Hattie leans forward, staring me straight in the eyes. “She means in bed.”
I laugh. “I got that, thanks.”
“So do you think you’ll go for it — sleep with the hot dancer man from the dive bar?” Kate asks.
From the way my nether regions heat and my knees seem to loosen at her question, I know my answer before I even speak it. “Yes,” I say, testing how voicing the intention out loud feels. “If he wants to.”
Hattie makes a sound of indignation. “Oh, he wants to.”
“How do you know?” I ask, heart suddenly hammering.
Emmy smiles. “The way he looks at you, how he touches you — it’s obvious.”
I look at Kate, always the most logical of the four of us. “It is?”
She squeezes my hand again. “It is.”
“But,” Emmy leans toward me, “are you sure this is what you want? We all support you if it is —“ Hattie and Kate nod their heads fervently — “but are you ready? Are you okay?”
“It’s been a day, that’s for sure,” Hattie adds. “It’s okay if you need this, and also okay if you’re not there yet.”
“We can stay until you’re done dancing, and make sure you get home safe,” says Kate. “It’s no problem.”
My eyes fill with tears, and my friends all press in as close as the table allows, covering me with their hands and their love. “I’m so lucky to have you,” I snuffle, trying to blink away the tears.
“We know,” Hattie chirps, making us all laugh.
“But,” I say, voice more steady, “I’m ready. Randall kept me on the hook for so long. I want something lovely. I crave it. And I want it with him.” I look across Desperado’s at Tatum. He’s lounging against the bar, watching the dancing. His eyes snap to me, as if he can feel my gaze on him, and his face blossoms into a smile so warm I can feel my insides melt.
“Oh,” Emmy breathes. “You’ve got it bad for him, don’t you?”
I try to shrug it off. “I don’t know, I just met him.” But I don’t quite believe my own words. Tatum is growing on me, and quickly, in a way that has me dreaming about more than just tonight.
Which is ridiculous. Right? I said it myself — I’ve only just met Tatum. I know nothing about him, and he knows nothing about me. Hell, I’d planned on being married to Randall and rocking out at my wedding reception by this time of the night. Hoping for anything with any man at this point seems like a little much.
But then I steal a glance at Tatum through my lashes, and my belly twists in pleasure at the sight of him resting his elbows on the bar, one leg crossed over the other, eyes traveling the dance floor only to find their way to me.
Randall never made me feel this, not even when we were new to each other and attraction was all we had to go on.
In fact, now I’m wondering if there was ever any attraction between us at any point. Sure, I’d made compromises to be with Randall, but I’d thought that was what a successful relationship took. And yes, he became less and less willing to make compromises of his own, and today’s events schooled me in how foolish I was to overlook that. But I’d never felt like I was missing anything with Randall.
Until this moment.
Fuck it, I think. I’m going to let myself feel everything that I’m feeling with and about Tatum. I’m going to allow myself to entertain big dreams about him, about us. I’m going to enjoy this ride, be it long or short, because I do deserve something lovely, like everyone keeps saying. And being with Tatum, whatever it means, feels lovely.
I want everything that he has to offer me.
“Yes,” I answer Emmy at last, lips curling into a smile as my gaze locks with Tatum’s once again, “I think I’ve got it really bad.”
“Then what are you waiting for, tiger?” Hattie says, giving me a playful shrug on the shoulder as we all begin to slide out of the booth. “Go get that handsome hunk of human.”
“And if you change your mind, or need a friend, just call,” Kate says. “No matter how late it is. Okay?”
“Got it.” I give her a quick hug, then move on to Emmy and Hattie. “Thank you.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Emmy says. “Always.”
“Love you,” I say to my friends as they depart, feeling the undaunted tenacity of their friendship that’s as certain as the earth under my feet. Like Emmy said, we’re there for each other, always.
I turn to Tatum, and he immediately straightens and begins to cross the room to my side. As he closes the distance between us, I have a sudden sense that in looking at this man, I’m looking at another kind of always. I grin, so damn ready for it.
Tatum
Amelia looks at me like she’s looking into the future and likes what she sees. It makes me quicken my pace, lengthen my stride, body hating to be away from her. Every cell in me is drawn to this woman. When I take her in my arms and swing her back on the dance floor for a slow three step set to an old time-y ballad, it feels like coming home.
“Everything okay with your friends?” I ask.
She nods, swaying with me, hands linking at the base of my neck. “They headed out.”
“Without you?” I hate to think that I interrupted Amelia’s night out with their friends.
“I told them to go when they felt ready.” She traces the line of my jaw with her eyes. Even though she hasn’t touched me there, I shiver with pleasure. “I’m not ready to go yet, though. Not without you.”
My body’s response is instant and primal. My low belly winds tight, and suddenly it’s hard to breathe slowly. Blood rushes into my cock, sending it straining against the denim that imprisons it.
Because Amelia has removed all doubt from my mind.
She wants me.
Tonight.
And that changes everything.
“I want to kiss you,” I rasp, spreading my hands wide over her sacrum. “May I, Amelia?”
Our faces are close enough that I can feel her breath quicken to match mine. Her lips part, ripe for the tasting. Lifting her eyes, she nods. “More than anything.”
I want to haul her from the dance floor and pin her against the wall, ravishing her mouth with mine in full view of all present. I want to part her legs with a knee, dip into her wetness, and make her clench in ecstasy around my finger. I want to make her mine, for now and for always.
But even though she says she wants me, I’m not sure that’s quite what she has in mind. So I cup her face in my hands, grazing her cheeks with both thumbs, and taste her lips for the first time.
Our mouths move carefully over each other, creating a rhythm together. Her lips are soft and pillowy. I can’t resist taking her lower lip between my teeth and tugging gently, just for a moment, before releasing it. The corners of her mouth curl upwards, and with mischief in her blue eyes, she turns our tentative kisses hard. She flicks her tongue over mine, dragging her teeth over my lips. Opening her mouth wide so I can explore her, Amelia is demanding, hungry.
I meet her, taking her hips in a steely grip and grinding into her. I want her to feel how much she arouses me, how ready I am for her. She’s not the only one who’s hungry.