The woman could move. Creamy skin gleamed with the sheen of her sweat. Slashes of crimson sequins barely covered her breasts, wrapped like a greedy fist around her tiny waist. Her upper thighs shone temptingly beneath the whisper of a sheer red skirt. As if her body yearned to be free of even the necessary confinement of the costume, she spun, writhed, and twisted to the demands of the pounding Latin beat.
And Alex was her prisoner.
He stood with his back against the wall, his heart thudding to the sensual tune. He’d come in too late to garner a seat. But he couldn’t sit if he wanted to. His blood roared at the very sight of her.
She taunted with fluid arms that beckoned, whipped, then imprisoned. Her face, deceptively angelic, lured with the smile of promise - a promise only bestowed when she permitted. With her hips she swung, undulating in a rabid heat that shot waves of desire from his mouth to his belly.
He started to sweat.
Lauren. That body of hers had tempted him from the very beginning, planting a vision of liquid fire in his head that burned with unquenchable flames as the years passed.
He meant to feel that flame for himself now, even if he knew he’d get burned.
Desire moved him through the crowd. He didn’t even excuse himself to those standing in his way, he just shouldered past them, his eyes fixed on her, dancing.
The music changed. From a sultry Latin beat it became quick and snappy. No longer did those long, lovely limbs summon and captivate. The jive took Lauren and her partner into a joyful celebration, the final dance of the five Latin dances of love.
Because of Lauren, Alex knew the difference between rumba and samba. He’d learned that the five Latin dances told a story, taking the audience through flirtatious cha-cha through culmination in jive.
Alex stood at the hem of the dance floor, in the fringe of light for an unadulterated view, hoping she would see him.
Whether or not she recognized him, he didn’t know. The years made him a man, her a woman, a fact he was more than anxious to remind her of when he finally got his hands on her.
Alex felt a smile coming. Their relationship wasn’t even flirtatious; he knew it would be more accurate in fact to call it distant. That was why he was there - to change it.
Because a healthy dose of admiration sung through his veins, there was more to his plan than just saying hello. Getting reacquainted was only the beginning. She needed him, a fact he was sure she’d fight. He expected that. Indeed, one of the reasons he was drawn to her was the chemistry that lit his system whenever the two of them were face-to-face. Two brush fires out of control. From day one, he’d been intrigued by her, aloof, sassy, beautiful. Time may have kept him a stranger, but it hadn’t sequestered his need to keep an eye on where life had taken her.
And so he was there, for reasons both of them would come to accept as inevitable.
When Lauren finished dancing, Alex’s body was free to sigh. Chad, her partner and Alex’s friend, led her off stage. Alex’s gaze didn’t leave them until they disappeared off deck behind long, blue drapes.
The floor filled with other competitors, these in black tuxedos and pastel dresses elegantly spinning to the light and classical music of the Viennese waltz. Having seen all he came to see, Alex made his way to one of the tables sitting at the edge of the dance floor where he’d told Chad to meet him so the three of them could talk.
Like a teenager, his stomach fluttered with butterflies. Lauren. It was a reaction he was accustomed to whenever he neared her - he shouldn’t be surprised. Soon that heat would smolder and skip, lighting into something that had consumed him all these years. And still did, even now.
* * *
Alex Saunders. It seemed unreal to hear his name. And now Lauren’s heart thumped out of control. Her palms sweat around the paper program in her hands. Her head craned, her eyes darted through the crowd to see if she could find him - not that she wanted him to see her.
Years had helped her forget him - that and the fact that he had gone off to Princeton on his family money after high school.
Now, she couldn’t believe what Chad just told her.
"No way would Alex Saunders sponsor us," she said. Chad, her new dance partner, led her through the boisterous crowd to the table they had reserved on the dance floor to observe the competition.
"Yes. He wants us." Chad pulled out a chair. Lauren sat, looking through the crowd for that tall lanky form and beacon of black hair belonging to Alex. "He’s totally excited about it."
Lauren’s stomach twisted. "Are you sure he knows I’m your partner?"
"He knows." Chad watched couples from the audience dance in the open session of the evening’s events. It was the only time the audience participated, with the exception of expected cheering for their favorite couple. "In fact, he approached me about it."
A knot of suspicion formed in Lauren’s stomach. Alex Saunders, proverbial rich man, philanthropist and resident playboy seeking her out? There was only one reason for such a contradictory act, and her stomach churned at the thought.
Catching the eye of another competitor mulling through the crowd, she waved and smiled. Lauren wouldn’t allow Alex’s presence to dampen her evening. She and Chad had done their guest performance with perfection; the standing ovation they received was satisfying. Besides, it had been years since those warring and tumultuous days of high school. She and Alex were adults now. Things change. People change.
