Page 33 of Hired Help

“Didn’t you say something about dancing?” I ask him, nodding as the DJ sets up and tests the mic. “You want to take these two gorgeous girls for a whirl?”

“Two of you?” He leans across and takes my hand. “How about I start with one and we work from there?”

“Deal.” I scramble to my feet as he’s trying to shift my chair out for me and I spill against him, palm flat on his chest to catch myself. His steadying arms go around me and the usual spark of heat flares between us.

I didn’t consider how I’d feel spending the evening here with him. All that went through my head at the time I asked was how Harrison would react to seeing him with me.

The confidence he exudes as he leads me onto the dance floor is enough to make me salivate. One arm slides around my waist, guiding and supporting me. The other hand rests on my shoulder, then, while my feet try to remember how dancing works, he takes my hand and clinches it against his chest.

“Are you okay?” he whispers as I trip on the flat ground. “You seem nervous. We could go outside and grab some air.”

“No, you’re good. I’m just…” The words dry in my mouth as I stare up at him, noticing the similarities with Harrison anew, perhaps because of the night.

It’s there around his cheekbones, the shape of his eyes, but his son’s good looks are subtler, they creep in step by step rather than slamming into me at full speed.

Our other meetings have been so concentrated on sex; I haven’t taken the time to appreciate him as the excellent companion he is. Sure, we’ve talked, we’ve joked, we’ve bantered until it felt like we were in a competition, but we haven’t justbeentogether, not like this, in front of other people.

I feel a thousand times more awkward than I did in the hotel room on our first day.

“Oh, this is a good one,” he says as the music changes to a song with a thumping tempo. “We play this one at the club a lot. It’s a fan favourite.”

“Sure,” I tease him. “You talk a good game but if this is the best you can do, it’s not convincing anyone.”

“You want to watch my whole routine, do you?” He swings me around, picking up the pace. “Because I have to warn you, that can’t happen with this non-Velcro-seamed outfit you made me wear.”

“Made you.” I roll my eyes. “Please. You sound like I dragged you to the store and told you it was this or going buck naked.”

There’s a pause in the music as I say that last, my voice the only sound echoing across the floor.

Daegan dips down to whisper in my ear, “You have the most spectacular timing.”

“When’s the nudity happening?” Floss calls out, obviously having wrangled another alcoholic drink. “Do you need encouragement?”

“I need a chair.”

“What?” I stare at him in shock. “You’re not serious!”

“Not unless you want me to be.”

My skin buzzes. Most everyone in the room already knows what Harrison said. Those who didn’t witness it firsthand caught up on the video that remains floating around the school even if it’s long disappeared from the notice board.

All I want is for me to go back to my old status quo. I want to blend into the normalcy of the middle ground. Rich but not richest. Pretty but not prettiest. Smart but still squarely in the middle of the pack.

I’m sick of hearing whispers follow me along the school corridors. Sick of walking into rooms only for voices to cut-off mid-stream, for people to stare beneath lowered lashes.

I’m sick of being a laughingstock.

Since Harrison’s declaration no longer allows me to fade into the background, then my time in the foreground needs to be spectacular.

“Okay,” I say, reading his face carefully to make sure this isn’t a windup or a joke. Wanting these moments to last forever because the moment Harrison shows, our bond will be completely broken. “I’ll grab a chair and you can show me what you’ve got.”

CHAPTERTEN

HARRISON

The noisefrom the venue pumps out a rhythm that vibrates through my arse. I sit on the top step of the side exit doors, looking like a pre-emptive fire drill escapee. My ticket is still in my pocket. For every metre of the trip here I was sure I’d go straight inside but the moment I saw the crowds and heard the noise, that determination abandoned me.

Brooke will be in there, flaunting whatever date she found. I know because Jackson sold her two tickets a month ago, then ran to tell me, ‘So I didn’t hear from another source.’

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