Thick Love

“No. I twisted my knee at practice.” I knew Lea

“You’re barely limping and we’ll discuss Aly taking the job.” The small pat she brushed against my arm didn’t relax me, at all. “But for now, sit.”

“Lea

“You make time, Ransom.” She stepped in front of me holding my arms so I wouldn’t just walk out of the room. “You promised to help me with the recital.”

“So?”

“So, Aly and I are thinking of adding a Kizomba number in the schedule.” She shrugged like that explanation was reason enough for me not to leave. “We need a male body and you know the basic steps. At least, you know the concept.” She pointed to the floor, nodding her head like she expected me to sit down.

“Did you not hear the part where I said ‘no’?”

Lea

Ouch. Giving me back my own insult stung a little more than it should have and I deflated, ignoring my cousin when that stupid grin made another appearance. Told you. I can’t take disappointing women. I was such a punk.

“Sit down,” Lea

Aly’s face was unreadable, but I caught the tension in her eyes when she glanced at me before Lea

Then, they came together, Lea

For some reason I didn’t understand or even fully realize, I got lost in the music, that hypnotic sway of limbs and feet and the near erotic push of Aly’s hips constantly gyrating in a twist that shouldn’t be technically possible. This was a dance that called for co

Thin lines, thick lines, they sometimes got blurred and Lea

Doubt though, was stronger than my anger or passion and that’s what bumped in my mind when Lea

“You need to lead, Ransom, that’s important and you and Aly need to be perfectly in synch. It’s a little bit of semba and a lot of seduction. All in the hips.” Lea

“Ransom, get closer. Aly, show him.”

And just like that, I felt the warmth of Aly’s center on my thigh and the push of her hips, that slow, slow movement of her grazing my dick. “What the fu…”

“Take it easy, I’m not flirting.” She looked up at me, eyebrow cocked in a challenge. I noticed that shy, awkward way Aly had been around me in Lea

“I can lead.”

“Wa

I took the challenge from her eagerly, wanted to push that smug expression off her face, wanted, for some reason I couldn’t explain to myself, for her to know I could lead. I’d fucking lead and she’d follow willingly.

Aly moved her hips, a slow, minuscule grind brushing against me, and then a subtle moving away, a seduction, a sensual game between woman and man. It was a sway I was supposed to follow, something that went deep and as I watched her, felt the tightness of her grip in my hand and the shake of her hips, the music came into me, that drumbeat thumping into my ears, demanding I follow. So, I did, not realizing that my temper had calmed until I felt the rhythm of my heart slowing.

“Step on the one,” Aly said, nodding when I caught on. Still, she wouldn’t smile, as though she was only business, and when I turned, using my arms, the balls of my feet to guide her, I spotted how tightly she squeezed her eyes shut in the mirror behind us.

“Closer,” I heard Lea

Lea

Blinking, I told myself it was the music, the press of a firm body, the cooling of the anger that had stirred my blood. I didn’t want Aly, no matter how soft she felt or how easily she fit against me. Then Lea

In my head I counted…one, two and three, two, two and three and let that be all that my mind could hold.

“And the saida, Aly, show him.”

And she did, a full five step movement, me walking back, her following again, all the while her hips moved like an invitation, a sweet call that my body heard. But I couldn’t be into this, not this woman, she wasn’t my type. She was defensive, cold. She never, ever smiled, not at me, I hadn’t seen that once. She had always been so rigid— from the way she walked and the distant attitude to the severe bun at the back of her head.

But this Aly moved against me like a wave on the sand, bending into my hips, a brush of our bodies touching, working together like they were made to be and I couldn’t help but give in to the sensations that surrounded me. The music beating heavy, lulling like a drug, the tight press of her sinuous body, how easily she followed my movements, the smell of her hair, the warm moisture of her breath moving my collar. It was too much—so sudden, so unexpected and I blinked, realizing that the dancer from Summerland’s wasn’t the only who could get my body to pay attention. How was this happening…again? Grunting, I moved my hips away, then jerked my gaze to Aly’s face when her soft gasp registered that she, too, had noticed my body’s reaction.