go home. You don’t even need to dance with him.
They bumped hands as they walked side by side on the way to the Golden Cattle Club, and Carly pulled hers away, stuffing it into her front pocket. Just one drink , she repeated, like a mantra, in time to the throb that had started pulsing deep in her pussy. Glancing to the side, she noted that he’d shoved his hand into his pocket as well.
Sitting down at the bar, Carly ordered a gin and tonic.
“You like to keep it simple, I see,” Jared said, flashing a smile that made her pussy feel even hotter.
“Yes, both in my drink choices and in the rest of my life. It seems to reduce my stress levels.”
“Imagine that. So, do you want to dance while we wait for the bartender to bring us our drinks? I mean, I know you’re probably exhausted after a long day of work, but I wouldn’t mind another spin around the floor with you.”
Carly hesitated for a moment. She heard Jake’s pleading from a few days before echoing in her ear. But she could also hear the insistent demands of her heart’s desire, and as Jared extended his hand, she couldn’t resist reaching her own out and allowing him to escort her onto the dance floor. As she settled into his arms and looked into his eyes, her body started to hum with electricity. When Jared took the first step of the dance, she felt the last of her resolve start to crumble away. She’d spent all week ignoring him so she wouldn’t have to dance with him and wouldn’t have to lust after him, but now the foundations of her strength were collapsing.
They twirled and wove around the other couples still struggling with basic patterns, and Carly was so lost in Jared’s eyes and touch that she didn’t notice them beginning to clear the floor to watch. As Jared led more and more complicated patterns, Carly began to have visions of the future. Not just the two of them in bed or in the shower, but also in the grand ballroom at the national championships, or gliding across the floor at the European championships to thunderous applause. She saw so many avenues to happiness. She saw a chance at love, and a chance at competition.
As the song ended, Jared spun Carly out into a bow, and the entire room burst into applause. Carly looked up, startled, to see all of the bar patrons cheering at the unexpected professional exhibition. She blushed, took a second bow, and then hurried away to the bar, where her drink was waiting. Picking up the glass, she knocked back half the cocktail at once, looking to steady the nerves that were reeling from the dance floor revelation.
“Dancing makes you thirsty, doesn’t it?” Jared whispered into her ear.
“You could say that, yeah.”
“Did the drink take care of that?”
“I’m not thirsty anymore. But you could say there’s something I’m hungry for.”
A hand clapped over her shoulder, and Carly jumped. Turning around, she saw Heath standing behind her, a smirk on his face.
“I thought you didn’t social dance,” he said. “Especially not at bars, with the common people like me who don’t know how to lead.”
“That wasn’t a social dance. That was an exhibition.”
“It looked awfully spontaneous to me.”
“Exhibitions can be spontaneous. Nothing wrong with a little unplanned dancing.”
“So I guess asking you to dance would be a waste of my breath.”
Carly felt guilty, but she didn’t want to have to deal with the hassle of mixing work and play.
“I’m sorry, but Jared and I were in the middle of something.”
“Go,” Jared said, giving her a playful shove and a wink. “We can finish our discussion after this song.”
Carly put a fake smile on her face as Heath took her in his arms. But after just a few bars of the music, her facial expression became more genuine. “You’ve been practicing.”
Heath beamed. “Every night. I wanted to prove to you that I could learn such difficult choreography and become a better dancer. I know you probably think I’m some