Unedited, unpublished excerpt of work in progress

One Two Step by Megan Hart

All rights reserved, may not be reproduced without permission of the author.

EXPLANATION: I was working on this as part of a book that eventually became DIRTY…

“There she is.” Reese Daniels half-turned from his spot at the bar and gave a casual nod toward the dark-haired woman who’d just passed him.

“Her?” Brian Michaels shook his head with a grin. “Forget it.”

“I don’t think so.” Reese watched the woman carefully from over the rim of his glass.

Tall, with dark hair like silk held back from her face by a simple clip, she wore a simple pale blouse and a dark, long skirt. The modest clothes only emphasized the lush curves beneath, and in a manner far more alluring than found in her companions, who were all bright-haired and garishly garbed.

“She’s a librarian, for God’s sakes.” Brian gestured. “Probably literally.”

Reese took another sip from his drink. “She’s beautiful.”

He watched her. Glass of white wine held in one elegant hand. She didn’t say much compared to the gaggle of blondes surrounding her. In fact, the most he saw from her was a subtle quirk of her lips, a shift of her gaze that told him almost as much about her as if he’d spent an hour talking with her.

“She’s the one,” he told Brian without even a sideways glance at his friend. “I’m taking her home tonight.”

Brian laughed. “Good luck, buddy. She’s with her girlfriends, first of all. Second of all, don’t you see how she’s dressed? Why not go for one of the blondes in the  mini-skirts?”

Reese smiled. “Because I want her.”

Brian gestured at the bartender for another drink. “Because she’s a challenge.”

“You got it.”

“You’ve lost it,” Brian countered. “You want to get laid so bad? Look around you, man. This place is a nookie mine field. All you have to do is take a step and you’re going to land in a pile of tits and ass. Why do you have to go for the one dud?”

Reese gave his friend a look. “What makes you think she’s a dud?”

Brian laughed again. “She never goes home with anyone, man, and she comes in here all the time with her friends. All the time, man.”

“Maybe she just hasn’t found the right man.”

Brian shoved the lime wedge deep into his bottle of Mexican beer. “And that would be you?”

“That would be me.”

Reese wasn’t drinking beer. He had Jameson’s, neat, and the whiskey burned his throat going down but landed in his stomach and spread warm throughout his entire body.

“Good luck, buddy,” said Brian. “Because I’ve seen her shoot down every man who’s ever asked her to dance.”

That made it all the better, Reese thought as he finished his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. That woman was beautiful, and different…she was a challenge. Just the way he liked it.

Reese didn’t date women. He indulged in them. He cultivated them, wooed, screwed and renewed them, gave them something other men in their life didn’t.  Pure, unadulterated bliss.

Oh, he had no false expectations that the women he set his sights on had never had good sex before. Most of them had. What Reese gave them was something else, entirely. He gave them his full attention, as though they were the only woman in the world, his sole reason for being, his survival, his existence.

At least until he walked out their doors and left them behind in search of the  next challenge, anyway.

“What is it with you, man?” Brian asked. “You seriously could have any chick in this place tonight, no joke. And you go for the one who looks like she’s so tight she’d squeak when you fuck her. Look at her, man. She’s uptight.”

Reese didn’t answer, just watched the woman, who still sipped the same glass of wine she’d been holding for the past twenty minutes while her friends were already on their second or third drinks. The crowd of them was getting a little raucous, as women tended to do in groups. They laughed, tossing their hair, shifting their weight from high-heeled foot to high-heeled foot to flash tanned thighs and firm breasts.

All but her.

She stood quietly, sipping her wine, her back against the pillar. She nodded when they spoke to her, and she occasionally responded with a small, shy smile. She was a pearl amongst roses. Unique, rare, and all the more appealing because of it.

“Watch me work my magic,” Reese told Brian.

“Good luck, man.”

“It’s got nothing to do with luck,” replied Reese, eyes fixed on the object of his desire. “It’s all about talent.”

* * *

Elise had only half an ear turned toward the clever story Marcia was in the middle of when the man joined their circle. He slid between Kim and Joanna and set a pitcher of beer down on the table, then settled into a seat across from Elise, his hands on his knees lightly.

“Ladies,” he said in a voice as smooth as melted chocolate. His gaze traveled around the circle, settling on each of them briefly, though her the briefest of all. She was used to that; being ignored. A brunette amongst a bevy of blondes. She might as well be wearing a sackcloth and ashes.

Marcia, Kim and Joanna giggled, sharing glances. The man grinned, and Elise noticed something about him immediately she could guess the others wouldn’t see. The face which was a mask of perfection became misaligned when he smiled. It didn’t make him any less appealing. Only less perfect.

“How are you all this evening?”

More giggles from her companions, but Elise sipped her wine in silence. Watching him. Not that he was looking at her, of course, his gaze looked captured by Marcia’s cleavage.

