For The Love of Tracy by JJ Arias

Author:JJ Arias [Arias, JJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2019-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

The drink she offers is in the martini bar where Herman and I lost her. Black curtains and soundproof doors hide a secret area he never would have found. She produces a key fob and the doors open to a huge room with various stages and aerial performers. The entire place has a carnival sideshow aesthetic that doesn’t match the venue or the Key. The crowd, dancing to the loud music, pushes against us as we walk with purpose toward the back.

As the bodies thicken in our path, she reaches back. A silent request for my hand to find hers. My stomach heaves when our hands touch. Her fingers weave into mine so effortlessly. The booze and the exhilaration make the room a blur.

We push through yet another set of heavy black curtains. They open to a small room suitable for half a dozen people. A private oasis in the chaotic exuberance. There are no bodies here. There is nothing except two heartbeats, a small table, and a red circular leather booth built into the wall.

I don’t know when I sat down or when she wrapped herself around me. Her legs crossed, the hem of her dress edging up the middle of her thigh. Her arm is strewn across the top of the backrest. One hand in her lap, the other fiddling with the loose ends of my hair. The heat from her body radiates into my soul.

She doesn’t ask me what I want to drink, but just after we sit down a bottle of champagne materializes in an ice bucket. It sits in the middle of the table flanked by tall glass flutes. I accept what she offers because I’m parched, and I’m sure I’ve run out of saliva.

“Cheers.” Her grin is red and deliberate. It makes my stomach lurch. She clinks her glass against mine and takes a long sip. Her gaze, fixed intently on me, makes it difficult to breathe.

My glass is empty before I realize it. I want more, but I don’t want to ask for it. So I wait for what might happen next. I try to regulate my breathing, but her proximity makes it impossible.

She runs her fingertips along my arm. “Have you never done this before?” she asks when a line of goosebumps appear. Her voice is quizzical but not judgmental.

I shake my head because nothing has ever made me feel like this. Equal parts exhilarated and terrified. I stop myself from saying that the last time anyone gave me goosebumps, Brian had left the AC on sixty-eight when I was in the shower. It sounds too pathetic.

“Aren’t you married?” she asks. Her eyebrows, full and perfected with a dark brown pencil, knit together.

I shake my head though it seems like I’ve been married since I was a teenager. Never venturing out. Never trying anyone or anything new. I am wholly unequipped. Unarmed with the benefit of experience. To say I am out of my depth is to say the earth is a big rock.

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