Take Me (Take a Chance 4)

And damned if he wouldn’t do that for her.

He buried his hands in her hair, loosening the strands from the fancy up-do she’d styled it in for the show. He tried to stay still, to hold himself back from her, but she dug her hands into his back and pulled him closer. He groaned and rocked his hips against her, devouring her mouth. Shit, he was a dead man. All it took was a couple flicks of her tongue and he was lost.

Finally, she jerked away from him and he collapsed against the wall. She swallowed and pressed her fingers to her swollen lips. “I…I have to go. It was nice seeing you again.”

With a twitch of her ass, she was gone.

And damned if he wasn’t going to chase after her…again.

Chapter Six

Morgan took a shaky breath and swiped her hair off her face. Okay, maybe that had been a bad idea. Kissing him again, then running. But he brought feelings out in her she didn’t like. And the best way to avoid those feelings was to avoid him. She couldn’t afford the distraction he was already proving to be. Just today, she’d gotten a callback for that audition she’d gone on Friday—the one she’d thought she’d blown. They wanted to see her again.

They actually wanted to see her again.

She’d tried out for a part in the touring Chicago musical and she hadn’t dared to dream they might like her. But they did. This was the first time in a long period she’d gotten a chance at a big break like this. Then again, that’s how performance work went—job opportunities were either feast or famine—especially since she was no longer in her late teens and early twenties.

At twenty-five she was hardly old, but in dancing years she was starting to get on up there. Now was the time to seek out every opportunity and jump at the chance when it was offered.

Heck, even tonight

she had filled in for someone else. She bartended at the Golden Hand sometimes when she needed the extra cash and Brianna knew she could dance. When Brianna had called and asked her to fill in, she’d leapt at the chance.

But Mike had been sitting with Brianna in the booth with the rest of her friends and family…so that meant Brianna knew Mike somehow. How? She had no idea. But she knew one thing.

This had trouble written all over it.

After thinking things through, she went out to the bar and sat down. Her bartender buddy Hugh came over. They worked together fairly frequently and he’d always been nice to her. “You drinking tonight?”

“Yeah. Definitely.”

“You looked amazing up there,” Hugh said with a small smile. “Really good.”

“Thanks.” Her cheeks heated up and she shifted on the stool.

“What’ll it be tonight?”

She nodded to the shelf behind him. “Make it vodka.”

“Make that two.” Mike slid onto the barstool next to her, his mouth taut. “Why do you keep running away from me?”

Because he scared her. Because he was the kind of man she could lose herself in. “Why do you keep chasing me?”

“Damned if I fucking know.”

“Fair enough.” The shots came, and she held hers up. “To constantly chasing women who don’t want to get caught?”

His eyes darkened, and he leaned in to croon, “To catching you—which I will do. And you’ll like it.”

Her heart stumbled at the utter certainty in his words. She didn’t doubt he could do exactly that with another woman—catch her. But he didn’t realize how much she didn’t want to get caught. She’d played the cat-and-mouse game in the past…even had allowed herself to get caught once or twice by men who’d insisted they weren’t threatened by her profession…but the outcome had always been the same: choosing between the guy and her dancing.

As if there was a choice.

There was a finite amount of time in a dancer’s career. After a certain age, the parts dried up. That meant she only had a few more years until her stage career was over. Kaput. The end.

She wasn’t going to give up her one and only dream just because some man didn’t want to worry about her late performance hours and grueling rehearsal schedules. And Mike certainly didn’t seem like the type who would be willing to share a woman’s attention.

“I don’t think you’ll catch me, Mike. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not the kind of person who slows down enough to get caught.”