Sometimes

Chapter twenty-six

My mind was back on Sonny again as we started dancing.  The strobe lighting was a bit disorientating, but I hung onto his smile, making sure to match his expression.  Flirting was all about being in sync, Cassie had said.  I had to make sure that I copied his body language.  Not that I knew a lot about it.  I was just sticking to smiling when he did and going for the simple flirty touches. 

     Beast had finished their set now, so the moshing on the far side of the dance floor had stopped.  I’d only noticed it when I’d glimpsed Roz and Leanne bounding around with a group of guys.  I’d caught Sonny gazing at them too, but he’d just smiled when he’d spotted my eyes on him.

    The nerves hit then.  This was it; I was alone with Sonny.  No distractions.  My mind was no longer lingering on Brandon’s presence, too busy dreaming up ways that I could win Sonny over.  The butterflies in my gut were now doing the conga around my body, leaving me finding it hard to breathe.  I looked to Sonny for reassurance to see him watching me dance.  I was doing the hand on my neck thing again.  It seemed to be working though.  He had a lazy smile on his face that seemed to wash the nerves away.  It should have had the opposite effect really.  I should have been on the floor, knees weak and heart pumping furiously, but I wasn’t.  I blamed the alcohol.  It seemed to want me to get my kiss with Sonny.

    “Do you like this song?” he shouted over the music.  His gaze swept over the length of my body and chill ran up my spine.  “You seem to know how to dance to it.”

I shrugged, at a loss for words.  The way he was observing me, now wearing an even lazier smile, one eyebrow raised in appreciation.  The image made me melt.  He looked so sexy, right then in that moment, that I really did have to fight to keep my arms from flying around his neck.  My eyes fell to his lips again and I bit my own lip in anticipation.

    “You looked nervous when you were dancing earlier.  With Leanne.”  The words left my mouth all of a sudden, ending up sounding like a statement rather than the question that I’d been thinking of asking.

He laughed, a sound my ears could pick out easily, even over the sound of the pounding bass line.  “Leanne likes to dance like a woman possessed.  Especially when she’s had a few drinks.”

I ran a hand over my hair, trying out the flirting technique that Cassie had showed me.  “I saw.”

    “I like to take it slow.”  His eyes were on my hips as I swayed side to side with the beat of the music.

I smiled and he looked away, catching himself looking at me in a way that was making the butterflies dance.  “Oh.”

    “And it’s liquid confidence,” he admitted.

    “I know the feeling,” I agreed.

We both laughed then, in a way that almost out right said that we both knew something was going on.  Something that I’d been dreaming about for the last few months.

    But then Brandon was back.  It was clear that he was trying to get my attention now.  He had the whole run of the place, yet he kept appearing next to me, like some creepy stalker.  I’d never pinned him as a stalker really, not even before I told him the truth.  I’d just thought of him as love sick.  He came across as desperate now though, watching me over the rim of his glass like a private detective.  He wasn’t doing a very good job of being subtle about it.

    “What’s wrong?”

Sonny’s hand was on my shoulder this time, and his bare skin on mine felt electric.  “Uh.”  I looked up to see him scanning the area that Brandon was in.  I had no intention of telling him the truth, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself if Brandon was watching me for the rest of the night.  “It’s just some guy.”