Pure Wicked (Wicked Lovers #9.5)(11)
Author: Shayla Black

“I’m still trying to find myself. I got a GED at sixteen. I had this crazy idea, but it didn’t work out the way I thought. So…right now, I’m seeing the country and trying to figure out where to go next. Where’s your hometown?” He changed the subject before she could ask him for details.

“Lewisville. That’s in Arkansas, about thirty miles east. You’ve never heard of it.”

“I haven’t,” he admitted.

“It’s a tiny town, so small that we had to come here to find a restaurant big enough for the party.”

“Do you have a lot of competition in the restaurant biz there?”

“Well, it’s not like Starbucks has come to town, so that helps. But we also don’t have a morning rush hour. I’d love to have cars wrapped around the building, but it isn’t equipped with a drive-thru. No other place in town is open for breakfast or makes everything from scratch. I don’t stay open for dinner because I can’t compete with Burge’s Pit Bar-B-Q or Scooter’s Pizza Shack.”

He nodded as they meandered closer to the band. “Wise business decision. I’ll bet your goodies are delicious. I’d love a taste.”

His voice had gone low and husky, and Jesse wondered if she’d heard it.

She raised her gaze to him, lashes fluttering flirtatiously. “Is that right? Well, my hot buns are fabulous.”

“I have no doubt they are.” He winked. When she giggled, he wished he could stay around long enough to take a bite of whatever she offered.

A few moments later, the collection of musicians grabbed their instruments and started playing a lively contemporary country love song with a three-four meter. It wasn’t like anything he played in his vault of songs.

“Dance with me?” he asked, stopping at the edge of the floor and drawing her closer.

“You waltz?”

Not really. “Sure.”

Mostly, he just wanted to hold her close.

She bit her lip. “I’m not much of a dancer.”

“I’m pretty decent. I’ll go easy on you. Say yes.” He skimmed a palm down her back.

She exhaled, her breath shaky. Her stare never left his face. “Okay. They’re your toes.”

“You’ll do great.”

Jesse took her hand in his and brought her closer. Every one of her curves seemed to align perfectly with him, each contour fitting to his like pieces of a puzzle. That sounded cheesy, even in his own head, but he’d never been more aware of a woman’s every dip and swell, of his heart racing simply because she stood near and their palms touched. He wasn’t at the eighth grade formal, slow-dancing with a girl for the very first time. He’d long ago lost track of how many women he’d slept with. But she made everything seem new again.

Were his palms actually sweating?

They fell in time to the music together, Jesse mimicking the sort of waltz his grandparents used to dance. Bristol seemed a bit stiff at first, but with every step she relaxed more into his arms.

“Where did you learn to dance?” she asked.

He couldn’t say that his very first manager had hired dance instructors to work with him to perfect his on-stage moves and that, more recently, he’d hired a “male entertainer” to show him how to make his moves sexier. Instead, he opted for something he could tell her.

“My grandparents owned an Arthur Murray dance studio. I spent my summers there. When I was thirteen, I thought it would be the happening place to pick up girls, so I paid attention. I learned a lot.”

“I’ll bet you were smooth even back then.”

“I thought I was.” He smiled at her. “I see the pictures now and think ‘dork in braces.’”

She laughed. “I can’t imagine it.”

“True story.”

Because he wasn’t digging even the small bit of distance between them, Jesse flattened his palm to her back, sliding down to the sway in her spine, bringing her petite frame and sweet curves even closer. He didn’t usually have any trouble controlling his cock. Now it had a mind of its own, and he ached to slide all of her against every inch of him too badly to care if she felt that.

When he arched into her, she gasped, then flattened herself against him. The friction as they swayed together blew his mind. She glanced up at him, and he curled a finger under her chin to bring her face beneath his. He really had to restrain himself from grabbing her ass. Public displays didn’t bother him but that sort of thing might bug her. And he wasn’t supposed to be drawing attention to himself.

“If you don’t want me to kiss you, say something now.”