Page 22 of Eye Candy

Neither one of us spoke, which was actually kind of nice. Nothing but the sounds of cars driving by on the street and other people on the sidewalk filled the air, people coming and going from the club. I couldn’t say how long we stood there, but God, it was nice. Lola’s description of him being a teddy bear had been spot-on… except she’d neglected to say how good his wide body could feel when it surrounded yours.

His warmth. His strength. Every ounce of raw masculinity radiating from him at any given moment, and still, he could be so gentle. I found it surprising, but in the best way. A part ofme never wanted to move from this spot, never wanted to tear myself away from him. If we could remain there, forever, I think I would. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about the world and anyone else in it.

But we couldn’t stay that way forever, so when I felt strong enough to pull away from him—when I knew I wouldn’t cry or make a fool of myself—I did just that, letting out an awkward sigh as I opened my eyes and glanced up at him.

“Sorry about that.” A small, weak laugh left me. “Time to get back in the club, I guess.” I couldn’t let the mere sight of Kelly dancing with Kieran get to me. The emotions the sight had unlocked within me were once again buried deep, where I didn’t have to face them.

Healthy, right? But it was the only way I’d be able to keep going.

Mike said nothing to me, but he did continue to watch me, like he knew, deep down, I wasn’t fine.

Holding my head high, I marched around him. He followed after me, and together, we went back into the club. This time, thankfully, Kelly wasn’t dancing with Kieran front and center on the dance floor. Kelly was nowhere to be found, while Kieran spotted us walking into the club. We joined him near the bar.

“What the hell? You guys were outside?” He didn’t sound too happy.

“Yeah, well, you’d know we stepped out for some air if you weren’t too busy dancing with Kelly,” I shot back, letting him know I’d seen it and wasn’t too happy about it. “Mike’s actually a really good listener.” Granted, I didn’t talk much, but I mainly said that to try to get a rise out of Kieran.

He shot Mike a glare. “Is he?” His jaw ground, and then his gaze was back on me, the fury in its black depths losing its power the longer it remained on me. “Look, she came in when you two were up there.” He pointed to where Lola and her guys were. “She didn’t really give me a choice in the matter.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to believe him.

Kieran took a step closer to me, a mere six inches between us as he told me, “Trust me, Laina, if I had the choice of who to dance with, I’d choose you, every damn time.” He stepped away, nodding once. “And you can take that to the bank.”

Even though I still wasn’t too happy with him, I smiled. “Take what to the bank? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sure, it does. Just ask him.” Kieran gestured to Mike, who in turn, said not a single word. “See? Lots of sense, even he agrees.”

I was seconds from telling him it made absolutely no sense when I felt a tap on my back. Turning around, I saw Kelly standing there, rolling her eyes and complaining, “The line in the bathroom is fucking ridiculous.” She grinned at me. “Thought you’d never get here. I had to entertain myself with Kieran for a while—by the way, the dude’s shit at dancing.” She spotted the gloves on my hands but chose not to address them.

Kieran lifted a finger in the air, as if he was answering a question a teacher had asked. “Offended,” he said. “I’m offended. Carry on.”

Kelly took my hand, my right hand, and led me to the dance floor, where she taught me how to move with the beat. School dances were one thing, but clubs were a whole different story. There were no chaperones, no supervisors there to tell you to dance further apart. Here, if you weren’t feeling a guy’s dickgetting harder by the second, you weren’t dancing close enough.

Or so Kelly told me.

It was impossible to hold a conversation while you danced. The music was simply too loud. It pounded so hard and so loudly I felt the beat echo in my bones. Eventually guys we didn’t know slipped behind us, setting their hands on our waists and grinding their midsections against our asses. Kelly got into it, even though it was a stranger behind her, dipping low much like I’d seen her doing to Kieran before.

Me? I… I wasn’t as happy to have a stranger behind me. I wasn’t too thrilled when I felt his dick growing hard against my ass, but I didn’t quite understand why until I happened to flick my eyes to Kieran and Mike standing fifteen feet away.

Kieran’s mouth had formed a frown, making it blatantly obvious he wasn’t happy watching me dance with a stranger. Mike, on the other hand, watched me with what I could only call concern.

And then it hit me, the reason why I wasn’t getting into it like Kelly. I didn’t want to dance with strangers.

Kelly played the field. She didn’t let herself get nailed down. She never had boyfriends, not even when we were younger. She only hooked up, no strings attached. The moment she nailed a guy, she was pretty much done with him. Rinse and repeat.

I never wanted that. I… if I had the choice between how Kelly went about it and, say, Lola, I’d definitely pick the latter. I didn’t want to dance with strangers because there was someone I’d much rather dance with.

Kieran.

And I only said Kieran because I doubted someone like Mike ever threw it down to the beat—although, not going to lie, I’d love to see him try.

But, regardless of me not having as much of a blast as Kelly, I didn’t say anything. I kept it all bundled inside. I laughed when Kelly laughed, smiled when she smiled, basically mimicking her actions all night. From the outside, it had to look like I was having fun, but on the inside, it was turmoil.

Hours passed. My feet started to ache from the heels, my calves hurting just as badly. Turned out, dancing in heels was tough to do, especially when you had no muscle tone at all and spent the last two years of your life stationary. I guess I was weaker than I should be at this point in my life.

Maybe Mike was right. Maybe I did need to put some weight on.

I had to call it a night before Kelly was done, and she followed me away from the dance floor as we abandoned our dance partners. The nameless guys didn’t seem to care; they immediately looked for someone else to grind on.

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