“Ok, maybe I can sway a little.” She looked at him shyly, her small body venturing the most subtle of dance moves.

“You’re breaking your own rules,” he teased.

“I’m not dancing, I’m swaying.” Her hand found his and she stepped into his space. “It’s more like standing than dancing.”

As the density of people increased, they were forced together. Her body pressed against his, her movements causing her breasts to rub against him. He wanted to groan, but he had to hold himself together. He was on the verge of letting go, of bending down and scooping her into his arms. If he didn’t find some space soon, a groan wouldn’t be the only thing to alert her to how turned on he was.

He looped a hand around her waist and pulled her tight against him. Screw it, if he only ever got this one night with Gracie he wanted to enjoy it, even if it was under the stupid pretense of finding her another date.

Her hips swayed and he hardened.

This is not going to end well.

“Aren’t you going to check out any of the prospects?” he asked, motioning with one hand to the other men in the crowd.

“I have been.” Her cheeks flushed and he knew for a fact her eyes hadn’t been anywhere but on him.

He slipped his hand under her coat and ran it down the length of her back. The silk of her dress was heaven beneath his fingertips. Like everything else about her it was soft and sensual. It made his head spin.

“This is dangerous, Des.” He could barely hear her voice over the jazz music and laughter around him. “I’m almost breaking a rule.”

“Dancing?” He bent so his cheek rested against her hair, her lips brushed his jaw.

“Wanting more.” In a rush, her palms were against his chest and the cool air came between them like a flood. “I need a drink.”

His body raged, the absence of her touch felt like losing a limb. The chemistry zinging between them broke him down. It made him believe that they had something more in store than a single night borne of her wanting to forget her date’s rejection.

They wove through the crowd to find a stall with gourmet hot chocolate and coffee. Beside him, she stood rigid and tense. It was hard to ignore the crackle of energy that gathered whenever they were near one another, but she accepted her caramel hot chocolate and avoided his eyes.

“If nothing else, I can say that I got you to dance,” he said, blowing on a cup of rich, black coffee.

“If nothing else?”

“Yeah, if I don’t find you a date.” He sipped his coffee. “Or if I don’t get you to break any more rules.”

“You’ve already set the record.” Her eyes crinkled at the corners.

“At one broken rule?” He shook his head. “That is a sad state of affairs, Gracie Greene.”

“I feel that I need to even the score.” She watched the curling steam that wound up from her cup. “What are your rules?”

He shrugged. “I’m not a rules kind of guy.”

They walked to the edge of the market, the noise and people thinning out. It was black outside; the night sky was littered with stars and the spring air was cool on his face. He wanted to ask her back to his place for a nightcap and dessert, but something held him back.

Maybe because it’s the most terrible idea in the history of idiocy? You’re supposed to be helping her and instead you’re putting on the moves!

“Why am I not surprised?” She rolled her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed pink, the two spots of rose giving her a mischievous look. “Surely you have one rule that I can break.”

Des Chapman had made himself vulnerable for the first time since his fiancée had thrown her ring at him five years ago.

Rule already broken.

…

Gracie had left the dance area at exactly the right time. With Des close to her it had been all she could do not to reach out and touch him. He moved with the confidence of a man who knew his body, knew the power and strength it possessed.

Those kinds of men scared Gracie, yet Des pulled her in with an unrelenting invisible force. Even now, with space between them and a hot drink to keep her hands occupied, she wanted to lose herself in the thick waves of his dark hair. A shiver ran through her. Temptation was not a notion to be entertained.

Have you completely forgotten why you came out tonight? It’s nothing to do with Des.

Was it obvious to him how she’d ignored every other guy who’d glanced her way? She was so far off track, she’d taken a detour straight into the valley of stupid.

“Like I said, I’m not a rules kind of guy.” His frame loomed over hers. “If I was, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re dangerous, Gracie.” He reached out, his fingertip tracing the outline of her jaw. “A man could fall hard for you.”

“I’m dangerous?” She let out a shaky laugh, her body alight with awareness. “You’re the ‘no rules’ guy. That sounds pretty dangerous to me. What would happen if we didn’t set ourselves boundaries, guidelines?”

“Those are other words for rules.”

Her cheeks heated beneath his stare, but it wasn’t the telltale signs she was worried about. It was the slow unfurling of excitement in her gut, the trickle of heat down to her center that had her head begging her to retreat. “I’m too straitlaced for you.”

It was a feeble protest at best.

“I can help you undo those laces. I can help you loosen up.” His voice was dark, the edges blurred with something heady and lustful. Seductive.

“I like being this way.”

He shook his head, his free hand finding her hair. His fingers threaded through her curls to find the curve at the back of her head. He was close, the scent of coffee dancing between them. “I think you’ve had those ideals forced on you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Call it an educated guess.”

“You don’t know me, Des.” She shook her head, panic spread through her like wildfire. Her restraint crumbled like the broken edge of a cliff-face. She was going to fall and it was going to hurt.

“I know enough.” He sighed. “I’ve seen enough of those safe, boring men you bring to my restaurant. I’ve seen the disappointment in your face every goddamn time.”

“I just haven’t found the right guy yet.” A smile wobbled on her lips. “That’s why we’re here tonight.”

Her statement hung between them. Something flickered within the depths of Des’s eyes. They were darker than night. Like two pieces of polished onyx they reflected her and concealed him. “Is it?”

He couldn’t be right for her. He was far from what she wanted, from what would fit into her life, from what her mother would accept. Yet her body acted as though he were the Holy Grail of men.

“We’re wrong for each other.” She tossed her empty cup into a bin beside them and he did the same with his.

But neither of them backed away. If anything, getting their attraction out in the open had raised the stakes. They were on the same wavelength, heading for disaster, and yet something stuck them both to the ground as if none of it mattered.

But their differences did matter…didn’t they?

“What are we doing, Des?” It wasn’t something he could answer, but she had to fill the void of silence before it sucked her in. Before it consumed her right there on the spot.

“I’m not sure what you’re doing, but I’m going out on a limb.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I’m breaking my rule.”

“I thought you didn’t have any.” A smile quirked on her mouth.

“I have one…had one.” He grabbed her hand and closed the last of the space between them. Her fingers were knotted with his; heat raced through her veins.

As his mouth met hers, her mind went blank. There was nothing but the insistent press of his lips as he opened her, tasted her. She should have resisted. For a split second she wanted to resist, but his hands moved to her back, crushing her to him. She was powerless.