She was laughing now. “This is so fun, but isn’t your downstairs neighbor going to getirritated?”
Joaquin shook his head. “I’ve had a half dozen people dancing in here at once, and he has never complained. This is an old factory. There’s concrete beneath thisfloor.”
That song ended, and another began. Four songs into the playlist, she seemed to have the basic step down. “Now it’s time for the funstuff.”
He ran her through a handful of beginner’s steps—basic step in open hold and closed hold, inside turn, outside turn, cross body lead—and then moved on to anenchufa, a Cuban move. “We basically trade places, with you crossing under my arm while I turn. I’ll showyou.”
They tried it a few times, each time going a little bit better, until Mia’s feet slipped out from beneath her, her socks sliding on the woodenfloor.
She shrieked. “Oh!”
Joaquin caught her, steadied her, the two of them pressed together, looking into each other’s eyes, both breathless. The moment seemed to freeze, his world constricting until it held nothing but her. The light in her blue eyes. The flush in her cheeks. The feel of her againsthim.
Oh, he wassofucked.
Maybe the lyrics of the songs were getting to him, all that romantic stuff about love and sex. Maybe it was just the intimacy of dancing. Or maybe he’d been single for too damnedlong.
No, it wasn’t any ofthat.
It was the kiss they’d shared—a kiss that had blown hismind.
It wasMia.
“Let’s slow it down and try again.” He found himself singing aloud to the next song, holding her a littlecloser.
“You have a nice voice. What does itmean?”
“Well…”How are you going to get out of this one?“I don’t know if I can make it sound good translating it intoEnglish.”
Now they were more or less slowdancing.
“Try.”
He closed his eyes, held her, sang to her. “I’ve been watching you dance all night/I feel you watching me, feel the heat of your gaze on my skin until I burn/This isn’t like anything I have known/I want you in my arms/I want to kiss you everywhere, to taste your sacredplaces…”
He stopped singing, stopped dancing, and simply stood there, looking down into those big, blue eyes, his pulse tripping. He lowered his mouth to hers, kissed her slowly, then drew back. “It’s late. We should get somesleep.”
Not that there was much chance of that. His entire world had just shifted, from the stars in the sky down to hisDNA.
She nodded. “Thanks fortonight.”
Then Joaquin remembered Cate and the leak at the DPD. He didn’t want Mia to lose a night’s sleep worrying. He would tell her in themorning.
“You’rewelcome.”
She went her way, and he wenthis.
But it was a long time before he fellasleep.
* * *
Mia tossedand turned all night, her body too aroused for sleep, erotic thoughts of Joaquin turning into erotic dreams that woke her. When her phone’s alarm beeped at six, she could have sworn she hadn’t slept at all, and yet she didn’t feel tired. Instead, she felt revved, as if she’d already had a few cups ofcoffee.
It’s called hormones,Starr.
She got up, made her bed, then hurried into the bathroom, her mind drifting back to last night as she showered and dried her hair. The entire evening had felt special, intimate. Dinner. Dancing. Their conversation. Thatkiss.
I don’t want to rush you, Mia. I don’t want to push you into doing something you don’t want to do. But right now, all I want to do is kissyou.