Damon took another swig of his beer and then placed it down on the table next to hers. “You know it did.”
“Actually, all I could think about was you turning me down,” she said with a shrug.
Maya had told her to show him what he was missing, but that hadn’t been her motivation.
“Yeah, well, I was watching,” he admitted. “Where do you dance?”
“I used to dance at the New York City Dance House back home. Mostly ballet, but some contemporary.”
He nodded with a smile. “I’m not surprised you’re technically trained. It shows in your movements.”
“And you?”
“I learned here and there. My mum put me in dance and gymnastics when I was young, but I got bored quickly. I had a knack for the piano, and she pushed me toward that instead.”
“You play piano?” she asked.
“A couple of instruments actually. I just graduated a semester early in December with a music degree. All the good it’s doing me.”
“Oh, wow. What are you going to do with that? Why aren’t you in L.A. or something, trying to become famous?”
Almost sheepishly, he looked down at his hands. “Is it crazy to say that I don’t like the spotlight?”
Trihn laughed. “A little, but I know what you mean. I modeled in high school, and it was sometimes overwhelming.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You modeled? A ballerina, model, and club dancer. What kind of idiot would break up with you?”
“The kind who wanted me to just be an artistic fashion designer and nothing else,” she admitted.
Her shoulders drooped. That had been the problem with Neal. Only half a day from the breakup, and already, she had more clarity to her thoughts than she’d had in months. It ached, knowing that he’d clouded her mind in the worst possible way.
“Hey,” Damon said, reaching out and touching her bare knee. “I didn’t mean to take you down a bad road. Just trying to figure you out.”
“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“So…fashion designer?” he asked. “Is there anything you’re not good at?”
“Relationships?”
Damon gave her a serious look before closing the distance between them. His hip pressed into her side, and her stomach fluttered at his nearness. His hand came up to brush her dark hair off her face. His thumb lingered on her cheek, and she lost herself in the endless depths of his eyes. Her breathing hitched. When he looked at her like that, it was as if time stood still.
“That remains to be seen,” he told her.
Then, his lips landed on hers, soft and undeniably tempting. Something awakened within her. It wasn’t just the alcohol coursing through her system. It was the desire that came with a perfect kiss. Their lips moved together, and then his tongue ran across her bottom lip, opening her up to him. As he delved into her mouth, she groaned softly. Their tongues met in harmony, exploring a new frontier.
Her hands breached the small space between them, and she dug her fingers into the soft material of his T-shirt. Suddenly, the room shifted. Everything moved with her need to have him closer.
Damon’s arm swept around her body, crushing her against him. She spread her legs and straddled him on the couch, like she had done only a few hours earlier in the DJ booth. But this time, he wasn’t standing up and walking away. Instead, he was dragging her harder against him and running his hands up her exposed legs.
Trihn threaded her fingers up into his hair. Ever since she had seen it out of that baseball cap, she had wanted to grab ahold of it. The noises he was making when she tugged on it only fueled her forward.
He broke the intense kiss to come up for a breath, and then he started leaving kisses across her cheek and down her bare neck. She tilted her head back, letting her hair fall loose behind her, allowing him better access to her body. His lips were pressed over her collarbone and back to her neck where he nibbled gently until she was squirming on top of him.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “If you keep moving your hips like that, I’m not going to be able to stop this.”
“What, like this?” she asked, circling her hips in a figure eight.
“Exactly like that.”
He clamped his hands down on her hips, as if he wanted to still her. But she just moved his hands backward to cup her ass, most of which was exposed at this point.
“Why would you want to stop? You already know we move well together.”
“Yes, we do.”
“But…if you want to stop, we can,” she said with a smile.
She started to stand up, but before she could even get her feet on the ground, Damon picked her up and tossed her back on the couch.
“I don’t want to stop anything,” he said.