Maybe she needed to take a page from Eris’s book.
The music was hot and it thumped in the marrow of her bones. Kallie felt everything slide from her body with every second that passed by. All the stress and the worrying and the text messages from James. The flowers from Ash and the notes on the cards. Everything that had transpired over the past three weeks fell from her mind and she allowed the music to take over. She allowed the notes and the melodies and the bumping of the bass to make her decisions for her.
Kallie felt free.
Finally, truly free.
Kallie felt a man come up behind her, despite Eris trying to wiggle her way into the middle. His hands were pawing at her hips and he was trying to grind on her. Hard. He pressed himself into her and slid Eris out of the way, and Kallie tried to take a step away from him. His hands gripped her tightly and Kallie flipped around. She could feel his nasty hips all over her body and Kallie didn’t like it one bit.
It flashed her back to her time at the club on the island.
To her time with Ash.
She thought back to the guy at the bar. Who thought he could have his way with her. She remembered how Ash had handled the situation. With a suave and an ease that didn’t involve any sort of fighting. It still left her breathless. Thinking of him twirling her out of the way still hopped her heart in her chest. Kallie looked into the drunken eyes of the man who wouldn’t let her go, and she wrapped her arm around him and tapped him on the shoulder.
In his drunken state, he looked over, releasing his grip on her hips.
Without hesitation, Kallie spun out of the way. She used Eris’s hand for leverage and spun right out of the man’s grasp. She got her feet underneath her and kept going. Moving her hips around and drinking her drink. Eris was laughing as her arm wrapped around Kallie’s waist, but the second Kallie stepped forward, she ran smack into something hard.
Something sturdy.
Something familiar.
Kallie’s eyes panned up the beautiful suit and looked straight into those hazel eyes. Kallie’s jaw fell open and she felt Eris stop behind her. Kallie released her grip around her drink and it fell from her hands, and without moving a single muscle, Ash caught it in the palm of his hand.
He grinned down at her and Kallie felt her knees going weak.
Ash.
He was at the club.
She watched him wrap those pillowy lips around the straw of her drink and finish it off. Then he reached his arm out and dumped the empty plastic cup into a trash can at their side. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Off the cute freckles on his nose that crinkled as his grin grew into a smile. Off the slightly disheveled mop of hair on his head. If she leaned in close enough, she could still smell the ocean on him. Smell the island and the storm and the raging waters he’d protected her from.
Holy hell that man looked good in a suit.
His hands fell to Kallie’s waist and began dragging her away from the edge of the dance floor. His hand ran up her side, making her shiver as her eyes fluttered closed. She felt his hand grab hers and lace their fingers together, then he led the dance as he spun her around the floor. Like a moth to a flame, Kallie leaned into him. Into his strength and his confidence. His leg slid between hers and Eris soon fell from her mind, her body magnetized to his.
It felt so good to be against him again.
His chest swelled and his arm grew strong. She gripped onto him, steadying her body in his grasp. Her head tilted up to look at him and she got lost in his hazel eyes. In the strobe lights that reflected in his stormy, sea-filled gaze. She could see
him. Clear as day. The man she had enjoyed on the island. The surfer boy with a head full of salted hair and lean legs that carried her around the dance floor. She could see his playful grin dancing along his cheeks. Crinkling his eyes.
Making his freckles jump.
Song after song filtered through the club and Kallie moved with his every step. Ash spun, and she spun with him. Ash dipped her and she relaxed against his arms. Ash’s leg ground between hers and she swirled her hips to the base of the music. Her grip was tight on him and his eyes were locked onto her. He grew closer and closer, like he had on the island. Until his nose was nuzzled against her ear. She smiled into his shoulder. Wrapped her arms around his neck. Pressed all of herself into him as his hands dropped to the small of her back.
“Are you stalking me?” Kallie asked playfully.
Ash chuckled in her ear and it sent shivers down her spine.
“I apparently know one of the club owners,” Ash said.
“You apparently know them?” she asked.
“He asked me multiple times to come out and make an appearance for his opening night. I saw you from the VIP area.”
Kallie rolled her eyes as reality came crashing back.