The Borrowed Ring
They moved to the dance floor when they'd finished their meals. The band obliged their mood by playing blatantly romantic music that allowed them to sway together, arms entangled, his cheek pressed to her hair.
It was the kind of evening that B.J. had experienced only in books and romantic movies before. The kind she had never really expected to experience herself.
As Daniel's lips brushed the side of her face and his hands slid down her back to rest intimately at her hips, she knew she would remember every moment of this evening for the rest of her life. She only hoped she could recall only the pleasure and not the inevitable pain.
Whatever the outcome, she thought as he pressed a kiss at the corner of her mouth, she could never regret this night. For just a few hours she had been someone different, someone sophisticated and interesting. A woman in love with a fascinating, extraordinary man. A woman who was wanted by that same uncommon man in return.
The music ended and they moved a couple of inches apart to politely applaud. Someone said her name from nearby, and B.J. glanced around to see Kurt McGuire from Tulsa standing a few feet away, his arm around a pretty, slightly plump redhead.
She smiled and nodded to them, then turned back to Daniel, who was frowning at Kurt in a way that had the other man turning hastily away again. “Stop that. You're intimidating him.”
“Good. I intended to.”
She sighed and shook her head. “You're incorrigible.”
“Hmm.” He wrapped his arms around her and drew her close to him again, seemingly oblivious to anyone who might be looking on—but then, B.J. knew better. “Come back to the suite and I'll show you incorrigible.”
Her eyebrows rose as she slipped her arms around his neck. “I thought you were all out of energy?”
His smile was downright piratical. “I seem to have recovered.”
Feeling the hard ridge against her thigh, she blinked in astonishment. “I guess you have.”
His smile faded. “Come back to the suite, B.J. We have a few more hours together. Let's make the most of them.”
Her heart twisted at the candid reminder that their time was running out—but like Daniel, she was reluctant to waste another minute.
She took his hand and let him lead her off the dance floor.
“There's only one thing I want you to promise me,” she whispered as Daniel lowered her to the bed.
Though his lips were already at her throat, she felt him stiffen—and it hurt that he seemed to have braced himself for whatever she was going to ask. “What?”
“Just tell me this isn't casual for you. Even if it's only for tonight.”
“B.J.” He cupped her face in his hands and stared almost fiercely into her eyes. “It isn't casual. It would be so much easier if it were.”
There was no mistaking the truth in his eyes. He was a good actor, but surely no one could be that good.
“That's all I wanted to know,” she murmured and pulled him down into her arms.
For now.
Chapter Twelve
B.J. should have been sleepy, but she found herself wide-awake an hour after they returned to the suite. They'd made love, and though it was hard to believe it could keep getting better, somehow it did. Something told her a lifetime of lovemaking with Daniel would never grow old—
But that was something she would never know, she told herself glumly.
Which reminded her… “Daniel?”
“Are you hungry again?” he asked in feigned dismay.
She chuckled obligingly, then grew serious again. “Those papers Drake said you were signing tomorrow? That's what you've been working toward this week?”
She could see his face well enough in the shadows to watch his relaxed expression go hard and guarded. A little part of her heart broke at this latest demonstration that the closeness between them ended at the bedroom door.
“Yes,” he said without further elaboration.