Chapter 102

Tessa drew a deep breath as the crowd started to move again as a new song keyed up tempo. Her heartbeat was as fierce as his eyes were shiny with excitement. The lust between them was overwhelming at times. She could feel him against her, the intimate dancing and the atmosphere had left them both a little breathless and Jon a little on the…uncomfortable side.

She led him from the dance floor and found the small bar hidden in an alcove. The music was too loud to talk down there, but she wasn’t sure could string words together anway. As always, their bodies communicated far more effectively than any words could.

Jon leaned around her and signaled the bartender for a few more drinks and she found herself with another Cosmo in her hand. Turning, she felt his cheek brush against hers with the devil in his eyes. She sipped at her drink, shuddering slightly at the obvious kick of alcohol that was masked with perfect mixing.

He sipped at his drink this time, his eyes were slightly out of focus as if the dancing had given the four shots enough time to percolate. “I think you might be just a little tipsy,” she said as she let her nose bump along the shell of his ear so he could hear her, enjoying the softness of his hair and his unique scent.

He pulled back and gulped back his drink with a barely restrained heat in his center flame blue eyes. Pushing the glass down the ebony face of the bar, he leaned into her, more playful that she’d seen him in a few days. “And if I am?” he asked against her mouth as he braced a hand on each side of her. “Will you take advantage of me?” His even white teeth nipped at her lower lip. “Please?”

“If she won’t, I will.” She heard a voice to their left say.

Jon was still in her space…way into her dance space when he turned his gaze to the voice. She could still feel the heat of his skin along her cheek and the sizzle that had started on the dance floor. And for a split second, she was willing to do bodily harm to the person that had interrupted them. She wanted to drag him off into a corner and find out just how much they could do to each other in a public space. Or just how much he would allow, anyway.

“What the heck are you doing here?” When he recognized the woman he stood up straight with a broad grin. He went from seducer to charmer as his posture changed and he enveloped the woman in a warm hug. She swallowed her growl of frustration when she got a good look at the woman. She wasn’t swinging at GI Jane.

“Tessa, I’d like you to meet Demi,” he turned back to her, pulling her forward, leaving his hand at the small of her back. “Damn, I haven’t seen you in ages.” His smile was wide and where sin had been, there was now open pleasure. She was obviously a true friend and not a Hollywood acquaintance.

“Well, Elton throws a party and me and Ash come a callin’.” She said in a voice that was smoke and sex.

Jon looked around the room, “Where’s the new hubby?”

Demi Moore held her hand out to her. “Nice to meet you, don’t mind my husband, he’s talking sports with Tiki. He’s so excited he can barely control himself.”

Tessa couldn’t stop staring at the woman. She was flawless in a subtle flash of jet colored strappy brocade that hugged her body to perfection. Her arms were toned and spoke of her love affair with the Raw diet she’d heard so much about in the magazines and news. There wasn’t a spare bit of flesh on her body that wasn’t feminine grace. Hair, nearly the same shade as her dress, fell down her back in a cascade of silk with a sheen that spoke of money and pampering.

She waved at the bartender, “Vodka tonic, lots of lime,” she said in her famous husky tones. She smiled at Tessa. “I didn’t realize Jon had finally started dating. How’d you two meet?”

Her demeanor seemed very relaxed and friendly and when she slid her arm through hers, Tessa barely stuttered. “You’d never believe me.”

Demi’s dark eyes twinkled. She turned to Jon. “Yeah, you need to go away now. Go find Ash and keep him out of trouble.”

Jon rolled his eyes and pressed an almost chaste kiss at the corner of Tessa mouth. “Don’t believe anything she has to say about me,” he said and melted into the crowd. Tessa watched as he found a black man very similar to his own height and thumped him on the back in that man code of welcome.

