food was. All Mariela could think about was whether Lennox would be there thirty minutes from when Fulton talked to her or from when he spoke to Fulton. Because she really didn’t know what time he’d called Fulton.
He could possibly be here any second!
“I’m sorry,” she said to the woman currently chewing her ear off about where she bought the Christmas tree. “I just remembered I’m supposed to meet someone.”
She didn’t wait for a reply, but nearly ran from the bathroom. She looked around the room for Fulton. She had to know what time he’d talked to Lennox.
Damn it. Why didn’t she see him? He couldn’t have gone that far. She spun around to look for him outside the ballroom and ran smack into someone’s chest.
A familiar pair of arms came around her at the same time she looked up and into the eyes she’d been fantasizing about the last few weeks.
“Where’s the fire?” Lennox asked, and his smile was so genuine, it made her ache with happiness.
And his lips. She needed his lips.
Not even bothering to answer his question, she snaked her arms around him and pulled him toward her. She wasn’t sure what came over her as she pressed her lips against his.
Lennox seemed momentarily taken aback, but it was mere seconds before his arms tightened around her. God, the feeling of being in his embrace again was the best feeling in the world. She held him to her tightly, never wanting to be parted from him again.
Lennox must have felt the same because it wasn’t until several nearby people discreetly coughed that he pulled away.
“Welcome home,” she said, once she managed to catch her breath. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” He dropped his head to whisper so no one other than her heard him say, “And later tonight I’ll show you exactly how much.”
Her heart raced. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
He took her hand. “But first we must be social.”
She groaned, but knew he was right and walked alongside him.
“The decorations are beautiful,” Lennox said, looking around the ballroom. “Not that I would have expected anything else.”
“Thanks, but you know, after a few years, you get it down pat pretty quickly.” She tilted her head, wondering if he’d made peace with his demons or if they still haunted him.
“What?” he asked. “What’s the look for?”
“How was your time away?” But that really wasn’t the question she wanted to ask.
“You mean have I found peace with myself and Winnie for what happened?” At her nod, he continued, “Yes, I think I finally have.”
She smiled. “I’m glad.” And she was. He could move on now. Maybe they both could.
“I went by her grave today,” he said. “And, for the first time, I didn’t walk away feeling guilty.”
He truly had found what he’d been searching for. She didn’t want to say she was glad again, so she simply nodded.
“I talked to her for a while. Explained a few things.” He got a faraway look in his eyes and they looked misty, but just for a second. “It’s funny. I had the strangest feeling she was standing there, that she was nearby. Watching and listening.”
The skin on the back of her neck tingled and she reached up to rub the sensitive spot.
“I bet she was,” she said.
“Makes sense.” He nodded. “That she would come by one last time when I was finally ready to say good-bye.”
“You really told her good-bye?” Something that felt a lot like hope started to swell within her chest. “For good?”
“Being away from everything helped me to realize I’m not dead and I need to stop acting like I am. And I realized how foolish I was in denying my Dom nature. Don’t you find it to be slightly ironic that I planned to end my relationship with Winnie because I couldn’t give up being a Dom and yet that’s exactly what I did when she died?”
“I’d say that’s a bit more than slightly ironic.”
He reached out a tentative hand and brushed her cheek. “It’s what you’ve been trying to tell me all along, isn’t it?”
She tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but it was too hard with the gentle way he touched her. The light stroke of his fingers against her skin brought to mind memories of the night they’d spent together in the cottage. Her body remembered his touch and longed for more of it. She felt herself lean into his hand.
“Oh, Marie,” he whispered. “Look at me.”
She lifted her eyes to capture his gaze and her heart nearly beat out of her chest. The look he had for her was so different than any expression she’d ever seen on his face before, even with Winnie. It was a look of determination, love, and promise, but more than that, it was a look of new beginnings.
He ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “Dance with me?”
She nodded mutely and allowed him to lead her into the main section of the ballroom. As they passed the guests, everyone grew quiet. Her cheeks heated.
Lennox bent down to whisper in her ear, “Sorry, looks like you’re the center of attention and I know you only like that when you’re naked.”
“That’s okay,” she whispered back. “The only other option is to strip down to nothing and I don’t think that would fit with the holiday-party spirit.”
He gave a low chuckle but didn’t speak again until they’d made it to the dance floor. She expected him to take her in his arms, but instead, he simply kept hold of her hand and turned to face her.
“You and I have worked together for how many years?” he asked.
She wrinkled her forehead, both because for one, she couldn’t remember exactly how long it’d been and two, for the life of her, she couldn’t fathom why he was asking her that now. “Umm, almost three years?”
“That’s what I thought. It doesn’t seem possible, but I don’t think we’ve ever danced together.”
They hadn’t. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized it sooner. “No, we haven’t. In fact, one of the things I remember from all our previous balls is how upset I’d get watching you dance with damn near every woman in the room, except me.”
“I was too afraid before,” he said.
“And you’re not anymore?”
Instead of answering, he swept her into his arms and began leading her around the room. There were a few other couples dancing, but Mariela felt as if every eye in the place was on them. Had she been able to tear herself away from Lennox’s gaze, she would have looked.
“We may not have danced before tonight, but you’re the only woman I’m dancing with tonight,” he said.
“That hardly seems fair to all the other women here.”
“Too bad.”
He pulled her close then and she wasn’t able to think about other women, the decorations, or who was watching. As they danced, everything around them disappeared into a low hum and, for those few precious moments, even the other people seemed to fade away until it was only the two of them and a thousand white lights.
He was an accomplished dancer; she knew as much from observing him in the past. Yet her observation fell far short of experiencing his hard body pressed against her. Or the way his hand settled along the small of her back as if it belonged there. It most certainly hadn’t left her with any indication of how it’d feel to have his warm breath tickling her ear.
“You’re like magic in my arms,” he said. “It’s as if I’ve never danced before.”
She almost told him he was being corny but decided not to. The newly exposed tender side was such an interesting contrast to his old self. She could put up with a bit of corniness if she had to.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Fulton and Andie take to the dance floor. No doubt they were hoping for a song to play for a swing dance. Andie caught her eye and gave her a not-so-subtle thumbs-up that made several people nearby laugh.
“Those two,” Lennox said, shaking his head. “They’re nothing but trouble.”
“Agreed,
” she said. “But it’s the good kind of trouble, so we’ll let it slide.”
He looked down at her, his voice serious, though his eyes were filled with laughter. “And what kind of trouble am I?”