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Regina drew her head back. “There’s no ice wall around me.”
“No? I’ve watched you freeze out four great-looking guys in an hour. What would you call it?”
“Smart?”
All four had reminded her of her ex in some way: the first in looks; the second in attitude; the third in his approach; and finally the fourth in his choice of clothing.
Of course, Santa Claus would probably remind her of her ex at this point.
Over recent months, Vivienne had ceaselessly invited her out and she’d ceaselessly resisted. It had only been in the past few weeks she’d finally stopped reading every word of every online newspaper searching for signs that shadows from the past were about to stretch over and suffocate her present.
Still…she wasn’t quite ready to go out and act like a carefree single woman just yet.
Viv laughed and nudged her shot glass even closer. “One. You can at least do that for me.”
Regina stretched her neck. “One?”
Her friend smiled.
If that’s what it was going to take to shut Viv up, Regina figured she could handle that.
So why did she have a feeling those were going to be her famous last words?
She followed Viv’s lead, licked her hand and then sprinkled salt on it. On the count of three, they simultaneously licked the salt, downed the shots of tequila and then quickly took a lemon slice and sucked on it.
Viv hooted. Regina shuddered.
“Another!”
She should have known her friend wouldn’t settle for stopping there. But rather than be upset, she found herself laughing. The seemingly harmless liquid was already beginning to warm her insides, as if it were, indeed, melting the ice wall to which Viv referred.
She shook salt onto the back of her hand and reached for the second shot. Viv cheered and counted to three. They both smacked the shot glasses onto the bar and then reached for the lemon.
Before she knew what she was doing, she was downing the third shot.
Regina smiled. She had to admit, the liquor was beginning to soften the world’s hard edges. She leaned against the bar rather than standing ramrod straight. Thankfully, every guy no longer seemed a variation on her ex. The lights looked soothing instead of garish. The music wended around and around her, making her want to dance. Something she hadn’t done in a long, long, long time.
Something she’d never expected to do again.
Vivienne raised her hand to wave the bartender back, but Regina caught her arm. “No more.”
Her smile must have convinced her friend that she had, indeed, been cured, because Viv laughed and grabbed Regina’s hand instead.
“Let’s dance.”
Suddenly, it seemed like the best idea she’d heard all night…
TEN STOOLS DOWN, Linc watched the scene between the two women. He’d have known Willa Nelson aka Regina Dodson anywhere, despite the lengths she’d gone to to change her appearance along with her name. Where once her hair had been wheat blond, long and straight, now it was a warm honey brown and curly, barely brushing her slender shoulders.
At one time he might have needed to physically trail someone in order to track their activities, but now he had but to plug their cell-phone number into a high-tech app in his own cell phone and their location popped up. When he’d seen Regina was at a downtown club, he’d immediately gone there, wondering if Johnson might try to contact her.
When he’d gotten word a couple of days ago on Johnson’s escape, and he’d looked up Willa’s whereabouts, he’d been surprised to find she’d moved into his own backyard. Of course, he hadn’t lived in Colorado two years ago—“home” had been little more than a standard-issue Bureau box of an apartment in D.C. then. But to discover they both lived in the same place seemed like more than coincidence; it appeared providential.
From his safe, invisible position down the bar, he’d watched Regina’s friend—he knew her name was Vivienne Cruise—coax his target into doing tequila shots. He’d been slightly amused at Regina’s open shudder at the first…and surprised, then intrigued when she’d gone on to do the second and third.
The two women were now dancing. And he suspected that even if he didn’t have to watch Regina, he would have anyway. There was something ultimately alluring about the hesitant yet intrinsically sexy way she moved her slender body, despite the shapeless green dress and low heels she wore, contrasting with her friend’s fire-engine-red skirt and blouse and strappy black stilettos.
An odd couple if ever there was one.
The friend caught his gaze from across the room.
Damn.
He turned back toward the bar, but caught sight of the woman in the mirror as she grabbed Regina’s hand and started in his direction…
2
“WHERE ARE we going?” Regina asked, nearly stumbling trying to keep up with Vivienne’s long strides toward a destination she couldn’t see. Still, you weren’t supposed to fight the hand leading you. And she was feeling good. Perhaps a little too good.
“Well, hello there.”
Regina realized they had stopped. She stepped up next to her friend to find her addressing the wide back of a guy seated at the bar.
At first Regina thought he wasn’t going to respond. Then he slowly turned, looking her full in the face.
She caught her breath.
“My God!” Vivienne said. “You look just like that wrestler…or actor. What’s his name? The Rock.”
Regina fairly gulped as she stared into the man’s pitch-black eyes. While she understood the comparison her friend was making, this guy was different in significant ways from the actor. First of all, his features weren’t as sharp, but more angular. Second, he was slimmer, his build more ropy than bulky.
She took in his simple black T-shirt and dark denim jeans and then blinked to look back up into his mesmerizing eyes. He had yet to acknowledge her friend.
“Hi,” Viv said, obviously amused. “My name’s Vivienne. And the one you’re interested in is Regina. What’s your name?”
“Lincoln.”
Vivienne’s smile widened. “Wanna dance, Linc?”
His brows rose as he looked them over. “With both of you?”
“Uh-huh,” Viv confirmed.
Regina glanced at her. She wanted all three of them to dance together? She raised a hand to her forehead, pushing her hair back, wondering if it had been a good idea to drink those shots…
“Sure.”
