No one else joined them on the dance floor. All they needed was an overhead floodlight to qualify as the featured attraction.
That made her uncomfortable. This wasn’t her night. This wasn’t her wedding. Guilt did a number on her. She didn’t know these people. She shouldn’t be here. As a private person and an introvert, the sudden attention unnerved her, and Jude stopped dancing.
“What’s wrong?” Tom asked, still trying to drag her around the dance floor.
“I can’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“This.” Unnerved, Jude snatched her shoes from Tom’s pockets, and holding them tightly in her hands, she raced from the room.
Concerned, Tom went after her. Was she having flashbacks to her wedding day that ended so differently from Tara and Ben’s? When he’d invited her as his date, he hadn’t even thought about how attending a wedding might affect her psychologically.
How inconsiderate.
Contrite, he found her in the hallway.
Barefooted, she sidled up to the nearest wall for a place to steady herself while she put her shoes back on. She looked, he noticed, a bit panicky.
“Hey,” he said, surprised to hear his voice come out low, husky, and gentle. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, sure, fine, why do you ask?” Avoiding his gaze, she bent to slip her finger at the back of her shoe to help ease her foot into it.
“You sure?”
“Perfectly. Absolutely. One hundred percent.”
“You ran off the dance floor like your hair was on fire,” he said. “Why?”
“I told you I felt uncomfortable dancing before your sister and her husband. You put the focus on us. That’s not right.”
“Tara and Ben don’t care. I promise.”
“I care.”
“Are you that married to tradition?”
“I’m a rule follower. You got me. That’s why Jaxon dumped me. I’m too rigid.”
That reasoning shocked him. “No, you’re not.”
“I’m uncomfortable upstaging the bride and groom.”
“One, we didn’t upstage them, and two, I’ve always believed we only grow when we’re outside our comfort zones. You did ask me to give you some pointers as to what you’re doing to turn off guys. Being too rigid is one of those things.”
She got her shoes on and finally raised her head to meet his gaze. “Meaning?”
“If you want to be a bold woman, you’re gonna have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
“I think I’ve made a big mistake trying to change.” She gave a forlorn shake of her head. “There’s nothing wrong with being nice.”
“Nothing at all.” He stepped closer.
Tom had the feeling that Jude would have backed up if she’d had anywhere to go. “Other people are on the dance floor now.”
He nodded toward the ballroom where, through the open door, he could see his twin and her new husband swaying to “Unchained Melody.”
Jude bit down on her bottom lip.
Tom took another step closer. “Unless your fear is about more than an empty dance floor.”
Her face flushed. From dancing? Or something else? She’d been drinking ginger ale so the flush wasn’t from alcohol.
He held out his hand to her. “May I have this dance?”
Mutely, she nodded and accepted his hand.
Tom led her back to ballroom and the dance floor.
Her hand felt small in his, and when he slipped his hand around her waist, she melted against him, making him feel big, clumsy—and far too aroused.
He lowered his eyelids, but he was anything but sleepy. The sooner she hooked up with someone else, the better for his libido.
Whether she admitted it or not, she was looking for a lot more than just a good time, although he couldn’t even give her that. He had taken a forty-day vow of celibacy, and he was determined to win that bet.
Besides, no matter how hard she tried to change her personality, she was a nice woman, sexy black dress and stilettos be damned.
He drew her closer.
She didn’t resist.
Why was he tempting fate? He wanted to win that bar bet more than anything, to prove he was the “master of his domain,” to steal a quote from an old Seinfeld episode called “The Contest,” but she was clouding his thinking, wrecking his self-control, and unwittingly leading him into temptation.
Her firm, lush breasts were crushed against his chest, and his jacket and her dress weren’t armor enough to keep him from imagining her nipples against his bare skin.
Unexpectedly, she slid both hands around his neck and tugged his head down so she could whisper in his ear. “Thank you for tonight. I needed this more than I knew.”
The light whisper of her breath against his ear sent shock waves to his groin, but then she let go of his neck and put distance between them again. She was achingly appealing in her sweetness. No matter how much she claimed to want to let loose and take a walk on the wild side, women like Jude came with strings attached, and he wasn’t ready for that.
Honestly? He didn’t know if he ever would be. No matter how happy his twin and her new husband looked in their married bliss, Tom wasn’t looking for entanglement.
The song ended, and then the lights dimmed for a romantic waltz.
“May I cut in?”
Tom felt a tap on his shoulder and glanced over to see Dirk grinning at him. Narrowing his eyes, he wondered what his buddy was up to. He knew Dirk would do anything to win the bet. Was he trying to stoke Tom’s jealousy and fuel his feelings for Jude? It wouldn’t be the first time he pulled something underhanded.
“Buzz off, Poomph,” Tom growled.
“Oh.” Dirk pointed his fingers as if they were six-shooters at Tom. “I just heard. Jake’s out. So it’s just me and you, amigo.”
Once again, the challenge came down to the two of them. They stared hard at each other. This wasn’t the time or place to discuss the bet.
“I’d like to cut in,” Dirk repeated.
Tom didn’t want to let him.
Jude cleared her throat and inclined her head toward Dirk.
Tom lifted an eyebrow and felt a strange ache in the center of his chest. “Do you want to dance with him?”
She smiled softly and offered a half shrug. “How wild and free can I be if I only dance with one man the entire night?”
“Okay,” Tom said, surprised by the disappointment sinking to the bottom of his shoes. What was that all about? He didn’t care if she danced with other guys, just why did it have to be Dirk? “If that’s what you want.”
“It is,” she said, but he could have sworn he spied uncertainty in her blue eyes.
“Looks like I win.” Dirk smirked and muscled him aside.
Narrowing his eyes, Tom gritted his teeth and felt another tap on his shoulder as Jude accepted Dirk’s arm and waltzed off.
“Hi! I see you’re in need of a partner.”
He turned to see Brenna Butler standing beside him. Brenna flew for the same small airline that Tara did. He’d heard a lot about Brenna from his sister, but they’d just met in person for the first time at last night’s rehearsal dinner. Before the no-sex bar bet and before meeting Jude, Tom would have been lobbying for Brenna’s phone number, but now things were just too complicated for a hookup with this vivacious woman.