Chapter 13: A Dance with Alexander

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: A Dance with Alexander

"Hello." His voice washed over her like aged whiskey....deep, smooth, and touched by a rough edge that settled somewhere beneath her skin. It wasn’t loud, yet somehow she heard it above the pounding music, as though the world had quieted just enough for him.

A shiver raced down her spine.

"Hi." The single syllable escaped before she could stop it.

God, was that really her voice? It was all breathy and uncertain? Was that really her. It sounded nothing like the composed woman she usually was.

Alexander smiled. It wasn’t a polite smile or the practiced grin of a man who knew he was attractive. It was genuine, warm and devastating.

The transformation was almost unfair. He had already been breathtakingly handsome, but that smile elevated him into something dangerously irresistible.

"I’m Alexander."

"Iris."

"Iris..." He repeated her name slowly, as though savoring every syllable, letting it linger on his tongue.

His blue eyes held hers. "Beautiful name....for a beautiful woman."

Ordinarily, she would have laughed or rolled her eyes, and would have dismissed it as another rehearsed line from another handsome stranger in another nightclub.

But the way he said it....like he meant every word, like her beauty was an undeniable fact rather than empty flattery, made heat pool low in her belly.

Heat spread across her cheeks. "That’s a terrible pickup line." She surprised herself by smiling.

Alexander’s lips curved into a lopsided grin that was somehow even more dangerous than his smile. That smile of his did things to Iris.

"Is it working?"

Iris tilted her head, pretending to think about it. "...Maybe."

His grin widened. "I’ll take maybe."

For a brief moment, they simply looked at one another. The silence wasn’t awkward, it was... comfortable..as though neither of them felt any urgency to fill it.

Finally, Alexander extended his hand toward her. "Would you like to dance, Iris?"

She should say no. Should go back to Zoey and finish her drink and forget about the impossibly handsome stranger with eyes that seemed to see straight through her soul.

But instead, she took his offered hand. And the instant their skin touched...a sharp current shot through her arm.

"Whoa..." Her eyes widened. She instinctively looked down at their joined hands before looking back at him.

She laughed nervously. "That was...weird."

Alexander merely smiled. "Not to me." His fingers closed gently around hers. "It’s exactly what I expected and you have no idea how happy I am to feel that."

She blinked. "What does that mean?"

Instead of answering, he simply began leading her toward the dance floor. His hand was warm, firm without being forceful.

She noticed the roughness against his palm which felt like calluses. That was not the hands of someone who spent every day behind a polished office desk.

It was odd.

A man dressed in a suit that expensive should have had perfectly smooth hands. Yet there was something reassuring about the roughness. It made him feel...real.

The crowd seemed to instinctively shift aside as they walked. No one dared bumped into him, and no one dared block his path. It was almost as though people moved without realizing they were doing it.

And immediately, the music changed. The upbeat rhythm faded into something slower and darker. A song wrapped in hypnotic bass and smooth melodies that encouraged bodies to move closer together.

Alexander stopped. Then, without taking his eyes off hers, he rested one hand carefully against the small of her back where the fabric of her dress dipped low enough to expose bare skin.

His touch was warm and gentle, yet somehow it sent another wave of electricity dancing across her body.

Goosebumps rose along her arms which he noticed, and so he gently brushed his thumb lightly against her back.

"You alright?" He asked her and she nodded far too quickly.

"I think so." She found herself smiling. "I’m fine."

He guided without controlling, allowing her enough freedom that dancing with him felt surprisingly natural.

"Tell me something, Iris." His lips were close enough to her ear that she could hear every word despite the music.

"What brought you here tonight?"

She hesitated, her first instinct was to brush the question aside and to say she was simply having fun with a friend. But somehow...lying to him felt impossible.

She looked down briefly before answering. "Nothing important."

Alexander remained silent and she sighed.

"I just..." Her voice softened. "...wanted to forget a few things. I wanted one night where I could feel alive again."

He studied her quietly. "So..." His gaze searched hers. "You’re running from something."

It wasn’t phrased as a question and that surprised iris totally.

"What makes you think that?" She tried to sound casual, instead, her voice betrayed her with a slight tremble.

Alexander held her gaze. "Because believe it or not, when I looked into your eyes, I saw all there is to see. You see iris, i recognize the look. That desperate need to feel anything other than pain."

