by Unknown
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He paused, as though contemplating his fi nances. “Fine. But no dessert.”
Mel made a mock expression of outrage. “What kind of date are you? How can you ask me to give up Chester’s cheesecake? I’m not sure I’m up to another cheapskate like Flo and Ron.”
Drew put his arm under her elbow to lead her to his family’s table.
His broad chest sheltered her, leaving her fi ghting a sigh. When they caught sight of them, they all waved. “I’ll tell you what. Maybe I can con my father into paying for the lot of us, and then you can have cheesecake. How’s that?”
Mel fi nally couldn’t hold back her chuckle. It slipped out just as they reached the table and William McPhee jumped up to pull out a chair for her. “Devious, Mr. McPhee. Very devious. I like how you think.”
Mel took the seat William offered with a smile, her heart a bag of mixed emotions that left her confused and anticipating … something.
As she sat with Drew’s family, passing baskets of cheesy garlic bread, watching when they lovingly teased one another about anything and everything, smiling when they ate off each other’s plates, she realized she wasn’t only happy, but comfortable.
And when she recognized and identifi ed that emotion— she let it be just that.
Comfortable.
!
Backing up against her father’s truck, Mel waved to the McPhee’s once more when they drove out of Chester’s parking lot, taking Nate with them. She turned to look up at Drew who smiled down at her.
“Never let it be said the McPhee’s can’t show a lady a good time.”
“It was a good time. Thank you.” Dinner had been a rousing suc-9780425245507_WaltzThisWay_TX_p1-344.indd 162
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cess after such a disappointing beginning. Her stomach was full and her spirit renewed. She was offi cially in love with the McPhee’s in all their chaotic madness.
Drew shot her a confused look. “Who are you?”
“Someone who just had a really great meal with your even greater family. Don’t spoil it, caveman,” she teased.
Drew rested the heel of his hand on the truck, once again sheltering her with his body, creating delicious havoc with her senses. “Yeah, they are pretty great, huh?”
“I enjoyed every minute of it. But I especially enjoyed the chocolate cheesecake.”
He drew a thumb over the corner of her mouth, the rough tip of it making her have to work to control a visible shiver. “I can tell. You still have a little chocolate right here,” he murmured, his eyes roving her face, glittering in the parking lot’s lights. Her breathing stopped when he leaned in so close she could smell the beer he’d had with dinner on his breath. “So you wanna do it again?”
“Have dinner with your family? In a heartbeat. Nothing beats your father’s stories about what a klutz you were in fi fth grade.” It was all she could do not to spit her food across the table when William had told the story about Drew tripping, falling, and completely trashing the history project he’d worked on for three weeks straight. It was easy to see where Drew’s sharp wit came from.
Pressing his mouth to her cheek, he whispered, “You know what I mean.”
Mel plastered herself against the truck to keep from melting into him. “We are not having sex.”
“Is that all you ever think about?”
She planted a fl at hand on his tightly muscled chest, willing her fi ngers not to knead his fl esh. “I’m beginning to think it’s all you think about.”
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Dragging his lips over her cheek, she heard his chuckle, low and thick, felt the brush of his hair whisper on her skin. “I meant, do you want to go out with me again, you wicked woman?”
Oh. Oh! Here she was again, jumping to conclusions. “It depends on where we’re going. I’m worried if it’s without your father, I won’t get any cheesecake. So forgive me if I have my reservations.”
Cupping her chin, Drew hovered over her. “Every week my family has an Irish slash Puerto Rican night. You know, red beans and rice, corned beef and cabbage. There’s gonna be fl an,” he enticed. “I know how fond of sweets you are.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw you stuffi ng that Ho Ho in your face outside at lunch the other day.”
She faked a loud gasp of shock. “Were you watching me?”
“I was.”
She shivered, but decided fl ippant was her best cover. “How stalk-ery and kinda creepy.”
“Or LOL funny, considering the great lengths you went to in order to hide while you were eating it.”
Her laughter trickled from her lips. “I was hoping not to get caught by Neil. We’ve been working out in the wee hours of the morning, and no matter where I am, I always feel like he’s hiding around some corner, ready to yank my favorite dessert in plastic wrap from my mouth.”
“Yeah, that Neil, huh?”
“Do I detect a question about Neil in there?”
“What’s the deal with the two of you?”
“You know what the deal is. He’s my ex-dancing partner.”
“Were you two ever involved?”
“Nope. We’ve always just been friends. In fact, he’s one of my best friends and always will be.”
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“Well, okay then. See how easy that was? I ask, you answer. Over.”
“I promise the next time you use the words ‘one,’ ‘night,’ and
‘stand,’ I’ll ask the true meaning.”
