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her hands. Jake looked at her, stupefied.
    “I feel like I’m dancing with my grandmother,” he complained putting his hand on her back and pushing her toward him. “Except my grandma stands closer to me than this.”
    Cassie stiffened in his hold and tilted her head up at him. “Don’t tell me you use this cowboy charm even on your poor grandmother.”
    Jake threw his head back and laughed. “You know you’re a lot of fun when you’re not trying so hard to dislike me.”
    Cassie narrowed her eyes at him as he pressed them into the path of another couple to close the space they had between them.
    “Who says I even have to try?” she said, straightening her arms and stepping back into a small space between couples.
    Jake pulled her firmly from the narrow space with fresh fervor, and she stumbled against him, finally, as he wrapped both arms around her waist. She glared at him again, and then turned her face away to stare across the crowded pressing bodies all around. A lock of her hair had fallen into her eyes, and Jake moved his arm from her waist to free it from her lashes, knowing the tender gesture had melted more than one hard heart. With the release of his hold, Cassie backed away from him once again, shaking the hair from her lashes and planting her feet on the floor in front of him.
    “The song’s over, Jake,” she said firmly. “My chair?”
    She was still holding on to his arm and her mixed messages only pricked his competitive nature to grin at her. “You said when we were done, I should take you back.” He pulled her stiffly into his arms again. “I’m not done.”
    The music had slowed, and Jake felt her surrender. He held her firmly, tenderly, and she relaxed her death grip on his hand and let him hold her against his body as the dancers now barely moved in response to the romantic ballad.
    Cassie sighed and looked up at him. “This is a waste of a good excuse to get some beautiful girl out here to make out with you.”
    Jake laughed again, still surprised at how blunt she was. He could feel the defiance slipping out of her, but it was being replaced with a frantic energy, like a wild mustang that will let you touch its nose and slide your hand along his flanks, but the instant he feels pressure on his back he runs.
    “Relax, Cassie,” Jake said, his voice a deep sultry whisper again. “I don’t bite.”
    Cassie stiffened in response to the honey softness of his verbal caress. “It’s not your teeth I should be watching out for,” she grumbled quietly, leaning away from him.
    Jake kept her firmly wrapped in his arms and danced them both across the floor, before the song had ended. “See,” he said. “There’s more to me than disagreements in dark corners.”
    Cassie shook her head, backing away from his hold on her. “That’s just it. If that was more … then I’ve already seen more than enough.”
    She turned her back on him and felt her way through the throngs of people and dim atmosphere to the wall, disappearing into the crowd.

Chapter Six
    “Jake Caswell, that arrogant, manipulative snake!” Cassie’s mind fumed the most powerful pointed names she could imagine, but she didn’t actually know very many, and the blinding fury in her heart blocked out rational thought.
    She felt the whisper of wind breezing through the swinging doors and she pushed them out, and past too many bodies. She followed the tracer of hot panic in her heart until she bumped against a vehicle and paused to catch her breath. I hope you’re happy now, Troy. She fumed all over again. I tried.
    Cassie took in the crispness of the night. How many nights had she danced with Dylan? She remembered the way it felt to be in his arms, to feel his breath in her ear. Jake had been so familiar, too familiar, and that acid falseness had drizzled from his lips just as sweetly. Cassie ground her teeth until the sound made her wince away from those pictures. Instead she cleared her mind and let the atmosphere