His face betrayed his frustration. “Whatever. Sure. Later.”
She didn’t have time to say more, because Matt’s arm slipped around her waist, and he led her onto the dance floor. When she glanced back over her shoulder, Evan had his back to her. Matt maneuvered her into the crowd, blocking Evan from view. When he turned her to face him, his hands fell to her hips, pulling her in close and demanding her attention.
They danced without speaking. Hannah had no words anyway, her feelings too jumbled to articulate, and the music too loud to talk over. Instead she lost herself in the feel of him close to her, his hands on her hips, the pulsing of the music, and his proximity taking her back to that summer they were together, dancing near the bonfire on the beach, the chilly night air making long sleeves mandatory even in the summer, the heat of Matt surrounding her, keeping the cold away with his body and his mouth, her own arousal ratcheting her body temperature higher so that she didn’t notice the wind blowing off the ocean or even the other people around her.
He pulled her closer, their legs tangling, grinding her into his pelvis as they moved. She looped her arms around his neck, the growl that she felt more than heard pulling her out of her memories and back to the present. Back to the reality that Matt was here, now, in front of her. A memory come to life. She shouldn’t be doing this. She shouldn’t be risking her heart all over again. Not when he’d already ghosted on her once. Even if she still harbored feelings for him, trusting him again would be a stupid idea.
Her thoughts must have shown on her face because Matt looked at her with concern and loosened his grip on her. She dropped her arms and stepped back, bumping into someone behind her. She barely heard the girl’s shout of, “Hey! Watch it!” Hannah turned and pushed her way through the crowd.
Fuck. Fuckity fuck fucker. She needed to get away. Because she was already in danger of doing the very thing she knew she needed to avoid—falling headfirst into it, into him, all over again.
Hannah pushed her way through the crowd, intent on escaping him. She’d felt so good against him that he hadn’t been able to stop the rumble of pleasure and want from bursting from his chest. For some reason that had scared her. She’d backed up, the look on her face startled, and now she was running away from him.
Shit. He pushed after her on instinct, the need to check on her and reassure her overpowering everything else. The crowd kept his long legs from eating up the distance between them until they got to the clear space near the door.
He caught her just as she pushed through the doorway, his fingers closing around the soft skin of her upper arm. “Hey. What’s going on? Why are you running away?”
Turning to face him, she shook her head. The bouncer at the door stepped forward to make sure everything was okay, and Matt let go of her, holding his hands up palms out.
She looked confused for a second before the bouncer spoke. “Everything okay?”
The panicky expression relaxed as she addressed the bouncer, but didn’t go away completely. “No. Yes. I mean, he’s fine. We know each other. I just, uh, I need some air. He’s fine, though. You don’t need to do anything.” Her sentences were quick and breathless, but the bouncer took her at her word with one more penetrating look at the both of them. He held the door open, and Hannah all but ran out, her shoes the only reason she didn’t move any faster.
Once outside, she moved away from the doorway and the clusters of people out front, down in front of the darkened windows of a storefront. She bent at the waist, taking deep heaving breaths.
He placed a hand on her back, rubbing a little. “Are you alright?”
Straightening, she wiped at her eyes. Shit. Was she crying? What the hell was she crying about? He’d never had a chick react like that from some grinding on the dance floor. Then she let out a bark of laughter. She was laughing now? He let his hand drop and stepped back, shoving his hands in his pockets.
With a shake of her head, she finally looked at him. “Sorry. I’m sorry.” She waved a hand back toward the door they’d just exited. “I don’t even—I don’t know how to act right now.”
Matt grunted in response, his brain trying to decipher what was going on with her. “Look, is this because you’re an intern at my work? Because—”
He stopped talking at the vigorous shaking of her head. “No, that’s not why—” She cut off, her teeth sinking into her lower lip, and shook her head again. “That’s a good point, but that’s not what this is about.” She’d grown quieter now and seemed to be calming down from the hysteria that had overtaken her.
He took a step closer, a swell of hope in his chest. Did she remember him after all? “What’s it about, then?”
She shook her head again and didn’t answer. He reached out and ran a hand over her bare arm. It had been warmer today than the rest of the week, but it was still January, and she had goosebumps covering her exposed skin. She shivered, and he couldn’t help himself. He drew her close again and wrapped his arms around her, blocking the cold from reaching her with his own body as best he could, remembering how he’d done the same thing the first evening they’d spent together at the party on the