“Reese X.” He held out his hand to them all in turn, and they all shook it.

Startled when he held it out to her, Elise even pressed it with her hand. The momentary touch was finished almost before it began, his attention drawn back to Joanna, who was pointing at the pitcher of beer.

“Is that for us?”

Reese nodded. “Yes.”

More giggles, and though these women were the closest thing Elise had to girlfriends, the sound of it made her want to press her fingertips to her eyes against a headache.

“How nice,” put in Kim with a flirty grin and a shift in her seat that made her skirt ride up on her thighs.

“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”

Twenty minutes later, her three friends were in gales of laughter at Reese’s stories, which were told with the perfect amount of self-deprecation and exaggeration. The pitcher had been emptied and refilled. All three women flirted with him outrageously and Reese seemed to accept it as his due, reward for buying the beer, maybe, or arrogance. Yet he flirted back with such easy charm, Elise couldn’t be offended. Whatever else he might be, Reese X did seem to be a nice guy.

“Ooh, I like this song!” Kim cried, cheeks flushed from drink. She got up, swaying a little, and put a hand on Reese’s shoulder to steady herself. “Let’s dance! C’mon!”

Joanna got up too, followed by Marcia, who looked back at Elise. “Coming?”

She gave her head a little shake. They should know better than to ask that. “No.”

“Suit yourself. Reese?”

Reese gave another of his lopsided smirks. “You ladies go ahead.”

Without a second glance, the three headed off to the dance floor. Elise watched them with amusemant; it took only a moment before they were surrounded by men eager to take them up on the offer Reese had declined.

“You don’t dance?”

His words, the first he’d spoken directly to her, made Elise turn her head. “Oh…no.”

He leaned forward. “Why not?”

She shrugged, not willing to tell him her life’s story in exchange for a couple pitchers of beer she hadn’t even tasted. “Not a good dancer.”

“I don’t believe that.”

She looked up, expecting to see a leer, or a smarmy grin. Reese’s expression held only curiosity. Elise finished the last of her wine and put the empty glass on the table in front of them.

“I don’t like to dance.”

“I don’t believe that, either.”

Why did his eyes make her feel as though he looked right through her? That he saw  how she was at home, alone, when she put on something slow and sensual and danced by herself because nobody was there to watch and judge.

“I think,” Reese continued, “You like to dance very much.”

Elise looked at him. He smiled. She found herself wanting to smile back, and bit her lower lip to keep from doing it.

“Hi,” he said, and held out his hand to her so unexpectedly she took it. “I’m Reese.”

“We’ve met.”

He shook his head slowly, eyes never leaving hers, his hand squeezing her fingers gently. “You never told me your name.”

She hadn’t, that was true enough, but only because she’d been certain he didn’t care to ask for it. “Elise.”

“Would you dance with me, Elise?”

She tried to pull her hand away, but he’d captured it. His fingers slid upward to circle around her wrist. She could yank her grip free, but that might cause a scene.

“No…”

“Please?”

He leaned forward as he pitched his voice low, so even though the music and the sound of the crowd should have drowned it out, she still heard him. The warmth of his breath upon her cheek made her shiver. She turned her face instinctively, waiting for the fear to hit her and finding only anticipation.

“I don’t dance.”

His thumb stroked the inside of her wrist. “I think you do.”

If he’d come on strong, she’d have been able to say no. If he’d sounded lewd, she’d have resisted with no trouble. But he didn’t, and his smooth, easy manner seduced her as though he weren’t even trying.

Still, she made one last attempt at resistance. “Reese…”

He smiled. “Elise.”

The way he said her name, all of it, not some butchered or bastardized version of it, made her throat tighten and the breath catch in it. Reese pulled her toward him slowly, infintisemally, moving like a glacier. He whispered in her ear.

“Dance with me.”

And so she did.

He led her into the middle of the crowd, easing through the dancing throng with such grace it was like they parted in front of him. When they reached the center of the dance floor, he faced her, one hand on her hip, the other lacing his fingers through hers. These points of connection grounded her, kept her tethered when otherwise she’d have run away.

There could be no talking here, for even a shout would have been difficult to hear above the pounding throb of the music. The bass thumped its pulse in the pit of her stomach, the hollow of her throat, her wrists, between her thighs. The crowd surged around them like the ocean against rocks, parting and retreating only to return in the next instant, surrounding them. It pressed in on them as the song changed and brought more dancers onto the floor.

Reese looked into her eyes, and when she tried to drop her gaze, cheeks flushed and burning, he let go of her hip long enough to use a finger to tip her chin back toward his face. He had light eyes, blue or green, she couldn’t tell in the shifting neon lighting of the club. Light eyes but a dark gaze. Intense. It snared her.

