I’m careful not to speak. I’m scared to blink. If this is some cruel spell, I don’t want to wake up from it. I want to live in it forever.
Aiden steps closer to me as the music pulses around us.
I glance back to look for Lucy, but she’s gone.
It’s just me and Aiden in the center of the dance floor. He reaches out to take my hand, and he weaves our fingers together. Someone bumps into me from behind and I fall forward. Aiden catches me deftly, but he doesn’t put me back on my feet; he tugs me against him, pressing us together.
My hand reaches up to flatten against his chest and he keeps my other hand in his as he starts to move us together, in time to the music. The beat is fast, but we catch the slower rhythm, unbothered by the crowd around us.
Aiden tips his head down and presses a kiss to the edge of my mouth, then lower. His lips touch my neck and then he stays there, folded into me. I move both of my hands up and around his neck, hoisting myself up on my toes so we’re completely flush as we continue to dance.
His hands grab my waist and his fingers gather the loose material of my sweater dress, bunching it up a few inches so that the backs of my thighs are exposed. It doesn’t matter. No one can see us, and if they can, they don’t care.
We’re just another couple, dancing close in the club. We’re invisible.
I whisper his name, and he turns his head to look at me.
His lips are so close I can’t help myself. I lean in and kiss him softly.
It feels like I haven’t seen him in so long, and the kiss is so sweet, so long overdue that when we break apart, we both immediately fall into another kiss. His hands tighten on my waist. I clamber higher, trying to even the score. I wish I were taller. I wish I could flatten myself against him completely, feel him from head to toe.
His hands start to roam on my body, dragging up along my side and then back down, lower, cupping my ass, bringing me up against his hips. He rolls me against him, and it kills me that we’re in a club with so many people around.
One of my hands leaves his neck, moving lower to the hem of his shirt. I toy with the waistline of his jeans, dipping my fingers a few centimeters down into the denim.
He sucks in a sharp breath, almost like he’s in pain, and I get it. God, this is torture, being with him in public after going so many nights without him in my bed.
We’re making up for lost time. Our mouths barely part even when we both need air. His hands sweep my hair out of my face, angling it up so he can stare down at me. His gaze flits back and forth between my eyes as if he’s unable to stay focused anywhere for too long.
He finally breaks us apart and steps back, but he keeps hold of my body. He turns and scans the crowd, looking for something.
“Fuck, let’s go,” he says, starting to tug me off the dance floor.
“Where?”
The club is huge and there’s a hallway that leads to a second floor. Before we reach the stairs, though, Aiden pushes open a bathroom door, thrusts me inside, and then steps in after me. He engages the lock, the metal sliding into place like an ominous warning.
“Aiden, this is a horrible idea! We’re going to get caught.”
He doesn’t listen to me. Already, he’s stalking forward, backing me up to the sink. His mouth tips up into a sinister smile just before his hands reach for me. He picks me up and hoists me onto the counter, right at the edge. With one hand on each knee, he parts my thighs, and my dress slides higher.
My attention pings from him to the locked door and then back again. I’m not a rulebreaker. I’ve never done anything like this. I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m telling Aiden this, and his smile only widens. He likes this game. He likes that my heart’s racing in my chest as his hand slides up my thigh, turning slow circles.
“Maybe we’ll get caught,” he taunts as his fingers skim my panties. “Or maybe we won’t.”
My stomach dips in anticipation.
Already, the fight is seeping out of me. He cups me through my underwear, using the soft material to toy with me. I try to squeeze my thighs closed, but his hand is already there, pressed to the center of me as two of his fingers rub steady circles.
“No one has any idea what I’m doing to you in here,” he says, dropping his head so his mouth skims my cheek. “They have no idea I’m touching you like this.”