Authors: Stephanie Jackson
Gabriel tried his best to not
to
watch Dani dance with the man he’d seen standing beside their table, but he couldn’t stop himself. He saw the man slide his hand down to the upper curve of Dani’s behind and cringed.
“Excuse me?” he said when he realized Donna had said something.
“I said, ‘
So Dani’s your cousin
’
?” she repeated.
“Yes, my cousin,” he mumbled.
“What?” Donna said loudly.
“Yes, she’s my cousin,” h
e said louder, so she could hear
him over the music.
“She’s never mentioned you before,” Donna said.
“We’re distant cousins. We don’t get to see each other very often,” he said, going along with the story Dani had told her.
“That’s a shame
;
you should visit more often. I know
I’d
like to see more of you,” Donna said and purposely brushed her breasts against his chest.
Gabriel pulled back from her, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He tried to step
a
way when the song ended, but Donna tugged him back to her and trapped him for another song. He glanced back to where Dani and the man had been dancing, but they were gone. He looked back to the table and saw Danni sitting at the booth, draining the last of her drink.
“Shouldn’t we go and sit with Dani
?” Gabriel asked.
“I don’t want her to feel left out.”
Donna looked back at the table just in time to see the
man Dani had danced with return
and hand Dani another drink. Dani smiled and took the drink from him. The man slid into the booth and sat close to Dani;
too
close.
“She’s doing just fine without us,” Donna said, and laughed.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to leave her with a stranger?” he said, trying to come up with a reason to leave the dance floor.
Donna looked back over h
er shoulder at
look at the man again.
“He’s not a stranger; she’s danced with him before. I think she migh
t have even slept with him,
but I can’t remember for sure. I think his name is Evan or Everett,” Donna said.
“Ethan,” Gabriel said.
“That’s it,
Ethan
…but how did you know that?” Donna asked, pulling back to look up at him.
“He looks like an Ethan,” Gabriel said quickly, realizing too late that he should’ve kept his mouth shut.
“Okay…” Donna said, and pressed up against him again.
The song ended
,
and Donna let him step away, but grabbed onto his arm to lead him back to the bar.
“We left our drinks up here,” she said.
3.
Donna grabbed her
drink from the bar, swallowed it
down in two gulps, and ordered three more. She threw a handful of cash on the bar when the bartender returned with the drinks. Then she finally led them over to the booth where Dani
had
been sitting.
Gabriel looked around the bar to se
e where Dani had gone this time
and spotted her
out on the dance floor with Ethan. The glass she’d been drinking out of was sitting empty on the table.
It was a fast song playing now, and Gabriel watched Dani dance. He really didn’t like the way she was dancing with Ethan. She was allowing the man to be way to intimate with her. Dani was facing away from Ethan, and Ethan had his hands on Dani’s hips.
“It’s good to see her having a good time, isn’t it?
” Donna said.
“
This is the first t
ime Dani has been out in months.
”
“She’s getting drunk,” Gabriel said.
“Lord, I hope so!
” Donna said.
“
With what she’s been through this year,
she deserves to party a little.
”
He hadn’t mean
t
that Dani getting drunk was a
good
thing, but Donna seemed to take it that way.
The song ended and Dani followed Ethan from the dance floor…and to the bar.
“I knew that men would
love
Dani in that dress,” Donna said, laughing.
Gabriel knew that Dani looked beautiful, but was more prone to believe that what Ethan would
really
love would be to see Dani
out
of the dress. Just the thought of it made Gabriel angry, and he finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to Dani. He knew it was wrong, and completely unacceptable, but it was the truth.
The thought of Dani’s dress lying on
her
bedroom floor stirred the human parts of Gabriel’s body, and
caused
him
to shift
in his seat. What he was thinking was
unimaginable.
Nothing could ever come of it; it was forbidden, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to smite Ethan when they returned to the table.
“Hi, Donna,” Ethan said when he slid into the booth.
“Hi, Ethan,” Donna said, and slid over closer to Gabriel.
“Ethan,
” Dani said, making the introduction.
“This is my cousin, Gabriel.
”
Ethan held out his hand to shake Gabriel’s. Gabriel stared at the hand for a few seconds before finally reaching out and shaking it. It was all he could do not to rip Ethan’s arm from its socket. What made it worse was knowing that Ethan was a
good
man. He didn’t want to believe it, but the human soul didn’t lie.
He sat quietly and listened to the
three of them talk nonstop
for at least an hour. Dani drank the second drink Ethan had gotten for her,
and
the
second one Donna bought her. That brought her total up to four drinks. Gabriel did a little math in his head.
He figured in Dani’s weight with the amount of alcohol she’d consumed, and came to the conclusion that she was drunk. Figure that in with how many months it had been since she’d last imbibed and that brought her up to
damned
drunk. She was handling her liquor well, though. Better than Donna, who had
begu
n to cackle wildly and
kept
slipping down in the booth.