"Well. It’s been a long time." The voice behind her had deepened, but the tight mischievousness was still there.
Lauren turned in her chair and looked up.
His eyes sparkled like black sky.
Chad was up in a flash, extending a hand to shake. "Dude, you made it."
Alex spared Chad a glance, but his eyes remained tight with Lauren’s. "I wouldn’t miss it. Lauren Peay. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?" He extended a well-groomed hand she merely glanced at, and she didn’t bother rising from her chair.
"My, this is a surprise. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again." A halo of black hair shocked drama to cheeks and facial planes thinned with maturity. He’d worn his hair short back in high school. Now it hung in loose tangles just at his collar, framing his face with the chic perfection of a celebrity.
Lauren’s gaze moved back out over the dancers.
"Disappointed?" Alex asked.
Curious was more like it. But Lauren kept the smile on her face and waved at a friend across the dance floor as she waited for Alex to get the cue that she was not going to touch him.
Chad pulled out a chair on Lauren’s right for Alex then planted himself on her left. Purposefully, Alex didn’t sit, and Lauren fought the natural urge to see why.
She didn’t like that he remained standing, looking down at her. "You haven’t changed a bit."
He sat then, his elegantly dressed form stretching out. The tanned glow of his skin was rich against his navy dress jacket and white shirt. Pearl-grey slacks clung to smooth thighs before draping to his polished leather shoes.
His legs crossed and one arm rested behind her on the back of her chair, the other poised importantly on the tabletop. "Still as sassy as you always were."
And proud of it, she thought, but only sent him a pleasant nod. Lauren looked at his lips, pulled back in the mocking smile she remembered so well. The white of his teeth glittered off his ivory shirt, open at the throat. "Since when were you interested in ballroom dance?" Lauren asked.
Alex’s dark eyes twinkled. "I’ve been keeping my eye on it for a long time."
The look shot fire right through her. She shifted in her chair, turning her gaze to the dancers. She noticed whispers and stares from those around them, angled at the single playboy sitting at their table.
Everyone knew Alex Saunders - knew all about the Saunders money establishing most anything of real value in Utah. Long, generous and controlling fingers that spread from government to vast real estate holdings to cultural puppet strings like art,
well-chosen museum donations. And ballroom dance competitions.
Chad tapped his wiry leg to the cha-cha beat. "I had no idea you two knew each other before. It’s, like, such a small world, isn’t it?"
Alex’s smile deepened with pleasure. "A very small world. So, how’ve you been, Lauren? You look…well, you’ve only gotten more beautiful, if that’s possible. And that performance was…perfect."
Lauren bit back a snort. He probably honed those lines on women he skipped through at Princeton. She couldn’t thank him for the compliment, sure it wasn’t sincere, so she flashed him a smile just as insincere, then looked back over the dance floor. "Thanks."
Alex leaned forward, amused. "I’m getting a distinctly hostile vibe from you."
"Hostile? You and me?" She let out a fluttering laugh meant to cover up the confusion going on inside of her. What did he really want?
Chad laughed, uncomfortable with the situation. "So, you guys - uh - how did you know each other?"
"We went to junior high and high school together," Alex said.
"We weren’t friends." Lauren always told it like it was. "He hated me, actually."
Chad’s light brows shot up, his forced smile flattened. "Seriously?"
Lauren enjoyed that Alex shifted in the chair next to her then. Maybe she could make him itchy enough that he’d take this ridiculous idea of sponsoring them and shove it in the tailpipe of whatever fancy car he drove.
"Lauren’s exaggerating," Alex finally said with a politician’s calm. The corner of his jaw knotted as he looked at her. "And that was a long time ago, wasn’t it?"
The inscrutable tone of his voice left her totally confused. Her faint hope that time had changed them both was now in question.
The dance floor filled with the first heat of junior Latin competitors and Lauren smiled at them in an effort to ignore the discomfort she felt inside. She was there to enjoy herself, and thinking about the mess Chad had created for them by bringing Alex into their partnership ruined one of few respites she allowed herself.
The emcee announced the numbers of the couples competing, as pairs stood ready on deck in a colorful confetti of costumes. The boys wore black, fitted slacks, their shirts cut to the navel for the sensuous Latin moves. Hair was practically slicked back to enable both audience and judge to witness animated expressions of love and desire. Girls’ dresses ranged from flirty to fluffy, sensuous to sassy in every bright color of the rainbow.