His thumb caressed her chin in a maddening circle of sensuality.
“Funny. So funny. So how about Saturday night at my folks’ place? It’s total mayhem, wall-to-wall kids, but the food’s great, and obviously, you can’t help but enjoy the company.”
“Oh.” She gave him a dejected look. “So what you’re saying is, if I come to dinner Saturday, you’ll be there, too?”
“I’m the enjoyable company.”
“Sorry. I totally thought you meant your mother and father.”
Leaning down toward her lips, Drew dropped a light, yet lingering kiss on them. Soft, but sizzling, her brain began that meltdown it had experienced when they’d last been this close. “Still funny. So do we have a date?” he asked, letting his hips graze hers with just enough pressure to assure her he was a man.
Mel bit back a groan of longing. “Date. But …”
“Stipulations, Ms. Cherkasov? Special requests? Like do you prefer your forks hand- washed in rose petals and pressed- linen napkins?”
Mel giggled. Giggled. Lord. “No. I just want to be clear we’re on … you know … the same page.”
“Is this the part where you tell me I should pack the condoms I bought in bulk and save them for a rainy day?”
“Well, maybe you could leave one package out …”
His smile was disarming, making her belly quiver. “I get it. What happened between us was something you weren’t ready for. Or at least didn’t expect. You want to get to know each other better if I ever hope to see you do that thing with your leg again. Am I hitting a nerve?”
She let out a small sigh of relief. “I think we should fi nd out if the only thing we have in common is that thing I do with my leg.”
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“Oh, ye of little faith. Okay. No hanky- panky until I know what you like on your hamburger and what your favorite color is. So, date?”
“Date.”
In an instant, there was nothing but the chilly air between them when he backed away, leaving her wanting. Drew smiled, popping open the door of her truck, and waving her in. “I’ll pick you up at six— you’d better be ready.”
Mel climbed into the truck, tucking her dress under her legs to give him a saucy look. “I might even shave my legs— it is your parents’, after all.”
Drew wiggled his eyebrows. “A vast improvement since we were last naked together. I’ll have to tell my parents how highly you think of them.”
Mel was glad for the dim light in the truck. It hid her non- shaved legged shame. “I’m going home now before you spoil this lovely occasion with your despicable lies.”
Drew’s laughter made her stomach do somersaults. “Bye, Mel.”
“Bye, Drew.”
He shut the door with a wink, and it was all she could do not to throw the door back open and beg him to kiss her good night properly. Turning the key in the ignition, she drove away before she was forced to show him she hadn’t shaved her armpits.
!
Drew spent the drive back to his apartment grinning like he’d just scored a prom date.
A grin he couldn’t seem to wipe off his face.
Somehow he’d managed to turn the debacle of their romp a few weeks ago around. When he’d gone over their fi nal conversation in his mind after she’d stomped out of his apartment, he’d been pretty hazy about what had made Mel so angry with him.
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Then he’d chalked it up to artists and their crazy sensitivity, and it had made him angry that he’d fallen into the same trap again without even realizing it. Creative women and he just didn’t mix. They were temperamental, fl ighty, and worst of all, moody.
As the week went on and Mel had done everything but wear dark glasses and a hat to school to avoid him, he’d found himself alternately perplexed and experiencing that horrible emotion associated with the word “used.”
At fi rst, he found he was pretty hacked at the potential that he was just another body— even though his gut warred with the idea Mel was a friends- with- benefi ts kind of woman. Naturally, being a man, it never occurred to him he’d said something Mel would take so literally. Knuckle- draggers never did.
When he’d discussed his confusion about Mel, leaving out the sex-capades, his mother and sisters had reminded him that he was just an insensitive man and Mel was a newly divorced, probably rubbed- raw woman. They’d ordered him to give her a break.
Given a little time and distance, and the fact that she was all but hiding in the faculty bathroom, though he still didn’t understand what she was angry about, Drew had to concede and had set about giving her a break. While he gave her that break, he’d thought up a thousand different ways to get her to go back out with him.
Seeing her up close tonight instead of just the backend of her as she ran away from him had prompted him to try again.
Simply because he couldn’t get her out of his head for more than a minute or two before his thoughts strayed right back to her supple skin and soft lips pressed against his in the dark of his bedroom.
Because he couldn’t forget how she looked with her dark hair spread across his pillow and her long thighs wrapped around his waist. Because when he was buried balls deep in her, it was different than any other woman he’d ever experienced.
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Making love to her had been insane. Incredible. After much thought, he was more than sure their encounter was something she didn’t do often, if at all. When he’d had time to analyze it, Drew recognized the signs. It was in the way she couldn’t meet his eyes the next morning, and the wild, glazed- over look of disbelief on her face.
