Fifteen minutes later, they still hadn’t spotted us, and I was tempted to turn around and make eye contact—but I knew Dax liked this.
He knew I was here somewhere, and part of the hunt was finding me. Anticipation.
Elizabeth, who’d been dying to visit the ladies’ room, finally gave in and left me to go pee.
I toyed with my shot glass, running my fingers around the rim.
If he didn’t find me by the time she got back, maybe I should go look . . .
Warm hands settled on my bare shoulders as a steely voice whispered in my ear. “Want to dance, love?”
I stiffened and didn’t turn around. “No, thank you. I’m waiting for someone.”
He didn’t go away, but stood so close I could smell him and feel the heat emanating from his skin.
His breath skated across my neck, a light finger tracing my flying black birds tattoo I’d gotten a few months back in honor of my dad. “I like your birds. Does it mean you’re just as wild and free as they are?”
I sighed and turned around to face this person.
I raked my eyes over him. “I’m so wild you wouldn’t be able to keep up. It takes a real man to satisfy me. Are you him?”
He leaned in closer, his massive shoulders forcing me to ease back in my stool. With a gentle brush, he flicked his finger over my pearls, letting them fall back to my cleavage. Goosebumps flew everywhere.
“Indeed, you are gorgeous,” he said softly, hot eyes taking in my strapless dress.
I smirked. “Don’t “indeed” me with your haughty English accent. It takes more than that to get me to dance.”
“Then how about a kiss?”
I blinked. “You don’t waste any time do you?”
Dark eyes narrowed.
I swallowed, getting nervous. Excited? God, I didn’t know.
My eyes went over his shoulder, looking at random faces.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked, reaching across me to take my tequila bottle off the bar and look at it.
I smiled. “The hottest guy here—hotter than a billy goat with a blow torch.”
He tossed his head back and laughed. I watched fascinated as he poured himself a shot—in my glass—and then drank it down.
What game was he playing?
“Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls came on, and I started, recognizing the song Dax and I had danced to. Memories of London a year ago flooded me.
“You like this song?” He stared at me, eyes searching my hidden face.
“Yes.”
A silence fell between us, thick and heavy. I got antsy.
So did he, judging by the way his chest rose up and down. A muscle flexed in his cheek, and I sensed he was barely keeping control—
He broke character. “Are you going to give in?” Dax finally growled, a tinge of authority in his tone.
“No,” I managed to say, even though I wanted to fall to my knees for him.
“You want me to dance with someone else?”
“You won’t,” I said softly.
“Fuck. You’re right.”
I pretended to ignore him, pouring myself another drink and shooting it back—all while he watched with a hungry, vulnerable look in his eyes.
One that I recognized well.
He was on the edge. Teetering.
So was I—but I held on, doing what any good player would do who was involved in a bet for a quid.
Would he kiss me first? Or would I kiss him?
Yes, he’d told me all about Spider’s bet, and tonight we’d made up our own version.
“Stand up,” he said.
“Please?”
He sighed. “Please.”
I stood and we faced off at the bar. A few patrons noticed the tenseness between us, their eyes bouncing to us and then away.
I put the strand of pearls in my mouth, and moved them over my teeth, my tongue dipping out to taste them. “Too bad this isn’t your mouth.”
He groaned, his hips moving forward and pressing me into the bar. I should have felt claustrophobic with the bar behind me, him in front, and all the people watching, but I didn’t.
This was him. This was me. This is what we liked.
“You’re trying to kill me here,” he said, his voice ragged, his lips perilously close to mine.
I snaked my hand around his neck and pulled his head down until our foreheads were touching. “You kiss me first and let me win the bet, and I promise to dance with you to our song.”
He hesitated. “Can we dance like we did last time?”
I bit my lip and smiled. “Maybe.”
“You little minx,” he whispered. “You win.” He took my mouth slowly as if we had all the time in the world, as if there weren’t tons of people watching. I got lost in him, like I always did.
“I love you,” he said in my ear when we pulled apart.
I melted even more into him, my hands clinging to his shoulders. “I love you, too.”
He took a step back and pulled me out to the dance floor. Once we got there, I saw that Declan and Elizabeth had apparently found each other in the time Dax had found me. They were already dancing, their arms tight around each other. I waved at them, but they didn’t notice, too caught up in each other.
Dax pulled me to his chest and touched my face, almost reverently. “Almost a year ago—you fell in my lap. I can’t imagine one day without you.”
I smiled up at him with absolute certainty.
Romeo and Juliet may have been star-crossed lovers, but we were not.