He just laughed. “Some dancer you are.”

“Sorry I don’t have much experience trying to teach someone how to dance at the same time he’s kissing the wits out of me.”

“Kissing the wits out of you, huh?” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Like you’re not absolutely gloating in that feat.”

The bump and grind song ended and another started. Jude and I shuddered at the same time. “This music blows,” he said, grabbing my hand. “And you look like you need some punch.”

“I don’t know about punch, but I need something,” I said, bouncing my eyebrows.

“You,” he pulled me closer, speaking into my ear, “are making it exceedingly difficult to be on my best behavior.”

Looking forward, I tried to pretend his every touch wasn’t unraveling me. “Not my problem.”

Winding his arm around me, he pulled me close. “It’s about to be.”

“Jude Ryder,” words that were more slurred than spoken said from behind us. “If it wasn’t so freakin’ hot right here, I would have thought hell had frozen over. Jude I-don’t-do-commitments-phone-calls-or-breakfast Ryder at a high school dance.”

Turning around, Jude kept me close to him. “Allie,” he said, sounding like he’d just issued the anti-greeting.

“Oh, and by the way, it wasn’t that great for me. And since I know you’ve been worrying nonstop about it,” she said, propping a hand on her hip, “I found a ride home.”

She so classically fit the mold for what guys seek out for a one night stand, I almost felt bad for her. Almost ended when she curled her fingers around the lapel of Jude’s jacket. My proverbial claws came out.

“What do you want, Allie?” He was losing patience and I was all too familiar with how quickly the tracks ran out once he started down that road.

“Now there’s a loaded question if I’ve ever heard one,” she said, flipping her red and blond streaked hair over her shoulder.

“Okay, I’ve been on this roller coaster of crazy before and I’m getting off right now,” he said, steering me away.

“Come on, I’m teasing,” she laughed, grabbing his arm. “I just wanted to meet your new friend.” She smiled at me all innocent like, but I knew her game and I wasn’t going to be her pawn to play.

“This is Luce,” he said, tipping my chin up with his finger and pressing the sweetest kiss I’d even been given onto my lips.

“She’d have to be if you’re with her.”

That sweet kiss was all but eviscerated by one nasty comment.

Jude’s eyes flamed as he turned on her. “If you weren’t a woman, sorry excuse of one as you are, I would teach you some respect, Allie.” His voice was wavering with anger, he was so close to spilling over.

“Jude, stop,” I ordered, stepping in front of him and pushing him back. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying, she’s drunk.”

“Watch who you’re calling drunk, bitch,” Allie sneered.

I wanted to turn around and slap her makeup-y little face so bad my hand was tingling, but for once in my lifetime, I wasn’t the hotheaded one. I was trying to hold him back as he lunged forward again.

“No, she’s not drunk,” Jude said, pacing in place. “For once. How’s that whole sobriety thing working for you, Al?”

She huffed. “Like you care. It didn’t matter to you if I was drunk or high or sober. Just so long as I was horizontal and accommodating.”

Now this girl was getting to me. It had been bad enough for her to insinuate I was a loose girl, but now knowing she’d been intimate with Jude in a way I hadn’t yet made me want to hit something hard. The closest thing, save for Jude, was her boney, sneering little face.

Taking a breath, I looked away from her and up at Jude. “Come on, let’s just get out of here. She isn’t worth it.”

“And you won’t be either come morning, sugar.”

I shook my head at him, but he didn’t take my not so subtle warning. Twisting around, he gave Allie a cockeyed grin. “There are two types of girls in the world, Al,” he said, speaking so loudly this half of the gym could hear him. “The kind you screw and the kind you marry. That’s just the way the world was made, so don’t take it out on Luce that you’re one kind and she’s the other.” Allie’s face was flushing the color of her short, street walker dress, and not the embarrassed kind of red, the livid, I-would-kill-you-right-now-if-it-wasn’t-illegal kind of red. “Run along now and find yourself some other guy to screw so you can haunt him at every turn instead of me.”

“Jude,” I whispered, looking up at him. That slanted grin was still on his face, but his eyes were black. I hadn’t known he was capable of delivering such cruel words, and if Allie hadn’t spewed the mouthful of crap she had, I might have felt bad for her. “Come on,” I said, pulling him away from one pissed off ex-lover and a few dozen onlookers. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

I didn’t let go of his wrist until we were out the gym door and halfway down a dark hallway, not trusting that he wouldn’t head back to go another fifty rounds with Allie. When we were far enough down the hall we could hear ourselves talk over the music, I stopped. I couldn’t get my first word out before he did.

“Luce, I know I said some things back there I probably shouldn’t have, and I didn’t treat a woman the way a man should, but I can’t and I won’t tolerate someone, male or female, talking about my girl like that.” He stared down at me, his eyes asking for forgiveness as much as they weren’t.