He wasn’t smiling any more, like this was serious business. Like he could see nothing else around them, like his world had narrowed to only her, and Elise shivered again as his hand went back to her hip and slid around to pull her closer.

This wasn’t the place for fancy footwork. No choreographed moves. The crowd didn’t allow it, and as it heaved and surged around them, Reese and Elise began to dance, too. Most of the dancers around them were bopping, grinding, gyrating with a flailing sea of arm and legs and flying hair.

If he’d expected her to do something like that, she’d have fled the dance floor, but as he’d done everything else this evening, Reese knew the perfect way to get her to stay. He inched her closer and closer as the music flowed over and around them and the crowd grew. He snugged her up against him, hip to hip and thigh to thigh, his hand now on her ass and the one holding hers moving her fingers up to rest on his shoulder.

When he put his other hand on her side, up high,just under her breast, she startled but had no place to go. No retreat. She looked up, into his eyes, those light and dark eyes, and lost herself in them.

They moved together, and her hand slid from his shoulder to cup the back of his neck. The edges of his sandy hair tickled her knuckles. The heat of his hand branded her through her blouse. Heat flared, too, in her belly where it rubbed against his groin.

She did like to dance. He was right about that. It had been a long, long time since she’d danced with anyone, an eternity since she’d had a man’s hands on her, since she’d seen her own desire reflected in another’s gaze.

It stole her breath, made her faint, fluttered her eyelids and made her licked her lips. The motion of her tongue on her mouth caught Reese’s attention the way a cat will watch a mouse, and the heat of his touch flared into fire.

His hand slid up her back to tangle in her hair, tip her head back, expose the line of her throat to his mouth as he bent to slide his lips along her skin. She gasped. He pulled her closer, and she bent to his whim.

The crowd had become one body moving to the music’s sensual beat. One entity with Reese and Elise in the center of it, pressed so close she could no longer be certain where she ended and he began.

His hand slid up to cup her breast through her blouse. She felt her own gasp but couldn’t hear it. She blinked and saw nothing but his face shadowed with blue and green, the colors pulsing in time to the ryhthym.

People will see…but even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t true. Nobody watched them. Nobody saw. They had become part of something bigger and yet remained separate from it. The couple next to them had begun kissing, tongues tangling as their hands stroked and kneaded each other. The dance floor had become an orgy of lust.

She smelled it, tasted it, saw it reflected in Reese’s eyes and knew he saw it in her own. The song changed again, blending into the previous one without break.

Bodies pressed against her from behind, pushing her against Reese and him against her as the same thing happened to him. Sweat slid down her spine and shone on his forehead. Everything had become heat and beat.

His cock pressed hard against her belly. The sensation parted her lips in silent reaction, and his gaze watched her mouth again,his expression tight, like he was in pain.

It wasn’t pain that thinned his mouth and tightened his jaw. She knew it by the way his jaw tightened when another surge of the crowd rocked her against his body. The hand on her ass splayed, then stroked upward to reach the small of her back, then down again to caress her and press her against his erection.

Elise was lost. Lost in his eyes, in his touch, in the pounding pulse of music and lust. Lost in her own desire, which she’d denied for so long and now could no longer fight.

She saw the shift in his gaze and knew the exact moment when he recognized her reaction. And again, if he’d smiled smugly or leered, he’d have lost her. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly, his expression became a mixture of determination and helpless admiration. He looked at her as though he didn’t care if the song ever stopped or if he never looked at another woman again.

His hand slid down her hip to her thigh. His fingers caught the hem of her skirt, inching it up as they danced, until he could slip his hand beneath it. He cupped her, the heel of his hand pressed against her clit and his fingers tight against her panties.

The crowd moved them, so he no longer had to. The hand on her ass kept her anchored close to him. Another shift of the crowd, and his fingers moved to dip inside the lacy edge of her panties and finnd her slick heat.

His eyes widened so slightly only someone staring into them as she was could have noticed. His lips parted in an unheard gasp or groan. Her body jerked as his flesh came in direct contact with hers, and a groan tore from her throat.

His fingers teased her folds before gliding up to caress her clit. If not for the support of his hand on her ass and the crowd crushing them on all sides, Elise would have fallen. The touch speared straight to her core, awakening sensation she’d forced herself to ignore for so long she’d almost managed to convince herself she no longer felt it.

Her fingers gripped his shoulder in a sudden, tight hold, and his gaze flicked there momentarily as he winced. She’d hurt him, but could do nothing about it. Every stroke he gave her clit made her fingers dig involuntarily into him.

Now he looked determined, admiring and…quizzical, but the last passed in a moment as he circled her tight nub and watched the reaction she couldn’t hide. Now Reese looked…honored, was the only way she could think to describe it, if she could do any thinking at all, which was becoming impossible.

Everything had become Reese. His hand. His eyes. His cock, still pressing against her belly and now throbbing, hard, hot. He licked his lips and her clit pulsed in immediate response beneath his fingers.