Iris felt her breath catch. How...how could he possibly know that?

His hand pressed more firmly against her back, pulling her closer until their bodies were nearly flush. "Tell me what happened?"

She couldn’t look away from him. She should have lied, should have laughed it off and protected herself. But instead...she heard herself answering with startling honesty.

"I caught my boyfriend..in bed with my best friend....tonight. On our three-year anniversary." She swallowed painfully. "He has been my boyfriend of three years, and she was my best friend of ten. So I feel hurt by their betrayal."

For the first time since meeting him...Alexander’s expression changed. His jaw tightened, the muscles beneath his skin flexed visibly. And for just a moment, something flickered in his blue eyes...something that looked almost feral.

"Then he’s a fool." He said.

She gave a humorless laugh. "You don’t even know me."

"I know enough." His free hand rose slowly and carefully. As though giving her every opportunity to pull away.

His fingertips brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face before his palm lightly cupped her cheek. His touch was astonishingly gentle.

"I know you’re hurting." His thumb traced softly along her cheekbone. "I know you came here searching for an escape. And I know any man who willingly throws away someone like you..." His jaw tightened again. "...doesn’t deserve what he had."

The conviction in his voice stole the air from her lungs, there was no pity and no false sympathy. Only certainty... An intensity that made her heart race.

She should have been frightened by the possessiveness hidden beneath his words. Instead...she leaned ever so slightly into his touch. The realization startled her almost as much as the gesture itself.

"Dance with me," she whispered. Her voice barely rose above the music. "Help me forget... just for tonight."

Something dark and hungry flashed across his face. "Careful what you ask for, Iris. I’m not a man who does anything halfway."

Her lips curved into a faint smile. "Good." She looked directly into his eyes. "I don’t want halfway." Her pulse quickened. "I want to feel alive again."

She held his gaze without looking away, and a flicker of confidence returned to her.

"The question is....can you manage that?"

A slow smile spread across Alexander’s face. Without another word, he gently guided her into a graceful turn, she spun effortlessly before coming to rest with her back pressed against his chest.

His arm wrapped around her waist, holding her against him as they moved to the music. She could feel every hard plane of his body, the heat of him seeping through the thin fabric of her dress.

His mouth hovered near her ear. "So beautiful..."

The words were almost lost beneath the music. Then he whispered, "Tell me to stop.....and I will."

That’s the thing....she didn’t want him to stop at all. Instead, she allowed herself to relax against him. Closing her eyes, she surrendered to the music, to the rhythm, to the strange sense of peace she hadn’t felt in weeks.

She wanted to drown in this...in him....until Jason and Vanessa and the wreckage of her life felt like something that had happened to someone else.

She let her head fall back against his shoulder, her body moving in sync with his. His hand splayed across her stomach, fingers pressing into her flesh through the dress.

She could feel his breath on her neck, hot and unsteady, and the knowledge that she was affecting him as much as he was affecting her sent a thrill through her veins.

They danced like that for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes...bodies pressed together, moving as one, the rest of the world fading away until there was nothing but the music and the heat and the desperate need building between them.

The club continued to pulse around them, but neither seemed aware of anyone else. Eventually, Alexander spoke again and this time there was something almost vulnerable in his voice.

"Tell me about yourself, Iris." The request sounded less like curiosity...and more like a plea.

She slowly turned within his arms until they were face to face once more, and almost without thinking, her hands came to rest lightly around the back of his neck.

She froze for the briefest second, wondering....When did I become this bold? This wasn’t her, she wasn’t the woman who embraced strangers after only a few minutes. She wasn’t the woman who forgot herself in another man’s arms.

And yet...standing with Alexander felt strangely effortless, comfortable and safe. As though she’d known him far longer than a single evening.

To her own surprise, Jason’s betrayal no longer sat at the forefront of her mind. Instead, another memory surfaced, the memory of Jason’s cruel words.

"I wouldn’t have cheated if you only allowed me to touch you."

The accusation had haunted her all evening. And now...It only made her angry.

How dare he blame his betrayal on her? How dare he make his lack of loyalty sound like her failure?

Her fingers tightened ever so slightly against Alexander’s shoulders. Well...his loss, she thought.

Because tonight... I’m finally going to stop crying over a man who never deserved me in the first place...and Iris decided that she was going to get back at him tonight...with this handsome stranger.