“Looks like you’re enjoying yourself, Trouble.” I teased as I took a second to pull her even closer. I skated my hand across her belly and I felt the sharp intake of breath as she melted even more into my embrace.
Our bodies swayed to the music as the song ended. The music shifted to a slower tempo, a change marked by softer notes and a wistful tune, and I felt Stella’s body move just an inch away. Before she could get too far, I took another leap of faith and tipped my hat back to meet her gaze.
“One more dance?” I asked, my southern twang a little thicker as the headiness of lust clouded my judgement. I reallyshouldn’t be letting myself cross the lines we’d silently drawn over the last few weeks, but I couldn’t help but feel inexplicably drawn to this woman.
Her smile was electric as she put one hand on my chest and leaned in close, her lips in danger of brushing against mine, as she whispered, “Just one dance.”
TWELVE
stella
The tequiladefinitely contributed to the electric thrill that shot through me as Max’s fingers intertwined with mine, the pleasant tingle amplified by the alcohol.
A sane individual would surely remind themselves not to get close to a random cowboy met on the roadside. Despite the existence of multiple ways in which this situation could turn out poorly, I currently couldn’t find a single fuck to give.
The three shots I’d taken at the bar with Ray had loosened my hips and lips, but this feeling of a static connection with Max wasn’t new. The feeling had been building for a while during our time living together, a constant presence that I fought against daily, a battle that had grown increasingly difficult to endure.
I kept telling myself that getting tangled up with another man after the shit I’d been through was a bad idea - but clearly, our attraction to each other was undeniable.
I’d never felt this drawn to someone so quickly. It was as if every nerve ending in my body was on a hair trigger and as soon as Max entered my orbit, those nerve endings fired. Iconstantly felt a hum of need flowing beneath my skin when I caught his eyes on me. But more than that, he felt safe. He was a soft place to land at the end of a hard day. I never once felt myself questioning his intentions. He was, at his core, a good person.
He gently placed the hand that was not currently curled around mine on the soft spot of my hip. With anyone else, I would have been self conscious of him feeling the squishier parts of me, but with Max I knew I was cherished and safe. His touch was soft and reverent as he allowed himself the opportunity to explore. His hands were wide and rough, but he touched me with a tenderness that I’d never experienced.
He splayed his fingers around my hip and edged them towards my back, slowly and gently tugging me forward until our bodies were a hair’s breadth away from each other.
“Where’d you learn to dance?” I asked quietly, attempting to break the tension with some idle chitchat. My voice, tight with a nervous tremor, produced stilted, awkward words; I couldn’t meet his eyes, the silence punctuated by the frantic beat of my pulse.
I knew that one look at his face would scramble my brain, leaving me a whimpering mess begging for him to take me home.
His chuckle was gentle as he swayed us from side to side through the crooning melody. “Would you believe me if I told you I learned it riding horses?”
My bewildered expression must have been clear because, when I looked up, his smile transformed into a dazzling megawatt grin, crinkling the corners of his eyes.
He extricated his hand from my hip and gently brushed a lock of hair behind one of my ears and then replaced his grip. Even after he’d moved his hands, I could still feel thepressure, the phantom imprint of his touch, lingering like a radiant heat on my skin.
“When Wade and I were younger, just learning how to ride a horse, my Pops used to have a saying.” He paused for emphasis. “‘keep your hips loose like a two-dollar hooker.’”
My eyes blew wide at the crude words as I looked up at him. His laugh was soft as he pulled me closer, our bodies now flush. He leaned down and his breath crested the shell of my ear, a whisper only for me playing on his lips.
The shiver that wracked through my body was involuntary and I could feel his sharp intake of breath as my body touched his. The air crackled with a strange energy; it was obvious that our proximity was affecting us both.
“That saying, although not quite appropriate for little ears,” he whispered. “Has helped me many times.”
He drifted his hand to the middle of my back, pressing my body tighter to his. I felt the press of his erection into my thigh through his jeans. It was abundantly clear that we were venturing into perilous territory, yet I couldn’t be bothered to extricate my body from his embrace.
His lips coasted along my ear as he continued.
“Riding… Dancing…” he paused for continued dramatic effect and pulled back to look me directly in the eyes. A sexy smirk adorned one corner of his mouth, and his dilated pupils clearly revealed the lustful thoughts consuming him.
“Fucking.”
That one word hit me so hard that I felt every ounce of air rush out of my lungs in a single, shocking whoosh. Who knew something so vulgar could make me weak in the knees?
I could feel the heat as it crested across the top of my cheeks and down my throat. I watched as Max’s gaze danced all the way from the tip of my nose down to my chest. He wasshameless in his perusal of my body, clearly willing to cross those lines we’d drawn if I gave him the okay.
I hadn’t felt that flutter of anticipation in my chest from someone’s eyes in what seemed like a lifetime. Max didn’t just see me as a mom. The fact that he could so clearly see the woman underneath filled me with a simultaneous feeling of excitement and terror.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I dropped my gaze, his name lingering on my lips as I acknowledged the urgent need to create some space between us.
