“You can say that again.”
She grins at me, then leans forward to run her nose against mine. “We’re a long way from Amarillo, country boy.” This time her voice is lower, huskier like I like it. The exact cadence that makes me want to spread her on this table and have her for dessert. This morning was just a taste—an appetizer. I’m ready for the main course.
“I haven’t been a boy in a long time, darlin’.” I wink and give her a light kiss on the tip of her nose. “But I think you know this already.”
Before she can respond, a jazz band starts up right beside where we’re sitting. Robyn doesn’t hesitate.
She jumps up from her dinner and runs to stand beside a dark-skinned gray-haired gentleman playing the saxophone. I watch in wonder as she dances along to the music, twirling until her dark blue dress with the little white flowers on it spins around her. Soon she isn’t alone and if it weren’t for her red hair, I’d be hard-pressed to find her in the crowd.
When I make my way to her, she collapses against my chest. “This is the best place ever. I love it here. Let’s never leave, okay?”
When she looks at up me with so much hope in her eyes, begging me to play along, I can’t help but give her what she wants.
“Okay,” I say, taking her hand for one more twirl. “We’ll never leave.”
24 | Robyn
IT’S FUNNY, AS A KID, I WASN’T A HUGE FAN OF PLAYING PRETEND. Yet as an adult I can’t seem to get enough of it.
After hours of dancing in the street and then in a swanky jazz club we happened upon by accident, Dallas and I return to his room like a couple returning to their honeymoon suite.
We should both be exhausted, but there is an energy pulsating between us that has a life of its own. There is something truly magical about this place—it’s as if the spirits of the past are charging the air around us, electrifying everything and everyone with their own never-ending high-velocity current.
Dallas excuses himself to use the restroom and I step out onto his balcony. It’s nearly four in the morning but the party is still going strong on the street down below. I’m mesmerized by the lively crowd, entranced by their energy and so engrossed that I don’t hear Dallas come up behind me.
“What a beautiful view,” he says softly, the deep rumble of his voice warming my blood.
“It is,” I agree, taking in the lights and the laughter down below. “It’s an amazing city.”
“I wasn’t talking about the city.”
I gasp audibly when his hands slide up my thighs, raising my dress as they go.
This isn’t real, Robyn. This is temporary. Casual, like he said. Don’t forget that. Don’t get confused about what this means. It’s a good time, that’s all.
But it’s confusing and it has been since Charlotte. Because it feels real, as real and all consuming as Dallas’s presence enveloping me the way he did when we danced tonight. His breath hits my neck before his lips do and my knees weaken. His solid body supports my weight as his fingers tease the thin cotton barrier between us. I can feel his entire length against my backside and it makes me moan in anticipation.
“Anyone could see, Dallas,” I breathe, too turned on to be as panicked as I should be. “They could just look up and they’d see.”
“Yeah?” he says, as if this isn’t of any concern to him. “You like that, sweet girl? We’re supposed to be discreet, though. But what if I take you right now? What if you come apart right here on this balcony?”
His thick warm finger slides beneath my panties and strokes the length of my own slick arousal.
“We can’t do this,” I whisper. “I mean, we can. I want to. Just not right here.”
“I want them to watch,” he says into my ear. “I want them to know that you’re mine, to see how hot I make you and how hard you come for me. Only for me.”