“What do you do for fun?” he challenged.
“Whatever sounds interesting at the time,” she replied, crossing her legs. Her long, wrapped skirt parted to expose her thigh in the light filtering in from the street lamps they passed.
It was all Andrew could do to keep his eyes on the road. “That sounds, er, rather impulsive,” he said, trying to keep up his end of the conversation.
“I suppose I tend to be a little impulsive at times,” she admitted. “Isn’t everyone?”
Andrew tried to recall the last time he’d acted on impulse. He realized that he’d done just that when he’d accepted Nicole’s invitation. Before that—well, it had been so long ago that he couldn’t even remember the last time.
Nicole suddenly twisted again in the seat, looking over her shoulder. “Oh, you were supposed to turn left at the last intersection. Can you turn around and go back?”
Obligingly, Andrew pulled into a vacant parking lot and turned the Range Rover around. “Where are we going?” he asked.
She swept a curl from her cheek and gave him a smile that made his mouth go dry. “Does it really matter?” she asked, and his pulse jerked in response to her sexy, husky voice.
“No,” he answered a bit hoarsely. “I guess it doesn’t.”
She tapped the dash. “Better watch the road,” she advised, making him ruefully aware that his uncharacteristically erratic driving was almost as dangerous as her smile.
He made the turn she’d requested, then followed her directions through two more turns until they arrived at a dance club he’d heard of but had never visited.
“This is what you had in mind?” he asked in surprise when she requested that he pull into the parking lot that was filled almost to overflowing with compact cars, minivans and pickup trucks.
She nodded. “Surely you’ve been here before. It’s been open for several years.”
He shook his head, not bothering to explain that the more formal country club was more to his usual taste than noisy, crowded, trendy dance clubs. He hadn’t frequented such places since shortly after leaving college, when he’d set his sights on his career goals and hadn’t allowed anything to sidetrack him. Not even his former fiancée.
“It looks crowded,” he commented, pulling into a parking space some distance from the dub’s entrance. Unfortunately, valet parking wasn’t available here. “Are you sure we can get in?”
She smiled and tossed her head. “We’ll get in.”
She had her door open almost before he’d turned off the ignition. Without waiting for his help, she slid out of the vehicle. And then she began to untie the bow at her hip that held her long wrapped skirt together.
Andrew had just unsnapped his seat belt and opened his door. Noticing her actions, he paused. “Er...what are you—”
The skirt fell away. She tossed it carelessly into the back seat and slammed the door, leaving Andrew to wonder impatiently what she was now wearing. He hurried around the back of the Range Rover. She met him there.
He froze in his tracks.
The minidress she’d worn beneath the long, sarong skirt dung like a lover’s hand to her shapely curves, and was just long enough to be legal. The neckline was sedately rounded in front, but the deep dip in the back looked even lower now that the hem was so close to it.
“Ah, aren’t you cold?” Andrew asked hoarsely. His breath hung in little white puffs in the night air.
Nicole grinned. “Freezing. Let’s hurry inside.”
“Your coat?”
She shook her head, rubbing her arms with her hands. “It would just be in the way once we get inside.”
She turned and hurried toward the building. Andrew didn’t immediately follow, being too preoccupied with staring at her backside. Her slender hips swayed gently with her rapid steps. Her legs in their sheer dark stockings looked at least a mile long, and her spiked heels were dangerously, delectably high.
She looked over her shoulder. “You are coming, aren’t you?”
I’m damned close, Andrew thought, then drew a long, bracing breath of chilled air to clear his head.
Wondering what he’d gotten himself into, and telling himself he should have realized her scarlet lipstick indicated she wasn’t quite what she’d appeared to be at first glance, he squared his shoulders and caught up with her. He was already aware that this New Year’s Eve was going to be much different than his last few.
Whether that was good news or bad remained to be seen.