Christmas Ever After (Puffin Island 3)

Alec had reserved a table for two, but the moment they walked into the restaurant they discovered that Zach and Brittany had also bought tickets, and the four of them ended up sharing a table.

Brittany was looking sleek and pretty in a short blue dress that showed off her long legs.

Sky slid into the seat next to her. “You look great!”

“It’s the only dress I own. And Zach is going to have to carry me through the snow because I cannot walk in these heels.” She studied her friend. “You look incredible, but you always do. There’s something different about you, though, and I can’t work out what it is. It’s not the dress—” she frowned and then her expression changed “—it’s because you’re wearing your hair down.” She gave a smile of understanding and raised her glass. “To wearing our hair any way we damn well want to wear it. And to rebound sex, which is obviously doing you good.”

Sky tapped her glass against hers.

Was it rebound sex? She almost wished they were alone so she could confess her changing feelings for Alec. “Where’s Em? I tried calling her earlier and she didn’t answer.”

“She’s not feeling too great. Ryan says she has a winter bug. Feeling sick and generally crappy.”

“Oh, no. I’ll call her tomorrow. We should get together, just the three of us.” She put her glass down as Alec approached. She’d thought he looked his best in sexy outdoor gear, but now she decided that maybe she’d been wrong about that. He looked handsome and sophisticated in a tailored suit, the fabric skimming shoulders that were broad and powerful.

He had an indefinable strength and presence that set him apart from most of the men in the room.

She wondered whether that was one of the things that had drawn Selina to him. Strength was an appealing trait to someone who was insecure and vulnerable.

“Dance?” He held out his hand and Sky felt her heart race like a teenager’s.

She stood up and glanced at her friend expectantly.

Brittany laughed. “Are you kidding? Reindeer will fly across the sky before Zachary Flynn joins me on the dance floor.” But there was a wistful note in her voice and Sky saw Zach frown slightly.

Leaving them to it, she took Alec’s hand and sashayed onto the dance floor in time to the music.

They did it all. Jive, salsa, tango—the band, clearly motivated by the enthusiasm of the dancers, kept changing the tempo until Sky and Alec were the only two people dancing and everyone else was watching.

They carried on until her less than perfect attempt at an Argentinean tango almost resulted in an uncomfortable encounter between her high heel and a certain delicate part of his anatomy.

With an alarmed look, Alec scooped her up and carried her off the dance floor.

“It ends now,” he muttered, “while I can still walk. When you threatened to put your stiletto somewhere it should never go, I didn’t realize you intended to do it in public.”

That awful night seemed like a lifetime ago.

Breathless and laughing, she slid her arms round his neck. “That was so much fun. I thought you said you couldn’t dance.”

“I said I didn’t love it. I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. My mother sent me to dance classes with my sister when I was a teenager. At the time I hated her for it, until I discovered it gave me a head start over most other guys.” He set her down gently and she saw that Brittany and Zach were dancing slowly in a corner.

Zach’s hand was cradling her head and he was saying something softly in her ear that made her laugh up at him.

Sky’s insides turned over. Zach hated dancing, but he was doing it for Brittany.

That was what love was, wasn’t it?

It was doing something you didn’t want to do, just because you knew it would make your partner happy.

Alec handed her a drink. “Thirsty?”

“Yes. And hot.” She drank and swept her hair back from her face with her fingers. “Will we freeze if we go outside on the deck for a few minutes?”

“Probably, but we should still do it. Wait there.”

He returned moments later with their coats and draped hers around her shoulders.

Leaving the noise and laughter behind, they walked out onto the terrace.