Theirs to Keep

“And what about this one?” I pointed to another. “Three ladies, laughing with each other at some cotillion or ball. What were their lives like? What did they accomplish? You ever look at something like this and think of those things?”

Bryce nodded slowly. “Check out the background,” he said. “It’s this very room.”

I stared some more. “Wow, it is.”

“Everyone’s dancing. Everyone’s having the time of their lives.”

“And now it’s ruined,” I said sadly, scanning around. Scorched. Empty.

The smile slowly returned to Bryce’s handsome face. “Not for long,” he winked and extended his hand.

I padded across the unfinished room, still feeling silly in my slippers. Bryce looked down at them and laughed for the third time.

“Fuck you,” I pointed downward. “You’re wearing workboots.”

“So?”

“So they look even more obtrusive.”

He snickered. “Obtrusive? I’d call it sexy.”

“You look like a stripper,” I declared. “Shorts and workboots. No socks, even.”

“Still sexy,” he said smugly.

A silence descended, yet it was anything but awkward. It blanketed us in the eerie darkness. Drove us that much closer together, as we simultaneously stepped into each other.

“You got something against strippers?” he asked, his voice going lower.

“Not at all.”

We were close now, almost as close as we were in the gym doorway. Or the library doorway, depending on how you looked at it.

“Because I used to do that for a while,” admitted Bryce. “Back when we were first getting started with the company. To make some extra money.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh huh. Hours were flexible, and it paid cash.” He paused, tilting his chin to look down at me. “Plus I was good at it, too.”

Did he just shift forward a little? His body seemed somehow closer than before. His face floated near mine.

“You’ll… have to show me some time.”

“Really?”

A warmth began spreading through me. It started somewhere low, below my belly. Or maybe it had already been there the whole time, since making out with Camden.

Bryce’s hand slipped through mine, then continued behind me. It settled in the small of my back, his fingers spreading to pull me closer. I gulped hard, as our bodies touched for the first time.

“Do you really want me to show you?” he repeated.

My breathing was heavy now, and there was no hiding it. I nodded shyly.

“When I say something I mean it.”

His other hand slipped past my hip, and suddenly he had his hands on my ass. Bryce squeezed me once, possessively, then pulled my pelvis against his.

Oh my God.