He tangled his fingers in her hair again, massaging the base of her skull and keeping her from moving away. They danced, each movment rocking her against his hand until in moments she was on the edge.

How long had it been since she’d felt this? Breathless, aching, body burning for release, unable to focus on anything but the pleasure building in her clit. Her nipples tightened and his gaze fell to her breasts momentarily.

It was impossible to see his face flush, not with the flashing blue and green neon coating everyone in science-fiction shadows, but she knew he was burning, as she was.

This was incredible, impossible and at last she put her hand on his ches to push him away. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t let some stranger get her off on the dance floor, not like this, she didn’t do this….

But she was going to. Oh, yes, she was going to come, right here. Right now. She was going to come on Reese X’s hand like they were they only two people in the world, and it didn’t matter if anyone saw her, she was tipping over the edge so hard and so fast she thought she might faint from the pleasure.

He bent to kiss her, but she turned her face so his mouth found her cheek instead of her lips. His breath blew hot against her skin. He fit his hand to the back of her skull and nuzzled her ear, whispering one word she shouldn’t have been able to hear but was unable to ignore.

“Elise.”

She shattered, biting her lip to stifle the cry that tore from her throat. Her pulse pounded in her ears and throat while her clit spasmed over and over, each beat of climax pulling another low moan from her.

His arm tightened around her, holding her close as she rode his hand, body shuddering and jerking. He kissed her jaw and the side of her neck. He stopped his fingers moving and cupped her again, perfectly, keeping the pressure there without working her oversensitized flesh into pain.

She tried to breath and could not at first. She tried again, her body limp and languid and boneless, and found not only breath but along with it the scent of him. She thought she would never again see blue and green neon without remembering the way he smelled.

A loud screech interrupted the music, followed by the squeal of feedback that had everyone on the dance floor clapping their hands over their ears. It was enough to break the spell, and she broke free of his now-loose grasp. Elise backed up, bumping into other dancers as the DJ got his equipment under control.

She met Reese’s eyes once more, watched his face as his expression turned dark, and then she fled.

* * *
By the time he realized what had just happened, Elise had disappeared into the crowd. Reese stared after her, stunned, as the music began again and the crowd started up its gyrations. Then he shook himself and went after her.

“Watch it, man!”

Reese ignored the drunk frat boy staggering on the edge of the dance floor. His eyes scanned the bar. The Blue Swan wasn’t a large club, and it took only moments for him to see all the nooks and crannies. Unless she’d escaped to the bathroom, she’d gone outside.

He gambled on outside and pushed through the heavy metal door hard enough to make it clang against the concrete wall. He looked around the street at the scattered clubgoers, eyes seeking  a lithe form and luscious curves, dark hair silk. A light drizzle misted the street, making rainbows in the light of the streetlamp.

He saw her then, her arm raised to catch the attention of a taxi that didn’t stop. She  stepped off the curb to gesture after it. She didn’t see the car pulling up to the curb.

In less than a moment, Reese was beside her, hand on her upper arm pulling her out of the way. “Watch it.”

She gasped and turned as he pulled her back toward The Blue Swan. “You —!”

“I just saved you from getting crunched,” Reese interrupted, pointing at the car parked where she’d been standing a moment before.

Elise jerked her arm from his grasp and headed down the sidewalk without another word, her head bent and the rain molding her clothes to her body. Reese watched the sway of her hips for her next five steps before he caught up to her.

“Wait up. I’ll walk with you.”

“I don’t want you to walk with me.” She spoke the words in a low voice and walked faster.

“You shouldn’t walk by yourself,” he pointed out. “It’s dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine.” She walked faster.

He’d gotten the brushoff before, but this was different. Fifteen minutes ago she’d been pulsing on his fingertips, her eyes bright with lust and that gorgeous mouth parted in a gasp of pleasure. He hadn’t imagined it. He knew he hadn’t.

“Why are you running away from me?”

That jerked her chin toward him, briefly, before she looked steadfastly away again. “I’m not running away from you!”

She got another ten steps ahead of him before he caught up to her again, this time, reaching out to snag her sleeve. “Hey, wait.”

He’d only meant to slow her down, but her terrified expression stopped him. Reese let go abruptly as Elise stumbled back, hands raised as though to defend herself. He put his own hands up in a gesture meant to calm her. It didn’t seem to work.

“Let go of me!”

That he already had didn’t seem to matter. “I’m sorry –“

She shook her head, backing up. “Look, just because we shared a dance doesn’t mean anything. It was a dance. That’s all. Good night.”

“It was more than a dance, Elise.”

She was like a startled deer, dark eyes wide and reflecting the light from the streetlamp. She stood as though poised to flee, literally, to run, and Reese backed up a step to put some distance between them.