CALLA

 

“Your right foot. No, your other right.” Calla laughed even harder as Mack stumbled along to the line dance steps, his face an adorable mask of concentration as he stomped a beat after everyone else. At least he was finally moving back and forth with the crowd, even if he didn’t seem to be able to catch onto the simple step-kick, triple step pattern of the dance.

“Step, kick, tri-ple step,” she said, overexaggerating each syllable as she tried to demonstrate.

He seemed to finally get it, but then came the part where they were supposed to shuffle forward and he was still stomping and kicking. She grabbed his arm and dragged him forward, laughing so hard her stomach was starting to hurt.

God, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had this much fun. Maybe never?

She’d been so nervous while Mel was doing her hair and showing her how to apply some light make up. The dress alone had been so daring Calla hadn’t been sure she’d be able to go into public in it. So she hadn’t said no when Mel offered her a shot of tequila before they headed downstairs to the ballroom. She might have snuck a second while Mel went to the bathroom, barely able to hide her scrunched face before Mel came back out.

Calla was usually a strict beer drinker. But she couldn’t say she didn’t like the way the tequila heated her chest, burning all the way down. Then there was how, just moments later all her limbs went nice and loose and suddenly she’d been eager to get down to the party. To Mack and Liam.

Maybe it was wrong of her not to have chosen one over the other yet.

Then again, screw that. It wasn’t like she was looking for marriage. She just wanted to have fun tonight without stressing over all the shit she usually did.

Mel had tried to get her into a pair of heels but it took about zero point three seconds to determine that nope, there was no way she’d be able to take two steps in the damn ankle breakers. In the end, Mel agreed that Calla’s good cowboy boots—as opposed to her daily work ones—with the dress did look pretty cute. Cute wasn’t a word that had ever been applied to Calla before, so with Mel’s encouragement and one more shot of liquid courage, they’d come downstairs.

All her old anxieties came back the second they walked into the crowded ballroom. God, people she knew were going to see her in this get up.

Before she could start hyperventilating and running back to the exit, though, Mack had come up to her. It was impossible to miss the appreciation in his eyes as he looked her up and down. She was sure she’d gone beet red, but he pulled her out to the dance floor.

The song came to an end right as Mack started shuffling the right direction. She held onto his arm to hold herself up she was still laughing so hard.

“Glad I’m entertaining you,” Mack said gruffly, but she could tell by the twinkle in his eyes he wasn’t actually put off.

On impulse, she went up on tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. She meant it to just be a quick peck but he wrapped an arm around her waist, his other hand slipping around to cup the back of her head.

His gray eyes were more intense than she’d ever seen as he leaned down. He wasn’t aiming for her cheek, either. Calla dropped her eyes closed, waiting for their first kiss with bated breath. She’d only kissed one other boy her whole life and it turned out Tommy Shelton had been dared to kiss the class tomboy for five bucks.

But a hairsbreadth away from Mack’s lips touching hers, a voice cut in loudly. “Can I have the next dance?”

Calla pulled back from Mack in surprise to see Liam standing right beside them, a broad grin on his face. He held his hand out toward Calla. Calla could feel Mack’s body stiffen, they were standing so close.

But Calla could only smile back at Liam. He looked more handsome than ever in his tight jeans, black shirt and shiny black cowboy boots that had silver embellishments. He might not be from this country but damn, he wore Western well.

“Now the Sleazy Slide,” the band leader called out and everyone around them hurried to line back up.

Calla stepped away from Mack but she grabbed his right hand. “Let’s dance!” With her other hand, she took Liam’s, then she pulled them both into the line, one on either side of her.

“Watch me,” she squeezed Mack’s hand and he looked at her with an expression that said, help.

“Left slide,” she called out as the whole line started shifting that way. This one was more complicated than the Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Liam picked it up quickly and when he did the little shimmy along with the slide, she couldn’t help appreciating his ass in those tight jeans. The next second, though, she was distracted by trying to help Mack figure out how to do the half-turns. She’d abandoned trying to get him on the beat a long time ago, but the whole crowd was facing a new wall and Mack was still trying to slide.

Mack stumbled his way through the song and Calla continued laughing harder than she ever had in her life. Liam was hamming it up on her other side, making sure to wiggle his ass in an overexaggerated manner.

When the song was over, Calla clapped and whooped as loud as anyone else. She fanned herself with her hands. With all the bodies in the room plus the dancing—not to mention the tequila earlier—she was definitely past comfortably warm.

She lifted her hair off her neck as the band started up the next song. Couples around them started pairing off for the two-step.

