Page 65 of The Accidental Wife

“What’s going on?” I ask, confused and Shayla smiles back at me.

“Shh, just watch.” I frown, standing behind her, and music starts playing from a boombox, and a couple steps into the middle of the crowd. The music gets louder, and they start dancing the Bachata. I recognise the dance from the dance lessons my mother insisted I took when I was a kid. I look down at Shayla, who is watching them with a gorgeous smile on her face as she gently sways to the music singing along to the song.

I place my hands at her hips and pull her back to me while she rests her head back against my chest. We sway together to the music while we watch the couple dance beautifully together. I wrap my arms around her waist and press a kiss to her temple; her eyes close, and she tilts her head against my lips, smiling. It was such a simple gesture, except that something deep inside of me came apart. It felt like we were in our own little bubble; we stayed that way, just swaying together, everything around us fizzled away, leaving only us.

But of course, as our luck would have it, we couldn’t just have one fucking uninterrupted moment. No, Shayla is suddenly ripped from my arms. I hear her gasp, and by the time I open my eyes, ready to beat the life out of whoever it was that laid a finger on her, I see the male dancer had her in the center, and they were dancing.

Shayla looks over at me and shrugs as they dance together. I exhale slowly to suppress the annoyance I was feeling watching this man grinding up against her. It was no surprise that Shayla was a great dancer. I see her dancing in the kitchen or around our apartment. However, watching her swaying so sensually with this guy while they whisper to one another smiling, bothered me more than I would have liked to admit.

Thankfully, other couples joined in the dance, so I walk over to the guy dancing with Shayla and tap his shoulder. He looks back at me, and when I gesture to Shayla, he smiles in understanding and steps away. He winks at Shayla and blows her a kiss before he disappears. Shayla peers up at me, and I wrap my arm around her waist and drawing her against me. “I swear to god the next person to interrupt us will find themselves buried alive six feet under,” I whisper in her ear, and Shayla tilts her head back and laughs. I smile and tug her closer to me, she wraps her arms around my neck, and we dance the bachata together.

“I didn’t know you could dance the bachata,” Shayla says, surprised as I spin her and pull her back to me, and our hips sway together rhythmically.

I press my forehead to hers and smile, “What can I say? I’m just full of surprises.” I answer, using her own words on her, and she grins, shaking her head. “I dated a couple of Spanish girls back in the day, and they taught me,” I admit pressing my forehead to hers as we sway together, the thumb of my hand placed at the small of her waist, gently stroking her silky smooth skin. “How about you? Where did you learn to dance like this?”

Shayla smiles fondly, “My mother. She was a dancer before she got married to my father. She taught me when I was a little girl because I was always fascinated with the way she would dance and discovered I loved it too.”

“I’ve noticed. You’re a hell of a dancer yourself.” Shayla smiles, and much to my dismay, the song comes to an end the crowd disperses. Shayla pulls away, brushing her fingers through her hair, and looks up at me.

“So, we have one last thing we have to do, then we can go.” She says while I follow her navigating through the crowd. We walk over to another cart, and I groan. I’m honestly so full I can’t eat anymore.

“More food?” I ask her, and she smiles up at me as we queue up.

“This is dessert, and you won’t be sorry after you eat it, I promise.” I nod, and she steps up and tells the girl at the stand her order. She’s given a cup full of something I couldn’t even tell you what, drizzled with some sort of syrup. “Come on.” I follow her again, and we walk over to the banks overlooking the river. She sits down and pulls me down next to her, that excited smile lighting up her face beautifully.

“What on earth is that?” I question warily, and she looks at me blankly for a moment and shakes her head.

“Seriously? You’ve never had churros before?” She sputters, her green eyes wide and disbelieving. I shake my head in response, scratching my temple. She blinks at me and picks up a churro, and holds it up to my lips. “Prepare yourself to fall in love.” She purrs, looking into my eyes.

I look down at the churro between her fingers before I gaze into her eyes and take a bite. She watches me intently as I chew and lick my lips, eagerly waiting for my reaction. Mm, fucking sensational. “Wow,” I mumble and stop to swallow before I continue. “That’s incredible.”

