Calder Promise (Calder Saga 8)

“That’s right.” She proceeded to hitch her skirt up until the hem was above her knees. “I need it for a belt.”

Amused, he unknotted the tie and pulled it from around his neck.

Holding her skirt at the desired height, Laura instructed, “Tie it around my waist.”

When Sebastian bent to the task, he brought his head closer to her, close enough that she could make out the shape of some of the faint freckles on his face. With each breath she inhaled the heady, masculine scent of his cologne. She discovered that nearly everything about him stimulated her.

When he tied the first knot to secure the makeshift belt around her waist, Laura cautioned, “Make sure it’s tight,” and she pressed a finger in the center of the first knot, holding it in place while he made the second one. The intimacy of having him fix her clothes brought its own brand of stimulation to the moment, adding to her high awareness of him.

Finishing the task, he straightened. “That should do it.”

Laura placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s try it again, shall we?”

In answer, he slid his fingers between those of her free hand and fitted his other hand to the curve of her hip bone directly below her newly belted waist. Without hesitation, Sebastian guided her into the samba’s opening steps.

The passionate music throbbed around them. The samba’s emphasis on eye contact and impression of isolation, along with its exaggerated hip movements, made it an innately sensual dance, but in Sebastian’s arms, it took on an added quality of sexiness that Laura hadn’t experienced before. And she realized that in the past she had always danced to the music, but not really with her partner. The connection she felt with this man, something that was more than merely physical, gave a new dimension to the moment. She felt alive as a woman.

They stayed on the dance floor for song after song, returning to their table only once to take a quick sip of their drinks. As another song drew to a close, Laura leaned into Sebastian’s chest, unwilling to break the closeness. She felt the heaviness of his breathing and the hard beat of his pulse, matching her own. The solidness of him made her feel deliciously weak.

Tilting her head back, she looked up into his downturned face and lifted a hand to touch the sheen of perspiration across his upper lip. “It seems we’re both working up a sweat,” Laura murmured, conscious of her own flushed skin and the pounding of blood through her veins.

“It would be a shame to cool off now.” His words were accompanied by a suggestive look that made everything inside her leap. Just then the band struck up another tune. Hearing it, Sebastian smiled. “I thought they were never going to play something slow.”

Before Laura had a chance to register the tempo of the music, he had molded her to his length, releasing her hand to circle both arms around her to keep her close. Glorying in the sensations of this new contact, Laura slid her hands behind his neck and let her fingers slide into his light red-brown hair. The scent and feel of him was all around her.

As they swayed together with the music, their feet barely moving, her body felt liquid—and molten. He nuzzled the side of her neck an

d the sensitive hollow behind her ear, sending little shivers of excitement quivering through her.

Passivity was something totally alien to her nature, making it impossible for Laura to allow him to make all the moves. She turned her head, seeking and finding those masculine lips that were creating so much havoc.

It was no tentative first kiss they shared, but one that was hot and tonguing in its demands. It shook Laura to her toes. She felt herself being pulled into the heat of it without first deciding if it was what she wanted. She was scared and excited by the power of it.

Sebastian was the first to break it off, dragging his mouth from hers in obvious reluctance. She saw the quick delving of his gaze, and realized, with much satisfaction, that he had been shaken by the kiss, too.

“Do you always kiss strange men like that?” he asked with a teasing lightness that gained her instant approval.

“No, but I’ll bet that you kiss all strange women that way,” she retorted, recovering some sense of control while still thrilling to the disturbance within.

“None have ever been quite like this,” Sebastian assured her in a dry voice.

“That’s good to know,” she murmured and stroked a hand along the strong cut of his jawline.

As the last note of the song faded away, a voice came through the sound system, speaking in Italian. At its conclusion, Sebastian glanced at Laura, regret twisting the line of his mouth. “It’s closing time.”

She released a mock sigh. “And we were just getting warmed up.”

“Shall we go back to the table and finish our drinks?”

The prospect of spending the next twenty minutes sitting and sipping sounded much too mundane for Laura, especially now when she was on such a sensual high. “Why bother?” she countered with an elegant little shrug of her shoulders. “By now the wine’s flat. Let’s just leave.”

“As you wish.” Sebastian inclined his head in acceptance of her decision and guided her out of the club into the refreshing coolness of a Roman night.

With his tie still belted around her waist, Laura climbed into the low-slung sports car, her movements unhampered by the gown’s slim skirt

As they pulled away from the club area, Laura felt exactly like a cat, alive to the night and purring with the possibilities. She lifted the weight of her hair off her sweaty neck and let the cooling wind dry it.

“Back to the hotel, is it?” Sebastian asked with a side glance.