. To taste the sweetness of her drink on her lips and feel the sugary slide of her tongue against his. He swallowed hard. “There’s something you want, but are afraid to ask for.”
Her sharp intake of breath and even wider eyes promised he was right. Well, at least he’d pinned that down. It wasn’t much but it was a start.
Armando came back carrying a tray with their drinks and three shots of something amber. “Tequila,” he explained, handing one of the small glasses to Maddie. “The good stuff.”
Dan’s stomach twisted instantly. The last time he had tequila, he wound up naked in the front flower bed of a sorority house. “Nah, I’ll pass.”
“More for me then.” In a matter of seconds, Maddie downed both her shot and his, and he noticed her nipples pebbled as she shivered with the afterburn. When she licked her lips—the lips he so badly wanted to taste—she never took her eyes off of him. In that moment, he was completely confident that he’d misinterpreted her earlier reaction to Armando. She was definitely more interested in him than she was the surf god. Thank Christ.
“She’s a feisty one, isn’t she?” Armando’s eyes gleamed with appreciation.
Possibly more feisty than Dan realized and, expressing its approval, his dick twitched.
“Mind if I take her for a spin on the dance floor?” The instructor flashed a grin and Dan gave a short laugh. The guy didn’t waste time, did he?
Dan also wasn’t dumb enough to believe there’d be any actual spinning. The crowd was currently swaying in unison to a fast, bone humming, blood pumping techno remix. He couldn’t see where one body ended and another began, and no doubt Armando would use that to his advantage, getting as close to Maddie as possible.
“Be my guest. But she comes back here when you’re done.” He looked from his wife to the man and back again. Maddie had a quietly curious expression on her face and her cheeks flushed ever so slightly. The alcohol? Or did his words hit too close to what she wasn’t telling him?