Bad Behaviour

Slowing down? Absolutely not. Just because she didn’t want to walk into some neon-filled cave that was pumping with acid house music, or mash with a youngster didn’t mean she was getting old. Especially down here, Delaney thought as she waited for the rest of the gang to make their choices. The week ahead was wide open with possibilities for fun. No responsibilities, no place to be, just pure play, out on the town again with her posse. She wasn’t slowing down, she was merely getting started.

Reaching out, she caught the edge of the table and shook it a little.

Kelly raised her eyebrows. “Checking it for stability?”

Delaney moved her shoulders to the beat. “Who knows? We may be dancing on it before the night’s over. Okay, four margaritas, two piña coladas, one virgin daiquiri,” she ticked off. “I’ll order. Who’s going to help carry them back?”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Cilla said.

Practically like old times, Delaney thought as she stood at the bar, nodding to the music and waiting to catch the bartender’s attention. The whole Supper Club, together again. Lately, it seemed, the group of them almost never managed to make it out, and if they did, it was only for a quiet dinner. Gone were the days of roving wild, of shutting down the clubs and hunting for after-hours joints. Something about finding a man had made all of the others more sedate, happy to relax at home for an evening.

And Delaney’s deep, dark, unsettling secret was that some nights she felt exactly the same way.

Working too much, that was all. It wasn’t that she was slowing down, getting boring. Never in a million years, not the way she felt in that moment. Definitely no way she was going to let herself get tied down. So maybe the rest of them had found their men and fallen in love. She was genuinely happy for them. But she also understood the obligations, the accountability, the compromises of a committed relationship. Sure, Sabrina and Trish and the rest never seemed to mind what had to be the ongoing frustrations and concessions that made up the fabric of their lives.

It would drive her nuts. Dating a guy for a few weeks, maybe a couple of months was one thing—she had her own space and she could walk away at any time. Commitment? That was different.

She’d grown up with parents who’d had too little of everything—money, living space, time. The only thing they’d had too much of had been kids, six of them, all close together. As the youngest, Delaney had always found herself fighting for her slice of everything. Not that she didn’t love her family, but when she’d finally moved out and gotten a place of her own, she’d sworn that she was done with sharing and compromising and living packed cheek by jowl with anyone else. She’d guard her space jealously, be extravagant, live exactly as she chose.

And if she found herself at loose ends every now and again, whose business was it but hers?

“Hola, señorita.” The bartender’s eyes gleamed at her with that unapologetic appreciation that never failed to give her a buzz.

“Hola, Rodolfo,” she read off his badge. “Quattro margaritas, dos piña coladas, y uno…” How did a person say virgin daiquiri in Spanish, she wondered. “Y uno daiquiri, no…rum, por favor.”

“No rum?” he repeated in English. “No fun.”

“Oh, we have fun.” Her eyes sparkled. “We always have fun.”

“I always have fun, too. Maybe you and I, señorita, we have fun together.”

“Are you hitting on me, Rodolfo?”

He frowned, even as his hands moved from bottles to blenders in an efficient blur. “What is hitting on you?”

“Inviting me to have fun.”

“Ah.” His teeth gleamed. “Señorita, only a dead man does not invite a woman like you to have fun. And I am not a dead man.”

Delaney winked at him. Flirting. It made her feel good. How could she settle with one guy and give that up? Give up the excitement of a first date? The anticipation of never knowing how a night might end—or with who?

The tap on her shoulder had her sniffing. “About time,” she said, turning. “I thought I was going to have to—”

The words died in her throat. And all she could do was stand there, staring at the man before her.

He was, purely and simply, gorgeous. He had one of those faces that was all intriguing planes and angles, the kind of face a sculptor might chisel for a statue of some dangerous god, Ares, perhaps. Or Eros.

Something fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

He was tall, tall enough that she found herself tipping her head back to look at him, and close enough that all it would take was leaning forward a fraction to have her mouth on his. His brows were dark and straight, the same color as the hair that flowed thick and unruly to his collar. His jaw was darkened by a rather overgrown Vandyke. His eyes were so black that in the dim bar she couldn’t see the pupils.

As she watched, some spark of humor flickered in them. “Your drinks are here,” he said helpfully.

Oh, and it was a bedroom voice, low and a little rough, perfect for late-night promises and demands. Anticipation sped through her. She paid Rodolfo and turned back. “Were you trying to get to me or the bartender?” she asked lightly.

He looked her up and down, his gaze warming her. “You. Definitely. How am I doing?”

Her mouth curved. “You’ve got my attention.” And that of her hormones.

“That’s a start. Small world, huh?”

Gorgeous, maybe, but not so great in the brains department. And Delaney required brains. “Gee, you’re right. You’re American, I’m American, both of us in Mexico.” She widened her eyes. “What are the chances?”

He studied her a second and laughed out loud, a sound that sent something vibrating deep inside her. “Pretty small. I’d call it fate.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely. What brings you down here, vacation?”

“No, I work down here.”

That seemed to surprise him. “What do you do?”

“Oh,” she cast about, “I’m a, uh, professional agouti wrestler.”

“Agouti?”

“You know, those little brown jungle animals that look like rats on stilts? No tails, just these underprivileged-looking behinds?”

“An agouti wrestler.”

Delaney’s lips twitched. “They’re a lot tougher than you’d think.”

“That must mean you are, too.” Before she realized his intent, he reached out to run his fingertips over the curve of her bare shoulder. “I guess I’d better watch out.”

It shouldn’t have sent heat bolting through her. Some banter, a smile, a quick touch was all it was. It shouldn’t have set her heart to thudding. So why was she standing there without a thought in her head, she who always had a comeback for everything? She moistened her lips.

And if possible, his eyes got even darker. “You know, you have a great mouth. I bet you played flute or something in school.”

“Flute?” she repeated blankly.

“Yeah. You’ve definitely got the lips for it.”

It was a guess, she told herself, a lucky one. “Now there’s a line I haven’t heard before.”

“Not a line.”

“No? So what are you, an orchestra director on the lam?”