“May I have this dance?” Liam asked, taking hold of her hand and pulling her toward him. Calla glanced over her shoulder to see Mack glowering so she reached back and squeezed his arm. “Next one’s yours!”

But then Liam had her pulled up against his body, one hand in hers and the other tight around her waist. And damn, it was like the man was born to two-step. He took command as he led her around the floor and Calla felt her body sinking into his. While she had plenty experience line dancing, she’d only two-stepped like this a handful of times—and when she had, she was usually standing in for the guy because there were too few of them at the dance. She’d certainly never been able to just lose her body to the rhythm and follow the lead of a man with a strong, firm grasp on her waist.

As they rounded the edge of the dance floor, Liam spun her out. She shrieked and laughed as the next second, he was spinning her back into him. Her hands rose to his chest as he pulled her snugly against him. Her breathing was erratic and not just because she was short of breath from the dancing.

Liam O’Neill had her in his arms. When had she stumbled into this alternate universe and when was reality going to come smashing back down like it always did?

Liam grinned and rolled his hips into hers before pulling them back into the whirling crowd of dancers.

When they got around to the side of the room where they’d left Mack, Calla looked around for him. She felt bad. It was probably bitchy to just leave him and dance off with Liam. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She was just going with whatever felt good in the moment—probably a disastrous way to go about things.

When had she ever not thought out everything she did from ten moves back? That was the only way to run a ranch. She had to be on top of all the everyday tasks in addition to putting out whatever inevitable problem cropped up, whether it be a sick cow, a broken section of fencing, hiring and firing ranch hands, or the hundred other things that went wrong on any given day. She’d dropped into bed each night exhausted but unable to sleep because she was worrying about the list of everything she needed to see to the next day.

It was non-stop, dawn to dusk, seven days a week, three-hundred sixty-five days a year. A night like tonight, with no responsibilities and going out just to have fun? Unheard of. She hadn’t been out dancing in years and tonight reminded her just how much she’d always loved it. The most she ever socialized these days was hitting Bubba’s a couple times a week before evening chores so she could actually be around humans other than her ailing, taciturn father and the ranch hands she’d been in charge of.

Liam spun her again and her stomach swooped as he grinned at her and pulled her back into him.

God, every time he did that he drew her even closer to his body afterwards. Her chest bumped his in a way that made her nipples tighten and her sex clench. She gasped and Liam only grinned bigger. He knew exactly what he was doing to her.

And if she was living each day like it was her last, she damn well sure didn’t want to head to the great beyond with her virginity intact. It’d be best to lose it to a man who knew exactly what he was doing, wouldn’t it? There wouldn’t be any awkward fumbling with a man like Liam. If the way he led her so confidently around the dance floor was any indication, he’d be right at home taking the lead in bed. Didn’t they say how a man danced told you a lot about how he was between the sheets?

The second she thought it her cheeks burned but Liam was spinning her out again and banishing any other thought except what it felt like in his sure grip.

That was, until she glanced over and saw Bethany in Mack’s arms.

Her ebullient mood popped like a balloon and her feet got tripped up with Liam’s when he stepped into her and she didn’t step back.

She yelped as she almost went down. Only Liam’s hands gripping her waist saved her from toppling ass over head.

“Sorry!” Liam said, almost shouting to be heard over the music. Then he followed her train of sight to where Bethany was urging Mack into a two-step. The song finished and Calla stood there lamely attempting to get her breath while also forcing herself not to stare at Mack with Bethany. She tried to flash a smile up at Liam. Hadn’t she just been contemplating losing her virginity to him? So why was she reacting so strongly to seeing Mack with her arch nemesis?

Was it just because it was Bethany or would she feel that way if Mack were dancing with anyone? Because as much as she’d admired Liam from afar, it was Mack who’d come up to her first. Him who’d she had the intense moment with at the kitchen sink last night. Him who’d said he wanted to explore things with her. Sexually.

Or maybe she was just stupid, reading far more into all that than he’d intended. Of course when he was presented with a far more tempting option like Bethany he’d jump at the chance.

“Hey asshole.”

Calla’s head jerked to Liam. He was walking up to Mack. Oh crap.

These two guys already obviously hated each other. She was just driving a deeper wedge between them, making everything worse.

She moved to grab Liam’s arm, ready to tell him… What? That she had a headache and was heading to bed for the night?

God, what was she even doing here, wearing this ridiculous dress? It felt like a Halloween costume. She’d had fun playing dress up, but she was not this woman. What the hell had she even been thinking?

Mack’s head swung to look at Liam and then Calla. He dropped his arms from around Bethany.

