Free Worth Waiting For by Delaney Diamond Page A

repeated the instructions several times. “That’s it.”
    They moved slowly at first. Then, as she grew accustomed to the rhythm of the movement and the pressure of his hand indicating when she should move backward and forward, the speed of their movements accelerated to match those around them. Backward, forward, backward, forward. It wasn’t as hard as she had originally thought.
    “Keep your hips moving,” Freddie coached. “Yes . . . just like that.”
    He warned her he would try a spin move, and she didn’t get it at first, getting off beat on the turn. When they tried again, she mastered the spin, and she looked up at him, grinning widely.
    “I got it!” She laughed.
    He just stared at her. He didn’t smile back. She noted the hardening of his jaw and felt the split second tightening of his fingers around her own. Unexpectedly, he lowered his head until their mouths almost touched. Her breath caught in her throat.
    “Perfect,” he muttered, before claiming her lips.
    Although taken by surprise, Julia didn’t hold back. His mouth moved across hers with a longing and passion that found an instant match echoed inside her own needy body. She did what she’d wanted to do since he picked her up. She plunged her fingers into the black curls and buried them until they were no longer visible.
    The music switched to a sultry, heady reggaeton beat. He hauled her tighter against his muscular frame.
    Freddie broke the kiss, but only so he could trail hot kisses along her jaw to the sensitive point beneath her ear. Julia clutched his broad shoulders, then glided her hands along his arms. She reveled in the powerful muscles beneath her hands. In return, his hands ran restlessly up and down her back as he fought what she was also fighting—the base instinct to disrobe and satisfy an unbearably pulsing ache.
    “ Perfecta ,” he whispered in her ear.
    Julia didn’t care they were in the middle of a crowded dance floor. She didn’t care if anyone saw them or thought their behavior was indecent. Wrapped in his arms, none of it mattered. Freddie made her feel like a goddess, and she was slowly getting drunk from the power of it.
    He lowered his big hands to her hips, and the heated pressure penetrated the material of her skirt and spread warmth along her pelvis. Emboldened, she swayed her hips from side to side in time to the beat of the music. He lifted his head as he felt the difference in her.
    “Close your eyes,” he whispered. “Let yourself go, Julia.”
    She did. The music flowed over her. She became one with it, letting it course through her veins and lift her spirits. She allowed him to guide her in a turn that ended in her back pressed against his front.
    Julia lifted her arms toward the ceiling, and his hands made a slow progression up her side to rest high on her waist. His harsh breath fanned her neck. They were practically making love on the dance floor, and she wasn’t the least bit ashamed. She reached back and trailed her hand along his firm jaw, and she felt, rather than heard, the groan that rippled through his taut body.
     
    ****
     
    Lento. Lento . Freddie knew Julia couldn’t understand the lyrics of the song, but her relaxed body followed the instructions to a tee. Slow. Slow.
    He couldn’t count the number of times he’d shared a dance with an attractive woman. While there were times when the right woman could turn him on, he’d never experienced the type of ravenous need consuming his body the way it was with Julia. He bunched his fist into the loose-fitting skirt, fighting the urge to haul it up to her hips so he could run his hands along the length of her inner thigh. He buried his face in her fragrant hair.
    “ Dámelo, dámelo ,” the woman wailed in the chorus. “ Lento . Lento .” Give it to me, give it to me. Slow. Slow.
    His body shook with the internal struggle to tamp down the need Julia had awakened by rubbing her sexy little body against him. Heaven help him, if she