A Love Like Ours

Chapter 28

"I want to," I said, touching her chin. "Now do you want to dance or not?"

She grinned at me, and nodded. We stood hand in hand.

"Where are you going?" Emily asked, distracted from her husband for the moment. But he was staring at her like he could never be distracted, not even for a moment.

"To dance, obviously," I said with a smirk. "Now that you made me look bad."

Mark chuckled beside his wife. "The music sucks, but the company sort of makes up for it." He tugged Emily closer to him again, and laughed when she whacked her hand against his chest, catching it and kissing it before she could let it drop.

I grabbed Madelyn's hand, afraid to hang around any longer and witness something between Mark and Emily that neither of us would be able to un-see. Mads gripped my hand with both of hers as I led her away from our little corner of this New Year's Eve party.

We'd come at Emily's request. She, Mark, Will, and Jenny had made these plans to come out to Brooklyn for the evening months ago. It was a big bash that evidently happened every year in one of Brooklyn's more done up warehouses.

So, Will and Jenny's girls were with Michelle back at her house for the night, and we were all free to enjoy the evening and head back to Mark and Emily's apartment to crash afterwards. But there were a lot of people here. People none of us knew, some of whom looked at me twice as I passed them by. I'd already said hello to a number of strangers who had recognized me, taken some pictures too, so I tried not to lock eyes with anyone until Mads and I were in a darker corner of the dance floor.

Colored, flashing lights still flared around us, but it was cooler here, the air not so thick with the heat of bodies or the tang of sweat. The music was still so loud, it thrummed through my chest as well as beneath my feet. It wasn't the kind of music I would've liked to dance to, but for my girl, I would do just about anything. I turned and smiled at her, our hands still joined, but she looked more apprehensive than I felt.

"What's wrong?" I asked, pulling her closer by the hand.

She glanced behind her, then back at me, leaning forward to speak in my ear. "A lot of people were looking at you, Harry."

She lingered close to me, backed up enough only to glance at me sideways. I sighed, pulled her close by the waist, kept my hands there, and took a deep breath filled with the heady scent of coconuts. "I don't care."

Her hands came up to my shoulders. And her head cocked back again. "What if they—"

"They're going to do what they're going to do," I said, and tightened my grip on her. "But I won't let them ruin this. I won't let them draw my attention away from you." I glanced down at her body in the space narrowing between us. "Away from you in this dress." My fingers curled into the material just above her bum, and her body tightened and relaxed all at once against mine with something like a sigh. "I don't think you understand what this dress is doing to me."

Mads swayed with me as I started moving. We weren't in time with the music at all, but I didn't give a shit. The heat of her body, the look in her eyes, the feel of her all along me... I was having a plenty good time just taking her in.

"Well, why don't you tell me?" she asked, her eyes moving down to my lips as she pulled herself closer, looped her arms around my neck so that her breasts were flush against my chest.

I glanced down at them, happy to see the shadow of red blotches on her skin. Her fingers toyed with my hair at the nape of my neck, and I smirked. "Why don't you tell me why you don't drink anymore first?"

There was a long pause and her hands stopped moving. She was still smiling, but the desire in her eyes had almost completely disappeared. "Now?"

I grinned at her, my eyes traveling down to the hollow of her throat, and had to make myself focus again. "Now's as good a time as any, isn't it?"