Page 79 of Strictly the Worst

The band is playing an upbeat number. The female singer is telling us she’s never gonna stop fighting. People are dancing around us, and Linc is still holding my arms.

I lean back against him, and for a moment he tenses.

Then he slides his arms around my waist.

“This okay?” he shouts in my ear.

“Yeah. Just move if Zoe looks.” But she won’t. She and her friends are dancing like crazy, screaming along with the words. Linc places his flat palm against my stomach, pulling me closer.

Every part of me clenches.

My nipples are hard against the bustier. My skin is heated. He dips his head and presses his nose against my throat, as though he’s breathing me in.

“Fuck I’ve really missed you.” He brushes his lips against my neck and I start to feel unsteady.

“Linc.”

“I know. I’m keeping it PG.”

He starts moving me to the rhythm of the music, his hands still on me. Each song fades into the next, and all I can think about is the way he makes me feel.

Like I’m alive again. Like I’m special. And maybe I like the drama a little. Isn’t it a part of life, along with the tears and laughter? I feel like I’m at a crossroads, having to choose between the dull, straight road ahead of me, and the twisty one that winds into a forest and gets lost in the hills. I can’t see where it ends up but it looks so much more enticing.

I want that. I want him.

He lets me go when the band comes to the end of their set and there’s a little break as the crew sets up for the Linebackers. Zoe runs over to me. “Mom, I need the bathroom.”

I look over at her friends and then back at Zoe. “We all go together,” I remind her. “I can’t leave your friends unsupervised and only take you. Go get them.”

“But we need to save our spot,” Zoe says. “For the Linebackers.”

“I’ll go save your spot.”

Zoe looks up, surprised at the sound of Linc’s deep voice.

“Zoe, you remember Linc,” I say. “He organized all this.”

“Oh my God, Mom said you weren’t coming.” She throws her arms around him. “Thank you, thank you.”

He holds his arms out to the side like he’s being patted down at an airport, and I smile at him, because Linc is never taken by surprise like this. Then he listens intently as she babbles on about how this is the best night of her life.

“Zo, go get your friends,” I remind her. Because the crew looks like they’re almost done setting up.

There’s no line for the VIP bathroom, so we’re back in the auditorium before they dim the lights for the main act. Linc has patiently saved the girls’ spot. He’s also sweet talked the people around them to make sure they take care of the girls.

He’s pretty much a celebrity as far as the front row is concerned.

And when he comes back to me, the lights dim. His hand touches the curve of my spine and electricity sizzles between us.

I’ve no idea what’s happening here, if I’m honest. But I want to enjoy the moment. Because I really am happy he turned up.

The band appears on stage and the screams are deafening. Even Linc frowns.

“I got told today that not every woman would take her panties off for me,” Ryker says into the mic, and all the women start screaming again. His eyes scan the VIP area and I shrink back into Linc, hoping he can’t see me.

Shit.

“So this one is for Tessa. Apparently the only woman in the world who prefers Victoria’s Secret to Ryker Wakefield.”

---