I Love that You're in My Life

Chapter Eight: A Little More Time

"Are you guys psyched to see all the hot guys dancing?"

Alana blushed while Daniela laughed as she slapped Jessica playfully on the arm.  "Oh my God, Jessica, seriously!  Is that all you think about?"

Stephanie grinned at them as she fanned her face, "Well, I can't wait to see Tristan!"  She nudged Alana with her elbow as she continued, "And don't say you're not excited to see Gino.  Do you think they're going to take their shirts off?"

Alana lowered her head shyly as her cheeks flamed, "I am."  She paused before adding, "And I don't know...  We'll see when we get there, I guess."

She was excited.  Gino had invited her and her friends to see their dance group--- which apparently included his friends Tristan and Tyler--- run through a practice.  She was wondering how well he would dance; the only time they had danced together was at the Halloween party, which hardly counted as actual dancing, in her books.

They finally reached the dance studio at the end of the hall and opened the door to see a rather large amount of people clustered in tight-knit groups as they conversed, laughed and occasionally did some dancing for their friends and club members.  

Alana was surprised to see how bold some of the people were, at first...  Several girls were only dressed in sports bras and shorts, and at least a fourth of the guys present had their shirts off.  Once she had walked close enough to see their lean and toned bodies, though, she didn't blame them.  After all, if you had a body you worked hard to keep fit, why not show it off?

"Alana?  You're here!"  She turned to her right to see Gino sauntering towards her with a bright smile on his handsome face.

"Yup!"  She beamed at him as she took in his appearance: unfortunately, he wasn't one of the guys with their shirts off, but even in a gray hoodie and dark blue sweatpants, he still looked good as usual.  In fact, he was the kind of guy who would look good in anything, now that she thought about it.  As Alana's eyes met his, she blushed under the intensity of his scrutiny when she realized that he, too, was raking her body with his gaze.

"Are you going to start soon?  We didn't hold you guys up, did we?" Alana asked, tilting her head to the side as he stepped closer towards her.  She did her best to ignore her increasing heart rate.

His full, soft-looking lips tilted in a smirk as he lowered his forehead to rest against hers and settled his large hands on her slim waist.  Alana considered it exceedingly lucky that Gino couldn't tell that sparks seemed to ignite her entire being at such a small, seemingly innocent gesture.

"No.  And even if you did hold us up, I don't think anyone would really mind," he murmured as his warm sweet breath fanned across her face.  Alana could smell mint, and was secretly pleased from that fact.

"Why not?" she forced herself to stare into his deep sapphire blue eyes, even though her heart was beating so loudly that she feared he would hear how strongly he affected her.

Gino's smile widened, and Alana noticed that his eyes seemed to flicker down and fill with an intensity that made her brain blank out for a moment.  Was he looking at her lips?  Well, now that she thought about it, she was definitely looking at his.

"Because they know we're dating... and they know I haven't dated anyone in a while," he looked back into her eyes.

Oh my God.  Gino's close proximity clearly wasn't good for her rationality.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he hesitated before continuing, "no one else caught my interest."

Alana blushed and smiled at his comment.