He watched Ethan turn to Dani when a slow song started, and knew he was going to ask her to dance again. Gabriel cut him off before Ethan had the chance to ask.
Gabriel held out his hand to Dani, “Dance with me.”
“It’s alright, baby.” Ethan said and slid from the booth to let Dani out.
“Go
a
head and dance with your cousin.
”
Gabriel took Dani’s hand when she stood up. She swayed on her feet and started to tip over, but Gabriel caught her around the waist before she could fall.
“Sorry,” Dani sai
d.
“I’m just a little dizzy.”
“Those shoes aren’t helping matters,” Gabriel said.
He picked her up
and sat her on the table. He was secretly pleased when he saw goosebumps race up her leg when he cupped her calf in his hand and slid the shoe from her foot. He removed her other shoe and tossed them both in the booth beside Donna.
Then he scooped Dani into his arms and carried her to the dance floor before setting her back on her feet. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist to prevent her from falling over if she got dizzy again. He tried to tell himself that that was the
only
reason he was holding her so tightly. It was, after all, his job to protect her.
Dani draped her arms around his neck and laid her cheek against his chest. The scent of her drifting up to him was far more
intoxicating than any alcohol. He lost himself in the moment and found himself rubbing his hand slowly up and down her back. He stopped when he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand back to her waist.
He happened to glance back at the table and found both Donna
and
Ethan staring at him and Dani;
Ethan in c
onfusion,
and Donna with suspicion. He could imagine how strange it looked to Ethan to see Gabriel
caressing
his own cousin’s back. Gabriel believed, however, that Donna had figured out that she’d been lied to.
He turned Dani in a semi-circle so that his back was now facing their booth. He lifted his hand from Dani’s waist, put his finger under her chin, and tilted her head back so he could look into her eyes. Her eyes were glassy from the drinks, but beautiful all the same.
“Are you having fun?” Gabriel asked.
“Absolutely, but can you tell me something about Ethan?” she asked.
He felt his back stiffen. It bothered him that she was dancing with him, but thinking of Ethan.
“What do you want to know?
” he asked rather coolly.
“I’m a little drunk, so
I’m not sure I heard him right,
but did he call me ‘
baby
’, and then give me
permission
to dance with you?” Dani asked.
“He did indeed,” Gabriel said.
“That’s not gonna work for me,” Dani said, slurring slightly.
G
abriel relaxed when he
knew Dani was
irritated
with Ethan.
“I don’t know what Ethan
thinks
is going on with me and him, but whatever it is, he’s
sadly
mistaken,” Dani said. “Do you know he had the nerve to ask me if I want to go home with him tonight?”
“Can you blame him for wanting to sleep with you again?
” Gabriel said, gazing into her deep green eyes.
“
As beautiful as you look tonight
, he’d be crazy
not
to want you.
”
4.
His hand, of its accord, had once again started to rub up and down Dani’s back. He had to force it back down to her waist again. Dani gazed back at Gabriel, her lips were slightly parted and she was leaning toward him.
He th
ought she was going to kiss him
like she’d done in the graveyard, but tonight, on this dance floor, he didn’t think he’d have the strength to pull away from her. He found his head dipping towards hers, when a frown creased Dani’s brow.
“What do you mean Ethan wants to sleep with me ‘
again
’?” Dani asked.
The sound of Dani’s voice brought Gabriel back into reality
like a slap in the face
. He’d almost kissed her! What had he been thinking? But the answer was simple; he
hadn’t
been
thinking. He’d been allowing his emotions to drag him to a place he could
never
,
ever
go.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
He’d been so caught up that he had no idea what Dani had actually said.
“You said Ethan wanted to sleep with me again. What makes you think I’ve ever had sex with Ethan?”
“Donna said she thought you had,” Gabriel said.
“Well, she was wrong. I’ve never done more than dance with him,” Dani said, “I don’t even have his phone number.”
“Good,” Gabriel said.
“Why is that ‘
good
’?
” Dani snapped.
“
Were you afraid I was the
Jezebel
you thought I was?”
He’
d hurt her feeling when he said that earlier. That had no
t
been his intention, nor was what he’d said been true. He just hadn’t wanted her to know how attractive he found her. He’d never been attracted to a human before, and so he’d been thrown off balance when she’d come downstairs in that damned dress.
He still didn’t want her to know how beautiful he found her, but he also didn’t want her to
hate
him because of something s
tupid he’d said in the spur of the
moment.
“Look Dani
, I didn’t mean what I…” he
was saying when he heard a shout from his right.
A man was thrown
into Dani, knocking her from Gabriel’s
arms and onto the floor.
It was a
bar fight
,
and it
was spreading like a wildfire. It seemed e
veryone surrounding them had joined in on the fight in a matter of seconds. He scooped Dani up off the floor and looked for an opening
in
the
crowd to carry her out through, but there was
n’t
one. The fight was vicious and unrelenting. When a beer
mug flew by his head, Gabriel ha
d had enough.