Great. Riley had brought her on a date that couldn’t help but remind her of her late husband. Deciding that he didn’t want her thinking about anyone but him
just then, he pulled her even closer, so that his body brushed hers as they danced. She blinked a couple of times, but she didn’t pull away. The music swelled around them, and she stayed with it beat for beat.
She loved to dance, he realized with a sudden flash, studying the pleasure on her face. Absolutely loved it. How long had it been since she’d had the opportunity?
“You dance very well,” he told her, speaking into her ear so that she could hear him over the music.
Turning her head, she smiled at him. “Thank you. I enjoy dancing.”
He didn’t tell her he’d already figured that out.
The fast number ended and a slower one began. Aaron Neville’s sultry voice poured through the speakers, and the colorful lights, programmed to flash and dim with the music, pulsed seductively. Riley laid his cheek against Teresa’s soft hair, letting one hand slide down her back to rest very close to the swell of her hips.
So much for his theory that spending an evening with her would lessen his fascination with her. He wanted her so badly he ached. And it wasn’t only a physical attraction. Everything about her appealed to him. Except for the complications she brought with her, of course.
But it was hard to think of those complications when she was in his arms. When he could feel her hair beneath his cheek and smell the faint scent of a floral perfume. When they swayed with the music and her breasts brushed his chest, her thighs moving against his. He had no doubt that she could feel his reaction to her. If it shocked her, it didn’t show in her dancing, and she made no effort to move away.
He was almost relieved that the next song was a fast dance again. Had it been another slow one, he could not have predicted what he might have done. Throwing her over his shoulder and hauling her off somewhere private was only one of the improbable scenarios that crossed his mind. Funny, he didn’t usually think of himself as the primitive, macho type. He wondered how Teresa would feel if she knew she brought out that side of him.
He wondered if it would make her as nervous as it did him.
They danced until they were both flushed and winded. The dance floor was growing more crowded as the evening wore on, and several acquaintances spoke to him, but he answered in little more than monosyllables, all his attention focused on Teresa. Lorrie approached him at one point, blatantly trying to entice him to ask her to dance. He wasn’t interested, and because he had never had the patience for social niceties, he wasn’t particularly tactful about it.
“Feel free to dance with your friend if you want to,” Teresa urged when Lorrie flounced away.
Riley pulled her into his arms again for another slow dance. “I don’t want to. I want to dance with you.”
She looped her arms around his neck and smiled at him. “I haven’t danced this much in years.”
“I’m glad you’re having a good time.”
“I’m having a wonderful time.” She sighed a little. “But it’s going to have to end soon. I don’t want to keep Jenny out too late.”
Those complications were intruding again. Resting his cheek against her hair, Riley closed his eyes for a moment and tried to pretend that she was as free as he was. Free to spend the entire night dancing in his arms. Free to take off to the islands for the weekend if they wanted. Or to lock themselves in his bedroom and not come out for a week.
The song ended, and so did the fantasy. It was time to take Teresa home to her children.
Teresa was a bit confused when Riley turned the car in the opposite direction from the duplex after leaving Gaylord’s. “Where are we going?”
“A sight-seeing detour,” he replied vaguely. “You said you want to experience all of Edstown, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes—but I didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to do it all tonight.”
He chuckled. “We won’t be too long. I’m just not quite ready for the night to be over.”
That argument silenced her. She wasn’t ready for the evening to end, either.
She’d had such a good time tonight. With the exception of the somber discussion about Bud, she and Riley had kept their conversation light and entertaining. The food had been so good, the atmosphere so festive and the dancing so much fun.
The dancing. Oh, it had been so long since she’d danced. Since she’d let the music sweep through her and move her body. Riley was a wonderful partner, almost instinctively matching her steps. And when they had slow danced and she’d known that he wanted her—
She swallowed hard, knowing she’d better put those thoughts out of her mind right now. This date had been a one-time event. She’d accepted his invitation by rationalizing that he needed a diversion to help him stop worrying about his uncle for a few hours. Yet she’d known all along that she really wanted to accept. She had known that Riley would show her a good time. He always did.
She recognized the road he eventually turned onto. It wasn’t far from Serena’s house. “This road leads to the lake, doesn’t it?”
She saw the flash of his grin in the shadowy interior of the little sports car. “Yeah. There’s a nice view at night, with the moon shining on the water.”
Trying to keep her voice stern, she said, “I’ve lived here long enough to know that the lake is where the local teenagers come to make out on weekends.”