Still, knowing she was fresh off a divorce, defi nitely vulnerable and touchy, he wanted more. But it wasn’t just the sex he wanted. He wanted her to look at him like she looked when she danced. He wanted to touch whatever place was so deep inside her that it made her eyes fl ash fi re and refl ect the kind of passion he’d tasted on the tip of his tongue.
He had no answer for why he found Mel so enticing. It wasn’t all about that petite, rounded fi gure and her unruly head of curls. It was something else, something he tried to put his fi nger on, but it eluded him nonetheless.
He’d decided not to question chemistry. It either was, or it wasn’t.
Now that he was certain Neil wasn’t in the picture and he wasn’t treading somewhere he didn’t belong, he intended to set her Bunsen burner on fi re.
!
“Well, where the hell is he, Theresa?” Neil yelled into his phone, cracking the door to his rental in the parking lot of Westmeyer where he was due to pick up Mel for a late- afternoon workout.
His personal assistant didn’t deserve his ire.
Stan did.
But no one could fi nd Stan. He’d had Theresa use every single contact he’d made in his time on Celebrity Ballroom, but to no avail, and it was driving him insane.
The only information he’d gathered on Stan’s whereabouts was he was holed up in Europe in some cottage somewhere with that con-9780425245507_WaltzThisWay_TX_p1-344.indd 168
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niving bitch Yelena while the show was on hiatus. To suggest that information was reliable was shaky at best.
“Look, Theresa, I’m sorry. I know I’m being a class-A asshole, but someone has to know something. He can’t have just disappeared. Do me this, call me if you hear even what you think might only be a rumor, okay?” With a defeated nod, he hung up just as he caught sight of Mel with a pretty blonde talking just outside the school doors.
Her dark head was nodding at something the woman was saying, and then she laughed, lighter and more carefree than he’d heard it in a long time.
He swept up the steps, controlling his rage and slapping a smile on his face. “Ladies! Great day, huh?”
Mel gave the blonde a quick look before addressing Neil. “Neil, this is Gwen Timmons. She teaches something really smart that I think I’ve already forgotten how to pronounce.”
Gwen giggled girlishly, brushing back the strands of her bob when the wind picked up. She plucked it from her pink lipstick and said, “I teach biology. It’s nice to meet you.”
Neil went directly into charming mode. It usually happened without him even realizing it, but today, he needed to slather on the good-natured when he was feeling anything but. “Ah. Pretty and smart. A lethal combo.” He smiled his Celebrity Ballroom smile.
Mel slipped her arm though his, giving him her I-have-an-idea eyes. Shit. That was always bad for him. Her eyes were coy and hooded. “So I was thinking, maybe you and me and Gwen can grab some lunch sometime. You know, talk dissecting frogs or something.”
“What all good lunch discussions are about, right?” he joked, evading Mel’s request, yet knowing exactly where this was going and hoping to nip it in the proverbial bud. It was either that or wrap Mel’s pretty scarf around her mouth to shut her up.
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She meant well. She wanted for him what she thought everyone wanted. He wanted it, too. It just hadn’t worked out that way, and Mel forcing women she thought were his perfect match on him wouldn’t change that.
“So lunch, then?” Mel encouraged, nudging him just below the ribs with a discreet elbow.
Gwen waited with such anticipation in her expression, Neil’s gut twisted, much the way it always did when he was backed into this particular corner.
He fought back a sigh of exasperation and instead turned up his charm meter. “I have to fl y back to L. A. for a charity gig, but maybe after?”
Gwen’s face brightened. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Good deal. So, you ready, princess? The crunches, they call.” He looked to Mel, staving off the desire to throw her over his shoulder and lunge for his car.
Mel groaned her displeasure. “Who’s ever ready for crunches?”
“Oh, I love to work out,” Gwen chirped. And it showed in her slender fi gure covered in a slim skirt and her toned arms, stemming from the blue shirt she wore that complemented her eyes.
Mel stuck her tongue out at Gwen. “Look at how much the two of you have in common. And as an aside, I’d much rather be eating a box of Twinkies. So c’mon, you Jane Fonda wannabe, let’s do this.
Gwen, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Neil waved to her and led Mel down the steps. When they were out of earshot, she tweaked his arm. “She’s pretty, right?”
“Adorable.” Keeping his interest in this Gwen to a minimum was crucial to his surviving Mel’s matchmaking.
“So I did good, huh?”
“Mel, here’s a crazy revelation. I don’t need any help getting women.”
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“No, what you need help with is getting the right woman.”
“What’s your defi nition of ‘right’?”
