Running From Fate (28 page)

“Hello Kim,” James said with cold indifference when the couple reached them.
“I didn’t think that this type of party was you’re style.
As I recall, y
ou’re more the heavy drinking, hard partying type of person, aren’t you?”

“I can be persuaded to change amusements if the company is worth it.”
She widened her blue eyes and gazed in seeming adoration at her partner
before turning her eyes to Mira.
“It’s Mira,
isn’t it?”
s
he asked cattily.
“I see that James has decided to take pity on someone less fortunate.”
She ran her dark-lashed gaze over Mira’s dress.
“Where did you get that quaint little outfit?  And a sweetheart bodice, how cute.”
She leaned forward as if in
conspiracy and whispered loudly.
“I can give you the name of a place that sells,” she paused as if thinking, “more
‘
mature
’
clothes if you’d like.”

“I did try
,
” Mira sighed dramatically.  “B
ut one just has to make do with what they have
.
” 
She stepped forward slightly
and performed a slow pirouette,
stopping directly in front of
the other woman
.
“
I’m afraid that
I’m not quite—how do I put this—developed enough to wear a dress like yours.”
She eyed Kim’s chest critically.
“It looks like you could use a more ‘mature’ dress
yourself
.
Yours looks about three sizes too small.
Aren’t you worried that you might just ‘pop’ out of it?”
She widened her eyes innocently.
“I ha
ve a wrap that you can borrow if you like.
”

“Well I never.
My daddy will hear about this.”
Kim clutched her escort’s arm
and flounced away.

If she had been anywhere else, Mira was sure she would have
been convulsed with laughter at
this point, but this was not the place for it.
She allowed herself a wide grin instead.

“You did that very well.”
James
’
voice was laced with admiration.
“I’ve never seen Kim left speechless.”

“I spent three years at a private all-girl
’s
school in upper New York,” Mira said absently before heading unerringly for the buffet.
“Come on.
Acting catty always works up an appetite
. 
I’m starving.”

Twenty Minutes later they were sitting on chairs against the back wall.
It was late enough that the tables had been moved to accommodate
anyone wanting to dance
.
A band had already set up on a raised platform at the front of the room.

“You weren’t kidding were you?”
James looked at Mira with something approaching amazement.
She had just consumed what probably amounted to a pound of food.
He held up a sauce soaked prawn.
“It’s my last one.
Would you like it?”

Mira licked the last drop of sauce from her lips and looked at James.
His blue eyes were bright and full of humor.
It was a few seconds before she realized what had him so amused.
She could feel her face heating up.
“I’m done,” she mumbled.  “Y
ou go ahead.”

She
led a very active lifestyle and enjoyed ‘healthy’ food so she could
get
away with eating a lot more than
other people without
gaining weight
, which surprised her after her issues as a youth. 
It had been a running joke among her friends that she could out eat a football player, but she had always been careful to tone it down around new people.
They either tended to get jealous or found it kind of disgusting.

She glanced back at James.
He seemed more amused than anything else.
“I run every day,” she said in r
esponse to his unasked question.
“
And
I have a very high metabolism.”

“I didn’t say anything,” James responded.
He looked out at the dance floor that was starting to fill up with people.
The band was currently playing a lively jazz number.
He stood up, put both of their plates on his empty seat, and held out his hand.
“Since you seem to
be f
inished, however, would you like to dance?”

She looked at his
outstretched hand and considered his offer.
The thought of being that close to him was inviting, but it was also dangerous.
She worried
that if she got that close to him for a long period of time she would turn into a puddle of hormones at his feet.

If she was considering having an affair with him that wouldn’t be a problem, but she wanted more than that in a relationship and she wasn’t sure that this James was even capable of giving her that.
In addition to that her situation was precarious.
She wasn’t sure what would happen
when he found out who she was, but it wasn’t likely to be pretty.
It would be better for all concerned if she stayed away from him.

“Come on,”
he
said persuasively.
“It’s
not as if it’s a big decision
.
Unless you don’t know how that is.
Then I would understand.”

On the other hand, Mira thought, it was only a dance and the one just starting looked pretty lively so there would
n’t be that much close contact
.  She
shrugged.
“Why not.”
Grabbing
his hand
she
levered herself
up.

James held on to her and maneuvered his way around the exuberant dancers until he found a clear space.
There were a few older couples who were moving with well-timed and coordinated steps, as if remembering the dances of another era, but most of the people just seemed to be inventing the steps as they went along, brains well-lubricated with lots o
f alcohol.  Many of those people, he thought derisively, would be going home tonight with someone who wasn’t their wife or girlfriend. 
He knew it was often an accepted part of the world he inhabited, but it was not something he had ever felt compelled to participate in. 
Mentally s
hrugging his shoulders, he stopped and turned, pulling Mira into his arms
.

For a moment James’ expression was so fierce and forbidding that Mira
shivered and tried
to pull away.

“Oh no you don’t.”
James frown disappeared, replaced by a beguiling smile.
“I just got you out here.”
He grabbed her other hand and looked at her in challenge.
“I hope that you can keep up with me.”

The dance was pretty fast paced, involving some fancy footwork and a lot of twists, turns, and dips.
Mira laughed with delight as James spun her out and gracefully reeled her back in.
It had been a long time since she had done this kind of dancing and she had forgotten
how much she
loved it.
The parties that Lily managed to drag her to usually involved a lot of hip grinding, loud music, and flashing strobe lights.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,”
James said as they twirled around the room.

“I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed this.
It’s been awhile since I had a chance to dance this way.”

“Is dancing something that you did with your husband?”
he
asked with ill-concealed curiosity.

“Kevin
? 
No.”
Mira smiled in remembrance.
“My husband had two left feet when it came to dancing.
I had to physically drag him onto the dance floor when we got married.
It was m
y mother
who
insisted that a proper lady know how to dance.
She couldn’t find a good teacher so she dragooned my father into partnering me while she directed from the sidelines.”
Her face fell at the memory.
Despite the years that had passed s
he still missed them.

“
Why does the memory
make you so sad darlin’?
” 
James asked
softly, forgetting his usual cynicism
.
“D
oes your da no
dance with you anymore
?”

She suppressed a shiver as his soft brogue rolled over her.  It was
n’t so much the sound that
got to her, but the tantalizing thought of what it could mean.  When he had come to America he had fought hard to hide the accent that made him so different from the other boys.  As far as she knew it only leaked through when he was drunk or, as she had noticed when he was young, when he was feeling intense emotion.  He wasn’t drunk.

“
My parents died when I was a teenager,”
she
finally
admitted
, “but Pat still danced with me w
hen I could
drag him onto the floor
.
H
e’s actually
pretty good.”
She smiled
and pulled out of his arms as the song ended
.
“He
always says that
he was a dancer in a past life.”
She cleared her throat and mentally took a step back
.  The
conversation was straying into dangerous territory
,
at least if she wanted to keep her identity a secret
.
  She would have to be more careful.

The band started up again and this time it was a slow, soft melody.
James decided that he
wasn’t ready to relinquish her yet. 
He grabbed her hand and, w
ith a swift, practiced move
,
spun her out
and pulled her back onto the floor.

“Shouldn’t we be mingling,”
she
asked a little desperately.
  She could already feel her bones starting to melt.