Stay With Me (8 page)

“Country western dancing.”

I swear, if I didn’t want to be around her so much, I’d turn and walk away. Interior designers were a dime a dozen.

“Fine.”

With a smile almost too big for her face, she asked, “Really?”

Rolling my eyes, I tried to figure out how to keep this from my brothers. No matter what I did to hide it, I was sure they would find out about it.

“Yes. But if you think I’m doing any of that line dancing, you are crazy.”

Her teeth sunk into her lip, making my thoughts wander to where they shouldn’t.

“You say that now, Mr. Drivas. I have your number,” she said as she held up my card. “I’ll call and let you know where to meet me.”

“Meet you? You don’t want me to pick you up?”

With a wink she replied, “Nope. I’ll meet you.”

She headed for her office door. Lifting her hand, she waved goodbye to the receptionist.

“Don’t forget, Kasey. It’s a long weekend for me. I’ll be back in Monday.”

Kasey smiled at Kilyn and then looked at me. She slowly licked her lips and pushed her chest out a little more.

I tried like hell not to look directly at her chest as I passed by. “Good afternoon, sir.”

“Good afternoon,” I replied and quickly followed Kilyn.

We rode down in the elevator in silence. The whole time I was trying to think of how to get myself out of this damn situation I had gotten into. The last thing I really wanted to do was go dancing. I hated dancing.

The doors opened and Kilyn stepped out. I opened my mouth to talk when she stopped and I ran right into the back of her. Spinning around, she flashed me an evil smile.

“Not yet there, Mr. Drivas. Save it for tonight.”

“Yeah, about that, Kilyn, I . . . I um . . .”

Narrowing my eyes, I took in the look on her face. She actually seemed excited about the idea of me going dancing with her. All I wanted to do was be around her. Maybe I needed to get it out of my system; if that meant spending an evening listening to pansy-ass music, then so be it.

“What should I wear?”

Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. Something in me wanted to make her look that happy every single day.

Pushing that thought as far away as possible, I waited for her response.

“Jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of boots. Cowboy boots.”

With a sly look, I asked, “What if I don’t own any cowboy boots?”

Taking a few steps back, she winked and said, “You better go buy some then. Talk to you soon . . . Thano.”

My heart stopped as my name trickled off her soft plump lips. My breath hitched and I was frozen in my steps. I watched as she walked away while I tried to figure out what in the hell was happening to me.

By the time I got to my car, I was fighting for air. Dropping my head back against my headrest, I closed my eyes and whispered, “I can’t forget her. I won’t forget her.”

“W
HAT DO YOU
mean Cody won’t be there?” Claire asked.

Leaning forward, I carefully applied my mascara. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to take a shower, shave, wash and dry my hair, and reapply all of my makeup. I wouldn’t have done any of that if I had been meeting Cody.

“He bugged out on me.”

“But we’re all still going dancing? I thought maybe you were mad at me and didn’t want me to come.”

With a long sigh, I replied, “Nonsense. Is Blake coming?”

“Yes. He has tomorrow off, and since you’re taking a long weekend, I thought I would as well. We talked about going up to the mountains, but they are saying a storm might blow in.”

“Please, they keep saying that and nothing happens. You should go. Enjoy your weekend.”

The silence on the other end of the line told me I needed to make things better. If I didn’t, Claire would beat herself up all night and not enjoy her time with her husband.

“Claire, it’s okay. I’m okay. I promise.”

A sniffle came over the phone. “I hate that it is even there between us.”

“It’s not. It has nothing to do with you. Nothing.”

“It has everything to do with me, Kilyn. Everything.”

Dropping my hand, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Where once was a girl so broken, now stood a confident woman. I talked about what had happened to me plenty of times. But talking about it with Claire. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

It was time for a subject change.

“Thano is going tonight.”

Claire gasped. “What? How? Why? Where did you see him?”

Attempting to hold back my giggles, I gave her the answers she was seeking.

“Thano is meeting us at the club. He stopped by the office today looking for an interior designer for a new cabin he built up in the mountains. He had no idea it was our firm.”

“Oh. My. God. It’s like the gods are throwing you two together.”

With a roll of my eyes, I went back to applying my mascara. “Please.”

“Okay, so how did it end up that he is coming dancing with us?”

“He said country music was for pussies. I was not about to let that go. I told him the only way I’d go and look at his cabin to see if we wanted to take on the job was if he came dancing tonight.”