Demi followed her gaze. “Welcome to Hollyweird, New York style,” she laughed. “C’mon I want to know everything.” She accepted the drink and steered them up the stairs where you could actually hear without shouting. They found a few chairs in a corner and dragged a small cocktail table over between them. “Spill it,” she said and sipped at the clear fizzing drink.

Tessa laughed nervously, “I don’t know how to start.”

“Start at the beginning, the sex.”

Tessa’s mouth dropped open. “I-“

“C’mon darlin’ that mouth…you so didn’t last long. If I wasn’t happily married I would have snatched him up, even if he is prettier than me.”

She sighed, “No, I didn’t last long. I run a bookstore in Red Bank and we met there when he brought his kids in for a reading.” She quickly explained the Storytime Sundays. “I was dressed like a pirate for God’s sake.”

“Talk about memorable.” She laughed and sipped at her drink again. “And…”

Tessa blushed, “We’ll just say that he plundered my treasure pretty quickly.”

Her head tipped back as her rich laugh spilled free. “He’s always been Mr. Smooth.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” she said with a wry smile. “He had to be pretty smooth to get me on my back as quickly as he did.” Her throaty laugh left Tessa blushing. She’d obviously had way too much of that Cosmo. “I-“

“Oh honey, don’t go shy on me now. It’s good to see that kind of response because by tomorrow there will be wild speculation in the most epic of proportions. Stay with that sense of humor and you’ll survive it, maybe even enjoy it.” She sat back in her chair and clinked her ice around in her glass as she gave her a slow smile. “Try not to cringe at the pictures you’ll see everywhere.”

Tessa tried not to slide down in her chair. Sweet hell, just the thought of the pictures was enough to send her under the table. Had she really buffed and polished enough to withstand the paparazzi?

She glanced around the room at the beautiful people with their real jewels dripping from necks and ears, and their Prada, Versace, and Valentino labels and suddenly felt overwhelmed.

But then she looked through the beautiful, scrolled ironwork to the man standing below. He was talking with his hands and an animated face that could only mean football. When the excitement echoed in Tiki Barber’s face, she knew Giants had to be the topic of conversation. Ashton, Demi’s husband, was gesturing just as wildly about what could only be a pass that won a Superbowl.

Demi’s gaze followed hers, “Makes a girl want to blow the party before midnight, doesn’t he?”

Jon looked up as if he could feel them both watching and the smile was blinding. Tessa’s nerves washed away. It wasn’t the smile of a man humoring his date; it was that kind of smile that said, ‘you make me happy.’ It didn’t much matter who was wearing what when you had a man like that waiting for you.

Demi stood up, “C’mon, let’s go rescue them from themselves.”

Tessa followed her down the stairs and was pulled into a flourishing waltz as soon as she stepped off the last stair. She gripped the shoulders of an extremely tall man with long, ebony hair and the chiseled cheekbones of a Greek God. “Where have you been all my life, Cara?”

Tessa blinked up at what could only be a runway model and heard herself say, “New Jersey.”

“Ah, someone so exquisite could not come from New Jersey,” he said with a heavy Italian accent. He whirled her around the perimeter. She looked over her shoulder and Demi just laughed and waved from her place next to her husband. She mouthed, “Help me.” Unfortunately Demi seemed too amused to be her lifeline.

“So, will you come away with me? I simply must make love you.”

Tessa’s head snapped back to him and her green eyes widened, “Excuse me?”

“You were made for sex, Cara.”

Tessa looked up at the man and decided he was serious. “Does that line work, Romeo?”

“My name is Gio, but I will surely be your Romeo, Cara.”

He couldn’t possibly be that thick, but then again some women would fall for that. She might have a few weeks ago just to see all of that naked. Of course a month ago she wouldn’t have been in his stratosphere, let alone his vicinity. "I don't think so."

“You wound me!” He twirled her again and dipped her. “Surely I can change your mind.” Dark eyes glittered with humor and challenge.

“I’m flattered I think, but I’m taken.”

“Very taken,” came a familiar male voice.