Nerves climbed from their dance party in my belly up to my throat as I washed my hands at the sink. The bathroom and retiring area were a lot more crowded now. We needed to get back out there and have fun, dammit. “I don’t know what to do with the information you gave me. I’m too champagne-headed for this,” I said. And I wasn’t sure I believed her. But I wanted to, and that was pretty terrifying.

“I don’t know what to do with what you told me either,” she said with a wistful grin. “So I’m going to pretend you didn’t.”

We agreed to one more drink and a few more dances, and then we’d call it a night. I was hoping to be too tired to even think let alone wake up breathless as I still did most nights. Outside the quiet chatter of the retiring room, the deep throb of the club resumed. The music had changed from 90’s classics to sexier, deeper beats. My thoughts were whirling. Back at the bar we ordered two more glasses of champagne. The place seemed even more electrified than it had been before we went to the restroom. The bartender looked up and past us into the distance for a moment, and then turned to grab an open bottle from a silver ice bucket.

I turned to look behind me to see what had caught his attention and only saw the dark, smoky club—laughing faces, and dancing bodies on the dance floor. Then something made me look up. Maybe it was because there was an energy drawing attention upward.

My throat closed.

He was there, on an upper level, his white shirt turned up to his elbows that leaned on the railing, looking down over the crowded club.

Xavier Pascale. Scowling like he’d kill anyone who came near him. The energy of the entire room seemed swept into his orbit even though he stood alone, telegraphing don’t-fuck-with-me vibes.

In slow motion his gaze found us then found me, and my mouth went dry.

Andrea must have seen me staring, or she felt the shift along with everyone else. “Holy shit,” she said. “I think I need a cold shower.”

“Huh?” I forced my eyes from him and turned to her.

“Never mind. I guess you’re going up there.”

“What?” My heart pounded in my chest and ears. “No. I’m staying with you.”

“No. You need to go talk. I don’t mind. Trust me.”

“I do. I mind. We came to dance. We came to have fun. Let’s do that.” I tilted the champagne and gulped it down, the tiny bubbles almost threatening to explode out my nose, I drank so fast. My eyes watered.