Claire started coughing. “Hold on. Choking here.”

Blowing out a frustrated puff of air, I waited for her to get it all out of her system. I knew Claire better than anyone. We grew up together. She was like my sister and I knew what was about to come.

“You like him!”

And there it is.

“No, I do not. I needed someone to dance with tonight since Cody backed out on me.”

With a loud laugh, Claire replied, “Oh, because the hundreds of single guys at the club aren’t good enough?”

“No. Because the moment he said that, I had to prove him wrong. I’ll get him loving country music by the time we finish his cabin if it kills me.”

“So you’ve already decided you’re taking on the cabin? What about the Conner project?”

Dropping my mascara back into my makeup bag, I dug around for my blush.

“Don’t worry, Claire. You’re always worrying. Are we all driving together or what?”

She sighed, and I knew this conversation was far from over. “We’ll pick you up at seven.”

“Perfect!” I said. “See ya then!”

The nice cowboy spun me around and dipped me at the end of the song, causing me to let out a laugh.

Pulling me back up, he searched my face. “Tell me you’re here alone.”

With a pout, I said, “Sorry, cowboy. Waiting for my date to show up.”

“Lucky him.”

I smiled and headed toward the bar. Even though I was dressed in a lightweight baby-blue shirt and shorts, I was still sweating my ass off. My mother had hated when I wore my cowboy boots with shorts, but that was when I was fourteen. I was older and I knew it made my ass look good.

Trying to catch my breath, I motioned to the bartender for another Bud Light.

“Better slow it down there, ladybug, if you’re too drunk you can’t teach me to dance.”

Goose bumps ran down my neck and over my body as his hot breath touched my skin.

“How long have you been here?” I asked, taking the bottle of beer and pressing it to my lips. When I turned around, I damn near choked at the sight in front of me.

“Holy hell,” I whispered as my eyes looked at the Greek god standing in front of me. His dark hair and skin were made darker by the ultra-tight white T-shirt he had on. Moving my eyes down, I took in the jeans that certainly were not new. When I finally reached his boots, I smiled wide.

My heart skipped a beat and I fought like hell to ignore it. “You bought boots.”

His hand wrapped around my waist and he pulled me closer to him. My breath caught and I was positive he could hear my heart pounding against my chest.

Jesus. Was he always this touchy? I certainly hoped like hell he was.

“I did, and let me tell you something, they were expensive as hell.” He smiled and those damn dimples popped right on out. The urge to push my hand down my panties was real. So real, I let a small moan slip from my lips.

Thano leaned in closer, placing his lips next my ear. “But don’t worry, the saleslady assured me they would work when I told her I was trying to impress a country girl. I told her if they didn’t, I was bringing them back.”

Trying not to, I busted out laughing. Placing my hands on his massive chest, I ignored the pull in my lower stomach. With a good push, he took a few steps back. Not even bothered by the fact that I had used all my might to push him away and he only took two steps back.

I need to get to the gym.

“You wouldn’t think of returning them!” I gasped.

“I would! I totally would. So you better make it worth my while.”

The burning in my chest was something I wasn’t familiar with. I’d never had a guy make me feel the way Thano did. I was positive it was because of this whole running into each other bullshit we had going on. Maybe someone was trying to tell me something. If they were, I was going to keep ignoring them. A guy like Thano surely had to have a revolving door when it came to his bedroom and the girls he invited in. That had to be the reason he didn’t have a girlfriend.

When Dirks Bentley’s “Drunk on a Plane” started, I grabbed Thano and pulled him out onto the dance floor.

“Okay, now all these people are doing the two-step. It’s really simple once you get it down. When you get a little comfortable with the steps then you can try giving me a spin or two!”

He smiled, but it was almost an evil smile. Like he knew something I didn’t. “Thélis na horépsis mazí mu, Kilyn?” he called out.

I froze and couldn’t move an inch. Never mind the fact that I had barely gotten over how damn good he looked, now he pushed me right in front of the MAC truck and tried to finish me off by saying something in what I could only assume was Greek.

Jesus, Kilyn, pull yourself together.

Swallowing hard, I licked my lips and tried to speak past the lump in my throat. “What did you say?”

“Would you dance with me, Kilyn?”

Dear God. Talk to me like that again and I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.

“Um . . . yes. I mean okay.”

When he took me into his arms, my breath caught and I was pretty sure he knew he was having an effect on me.

“Show me how to two-step.”