"So you don't think breaking his leg is all we did." His smile was wry.
Holly gave him a doubtful look, but she couldn't help smiling and sharing a moment of rapport with Lukas. He asked her about her classes, and he surprised her by talking about his own courses.
"I don't know what I want," he said. "I just try things. See what I like. I've got geology this semester that is kind of cool. And-don't laugh-but I like Latin. But what the hell do you do with Latin?" He shrugged. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
Holly, disarmed by Lukas liking Latin, found herself telling him about her own plans and dreams. "Nothing grandiose. I want to get married, have a family. I've always wanted kids."
"Me, too," Lukas said. Another surprise. "Not anytime soon, though," he added quickly. "Not ready to settle down yet."
She wasn't at all surprised by that. "Before I have kids, though," she went on, "I think I'll teach."
"You'll be good at it," Lukas said. And when she raised a questioning brow, he shrugged. "You should be able to handle a classroom. You always kept me in my place." His wicked grin flashed, inviting her smile in return, and Holly did.
The whole evening was like that-Lukas attentive and fun to be with-a Lukas that once upon a time she had dared to imagine might lurk beneath his teasing, baiting, infuriating exterior. But if that Lukas ever even existed, he'd seemed far out of reach.
She shouldn't even be thinking about him that way. She was engaged! She was going to marry Matt!
So she deliberately closed her eyes and tried to pretend that he was Matt. But the aftershave was wrong, the way he moved on the dance floor was smoother, easier. His height was wrong, too. She opened her eyes again at the feel of something feathery touching her forehead and saw Lukas's lips so close they could kiss her brow. Holly sucked in a careful breath and shoved the thought away.
Why were there so many slow dances tonight?
Holly longed for something fast and furious to burn off her awareness, to give her some space. But when the next one was fast, it was no better. Seeing Lukas's body shimmy and thrust to the music while she did the same, created something elemental, primeval, between them.
Holly tried to deny it. It was only dancing, she told herself. But their bodies were in sync, moving, shifting apart, coming together. And at the end Lukas grabbed her hand, then spun her out and reeled her back into his chest so that his body spooned against hers as he wrapped her in his arms.
"Oh!" Holly's body was trembling, her heart hammering. His hands cradled her breasts. One of his legs had slid between her own. Holly tried to get her balance, to pull away. But her overheated body wanted nothing to do with that. She turned to stare breathlessly up at him.
Lukas was breathing hard, too. His cheeks were flushed, his forehead damp, his hair tousled across his forehead. Her fingers itched to brush it back, to feel its silkiness between her fingers. Deliberately, she knotted those fingers into fists.
"Hot work," he muttered. "Let's get something to drink."
"Yes." Before she went up in flames.
He got them each a soft drink, and they stood watching as the next dance began. It was a slow one again. Romantic. If they danced now, Lukas would pull her into his arms. Holly felt her body trembling.
"Let's sit this one out." Lukas's voice was gruff.
"Yes." Holly nodded and took a desperate gulp of soda, praying that it would cool her down. But nothing cooled her down that night. Amid the kaleidoscope of lights and sounds, of fast dances and slow, she was seduced by the moment, by the night. She told herself it wasn't Lukas making her feel this way. But she had to admit he had made it a night to remember. He'd been the Lukas she'd dared to dream he could be.
When the prom ended, several friends were heading off together for a late meal. Had she been with Matt, no doubt they would have joined them. Holly expected Lukas to breathe a sigh of relief, bundle her into his car and take her straight home.
But when her friend Lucy called over, "Do you guys want to come to Woody's?" Lukas had looked at her.
"Do you?"
She hadn't expected that, and was ready to say no, sure he'd had enough of the evening, of her. But before she could answer at all, he went on. "That's what you do on prom, isn't it? Stay out till dawn?"
Stay out till dawn? With Lukas Antonides? An inappropriate flutter of anticipation tickled her. "Well, I-"
He raised a brow. "Would you go with Matt?"
"Sure, but-"
"We'll come," he said to Lucy. He slanted Holly a grin. "After all, I'm standing in for Matt."
So they went to Woody's, an upscale version of a fifties diner, full of her classmates, all laughing and talking, still on a high from the dance. Lukas, to her surprise, fit right in. He talked sports and surfing and sailboats with the guys. He was easy and charming to their dates.
They squashed into a booth with three other couples. Holly would have been comfortable with Matt shoved in next to her, would have relaxed when he slipped an arm around her. But when Lukas did it, she could feel every inch of the hard muscles of his arm. She was more aware of the heat of his body pressed hard against her than of anything anyone was saying.
She was sure Lukas wasn't aware of her with the same intensity. His knee bumped hers, then finally settled against it, and he didn't seem to notice. He kept right on talking to Sam, Lucy's date, even as his fingers played with a strand of her hair. If she turned her head even slightly, her lips would brush his fingers. Holly shivered and looked straight ahead. It didn't mean a thing. It was just Lukas. He didn't mean anything by it.
But her whole body was thrumming with awareness by the time they left Woody's. The noise subsided when the door shut behind them. The night breeze on her heated skin made Holly shiver.
"You're cold," Lukas said. "Here, have my jacket." He made to shrug out of his coat.
Wear Lukas's suit coat still warm from his body? Holly shook her head quickly. "N-no, thanks. I'm fine. It's lovely out here, isn't it?" She did a pirouette in the parking lot, looking up at the night sky, trying desperately to get her bearings, to get her feet on the ground.
Lukas glanced up briefly, then looked straight back at her. "Not as lovely as you."
Holly stared at him in shock. Was she losing her hearing? Imagining things? "Was that a compliment?" she ventured.
"I can give them," he said gruffly.
"Not to me."
His mouth twisted. "Don't let it go to your head." Now he sounded more like the Lukas she'd always known, but perhaps just a little bit kinder. Then, like the gentleman he had never been until that night, Lukas opened the car door for her, then shut it once she got in.
"You know, one of the things I hated most about you-" she said when Lukas got in and shut the car door.
He had been about to put the key in the ignition. Instead, he stopped and looked at her, startled. Then a corner of his mouth quirked up. "Just one? I'm sure you have a whole long list."
She did, but this was one she felt compelled to share. "Yes, but listening to you guys talking back there reminded me of this one."
Lukas raised a brow, waiting for her to speak.
"I hated that you wouldn't let me go sailing with you. You used to take Matt out with your dad and your brothers, but you wouldn't take me." She probably shouldn't even be admitting that it had mattered.
Lukas looked thoughtful, then he nodded, put the key in the ignition and turned it. The car hummed to life, but he didn't put it in gear immediately. Instead, he stared straight ahead in the dimly lit parking lot as if making up his mind about something. Deciding if he should apologize? That would definitely be un-Lukas-like.
Finally, he turned to her. "You want to go sailing? I could take you sailing."
"When you and Matt get your boat finished?" Holly said with a tiny smile. "The twelfth of never?"
"No. Now." There was a rough edge to his voice. And though it was dark in the car, Holly could feel his gaze on her as if he were touching her.
"Now?" she said doubtfully. "Tonight?"
"Don't want to take the boat out in the dark. But when it starts to get light... How about that? We'll end the night with a sail." And he gave her one of those amazing Lukas Antonides grins that would have caused a saint to cave in to temptation.
Holly was no saint. Besides, it was just sailing, she told her sensible self, the one that was telling her to say no. He was, for once, being kind. It was Lukas's way of making up for years of thwarting her. Was she supposed to throw it back in his face?