Getting Lucky (28 page)

“Dance with me,” she said. But she didn’t try to move him from the spot he was on. She just looked up at him with challenge in her eyes.

“I don’t really—”

She put her hand on his chest, directly over his heart. “No manipulations. No one else. Just you and me. And dancing. And seduction.”

She slipped around him and started for the dance floor. He still held her hand, so he turned with her, the word
seduction
distracting him enough that she got him out in the midst of the other couples before he stopped.

“Seduction?”

Hope smiled up at him and he was, as of that very moment, completely seduced.

“I want you,” she said simply. “I want to get you naked and know every inch of you. I want to feel you against every inch of me. I want to stay up all night learning what you like and giving it to you over and over again.”

He stared at her.
Holy shit.

What word went beyond seduced? Consumed? Obsessed?

“Hope—”

“I also want to dance with you. And I want to rub your shoulder. And I want to know your favorite movie. And I want to tell you my favorite poem. And I want to ask you to take me for ice cream. And I know you’re not the poetry type and I don’t eat ice cream anymore. So all of this is a little overwhelming for me too. So I was hoping that maybe we could just dance. For now.”

Consumed and obsessed it was.

“I don’t dance,” he told her.

Her smile fell, and TJ wasn’t sure the last time he’d felt an actual loss when someone stopped smiling.

“But to show you just how far gone I am here,” he said, moving in closer. “I’m going to tonight.”

She lit up just like that, and TJ had a premonition of absolute heartbreak when she left town.

Then he was pulled out of anything even close to melancholy by Hope beginning to dance.

She swiveled her hips, she moved her shoulders, she moved her head, her hair swinging, and TJ just stared. With a stupid grin on his face. Watching her move in one of her flowy skirts or dresses would have been enticing, but the fitted denim and cotton showed every curve and every shimmy and was almost as good as naked yoga.

But the truth was she was not doing those boots justice.

“What are you doing?” he asked after a moment.

“Dancing.”

“Sunshine,
that
is not how you dance to Dierks Bentley.”

She stopped. “Who?”

He shook his head and stepped toward her. He took one of her hands and put his other on her lower back, bringing her up against his body.

“
This
is how you dance in Sapphire Falls.” And he began to two-step her around the dance floor.

Hope caught on easily, letting him lead her, allowing her body to move with his. Like every man who had ever two-stepped, twisted or tangoed with a woman he wanted, TJ was caught up in the sensuality of the dance, regardless of the tempo or lyrics to the music.

“I thought you said you couldn’t dance,” Hope said, looking up at him with a smile of pure pleasure.

“I said I don’t dance, not that I couldn’t.” He took the chance to twirl her, making her laugh. He felt his own mouth curl. “Boys in Sapphire Falls learn to country swing and two-step early on because it’s the best way to get a girl up against you when you’re too young to have a truck.”

“Trucks get girls up against you?” she asked.

TJ gave her a full grin at that. “There’s somethin’ about a truck.” It was also one of his favorite songs.

Hope seemed to be thinking about that. “I guess I hadn’t really analyzed why I want to be up against you,” she finally said. “I thought it had something to do with your wide shoulders and gruff exterior and sweet underneath, but maybe you’re right—it might be the truck.”

“Gruff exterior and
sweet underneath
?” he repeated. “What’s that mean?”

Except he knew. The gruff exterior was something he’d been working on perfecting. The sweet underneath—well, that was something Hope was seeing that no one else did. Anymore.

The sweet stuff had been what convinced Michelle that he was the perfect sucker to give her everything she wanted.

But it seemed he couldn’t help it with Hope. Because he trusted her? Maybe. Because she didn’t seem to really want
anything
from him? Possibly. Because he wasn’t even sure he could help give her what she did want from her trip here? Probably. Or maybe it was because
she
was sweet.

He didn’t typically go for sweet girls. Hope certainly had a spicy streak in her too, it seemed. But her caring and kindness, her sincerity, her outlook on things and the way she seemed to truly see him—and like him anyway—all gave her a sweetness he was having a hell of a time resisting.

Maybe that was bringing out the sweetness in him.

He cringed even thinking that. Sweetness was for saps.

But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d hidden in the dark with a girl, whispering and giggling so they wouldn’t be found. Or the last time he’d turned down sex because it was too fast, too soon, too—whatever. He had never called a woman Sunshine before. He hadn’t called a woman by an endearment in what felt like forever, as a matter of fact. He steered away from female tears, yet he’d instinctively pulled Hope close when she’d cried. He stayed far away from crazy, but he had this one already moved into his house, along with her potions and creams and insights and auras.

Yep, he was showing his sweet underbelly.

Fuck
.

“You
are
sweet,” Hope told him as they made their way around the dance floor. “And I know you don’t like that. So I thought maybe you’d want a chance to show me how…unsweet you can be.”

TJ tripped over his own feet.

She smiled up at him as he made himself focus to re-find the rhythm.

“Dammit, girl,” he muttered.

“It’s not my first night in town anymore,” she said.

He frowned down at her even as heat coursed through him. It wasn’t her first night in town and, as
crazy
as it was, it felt as if she’d been here a lot longer than she had. He’d never gotten to know a woman as quickly and as easily as he had Hope. She was an open book. Or, more accurately, an open diary. She felt her feelings and thought her thoughts out loud. And she’d inspired that in him as well. She’d figured things out about him that he doubted even some of the people in this very room knew. When he’d been wild and happy and in love, he’d let his feelings show. Then Michelle had made a fool of him, and he’d determined not to do that again.

