Page 22 of Beneath the Sapphire Sky

He sucked in a desperate breath. He had no hope now of hiding his reaction.

“Dan?”

“What?”

“Is that… Um…” She twisted her hips and rubbed against him again.

He bit off a curse. “Of course it is. What do you expect when you’re plastered all over me? I’m not made of stone. You rub against me like this and things are gonna react.”

“Oh.”

Her response was quiet, but somehow he still heard it even with the music blasting. How could he reassure her that he wasn’t being a creeper himself?

“Don’t stress about it. It’s a small price to pay to keep you from being groped.”

Belle breathed deeply, her breasts pushing into his chest. “But… I want to be groped.”

Dante pulled back, shocked.

Belle frowned and swatted his chest. “Not by him, you goose. I’m not trying to make him jealous. Just because I don’t want to be manhandled by some jerk doesn’t mean I don’t want to be hit on or touched at all.”

Dante blinked a few times, not quite sure what to say.

“Then… who?” he managed.

If she had her eye on someone here tonight, he’d about combust in a fiery ball of anger.

And jealousy. Let’s not forget that.

She let out an exasperated sigh and shrugged a shoulder, not looking him in the eye. She doodled a finger across his chest, right over his heart. “I want to have sex tonight.”

Dante stopped moving altogether.Say what?They stood there at the edge of the dance floor, people moving all around them, ignoring them in the dim light.

“I want it to be with someone I trust.” She finally looked at him. “Someone like you.”

He couldn’t breathe. Literally.

He managed a gasping breath. “Me?”

She bit her lip and nodded, then straightened her shoulders as if steeling herself for rejection.

Like hell.

“Yes, you. Dan, will you spend the night with me?”

He grabbed her hand and hauled her off the dance floor, through the wide-open double doors that led to the rear moonlit bistro courtyard, then beyond the edge of the tiny party lanterns that swung in the light breeze. He spun her to face him.

“Are you serious? I mean, are youreallyasking me to have sex with you?”

Belle crossed her arms tight. “Of course I’m serious! Do you think I’d say something like that just for kicks? I want to spend the night in bed with you—how much clearer can I be? I just want to have a good time, you know? Nothing serious. Just fun.”

In bed. With Belle.

All night.

She mistook his silence for reluctance.

“You seemed into it before, so I mustn’t turn you off completely. I know you haven’t had a girlfriend in forever, so surely an offer of sex is a good thing? And I need the practice.”

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