Elena arrived at the restaurant around ten. Half of the restaurant had been cleared for the dance floor. The dim lights, ambiance, and the beat of the music were bringing the dance floor to life. She could feel her body starting to move in response to the beat of the rhythm of the song playing. She looked around the crowd and spotted Emilio by the bar with some guy, grabbing a drink. He waved her way.
Elena waved back and made her way to the bar to meet up with him.
“I’m glad you were able to make it out tonight.” Emilio reached out and gave her a big hug.
Elena looked at Emilio’s friend who was checking her out. He had dark spiked hair, five o’clock shadow, and biceps that were ripping out of his tight black crew shirt.
“This is my friend, Lucio,” Emilio spoke loudly over the music.
“Hi.” Lucio flashed a gorgeous smile at Elena. “Would you like to dance?” He offered his hand, waiting for her reply.
Oh yes, she almost said out loud. “Here,” she handed Emilio her purse and accepted Lucio’s offer. She took his hand and walked onto the dance floor.
A merengue song was playing, which meant instant twirling and fast-paced dancing. She was exhilarated by all the turns and moves as Lucio covered the dance floor with her. It had been a while since she had been this close to a man. His strong hands held on tight to her waist, but as the song started slowing down, Lucio’s hands started getting a little too low on her back. Elena started to feel a little uncomfortable and was looking forward to the song ending. She glanced toward the entrance of the restaurant and saw Bridget walking in with Daniel by her side.
Elena was shocked and almost tripped as Lucio spun her around for the last time.
Lucio held her up. “Whoa…are you okay?”
“Yes, sorry.” She was so embarrassed. “Just caught off guard.” Thankfully, the song ended, and a slow song started to play. Lucio grabbed her and pulled her close to him. “Hold on there, tiger.” She pushed him away gently. “I think I’ll sit this one out.”
“Esta bien,” he said in Spanish. “I’ll be back later for more.” He winked.
Elena smiled shyly, not knowing what else to do, but one thing was for sure—he would not be getting any MORE of anything. She made her way through the crowd toward Bridget. What the hell was she doing with Daniel? Where was Jake? Bridget waved to Elena.
“Wow, this is so exciting. I’ve never been to Latin night before.” Bridget’s eyes twinkled as Daniel stood beside her.
Elena nodded absently. “It can be pretty crazy.” She focused back on Daniel. “So Daniel, what brings you out here?”
Daniel’s ears perked up. “Bridget invited me. When she told me everyone would be here, I couldn’t resist.” The undertone of his voice suggested Elena was the everyone he was referring to.
Bridget looked a little disheartened at his statement. No one wanted to be on a date and hear their date say they weren’t here because of them. She felt so protective of Bridget; she was supposed to be here with Jake, not this jerk. Elena wrapped her arm through Bridget’s. “Why don’t I show you around while Daniel goes and gets something to drink.”
Elena practically pulled Bridget away from Daniel. “So, you didn’t tell me Daniel was the guy you were crushing over.”
“I told you it was someone who was out of my league.”
“Ugh, he is nowhere near your league. He is like six feet under you.”
“I thought you liked Daniel? Bridget asked confused.
“It’s not that I don’t like him.” God, she hated lying to her. “It’s just that…I don’t think he is the right person for you.”
Puddles of tears started to form in Bridget’s eyes. Crap, what was she going to do now?
“Listen, Daniel is more of a nice-to-have-around-your-arm kind of guy, not a permanent, stable relationship person. It’s nothing against you. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I understand. I just wanted to be brave like you said. It took everything I had to ask him out here tonight.”
Those words tugged at Elena’s heart. She reached out and gave Bridget a big hug. “Sweetie, I know someone who is dying for you to notice him and he is perfect for you.”
Her brown eyes lit up. “Really, who?”
Elena hesitated, hoping she wasn’t betraying Jake’s trust. “Jake.”
“What? Jake from work?” Bridget asked, sounding offended.
“What’s wrong with Jake from work?” Elena said a little defensively.
She slumped her shoulders. “I don’t know. He just seems more like the brotherly type.”
Elena sighed. “Well, he doesn’t think about you as a sister. I think you should give him a chance. You might be surprised. Meanwhile, you are here, and there is some nice music going on. You had the guts to invite Daniel out, so why not just enjoy the night, eh?”
“Okay,” Bridget agreed. “But will you and Emilio sit with us?” she asked nervously. Elena knew how she felt—with first-date jitters where you were too afraid to just make conversation because you didn’t want to say the wrong thing and then look like a fool. “Sure. Why don’t you go get a table, and I’ll be right there.”
Bridget cheered up and surprised Elena with a big hug in return. “Thank you,” she said.
Elena felt like a mother who had just given her daughter permission to date the dangerous-looking hottie from school—what a mess. She had to get to Daniel before he went back to Bridget.
She spotted him back at the bar talking to some big breasted blonde who of course had made her way to him. She marched angrily toward them, her heels clicking on the dance floor with each step she took. “Excuse me, but I need to borrow him for a second.” Elena grabbed Daniel’s arm and dragged him away from the bimbo.