Shayla grins, nodding enthusiastically before she takes a bite herself and chews, moaning delightfully. I continue to ogle her lips as she licks the caramel syrup off her bottom lip with a swipe of her tongue. Shayla feeds me more of the churros as we sit, and she tells me about the times she’s come here with her brother or the girls. I watch her with a smile while she talks, my fingers idly brushing through her glossy dark hair. I love her hair. I could play with it forever tirelessly. Actually, I could listen to her talking and never get bored. It’s impossible to be bored around her. I can’t think of a single moment since I’ve known her that I’ve been remotely uninterested.

I notice she has a little cinnamon sugar on her lip, and I’ve been dying to just lean in and suck it off. Shayla looks at me and blinks, probably noticing I’m staring at her lips like some perv. Biting my lip, I move my hand from her hair and brush it along her jaw toward her chin. “You’ve got some sugar on your lip,” I whisper while leaning in and suck it off her bottom lip gently. Shayla’s eyes close when I brush my lips over hers as I did earlier, only this time she parts her lips for me, and I kiss her slow and deep as I’ve been dying too, and my God, it felt good.

I hear her soft moan when our tongues touch, and it spurs me to deepen the kiss. We sat there kissing rather passionately until I feel her shivering in my arms from the chill of the wind by the water. We pull away, panting, ending the spine-tingling kiss. I press my forehead to hers and bite my lip.

“Shall we go back to the car?” I whisper to her, and she nods in response. I stand up and pull her up with me wrapping my arms around her to shield her from the cold. She nestles herself into my hold as we leisurely walk back to the car. There was barely anyone else around as it was quite late, and the stands were all cleaning down as they close for the night.

Shayla smiles, waves at Federico, and he waves back as we stroll past his cart. “Hey Muchacho, you take good care of my princess, okay?” He calls out to me, and I chuckle, nodding.

“Always Federico, I’ll be back again for the Shayla special real soon,” I call out, and he cackles with a nod.

“Anytime brother.” Shayla grins up at me as we walk toward the car.

I look down into her upturned face. “What?” I ask, smiling myself.

“He likes you.” She replies and closes her eyes when I press my lips to her forehead.

“He seems like a good man,” I say, unlocking the car, and Shayla nods in response and shivers again. “You’re freezing, sweetheart. I hope you don’t get sick.”

“I’m fine. You’re actually quite warm.” She sighs when I hug her tighter. I open the car door for her, and she gets in rubbing her arms to get warm. I rush around the driver's side so I can start the car and turn the heating on for her.

The air blows out cold, and I hear Shayla hiss when it hits her. “The air will be cold till the car warms up. Come here,” I say, holding my hand out to her, she takes it, and I pull her into my lap. Luckily, she’s quite small, and I’m tall enough that I have my seat all the way back, so we have a little room. I wrap my arms around her, and she curls up against me, still shivering. “You okay?” I ask, glancing down at her. She opens her eyes, looks up at me, and smiles warmly.

“Yeah,” She whispers back sweetly.

I brush my thumb along her jaw, my eyes on hers, I lean in and drop soft little pecks on her lips, and she sighs faintly. “Shall we go home, sweetheart?” I whisper when she finally stops shivering, and she’s not cold to the touch. Shayla nods, and I help her shift into the passenger seat again. She was quiet on the drive back home. I glance over and see she’s asleep. I reach over and take her hand in mine gently and drop a kiss on her palm before I place it on my thigh and rub her knuckles gently as I drive.

* * *

Once we got backto the apartment, I walk around the car and shake her awake. She opens her eyes and blinks up at me. “We’re home, babe.” She yawns as I help her out of the car. I notice her eyes drift shut as we walk to the building's entrance, so I stop and lift her into my arms. Shayla lays her head on my chest and moans as I carry her up to our apartment. I type in the code to our place, and the door clicks open. It’s times like these, I am thankful I chose the keyless entry system. I carry Shayla toward her bedroom and walk over to her bed, gently laying her down on it. I look down at her and brush her hair out of her face. She stirs and opens her eyes, smiling up at me drowsily. “Good night, Gorgeous girl,” I whisper and shift to pull away, but Shayla holds my wrist to stop me.

“Stay,” She whispers, peering up at me almost pleadingly. I nod and crawl up on the bed next to her. Gathering her into my arms, I press my lips to her forehead while she snuggles up against me. As I was lying there with her, it suddenly hit me that in less than eight weeks, she would walk out of my life, and that thought did not sit well with me. Not one little bit.

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