Page 14 of Deny Me

Puckering my lips, I blew him a kiss before standing and overly exaggerating the sway of my hips as I walked toward him. His eyes looked heavenward when I added a little shimmy right before I reached him. “Dance with me?”

“I don’t think I have much of choice,” he muttered dryly, grabbing my hand and swallowing it in his much larger one. He pulled me in and wrapped his hand around my waist, keeping me at a decent distance like we were at a middle school dance.

“Is this your first dance with a girl?”

“What?”

“Well, I mean, I figure it has to have been since you were younger and had to be able to fit a balloon between us.” Shaking his head, he didn’t rise to the taunt. “C’mon. Don’t be afraid to hold a woman tight,” I challenged, stepping into his space and making sure to brush my breasts up against him. They only reached his abs since he was over a foot taller than me. But I felt them tighten under his shirt when I pressed myself into him.

Biting my lip, I gave him an exaggerated flutter of my eyelashes. His fingers dug into my back as he pulled me in tighter, finally rising to the challenge. The song changed from Phil Collins to I Swear by All-4-One. We both faltered through our dance steps and he looked down at me like he was fighting a laugh similar to the one I was trying not to let loose. When we both realized we were trying not to laugh, we gave up and let loose.

“What’s so funny?” Lu asked from her position in Jack’s arms.

“Really, Luella? All-4-One is going to be your wedding song you listen to forever?” I asked, surprised by the choice. Jameson had stopped altogether and was hunched over, laughing into my shoulder. “Look. Jameson is crying over the disgrace of your choice.” His shoulders shook harder.

“What’s wrong with this song?”

“It’s the song you shared your first dance with back in middle school. Do you want that memory with your husband? And you come from a family of good music genes. Are you going to tarnish it with All-4-One?”

“Well, thank fuck. Someone agrees.” Jack muttered. “I tried to explain it to her, but she tried to claim it was nostalgic.”

Pursing my lips, I stared her down. She knew better.

“Ugh, Fine. You guys win. I Swear is out.”

We all stopped and cheered, clapping our hands. She changed to another song and we resumed our positions. One song bled into two and Jameson actually settled into relaxing against me. Not really talking. We’d started off asking questions about how our work was going, but eventually fell quiet.

At some point, I rested my head on his chest and he held me close. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine that it was real. That Jameson and I were just holding each other and dancing without the complications lingering from the storage closet and he wasn’t dating a girl that might throw our equilibrium out of balance.

Ingrid Michaelson’s cover of Can’t Help Falling In Love came on and I lost myself in the words and the feel of his large body wrapped around me. For one of the first times ever, I let the games go and lost myself in the peace I found in his strong arms. His hand even stroked up and down my back once in a while like he was getting lost in the moment. I barely noticed the song end when Missy Elliot’s Where They From came on, jarring us out of our bubble.

“Um, Lu?” A laugh bubbled out. “As much as I love this song, I’m not sure it’s first dance material.” I pulled back and turned to Lu who stared back with wide eyes.

“What? You don’t approve of this song?” she asked with all innocence. “This was our top pick.” She turned around in Jack’s arms and started shaking her ass on him. He always tried to contain himself in front of Jameson, but Lu never cared, and he just held her hips, laughing.

Deciding to take the chance to wash away the soft, mushy feelings I’d felt in Jameson’s arms, I joined in the fun and turned my back to him, giving a mischievous tilt of my lips as his only warning.

“No,” he warned, trying to back away. But I grabbed his hand, turning and pulling it to my waist. Gyrating my hips into the crotch of his jeans, I swayed back and forth to the beat, singing along to the words. Every time he pulled away I would turn around and hold him close to me, shaking my breasts against him. When I started acting out the lyrics in my dance, I even caught a smile gracing his lips.

Lu and I continued to belt the words out. She kept her dancing a little tamer, but I reached my hands to the floor and twerked my ass against Jameson, causing him to jerk back, but I rolled up, pulling him back before placing my hands on my knees and continuing to torture him.

I yelped when the song ended and I received a hard smack to the ass. Wide-eyed and smiling, I glanced over my shoulder to look at the sexy giant who’d just gave me a sexy slap. He pointed his finger at me. “You are rotten and deserve more than that.”

“Oh, Jameson. Yes, please, I would love it if you bent me over your knee and slapped my ass,” I moaned. He stared me down like he was considering doing just that, not willing to back down. Pushing it a little further, I reached for the button on my jeans and acted like I was going to undo them as I sauntered toward him. “Here. Let me take my pants off so you can get flesh on flesh. Thankfully I didn’t wear any panties today.”

That did it. He threw his hands up in the air and walked away, shaking his head.

“Oh c’mon,” I called after him. “Spoil sport.”

Lu and I walked back to the table and helped the guys pick up after our lunch. “Oh, hey! I just remembered I wanted to ask you about a date for your bachelorette party.”

“Um, I didn’t really think about it.”

“That’s why you have me. What about two weekends from now? Do you think you’ll be free?”

“Yeah. God, thank you so much. I’m not sure I would be making it as far as I am without your help.”

“Obviously, since you wanted Where They From as your first dance.” We both laughed and set the plates on the bar. “I’ll get it all planned out,” I assured her with a wink.

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