Page 29 of Dance for Me

One he’d want to play again with higher stakes.

Don’t be stupid. He didn’t hurt you. You enjoyed it.

Bodie shook her head in denial, stubbornly refusing to listen to her own mind. She didn’t do things like this for a reason—several reasons. She liked being in control of her own body, her own reactions and actions, and the thought of relinquishing them scared the bejesus out of her in a way no one could understand.

She should never have come back here. Should never have agreed to dance on that stage, to work for Braun. Should never have let him destroy the walls of her private sanctum and release the things she’d buried.

So many should nevers, she didn’t know which was the most moronic.

All of them.

Fuck, what did she do now? Her hands lifted her to her head, yanked on her hair until the whirligig of thoughts slowed. Pain sharpened chaos into clarity.

She couldn’t stay here, not tonight.

They’d both be thinking about that fucking kiss if she did, and she wasn’t strong enough to deny him another. Not now she knew his taste, and her body was aware of how his felt in such close proximity.

Braun was a temptation she’d never faced before, a testosterone-fueled hurricane capable of sweeping her off her feet without a protest. He could make her forget every reason she had in her vast arsenal for avoiding encounters like this.

For avoiding men like him.

Who was she kidding? Men plural.

Her leg bounced erratically with nerves. Blowing out a long breath, she composed herself with no small amount of effort. Forced her hands to steady, her body to calm.

Escaping the lion’s den without raising suspicion from the beasts was going to take a cool head and a lie she discovered didn’t sit well with her. She wanted to go to Braun, slide into his lap and her blanket, and sleep for days.

That urge was enough to tell her she’d crossed a line. Crossed it? Hell, she’d scuffed that line out of existence and waltzed into dangerous territory without realizing the trouble she was in.

Fucking hormonal idiot.

Eleven years she’d managed to keep herself from falling into the trap. Eleven goddamn years where, while she wasn’t happy per se, she was somewhat content with her own company and with Liam’s. She’d refused to let herself daydream about a handsome guy, diverted any and all flirtations from interested men. Kept herself separate from the rat race of sex and heartbreak.

Now look at her. Hiding in a bathroom stall, her heart pounding in slow, sick beats at the thought of forbidding herself from any further contact with her Domin—fuck! No, he wasn’t her Dominant, he wasn’t anything but her boss...and a nice guy.

A really nice guy.

Stifling a frustrated scream, she unlocked the stall door and stormed out to the sinks. Pretty silver taps and basins carved out of pink-flecked marble. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and scowled.

Her face still carried remnants of her breakdown in Braun’s office. Slightly puffy and reddened eyes, ugly tear tracks on her face. A haunted expression in those eyes, she noted with disgust, and her mouth full from the kiss.

The kiss, her brain purred. That kiss.

Oh, fuck off, you useless hussy. There’s never going to be another, so get that through your thick head! That’s all we get so make the most of it.

While her system pouted, Bodie straightened herself up. Washed her face, redid her ponytail, made herself presentable even as she slapped Band-Aids on the wreck of her self-control.

Strong. Fierce. Self-assured.

When she walked out of the bathroom five minutes later, Bodie had ruthlessly reinstated her bitchy persona. With a flick of her head to bolster her courage, she headed for the exit, cringing inwardly as she strolled past the bar. She noted Liam’s back was turned to her as he dealt with a drink order for a smartly dressed couple sitting at the bar and struggled not to hurry past. Raising alarms right now would not bode well.

Skating past by the skin of her teeth, she slipped through the doors into the entryway and breathed a sigh of relief when Liam didn’t shout her name.

However, she didn’t take into account the guard dog at the exit.

Green eyes glowered at her from a darkened corner, the sign-in desk tucked back where it was hard to see. She could just make out the massive shoulders shrouded in shadows, and barely restrained herself from gulping aloud.

Fuck, why did it have to be him?