Darkest Love
Page 21
He had probably told his mother that she was too trashy.
Oh, if only people would shut up! You never know how things will pan out. Soon Kathy Mistern had stepped aside, and her sneering was a distant memory. As the funky seventies music wafted from the stereo, and the first dance began, it occurred to Annie that she had never been so happy.
“You have dropped many jaws, Mrs. Mistern,” Rain whispered to her as they slow-danced, barely aware of the coos and claps of the surrounding crowd. Annie and Rain had eyes only for each other. “The jaws of all your detractors. The jaws of the scandalized Kaamo. The jaw…” He winked. “…of my disbelieving mom.”
“You used to tell her I was a slut, didn’t you?”
Rain looked at her in surprise. Annie warmed as he threw his eyes up, breaking her gaze for the first time since the dance began, and laughed a hearty laugh.
“I probably did.”
“Can’t you imagine how she feels now that we’re married?”
Rain slipped a finger under Annie’s chin, cocking her face up, and kissed her. “I really don’t care what she thinks. I don’t care what anyone thinks. I have learned that from you. If you hadn’t ignored them…” He gazed around, using his eyes to gesture at the crowd. “…we wouldn’t be together. And if you weren’t kinky enough to break down my walls, and get in here…” He tapped his chest with the clasp formed by their fingers. “…we wouldn’t be together.”
Annie’s heart fluttered as he cocked his bicep, raising their hands so she could twirl around. She flew backwards as Rain dropped her into a low dip. He held her there for a second, hand on her back, letting her enjoy the view of his face haloed by a brilliant chandelier. Annie sighed with pleasure; the crowd cheered.
“From now on, I’m doing things Annie Childs-style. I don’t give a shit what people think.”
The lovers danced on into the evening, bumping against the new couples that shimmied onto the dance floor. Annie and Rain wound their way around elderly shufflers and pointy-elbowed disco fans and clumsy couples who must have had four left feet between them. They wound around tenure competitors and former lovers and disbelieving gapers and islands of rose petals tossed by an errant, rebellious flower girl. They picked up the pace for dance tracks, stopped to embrace great aunts, locked back together for slow-dances and fielded the odd question about Kaamo royalty. They swooped sugar-high children into their arms for happy swaying sojourns and soothed insecure girls with a compliment or two. They attended to everyone who fell into view, but their eyes locked back together each time, as tightly as their arms.
In their hearts they were undistracted; they had eyes only for one another.
About the Author
Melody Tweedy is an author who loves to explore the dark side of love.
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