Part 34 (2/2)
”That thing almost ate me for dinner,” Cecily said, struggling to sit up.
Todd gently pushed her down. ”Why don't you give yourself a minute?” Another man appeared with a pop can. ”Come on, dude. Where's the gla.s.s?” Todd said with a frown.
”Oh. Sorry,” the guy said, and disappeared.
”So what were you doing out in my neck of the woods?” asked Todd. ”Coming by for a drink?”
Now she did sit up. ”No.” Oh, that made her head spin.
”I told you not to do that,” he said, easing her down again.
The close contact tickled her nose with a hint of aftershave and just plain old musky male. That is not a turn-on, she told herself firmly. She tried to ignore the man sitting next to her and instead took in her surroundings. The room wasn't big, but big enough to hold an old desk with a laptop computer on it and a st.u.r.dy chair behind it, a filing cabinet and this beat-up leather couch she was on. A library lamp on the desk and faint light wandering in from a nearby streetlight were only enough to leave their corner of the room in semidarkness.
The other man, Todd's bartender, had returned with a gla.s.s filled with ice. Todd took it, popped the top on the can and poured in the soda. ”Here,” he said, holding it out to her. ”This should help.”
”Thanks,” she murmured. It did. The bartender slipped out of the room, quiet as a shadow, and she laid her head back against the sofa pillow.
”So, I hear your festival was a big success,” Todd said.
”Yes, it was.”
”Bill Will said he danced with you at the ball.”
Cecily found herself smiling at the memory of that disastrous dance.
Todd frowned. ”He can't have been that great a dancer.”
”I didn't say he was.”
”I won a dance contest once.”
”No way,” she scoffed.
He nodded. ”Oh, yeah. I had a girlfriend who was into it.”
She couldn't resist asking, ”What kind of dancing?” Dirty?
”Salsa. Ever salsa dance?” He took a slug out of what remained in the pop can. Now why was that s.e.xy?
She'd wanted to-had meant to-take lessons. ”I've been busy doing other things,” she said, and realized she sounded prissy.
”You'd like it.” He looked at her from under slightly lowered lids. It was an intimate gaze, fitting with the dimly lit room. ”But tango is the best, almost like having s.e.x on the dance floor.”
”Well, I'll have to try it sometime.” Her mouth suddenly felt dry and she drank a sip of her pop.
The music out in the bar had softened, some sort of love song. She needed to get home.
He leaned over, his mouth so close that his breath raced around her ear. ”I could show you now.”
She turned her head and that brought them nearly mouth to mouth. ”Um.”
Aack! What was she doing here like a fish about to chomp on a lure? Todd Black was not her type. Well, okay, he was her type, but that was the problem. She needed to change her taste in men.
She moved her lips out of range and swung her legs over the side of the beat-up leather couch. ”I don't think so. I've had about all the excitement I can stand for one day.”
He gave a snort. ”Okay. I'll take you home.”
”I can walk.”
”Hoping to see Elmo again?”
”Take me home.”
He grinned. ”Thought so.”
First that little chat in his dark office, now the intimacy of his car-she should have taken her chances with Elmo and walked. This close proximity was giving her the jitters.
”So, the festival's over now, everyone's made a pot of money. What next?” he said. ”Are you off to L.A. to match up lonely hearts?”
There was a depressing prospect. She didn't bother to reply.
”Small towns aren't so bad, you know. Lots of interesting people wind up in small towns. Guys who can dance, for instance.”
”A lot of guys can dance,” she said dampeningly.
”Not like me.”
She turned from staring out the car window to take in that perfect square chin and that c.o.c.ky expression. ”How many girls have you danced with?”
”Enough.” He grinned at her again. ”You do like to...dance, don't you?”
”I've danced some.”
”Why are you in such a hurry to leave Icicle Falls?”
”It's time.”
”Yeah, I guess small towns can be a little scary. You get close to people fast in a place like this. Easier to hide in the big city.”
”What is that supposed to mean?”
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