Before she knew what was happening, she was back on the dance floor between Viv and Linc. She hadn’t realized he was so tall when he was sitting on the stool, but now he towered over her by a good foot. Her friend put her hands on her hips from behind and swiveled her to stand face-to-face with Linc. She stumbled and he automatically reached to balance her.
“I’ve always wanted to do that dance from my favorite movie!” Vivienne said from behind her.
“What movie?” Regina asked.
“Dirty Dancing. You know, the one where Jennifer Grey dances with Patrick Swayze and his partner?” She reached for her right hand and then Linc’s and put them together, then resumed her place behind Regina, complete with hands on her hips.
Regina slowly looked up into Linc’s striking face. God, but he was handsome. And the way he looked at her melted away whatever might be left of her reserve. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears, nearly drowning out the music. Her skin tingled all over. And an ache she hadn’t experienced in what seemed like forever took up residence between her thighs.
“Come on,” Vivienne said. “Let’s move.”
Linc moved his right foot forward and she dropped her left one back as Vivienne did the same behind her, the hands on her hips guiding her into the next step.
There was something naughtily hot about the movement. Especially when Linc leaned in closer, points of his body making contact with hers. Mmm…he smelled good. Like deep woods and fresh air and hot male. And his hand where it held hers was big and warm, sending little shocks of sensation up her arms and across her chest, hardening her nipples under her dress.
Much, much too much time had passed since she’d been this close to a man. Her senses didn’t seem to know what to do with the overwhelming input washing over them. Of course, the alcohol probably heightened that effect.
Just then, Regina didn’t care how or why she’d come to be in that particular spot at that particular time. She was merely enjoying that she was. And didn’t want to be anywhere else…
DAMN, SHE WAS INTOXICATING.
Linc wasn’t much of a drinker—he preferred to remain in control at all times—but on the few occasions he had indulged, he’d had a similar rush to the one he was feeling right now, looking down into Regina’s face.
He easily led the steps Vivienne suggested, finding the scene reenactment subtly sexy. The movie was one of his aunt’s favorites and he’d been forced to watch it with her no fewer than a dozen times over the years during his visits.
Somehow in all his research, he’d missed the fact that Regina was stunningly attractive. Then again, maybe he hadn’t missed it so much as hadn’t anticipated his reaction to her being this close. It wasn’t often he came into face-to-face contact with one of his subjects, much less cheek to cheek.
His gaze skimmed her features, taking in the arch of her soft brows, the sizzling warmth in her green eyes, the almost poutlike quirk of her full lips. This close up he also understood that she wasn’t as thin as he’d originally thought. There wasn’t a single sharp angle to her.
His jeans tightened incrementally with each brush of his body against hers.
She readjusted her hand in his. He looked at her fingers and short, clean nails, totally unlike the bloodred polished ones her friend had. He knew Regina worked as a waitress at a small downtown diner and imagined she must do a lot to keep her hands as soft as they were.
He’d already guessed she didn’t drink often. If he needed further proof of that, her unsteadiness on her feet was clear evidence.
As she swayed toward him, his body instantly reacted, need, sure and swift, exploding through him.
“Sorry.” He saw her speak the word rather than hear it as she looked up into his face, her nose mere millimeters from his.
He swallowed hard, wanting to kiss her so much in that one moment it was all he could do to stop himself.
Interestingly, he didn’t have to. Because she kissed him.
He wasn’t surprised to find she tasted as good as she looked. Strawberry lip gloss teased his taste buds even as the tang of tequila remained on her breath.
“I say we get out of here,” Vivienne said behind her.
Regina blinked and drew away. “What?”
“I don’t think the lady’s ready to leave yet,” Linc said, not wanting to let her go just then.
“I meant the three of us…”
Linc looked from Regina to Vivienne and back again.
He couldn’t have agreed more…
3
REGINA TRIED TO open her eyes, but she feared they were fused shut. She rubbed her eyelids and then blinked against the bright morning sunlight flooding the bedroom in her small apartment. Her head pounded and her body ached in places she hadn’t been consciously aware of until that very moment. She groaned and closed her eyes again, rolling over…straight into something.
Before totally registering someone else was in the bed, she was out of it. It took her a moment to realize she wore nothing but her birthday suit. She grabbed the throw that had been lying on top of her bed but was now on the floor.
A groan and then the figure under the sheet rolled over.
“Vivienne!” she said. “For God’s sake, you scared me half to death.”
“Why are you whispering?” Her friend smiled and looked around. “Is this your bed?”
Regina pulled the throw closer. Sleepovers had never been part of the plan before. Never mind open nakedness. Viv’s casual tone inched her uneasiness higher.
Slowly but surely, some of last night’s events played out in her mind. Little more than blurry snippets of candlelight, music, wine and more, um, dirty dancing in the living room.
And her and Linc and other naughty goings-on.
Oh, no…
She stared at the bed, her heart hammering in her throat even as heat warmed her blood.
“What happened?” Viv asked, stripping back the top sheet.
Regina started to close her eyes to keep from seeing more than she wanted, then realized her friend was wearing her bra and underpants—red satin with black lace. The type of lingerie Regina would never dare buy herself no matter how much she might want to.
She let out a long breath. While the undergarments weren’t what she was used to seeing her friend in, it wasn’t complete nudity. She’d seen more of her in her bathing suit.
“Coffee?”
Regina squealed at the sound of the male voice behind her. She whirled to face none other than the guy they’d met at the bar last night.
He was here?
Still?
Her gaze trailed to the bed, to him and back.
Oh, no…
His grin was one hundred percent pure sin.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