Daniel almost spilled the two drinks he was holding in the process. “Easy there,” he smiled, but Elena only grimaced in response.
“What the hell are you doing here with Bridget?” There was no point in beating around the bush.
“What I do with my free time is none of your business. Isn’t that what you told me once?” He turned to leave.
“Wait—” Elena grabbed his arm. “Daniel, she is young and innocent. You cannot lead her on. It would destroy her.”
He paused and looked at her, evaluating his options and keeping her in suspense. “Okay, I’ll make you a deal.”
Elena didn’t like doing deals with the devil. She looked back to where Bridget was sitting, watching them suspiciously. She couldn’t let this cad get to her. “What do you want,” she hissed.
“I’ll let Bridget down easy if you dance with me tonight.”
Elena was taken aback by the simplicity of his request. “That’s it? You just want me to dance with you?” This was easier than she thought.
“We have a deal then.” Daniel took a sip of his water.
Elena eyed the other drink. “What’s in that one?”
Daniel lifted the glass. “Rum and coke for Bridget.”
Elena snatched the drink from his hand and downed it. “I need it more than Bridget. Get her soda.”
Daniel laughed.
Elena walked away and back to the table where Emilio was sitting. “Hey, where did Bridget go?”
He pointed toward the dance floor. “She is dancing with Lucio.”
“What? Why did you let her dance with Lucio?” This was going to be a long night.
“What do you mean to let her? I taught her how to dance for a reason, and she is doing pretty good.” He smiled like a proud teacher watching his student showcase the results of his instruction. “Look, she’s having fun.”
Elena looked over at Bridget who was laughing and twirling in Lucio’s arms. Part of her wanted to go over there and push Lucio away from her, but she knew Bridget was just trying to enjoy herself. She would just have to make sure she made it home safe and by herself. If Jake found out, he would never talk to Elena again.
“Where did Bridget go?” Daniel asked when he arrived at
the table.
“She is dancing with Lucio,” Elena replied dryly.
“Who is Lucio?” Daniel asked confused. He took a seat in between Emilio and Elena.
“Over there.” Emilio pointed toward the dance floor.
Daniel leaned over and whispered to Elena. “Well, it looks like I’m not the one you have to worry about.”
Elena pushed his face away. He was a little too close for comfort, and the truth of his words bothered her. Elena shrugged off his sarcasm. She would have to keep a watchful eye on handsome Lucio.
“Come on.” Daniel stood up and held out his hand in front of Elena.
Elena looked at his hand like it was leprous. “What do you want?”
“Don’t act naïve; it doesn’t suit you.”
Elena pretended she didn’t hear him.
“I see my girl; I’m outta here.” Emilio beelined toward a girl who had just entered the club.
“You don’t seem like a person to go back on her word. You owe me a dance,” he reminded her.
Elena looked around trying to find an excuse to buy her some more time. “But it’s a slow song starting.”
“I know that,” he smirked. “Come on.”
With reluctance and a silent voice of warning in her head, she placed her hand in his. He squeezed her hand in an intimate gesture sending a wave of emotions through her. She could feel the heat of his hand penetrating through her and oddly enough, holding his hand didn’t feel wrong. Her heart raced as they made their way to the dance floor. When they found a spot, Daniel pulled her closer to him. His hand circled the back of her bare lower waist, his face dangerously close to hers. Elena took a deep breath as Daniel took the lead in the dance. She was surprised at his skill on the dance floor—damn him.
“Relax,” he whispered into her ear. The feel of his face and breath so close to her brought chills down her spine. She felt every nerve in her body come alive; the intimacy of the dance and the closeness of his body wanted to make her scream. His scent was intoxicating, and she was having a hard time concentrating on what she was doing. The song, she thought to herself, just listen to the lyrics instead of Daniel. It was just one dance. She reminded herself. She could get through it.
“Elena, I never meant to hurt you,” he confessed. “I was just trying to protect you.”
“I was able to look out for myself,” Elena replied passionately.
“You don’t understand,” Daniel insisted.
“What don’t I understand?” A part of her wanted a truce, enough of the fight—she wanted to understand why he had done it. He had said he was looking out for her but out for what?
“Steven had a bet.”
“A what?” Elena stopped in mid-dance.
Daniel grabbed her hand and twirled her and brought her back to him. “I overheard him making a bet he could get you in bed by the end of the week.”
Elena could feel the blood draining from her face. Her heart dropped, and a rush of emotions started piling up inside. She was angry and humiliated at the same time. “I could’ve taken care of myself,” Elena promised.
“I know that now,” Daniel admitted.
“Then why…why did you do it? You could have just warned me.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me.”
“But you thought it was okay to send me across the world?” she accused.
“I’m sorry about what happened. But in all fairness, a couple of months in Kuwait must have been a vacation compared to four years in North Dakota.”
She looked up at him, and panic crossed her eyes. She didn’t know her plan to send him to Minot Air Force Base had worked. She thought he would have realized she changed his request and he would have updated his record again.
