“Yeah.”
“You like her?”
Cooper shrugged trying to be nonchalant, but his eyes sparkled. “She’s awesome. We’ve been together for a year.”
“Then you already know everything you need to know about how to be with a woman and it’s not about pashing in corridors. Well sometimes it is, but I think you’re smart enough to know what I mean.”
Cooper nodded. And then Ferdy walked in.
Dan said, “Ferdy,” and there was acid in his voice.
Ferdy said, “Cooper,” ignoring Dan altogether and went to his locker.
Dan stood, both fists balled. He should leave it alone, leave it to Scott and Alex to deliver the kind of defeat Ferdy deserved like Mitch said. He looked down at Cooper, looking expectantly back at him. He should teach the kid how to turn the other cheek. He shook out his hands, moved towards the showers, but Ferdy blocked his way.
“You think you’re winning out there, don’t you, Dan?” Ferdy’s voice prickled with disdain.
“I think I’m doing the best I can to hold the place for Scott. That’s all. It’s got nothing to do with you.”
“You’re a rank amateur and you crash this competition expecting to be treated seriously. It’s got everything to do with me. I trained to be here. I deserve to be here.”
“You deserve to pay for what you did to Alex.” Dan paused, waited to hear a denial and got a sneer instead. “What you did hurt her and I’d like to be having this conversation somewhere private where I can show you just what I think of you.”
Cooper piped up. “Don’t mind me.”
Ferdy planted his feet, readying himself. “I don’t see how the venue is stopping you expressing yourself?”
Dan just laughed.
“Nice try, Ferdy. I’m pretty sure there’s a rule somewhere that’d have me knocked out of the competition if I hit you. I’m pretty sure you’d have me up on assault charges before the blood dried. But let me set you straight on what’s going to happen. You and I are going to be perfectly civil to one another. You’re going to stay away from Alex. And if I find out you’ve done anything to upset her and I mean anything, anytime, it won’t be assault I’ll be charged with and I’m perfectly comfortable with that.”
Dan stepped past Ferdy into the shower room. He knew he’d scored a knock out though not a single punch had been thrown.
47. Delayed
Alex was starving and the seafood restaurant Mitch dragged them to was the perfect antidote for her grumbling tum. Mitch even insisted Gran come along and the boys would pick up the tab. No patch on how Alex spent competition nights when Phil was around. This was a proper celebration with friends who cared and the excitement of sequin by spotlight descriptions of the main events.
Fluke’s impersonation of Barry Barton had them all screaming with laughter and there wasn’t a person at the table, with the exception of Fluke himself who didn’t see, from the flutter of her eyes and the angling of her body, how captivated Carlie was.
“You have to tell him,” Alex whispered to Dan and his lazy non-committal, “Hmm,” close to her ear sent a shiver down her spine. Sitting in the circle of his arm, she was sated from food and the sense of his closeness. He’d surprised her so much tonight.
He was laughing now at something Scott said. She could feel the rumble of his breath in his chest against her side and it made her wish they were alone where she could feel more of him beneath her hands, where she could have his kisses and the thrill of his touch and show him how he made her feel.
All day her desire for him had been checked. She’d almost forgotten herself at the beach after watching him walk on water, then tasting the salt on his skin. Back at her place, while Gran made last minute adjustments to his costume and did his hair, only the feeling he might agree stopped her dragging him into her bedroom to make costume adjustments of her own, the type that would have him wearing a lot less.
He’d left her breathless in the corridor at the arena and, much as watching the video had been humiliating, it was also stimulating to see her own reaction to him played back. She wanted to watch it again – privately, to see if the expression on her own face as he’d kissed his way down her body was as wildly abandoned as she’d first thought. She was lost in her memory of that captured moment and almost missed what he said.
“Let’s go dancing?”
“What?”
“I want to dance with you.”
She elbowed him. “I thought you didn’t dance.”
“I didn’t used to do a lot of things before I met you. I want to dance with you at the club, then I want to take you home and dance with you again,” he tightened his grip on her and brought his lips close to her ear, “without an audience, skin-to-skin.”
She felt icy flutters up her neck. “Let’s skip to your second request.”
He put his hand against her cheek and turned her to face him, whispered against her lips Mitch’s line from earlier that day, “Now where would the fun in that be?”
“I think you could make it fun.” Alex’s breath came in caught snatches as Dan traced a finger over her knee, under the hem of her dress and up her thigh, making her twitch and stop the progress of his hand before anyone else at the table caught on.
“I’m sure I could, but I want to show you off first. I think they call it delayed gratification.”
“You’re serious?”
“Deadly.”
“You’ve been doing this to me all day.”
He sat back in his chair and grinned at her, a cocksure smirk that could’ve started a craze.
She gasped, “You rotten sod.” She poked him. “I’ll make you pay for that.”
He caught her hand, “God, I hope so,” and the ground coffee bean grumble of his voice spiked her desire.
Trevor drove Gwen home and Scott begged off with a waggle of his boot, but the rest of them kicked on to Son of a Beach Bar. It was hot and loud, dark and alive, with the scent of singles out on the prowl.