Music swirled in the air. Lauren noticed Alex tapping his left hand on the royal blue tablecloth. His ring finger was naked. She’d heard that he wasn’t married. Figures, she thought, he’d play as long as he could. Use a woman up then throw her out - his mentality was that of a four-year-old plowing through a toy box.
So he’d gone to Princeton and graduated in Law. As far as she knew, he’d not stepped one foot in a courtroom and that degree was nothing more than a paper pacifier for over-indulgent parents who probably thought the sun rose and the moon circled in their son’s promises of someday.
"I was glad to hear you were still dancing," Alex told her, forcing her into conversation.
"It’s something I love to do." It hadn’t been easy, her personal circumstances as they were, but she refused to let anything keep her from pursuing her dreams. And it had saved her in too many ways to count, a tender fact she guarded.
When the first round of competition ended, she applauded with everyone else, sitting forward so that she would not see Alex in her peripheral vision.
"These kids are really good." In spite of her efforts to distance herself, he leaned closer, and his hot whisper sent an unexpected tingle down her neck. "You were good - just like that." He stayed close. Close enough so she could smell him - rich and spicy. "I remember it well."
Because she enjoyed his nearness, she was angry with herself. "Your memory is selective. How convenient for you." Elbows on the table, she rested her chin on clasped fingers. "Keeps the light that shines on our past from reflecting the dark truth, doesn’t it?"
"It seems we have some things to talk about."
"I’m here to support the competition."
"That’s why I’m here."
"Chad told me you were coming to talk about sponsoring us. Which is the real reason you’re here?"
Purposefully he brushed his lips to her ear. "If you want to talk about this, let’s go outside where we can have some privacy."
"Still luring girls into parking lots? No thanks. I try not to repeat my mistakes."
He was so near she saw the slightest flare of his nostrils. But it was the way his eyes blackened with old treachery that caused her an unwanted shiver. He looked as if he might combust from the inside out, as if every cell was holding back. Suddenly he stood, his male presence towering over her.
"You leaving us?" Chad was up on his feet. "I thought we were going to discuss the arrangement."
"There is no arrangement." Lauren kept her expression flat as she looked up at Alex. "Good evening, Mr. Saunders." Then she turned to the dancers, satisfaction rifling through every inch of her.
"We’ll be in touch." Alex shook Chad’s hand then moved into Lauren’s line of vision. He lingered there just long enough to send a shot of panic through Lauren, not sure what he would do next. She couldn’t believe she was doing it again - taunting her nemesis.
"As always, a pleasure, Lauren." His tone was artificially mild.
When the spicy scent of him finally vanished, she nearly crumpled there at the table. What had gotten into her? Just like that she had reverted to the snippy, defensive girl he had tormented with such obvious pleasure.
Chad sat with a disgruntled thud. "That went well."
Lauren kept a controlled facade out over the dancers. "There isn’t going to be a sponsorship."
"He was trying to be cordial. You were the one throwing spears."
"You don’t know him like I do, Chad." This was where their age difference bothered her. Chad may not look six years her junior, and he certainly danced her equal, but socially, he stumbled out of step behind her.
"He’s a friend of mine, Lauren. And you weren’t trying at all here. How do you expect us to land a primo situation like this again? I’m telling you, there’s nobody-"
"I know, I know." It was a dancer’s dream. Very few couples landed sponsors with the resources, name and power of a man like Alex. But she could only envision scenes of subjugation when she pictured their partnership under his dominant hand.
"Just think about it," Chad continued as the next heat began. Twelve couples were trimmed down to six. "He can get us Reuben La Bate."
Lauren looked at him as if he dangled an eight-carat diamond in front of her eyes. "He’s retired."
Chad shook his head, a smile of conquest cracking his lips. "Not for a price."
"I heard through the grapevine he’s had enough."
"Not the way Alex explained it to me. He told me he’d get the very best for us - no matter the cost."
Alex’s high-handedness infuriated Lauren more. "Of course, he thinks money can buy anything."
"Well, can’t it?"
It can’t buy me, Lauren thought. She’d made it alone for two years now and the price had been too much to shackle her future to one of Alex Saunders’ gabardine pant legs. But the competitor inside left her mind watering with the idea of winning, of finally getting her feet out of financial mud and making some progress in any direction, be it the world of dance or in her personal life. A flash of Alex’s face quickly replaced the vision. Whether she liked it or not, she was confused and intrigued that Alex suddenly wanted something that would involve her. Impossible, she thought, working to clear her head of his sparkling eyes. But she couldn’t. They glittered there, dark and mystifying, causing her nerves to both tingle and twitch.
