Page 19 of Tiger Bitten

“I wore it just for you.” Truth.

“You wanted to stand me up, didn’t you?” she asked as he began to dance with her easily.

“Is Abe the guy staring at you? Holding the redhead?”

“That would be him.”

“Mmm.” Mars held her closer, and honestly, she didn’t hate this. He was very sturdy and easy at leading the dance.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out. “You wanted to stand me up, didn’t you?”

“Yep. I tried really hard to do it. Couldn’t pull it off.”

“Why did you want to stand me up?”

“For your safety.” Truth.

Chills rippled up her arms. “What do you mean?” she whispered, pulling them to a stop.

Looking up at him, the world faded away behind him, and it was just them. The song disappeared, and the murmur of people died out. It was just them in the world. She could see the glow of his bright blue eyes even through the dark lenses of his sunglasses.

“I’m paying too much attention to you,” he uttered low. He leaned forward and let his lips brush her ear. “I’m not a good friend.”

“Maybe you could work on that with me,” she said softly, rolling her eyes closed at how good it felt to be held by a big strong man like this.

Mars eased back and spun her out, and then back in, her dress twirling with the movement. She settled close to his chest once more and he pushed her backward in the dance, leading her along the edge of the dance floor.

“He really is interested in everything you do,” Mars murmured.

“We haven’t seen each other since the breakup. It’s probably just curiosity.”

“Perhaps he should pay more attention to his lady. She’s noticing his attention on you.”

“Well, I’m not asking for it,” she griped quietly. “This is uncomfortable for me too.”

Remembering she still had her half-downed wine in her free hand, she chugged it. “Want a drink?”

Mars eased his lips to her ear again and hugged her close. “I’m good. If you want to drink tonight, I can drive you home.”

“I have my car here.”

Mars shrugged. “I’ll get it to your house and do a ride share back to my truck here. It’s easy. Do you want another drink?”

But she already felt a little buzz, and she didn’t want to get sloppy this early in the night. Her whole family would be rowdy later, but for now, she was happy to take it slowly and just enjoy the time with Mars. “Water?” she asked.

His smile was so handsome and exposed a very faint dimple on his right cheek. Hot. God, could he get any sexier? “Come on,” he said, holding her hand like they’d done it a hundred times before. He led her off the dance floor and toward the bar.

There were miniature bottles of water on ice in a whisky barrel right beside the bar, and he grabbed one for both of them, opened his and tinked it against hers in a silent toast.

“So, meetings, huh?” she asked.

His smile faded and he nodded. “The asshole who bought my company is dumping it. He screwed me in the sale and now he’s going against the contract we signed. The company is going under already. I built it from the ground up, and all of the people I had originally hired are going to lose their jobs. I was pulled into a meeting with my lawyer and the buyers to try and negotiate the company going back to me so I could run it the way it was intended.”

“Did you work out a deal?” she asked.

Mars took a long sip of water and replaced the lid, then shook his head and looked toward the door. “They wanted me to pay double what I just sold it to them for. It was a long day with no solutions and me trying not to go tiger on every motherfucker in that room.” He tilted his head toward her. “You know how it is.”

“Right. Yeah.” Time for a subject change. “Looks like they opened up the buffet table,” she said, pointing toward the wall on the left. Attendees were forming a line. “Want to eat? With me?”