But instead he smiled, and his eyes held no resentment or anger. “I knew you were the one who updated my dream sheet. I figured I deserved it. But Elena, I would have never spoken to the commander if I had known your father was sick. I just…I just had to make sure he didn’t get to you…that he didn’t hurt you.”
Elena looked at Daniel searching his eyes for the truth. “Why did you even care?”
Daniel grabbed Elena’s hand and pulled her close to him, continuing the dance. “Because you didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Elena started to feel lightheaded. The pressure of his strong lean body against hers made her breathless. Their bodies moved as one. Elena tried to focus on Daniel’s words and not his body. “But I deserved the way you treated me?” she countered. Why did he find it hard for someone else to take advantage of her but his behavior toward her was always excused?
“No,” he replied passionately. “But it was the only way I knew how to keep away from you,” Daniel confessed.
The song ended before Elena could ask him what he meant.
“Thanks for the dance.” He let go of her hand and walked away leaving her standing there alone in the middle of the dance floor.
Elena stood there dumbfounded and breathless. She looked back at him. He had found Bridget and was pulling Lucio aside. Even from a distance, Elena could recognize the harshness of his face as he talked to Lucio. For once, Elena was grateful for his arrogant traits.
Chapter 14
On his drive back home, all he could think about was Elena. How her body had felt against him when they danced and how her hips had swayed against his to the sound of the music. When he first saw her in that damn sexy dress of hers, it had taken his breath away. The way it hugged her waist and accentuated her generous hips made everyone else in the room disappear. Her scent was intoxicating, and all he wanted to do was put his hand through the curls of her hair and claim her as his. She had consumed his thoughts for years, and he had compared every woman he had met, and they hadn’t come close to her. He had tried to block her from his life and erase her from his memory, and now all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and kiss her until her lips were swollen. But he knew he was no good for her; he had too much baggage and problems with his own life that had been left unresolved. He knew he would never be able to bring her happiness because he didn’t know what true happiness meant.
He had had a troubled childhood, moving from one juvenile hall to another. He had fought his way through life so much, he felt like his hands and knuckles were sore from so much struggle He had never really had a family except for his high school football coach who was kind enough to welcome him into his home and share his family with him. He remembered moving his few possessions between foster homes in a black trash bag, courtesy of the Department of Children and Families. He had been with over ten families since the police had removed him from his father’s house when he was six years old. Remembering that dreadful night still made him sick to his stomach. It had been twenty-six years, and he could still remember the smell of alcohol reeking from his father breath. His dad had gotten wasted that night and was blaming Daniel for his mother leaving them. That night had been the worst; his father had grabbed the belt and beat him until he was almost unconscious. Later he had found out the neighbors had heard Daniel’s cries for his father to stop and they had called the cops. He didn’t know whether to thank them or hate them for it.
Growing up, he wished he had died that night. Going from foster home to foster home and not feeling like he belonged anywhere or was wanted by anyone made him feel like he was the criminal made to pay for the mistakes his father had made. Some families had been kind to him, and as soon as he started feeling like he was becoming part of the family, he would have to move to another foster home. Coach Kelly Grant had been his guardian angel. Daniel had just been released from his third stint at juvenile hall and was dangerously close to going to prison if he kept on the same path. Coach Kelly had seen all the anger inside Daniel and had convinced him to let it out at football. Daniel became close to him and looked forward to football practice every day. Coach Kelly became someone safe and reliable for him, and football was the only thing that had any semblance of normalcy in his life.
>
When Daniel’s social worker had told him he needed to move again, he considered running away. He was done moving into strangers’ homes and being treated like he was a criminal on parole. The drive to his new home had been one with hate and disdain for the social service system. When his social worker parked in front of his new temporary home, he looked out the window and saw Coach Kelly standing there with his wife and daughter holding a sign up saying “Welcome Home, Daniel.” Daniel remembered breaking down crying like a six-year-old again at the sight of them. Till that moment, he never knew how badly he wanted to belong somewhere, how badly he wanted to be wanted by someone. He remembered getting out of the car and Coach Kelly giving him a big hug and saying, “Welcome home, son.”
With them, he found what it meant to be part of a family and what an honor it was to have someone call you a big brother. Thanks to his coach, who later became his adopted father when Daniel turned eighteen, he was able to join the Air Force Academy on a football scholarship. The Air Force had shown him a different life and established in him the discipline he needed to become a man, but no matter how much he tried to put his old life behind, memories of the past still haunted him at night. Why had his mother left him? How could his father treat his son that way? As much as he had despised his father, he never had in his heart to remove him completely from his life. The first time he had taken leave after joining the military, he had found his father and had demanded answers from him—answers he knew he couldn’t give. Shortly after, his father had died of liver failure and never whispered any regret for abusing his only child. The only thing he was able to leave him with was a phone number where Daniel might be able to find his mother. He called the number his father gave him in a vain attempt to find the woman who had been his mother. But as luck would have it, the number was no longer valid, and the line had been disconnected. That had been over fifteen years ago.
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