Unexpected

Chapter Fifteen

He snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. He grabbed her hand and led her over to her living room. She waited expectantly, as if he were about to reveal something big. Instead, he stretched his arms over his head and jumped a bit on the balls of his feet, warming up.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at him warily and just a bit like he'd lost his mind.

"What's your jam, Cress?" he asked.

She stared at him.

He walked over to her stereo system attached to the iPod dock. "C'mon, what's your jam?"

She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not dancing for you, or something like that, if that's what you think is gonna happen here."

Thorne threw his head back, unable to contain his laughter. "You're amazing, you know that? What's going to happen here, gorgeous, is that we are going to dance. Together."

"Here?"

"Why not?"

"Thorne," she whined.

He picked up her iPod and began to shuffle through. "I know you need to get out of your head. So, what'll it be?"

She sighed, but her voice was less agitated when she spoke again. "You'll probably laugh at me."

Thorne put his own hand on his hip, imitating her. "Give me some credit, Cress. Did we or did we not, in fact, meet on the dance floor?"

She hesitated. "You can't really dance to it that well."

"I can dance to anything. I want to know what your jam is, so stop stalling."

"Fine. I currently can't stop listening to Style."

Thorne grinned and began to scroll through her iPod. "Fan of Miss Swift, are we?"

"I wasn't always," she said quickly. "But that song is just so...catchy. And I like the lyrics. Have you heard it?"

"Have I heard it? Now what kind of question is that?"

It wasn't the song he would've chosen at all, to say the least, but this was about her, not him. Besides, it wasn't the worst song she could have picked, to be honest. He was already picturing her singing along to the music while she danced, and the thought made him just about ready for anything. He turned the song on and the volume way up. Her eyes widened and she suddenly looked shy. But the intro faded and the beat picked up, and Thorne let his right shoulder pop up a few times. He knew he looked silly, but that was the point.

"C'mon, Cress," he said, moving his shoulder more."I just can't control it."

She was obviously trying not to smile. It would just take a little bit more to get her to relax. He shimmied over to her, now wiggling both of his shoulders dramatically. She burst out laughing.

"Midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights," he sang as he danced in front of her. She continued to laugh, but then he held out his hand and yelled over the music. "The chorus, Cress! The chorus!"

She took his hand and he spun her as the music picked up and before long Cress was dancing too. Their moves were not quite so sophisticated this time around, but this was just for fun, and with no other audience, it didn't really matter. She eventually started singing by the time the second chorus came on, which was good because he rather loved seeing her dance and sing, and he didn't know all of the words anyway. She started adding in some of the cute moves she'd done the night of the Masquerade and he reciprocated with encouragement.

As the bridge came on, Thorne decided it was time for his grand finale. He sank to his knees, fisted his hands in front of her, and put on his most dramatic agony and desire face. "Take me home...just take me home...yeah, just take me home!"