I was asking myself the same question.
I leaned toward Dante as he took a long drink. “People are staring,” I said in his ear.
He shrugged. “It’s my territory. They know me here.”
“But still. A lot of people are staring.”
He laughed and looked around. “A few of them are my boys. I guess Steven didn’t trust me to be alone out here tonight.”
I frowned and followed his gaze. Sure enough, I recognized two guys standing at a table not far off. They caught me looking and the one raised a beer with a grin on his face. I smiled back before leaning toward Dante again.
“They’re here to protect you?”
“They’re here to make sure nothing goes down,” he said. “I don’t need protecting.”
“Well, I do.” I grinned at him. “In case you forgot.”
“I didn’t forget.” His hand moved down my lower back and gripped my ass. “I know you’re all mine.”
I laughed and hit his chest. I took a long drink and looked around, starting to loosen up a little bit. People were dancing tightly packed together, sweating, laughing, working their hips. Girls moved up against their men and the guys were free with their hands, and nobody seemed to mind, care, or notice. Drinks were flowing, and I remembered what it felt like to have a good time for the first time in a while.
I took another long drink then set it down. “Come on,” I said. “You brought me here to dance.”
“Damn right I did.” He knocked is drink back then put it on the table. He took my hand as I put my drink down next to his, not finished, not halfway there. He dragged me to the dance floor and we slipped our way into the mass of people as the song changed, an upbeat pulsing tempo.
He pulled me tight against him and we danced. I was self-conscious at first, intensely aware of all the strangers around us. I kept catching looks from women, from men, most of them jealous but some of them just curious. Dante moved like liquid, comfortable and sensual, and he kept my hips pressed against his as my ass swayed to the rhythm. But soon the song changed again, and I felt a bead of sweat start to drop down my back.
I lost all sense of time, and the eyes that flitted across us disappeared from my awareness. Dante became everything as I danced with him, pressing my body close, grinding up against him. I felt his muscles, his intense lips near my neck, my throat, his hands in my hair, on my hips, on my ass. He didn’t seem to care at all what people thought or what they saw, he only cared about me, only cared about dancing close and tight, our bodies beginning to sweat. I was panting, breathing hard, as I turned to face him, moving my hips with his, and he tilted my chin up to kiss me.
I kissed him hard then turned back and he grabbed my hips. We danced like that, grinding and moving to the rhythm for song after song. The world stopped mattering and time stopped making sense. All I felt was his hands on my skin, my body moving to the pulsing beat of the music, and all my worries dropped away, disappeared into nothing.
He let out a growl after what felt like forever and spun me around. This time, he grabbed my hair tight in his fist and kissed me deep, tongue against my tongue, before pulling away. “Come on,” he said. “I can’t take this shit anymore.”
I let him lead me away from the dance floor. He shoved his way toward the back of the club. There was a long line for the bathrooms, but we shoved past them. There was a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY between the men’s room and the women’s room, and Dante pushed it open. He tugged me along with him and slammed the door shut.
It was a small office, a desk in the center with a large CRT monitor at one end and a flat computer monitor at the other. A filing cabinet was overflowing with papers and receipts, and there were more folders and files scattered all over the place. Dante turned to me as I leaned up against the desk, staring at him, my heart racing.
“We shouldn’t be in here,” I said. “You saw the sign.”
“They can come kick me out then,” he said, stepping slowly toward me. “The motherfuckers can try at least.” A wicked smile broke across his mouth as he pressed himself tight against me. I gasped as he pushed my legs open then lifted me up by the ass, his hands grasping me hard. He sat me down on the desk, knocking away files, stacks of papers hitting the floor with a thud and spilling over the carpet.