“You owe this beautiful woman a dance.” Liam’s voice was biting as he addressed Mack. He moved Calla toward Mack with a hand low on her back and it took all her wits not to stumble over her own feet again.

“I do,” Mack said, stepping away from Bethany.

Calla didn’t miss the way Bethany’s eyes narrowed and then went wide with surprise, like she was just recognizing who Calla was. Fair enough. She’d barely recognized herself when she looked in the mirror earlier.

“That I do,” Mack said, smoothly pulling Calla into his arms. The band had switched to a slow song and Mack urged her closer. Calla looked over at Liam even as she raised her arms around Mack’s neck. What exactly was going on here? Was Liam passing her off so he could dance with Bethany?

But Liam turned his back on the other woman, still with a wide smile for Calla. Then he came up behind her until she was sandwiched between the two most gorgeous men she’d ever known.

Calla’s breath caught as Liam’s hands gripped her waist from behind, just above where Mack held her.

It wasn’t until they both started moving in tandem that Calla completely lost the plot of what was going on.

Mack pulled her closer to him so that, like earlier with Liam, her breasts brushed his chest. And then there was Liam’s heat at her back, his hands slipping around the front of her waist as he moved his hips forward until they made contact with Calla’s ass.

Her eyes shot wide and she looked over her shoulder at Liam. There was a wicked gleam in his eye as he looked down at her. She couldn’t hold his gaze and turned her face back toward Mack’s chest. It wasn’t a second until she felt Liam’s breath hot on her ear. “Tonight is all about making you feel good, baby.”

She blinked, feeling light-headed. Her arms tightened around Mack’s neck. Then Mack’s hand was on the back of her head, urging her to lay her cheek against his chest. Turned out she was wrong earlier when she’d thought Mack had no rhythm.

He had plenty, it turned out, when he was dancing in a way he was used to. And damn was he good at it. He notched his legs between hers until the red fabric of her dress strained at the slit. So close that it was almost like she was riding him.

And Liam was still just as tight at her back, his thumbs rubbing tiny circles on her waist as all three of them swayed back and forth to the music.

She swallowed hard and her fingers gripped the collar of Mack’s shirt. Why were they—? What did this even mean? Were they trying to get her to choose between them? She’d just wanted to come have a night of carefree fun. Maybe join a few line dances. Try out getting drunk for the first time. But this felt like some game she didn’t know the rules to.

When Mack danced back and forth with his leg between her knees, she couldn’t help her breath hitching. Oh God. Did he realize that with their height differences, his upper thigh was rubbing against that spot?

Instead of Mack reacting, though, it was Liam’s fingers who clenched on her waist. Almost like he could sense the spike of heat at her center and knew exactly how turned on she was. Which was so embarrassing she was glad her face was buried in Mack’s chest.

“You’re so hot, baby,” Liam whispered in her ear.

Oh God, he knew. He knew and Mack probably did too.

She felt like the stupidest girl in the world to be getting so riled by a dance.

And suddenly, it was all too much. What the hell was she doing? All but grinding down and getting herself off on Mack’s leg while they freaking danced? Right here in front of God and everybody else?

She jerked away from Mack, backing into Liam until he stepped to the side.

“What’s wrong?” Mack asked, his face instantly registering alarm. “Are you okay?”

Calla lifted a hand to her forehead. “I’m hot.” Then she realized just what she’d said and her eyes widened in mortification. “Like dizzy. It’s so hot in here.”

Liam joined Mack in a twin look of concern.

Oh God, she was being a total freak, wasn’t she?

“I’m not feeling so good.” And then, not able to stand their concerned expressions for another second, she spun on her heel and bolted for the exit.

“Excuse me,” she said as she pushed through the crowd. “I’m sorry. Excuse me. Pardon me.”

She thought she heard her name called from behind her but she didn’t look back. If she hadn’t looked like a crazy person before, she definitely did now.

Tomorrow she’d just tell them she was sick. That was all. And she’d wear her normal overalls and flannel and never try anything this stupid again. Who was she kidding? People never changed, she was such a goddamned idiot to even think for a moment that she could—

She finally made it out of the ballroom and then she was high-tailing it through the lobby of the hotel for the elevators.

“Calla. Cal!”

Okay, one of them was definitely behind her, calling her name. Calla cringed and moved from fast-walking to all out jogging.

“Hold it,” she called out when she saw an elevator door closing. She had to get on that elevator or she would die in a puddle of embarrassment. The doors started opening again and she slipped inside.

It was only as she spun around and punched the button for the third floor that she saw both Liam and Mack closing in.

Oh God, if she had to face either of them right now she would absolutely die. She punched the close door button furiously until the doors closed right as Mack was reaching toward her.