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She’d sipped the Malbec and when the taste of it bloomed on her tongue, she’d reacted physically, closing her eyes, smiling a secret little smile, and breathing a soft hum of appreciation.

Damned if he hadn’t reacted physically too.

Not to the wine.

To the sight of her. The closed eyes. The Mona Lisa smile. The little sigh. He could imagine her making all those same moves in bed.

Why not?

She was prim and proper, but she had a great face and a great body.

She even had great hair.

It took him a while to realize she’d left it free. Once he did, he also realized that if she were his woman, he’d make sure she always wore it that way.

Her hair moved with her. That was a revelation in his world.

The women he knew sprayed their hair into submission.

She didn’t.

Her hair swung forward when she leaned over the table, swung to the side when she turned towards him. He wondered if it felt as silky as it looked. If one of those long, loose curls would cling to his finger if he caught hold of it

He wondered, too, what would happen if she undid the top button of her blouse. The top two buttons. A couple more than that.

And, dammit, he was drinking too much.

Except, he wasn’t.

He was always careful, when he had the Harley out. Tonight, he’d had ale at the LZ and half a glass of wine here. It took a lot more than that for wine or beer to get to him.

So what was making her look so good to him? He was tired. The endless flight home from Afghanistan took it out of you, that was for sure. And even last night, safe in his own bed, he hadn’t slept well. He’d kept dreaming about that fucking mountain, that fucking kid, that fucking bomb…

Chay shot to his feet.

Everybody looked at him.

“What?” Tanner asked.

“Nothing. I mean…” He cleared his throat and looked at Bianca. “Let’s dance.”

She looked as surprised by his statement as he felt at having made it.

“Dance?” she said.

“Yeah. Dance.”

“I don’t want to dance.”

“Sure you do.”

“I just said—”

Tanner rose, grabbed Alessandra’s hand and drew her up beside him. “Excellent plan, dude.”

The Akechetas hurried off to the dance floor.

Chay looked down at Bianca. “Come on.”