She barely noticed what song was playing: it was just a throbbing beat to move to. She was hardly conscious of the people around them: they were just an atmospheric reminder she wasn’t alone with Dan. Just as well, or she might not have been able to stop her body reacting to his in a way that was inappropriate for a public place for the third time that day.
He found them a spot in the darkest corner. He used his hands to touch her, move her, make her flesh hungry for him. He made her roll her hips, press against him, wind her arms around him. He used his lips to caress hers, light wisps of kisses, deep sustained wet ones, sharp nips, and lashes of tongue. They didn’t so much dance as make out. They didn’t so much make out as sear a promise into each other’s bodies. This foreplay was destined for an explosive aftermath.
Dan knew half a dozen places close by he could take Alex to stop the torment, to finish this, and he knew she’d come with him. He could feel her shake with need, could see it burn in her eyes, could hear it in her uneven breath, and he was tempted, his own skin crawling with the want to feel her without the layers of clothing between them. But this was Alex, not some chick he’d just met and got carried away with. This was Alex, and she deserved better than a hurried coupling in a close toilet cubicle, a dark hallway, or a back alley.
“If we don’t stop this, I’m going to do something we might both regret before we get home,” he growled in her ear, his hand tangled in her hair which was loose from its binding.
“I don’t care,” she gasped. “I don’t want to wait.”
He groaned, “You can’t say that.” He set her away from him, breathing heavily as though he was being chased. This scared him, not the near constant desire he felt for her, that was insane magic, but the way he wanted to protect her from his worst instincts at the same time.
He pulled her back into his arms again and growled in her ear, “This is just the delay, the gratification comes later,” and felt her shiver under his hands.
He found them a table, brought wa
ter, a lite beer for himself, a wine spritzer for Alex. As he sat, she leaned into him. “You’re masterful at this delay business. I assume you’ve had lots of practice.”
“Hah. No.” Delay was an entirely foreign concept. It might as well have been the priesthood. “I usually take what I want, whenever I want it.”
She looked confused, on the edge of hurt. He grabbed her chin, held her face close to his, took her swollen bottom lip in his teeth, and pulled playfully. “I won’t do it to you. You deserve better.”
“Do what?”
“Take you up against a rough wall in a dirty back alley where anyone could see.”
Alex’s cheeks hollowed. “Oh!”
“This delaying thing, it’s all new. It’s all because of you.”
“But that’s not what you want is it?”
He hesitated. What he wanted was Alex and no one he’d bailed up against a wall had ever touched the sides of his life like she had. He couldn’t deny it was a test of will just sitting here with her, but he knew if he didn’t cool down he’d be lucky to get her as far as the back seat of the Valiant.
“I don’t want to spoil things with you. You’re different, Alex. I could ruin things so easily. I’m trying to be better.”
“But what if I want the dirty back alley?”
He grunted, close to her ear, inside the bass thump of the music. “You don’t.”
“Dan, what if I want it?”
“You don’t. It’s degrading.”
“Not if you...” She stopped, her eyes went down to her lap and she frowned.
“Not if you what?”
“Not if you love the person.”
The air around them vibrated with a throbbing beat. It was hypnotising, a primal pulse to distract the mind and overwhelm the senses. He’d heard her perfectly clearly, but he was hard hit by disbelief. He had to hear it again. “What did you say?”
“I said it’s so not ok to ignore me, Dan.”
He whipped his head up. Katie. In a sexy black dress, hands on hips, mouth quirked, half smile, half mock annoyance.
“And what did you do to my brother? He’s out there dancing with a girl and she likes him! Does he know it?”
“God, your timing.”
Dan ran a hand through his damp hair. He turned to Alex. “This is Katie, Fluke’s baby sister.” He flicked his eyes to Katie, “This is Alex,” he paused, felt Alex shift in anticipation of how he’d finish the sentence – teacher, partner, lover? “My girlfriend.” As soon as the G word was out of his mouth, Alex’s hand came down on his knee making him think about rough bricks and threats of discovery.
Katie shoved against his shoulder. “Girlfriend! You? Getoutahere!”
“No, you getoutahere.” Dan pulled Alex’s hand into his lap. “We were having a moment.”
“Why do you think I interrupted, huh?”
“Typical. Pain in the neck.”
“So, Alex, is that really your name? Have you known Dan long?” Katie said. She had a great hulking smug look on her face, like she’d discovered the secret formula for winding him up.
“Katie.”
“Oh what! Can’t you take a joke anymore?
“I could if it was funny.”
“You with a girlfriend – that is funny. Funny peculiar.”
Alex laughed. “You’ve known each other a long time haven’t you?”
“Yes,” they said in childlike chorus, his voice low with irritation, Katie’s high with indignation.
Katie shoved him again. “Just tell me about Fluke and I’ll go.”
She was a bucket of blue cold water dumped on a hot, raw moment. He just wanted her gone. “Nothing to tell.”
“Yeah right! Get over yourself and tell me what’s going on,” she scolded, making Alex say, “Katie sounds like Scott.”
Like Scott, Dan rolled his eyes. “Carlie is in our dance class. We reckon she likes Fluke, but we don’t think he gets it.”