But Hope had gotten under his skin. Fast.

“And there you go propositioning and offering everything to a guy you barely know.”

Maybe she did that all the time. Maybe that was her thing—finding guys in all of the towns between Sedona and Sapphire Falls and having flings. Maybe he was nothing special.

But the way she looked up at him didn’t feel practiced or calculated or routine. She actually looked as amazed by all of this as he did.

She was just the type to embrace being amazed.

“I do know you, TJ.”

“So you say.”

“But you’re trying to protect me from something,” she said. “What is it? Heartbreak because there won’t be a diamond ring in the morning? Or maybe disappointment because there won’t even be breakfast in the morning? Or are you telling me that the sex isn’t going to be any good? Because…I have a cream for that.”

The smile she gave him was full of mischief and sass, and TJ felt everything in him respond to it. He wanted all of that mischief and sass in his bedroom. Because with her, he felt like he could dive into it. He wouldn’t be wondering what she was really thinking about, he wouldn’t worry about doing or saying something wrong, he wouldn’t have to just follow her lead. He felt like he could take the lead. With Hope, he knew he could give into
his
desires.

“I have a cream…and a few other things…for that too,” he replied easily.

She lifted an eyebrow.

“But I don’t know how to cook breakfast for a vegan.”

“You wouldn’t anyway. You wouldn’t want me to think you wanted me to stick around.”

“You’re living in my house, Sunshine. That’s kind of sticking around.”

“But I’m not living there because of you,” she said. “That’s different, right?”

It was. He nodded.

“So I need you to know that tonight when I go home with you, it
is
about you,” she said. “When you take me into your bedroom, it’s not about anything or anyone but the two of us. No matter what brought me here, tonight is because I want
you
.”

He felt as if she’d sucked all the air from his lungs.

Hope was completely up front about everything. He loved that about her. He loved a lot of things about her. Like the fact that he truly felt as if he could be himself.

He liked the wild, crazy, hot sex that Michelle had been into. But that was all it had ever been—a physical release, a dirty fantasy.

With Hope, he wanted the—
shit
—he wanted the sweet stuff. He wanted to talk to her while he undressed her and kissed every inch of her body, but he didn’t want to talk dirty. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, how amazing she made him feel, how he wanted to make
her
feel. He wanted to kiss her, long and deep, and
only
kiss her, for hours.

What was wrong with him? The girl who was leaving? The girl who had blown into his life
yesterday
?

The vegan girl who talked about energies and practiced acupressure and God knew what else? The hippie girl with pink—or blue—hair who carried an apothecary box in her car with her?

Of all of the women in Sapphire Falls at that moment, she was the
last
one he should be getting sweet with. He should put her up against the wall in the back room of the Come Again and fuck her.

And be done with it.

“I’m into some kinky stuff,” he said. Maybe he could scare her off.

“Like what?” She seemed legitimately interested.

Of course. That was just like her. And was the opposite of what he wanted. So…of course.

They were still dancing, but at some point the music had slowed considerably and Hope had moved close and wrapped her arms around his neck. It had all happened so naturally. As if they’d been doing it forever. She fit with him. As if she’d been made to be there in his arms.

And these whimsical thoughts were making him nuts.

His hands rested on her hips and he was suddenly acutely aware of the feel of the denim rubbing against his palms as her hips moved.

Maybe it wasn’t his thoughts making him nuts. Maybe it was just this woman—and the way she looked and moved and laughed and thought and felt.

“I might want to dress you up as a sexy secretary and pretend I’m your asshole millionaire boss and insist that you give me a blowjob on my desk.” There. He needed to add some hard reality into all of this fanciful stuff that seemed to be swirling around him since Hope hit town.

Okay, so dressing up in costumes and role-playing wasn’t maybe
reality
, but it sure wasn’t in the same category as auras and energies and a new obsession with sparkly earrings.

But his comment didn’t make Hope look
less
interested. “Uh huh,” she said mildly.

He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I’ll put you over my knee and spank your ass when you say ‘uh huh’ to me like that.”

She laughed at that. Laughed.

He clearly needed to work on his scowling or his dominant tone of voice. Or something.

“What about Ben Wa balls?” she asked.

TJ almost reacted to that. Almost.

It had turned into a sexy game of chicken. That he was going to win.

“What do you know about Ben Wa balls?”

And wow, did he suddenly want to take her out dancing in public knowing that she was wearing some.

“They’re great for pelvic floor strengthening,” she said conversationally. “A strong pelvic floor is important to having a good core. And I have amazing strength in my pelvic floor. Yoga, you know.”

He’d love an in-person demonstration of that strength.

So much for scaring her off. So much for worrying about being sweet with her.

The way it was going, they weren’t going to make it out of the parking lot.

They danced for a moment without talking. But this was Hope, so it really was only a moment.

“Just so you know, I’d do anything for you.”

He tripped again.

He tried to recover his cool but was very afraid he’d never have a lot of cool where she was concerned. He would swear that she knew exactly the moment to say exactly the words that would make him fall all over himself.

Except that she wasn’t Michelle.

Hope was saying what she was thinking when she was thinking it because she couldn’t
not
say it. Not because she was plotting or scheming or trying to get a reaction from him. She was seducing him just by being her.

Hope was into him. Everything about her body language, her eye contact, her words, her…
vibe
—and TJ knew he was losing it then—told him that she was all in here. With him. Because of him. Not because of something he’d done or because she was trying to keep him on the hook as her plan B, but because she wanted him.