Cam and Norah slid into chairs. Beneath the tablecloth, Norah laid a hand on his thigh and started to drag it higher. Tensing, he pinned her hand in place with his own and struggled to focus.
“One of my professors looked over the economic impact study,” Dillon said. “It’s not wrong—if this was the 1980s. Their conclusions are founded in old theories, old data. She doesn’t have time to get through a full study herself before the meeting, but she’ll absolutely be here to help rebut and tear them apart in the court of public opinion.”
“Excellent.” Norah’s eyes brightened with challenge.
Cam could already see the gears in her brain starting to turn, sorting out the best means of presenting the rebuttal. Before she could get immersed in more discussion, he shoved back from the table and tugged her up. “Nope. No more work tonight. No more thinking. I brought you here to dance, and by damn, we’re going to dance.”
“See y’all in the morning,” she called as he dragged her toward the middle of the gym.
Of course it wasn’t that easy. They made it all of fifteen feet before she got stopped by Babette Wofford of Brides and Belles.
“We have a little problem about tomorrow.”
Norah gave him a look of apology. “Five minutes.”
“Five minutes.”
As soon as she stepped away, Tully Kauffman snagged him wanting to talk about why the trash pick up schedule should be changed. He listened with half an ear, watching as Norah crossed the room, getting stopped another four times by various other people before she made it over to Molly Montgomery and a cluster of other coalition members. She listened intently, offered some response.
“—if you switched Cedar Hills to Tuesday-Friday and put Garrett Park on Monday-Thursday…”
Five minutes turned into fifteen, then edged into twenty before Norah managed to separate herself from the group. Cam had long since stopped paying attention to Tully’s treatise about the trash schedule. When Norah finally stepped away and looked at him, Cam felt the punch of it from across the room. She angled her head just slightly toward the far end of the gym where one set of the expandable bleachers was deployed.
Cam grabbed Tucker as he passed. “Tuck, didn’t you need to talk to Tully about that thing?”
He didn’t wait for assent before breaking away to head toward the bleachers. Norah did the same, holding his gaze as she skirted the periphery. Another half dozen people tried to stop him for one reason or another, but rudeness be damned, he kept going, never losing eye contact as they inched ever closer to their destination.
“Crawford!” Quentin Irby stepped right into his path. “I’ve been wanting to set up an appointment with you to talk about a new landscaping project for my wife for our thirtieth anniversary.”
Mitch appeared out of nowhere, swinging an arm around Quentin’s shoulders. “Now if you really want to impress Janine, you’ll let me have a go at putting that sunroom off the back of the house. You know she’s been wanting one for years now.”
“Oh yeah?”
Cam blessed his cousin as he shook loose and made it the last twenty feet to the dark corner where Norah waited.
She pulled him underneath the bleachers. Her hands fisted in his shirt, as she dragged his mouth to hers in a long devouring kiss that had every drop of blood draining from his head. “What’s the quickest way out of here?”
“I thought you wanted to dance.” He tugged her head gently back so he could taste the line of her throat.
“God.” She shuddered. “Changed my mind. Too many damned people here. We’ll never even make it to the dance floor without being unforgivably rude.”
“Then allow me to introduce you to the time-honored tradition of sneaking out past the chaperons.”
~*~
Norah already had Cam’s sport coat off and his shirt untucked by the time they stumbled their way inside his loft. He spun her, using her body to shut the door, then pressing her up against it, cursing when he couldn’t dislodge the bolero jacket.
“Give me just a second,” she gasped, breathless as he ran his hands up her hips, around to cup her ass.
The floor abruptly shifted beneath them. Norah hung on, shielded from the sudden earthquake by Cam’s body.
“Down. Down, damn it!”
Not an earthquake. Hush.
Norah reeled a little as Cam let her go and reached for the dog, who’d jumped up against his back in greeting.
“Get the damned jacket off. I’ll take care of her.” He yanked open the door again and dragged a whining Hush down the stairs. “C’mon girl, there’s bacon downstairs. You want some bacon?”