“You have to tell him!” Katie shouted with the urgency of it, but Dan drawled a Mitch inspired line he’d already used tonight, his humour restored by Katie’s wild reaction. “Now where would the fun in that be?”
Fluke arrived unaccompanied at their table in a gasping, sweaty mess seconds after Katie had ruffled Dan’s hair insistently and disappeared. “Was that my sister?”
“Where’s Carlie?” Dan gritted his teeth at this new interruption from the same family.
Fluke gulped water from Dan’s glass and flicked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the dance floor.
“Fluke, you don’t just leave a girl out there on her own.”
“She’s with Bel and Mitch.”
“Fluke.”
“What? I’m hot. I needed a drink.”
“Maybe she needs one too?”
“Oh!” Fluke looked bewildered. He looked at Alex who smiled and nodded. He shifted his eyes back to Dan, got a ‘get with the program’ look and went, “Oh!” as recognition dawned. “Me! I should get her a drink?”
Dan smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. “And we let you teach the nation’s kids.”
“Me,” said Fluke again, and his smile as he turned for the bar could have started a car it was so fuel injected.
Dan looked at Alex, “Now we’ve done it. And we’re getting out of here before anyone else decides to crash land on us. I can only take so much delay.”
Outside the quiet and the cooler night air hit them. They’d left the Valiant at the restaurant and walked the short distance to the bar. There were two ways they could walk back, by the street front past the main entrance of the club, or a short cut through an alleyway between two buildings.
Dan had a firm grip on Alex’s hand and kept his head down as he made for the street. He knew that alley well, the rough red bricks, the spent light bulb that was never changed, the delivery door of a florist shop that smelled of wet green things. He exercised a discipline he didn’t know he had by refusing to look towards it, but Alex saw it and dragged on his arm.
“Risky, not degrading.” She pushed her hand into his hair and kissed him hard on the mouth. He heard her. There’s no way the Alex he knew would go willingly with a man down a dodgy alleyway unless she was very much in control and secure with the situation. The look on her face was like a plunger full of lust in his veins and he held her chin to rain kisses over her lips and jaw, trailing up to her ear.
“No.” He heard his own voice raw and cut through with want. He tried to stop her argued, “Yes,” with his hand, drawing his thumb across her top lip as though to rub the request out.
She said the words, “I want,” and he had to bite down on his back teeth to hammer out the impulse to give in. He knew that alleyway. He’d often shared it with other couples frantic to pleasure each other. It’d never bothered him before, made things that much more interesting, but he wasn’t going to share Alex with anyone no matter how oblivious they might become.
He shook his head. “I want too, but not here.” He hustled her out to the street where there was laughter from the line of people waiting to go into the bar and clattering from the wait staff packing away the outdoor tables of the Thai restaurant next door.
She said, “The Valiant,” and it was a second shot of heat and want.
He pulled her past the restaurant, “Not the Valiant.”
“You’re not telling me you’ve never...” she was dragging on his hand, laughing and couldn’t finish the sentence.
“No, I’m not, but I want to get you home.” He stopped outside the front of a bank and drew her into his arms. “Chicks I had in alleyways and the back of the Valiant never came home with me. Not once. You’re different. Don’t you get it? You make me want to be different too.”
“Oh, Dan.” Alex dropped her head to his chest, resting her ear over his thudding heart. She had to get it. Making her understand was suddenly critical.
They were hit by a blast of music when the front door of Son of a Beach Bar opened. He wrapped his arms
around Alex and dipped her and she laughed up at him, surprised by the sudden movement. He righted her then twirled her away from him and they danced in front of the bank to the hook of Chitty Bang’s Ray Charles and when Dan glanced sideways, he saw them reflected in the bank’s window – a stunning beauty and a man who was once blind to his feeling, who couldn’t see the meaning of having a woman permanently in his life, the value of love, or the truth of himself.
The song shut off as suddenly as it first sounded and he hauled Alex close for another hug, this gorgeous woman who’d changed his life, opened his eyes, and given him a reason to be different.
“What are you looking at?” Alex followed his eyes to their reflection.
“Us,” he said. He recognised in the articulation of that one small word, a world of meaning. Not Jimmy. It was relief and elation. Not Jimmy.
48. Gratification
If the Valiant hadn’t been parked under a bright white street light, if the look Dan gave her when she leaned against its back door hadn’t been so conflicted, lustful and guilty at the same time, Alex would’ve insisted on making out in the back seat before they went home.
Dan yanked the front passenger door open. “Ten minutes. We’ll be at my place in ten minutes.” He caught her expression, shamelessly wanton. “Seven if I floor it.”
She took his hand and let him ease her down onto the seat and when she was sitting she brought it to her lips and bit his knuckle. She wanted him. Hard. Fast. Now.
“Ok, five.” It came out strangled, making them both laugh. He leaned in, eyes alight, “Are you trying to make me lose it?” He kissed her quickly before shutting the door and going around the nose of the car to the driver’s side.
When he got in, she reached across the seat and spread her hand over his thigh. “This is a reminder you promised me gratification.”
His eyes flared in the dash board light. “I did.”
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