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playing for them while they’d talked. And talked. And talked some more.
    Charlie couldn’t ever remember being so at ease, so comfortable.  
    “Oh, I love this song,” Phee said as “Let’s Stay Together” came on.
    “Me too,” Charlie said. “Gotta be in my top five of all time songs.”
    “Songs. That’s one we didn’t do,” Phee said.
    Though he had loved the evening they shared, Charlie didn’t want to talk anymore. And he didn’t want to just hold her hand. He slid from his seat, not breaking his hold, and tugged on her hand as he stood. “Dance with me,” he said.
    “Here?”
    He nodded. “Why not?” He tugged again, and she followed. He led her to the middle of the floor, out of view from the one window where the blinds weren’t drawn. He pulled her into his arms, holding her right hand, her left resting on his shoulder.
    It felt so right, so natural to be dancing with this woman. It seemed unreal that he’d only met her hours ago. They fit.  
    “This is nice,” she murmured, and stepped even closer to him, her breasts grazing his chest.  
    “Mmm-hmm,” he mumbled, sliding his hand up her back as Al Green sang about never being untrue.
    She looked up at him. “Does it seem weird that we just met?”
    “Yes and no,” he said honestly. She nodded, getting it, and then placed her head on his chest.
    They swayed together, hands slowly exploring, her head burrowing into his shoulder. All too soon the short song came to an end, and Charlie silently prayed the next song would be a slow one so he wouldn’t have to let this girl go.  
    Ever.
    The intensity of his thoughts—his feelings—should have scared him, but it didn’t. They stood tentatively in that moment between songs, not wanting to break apart. And then the music started, and it was “Let’s Stay Together” again. Phee’s head sprang up from his chest, surprise in her pretty brown eyes.  
    “You didn’t play it twice?” he asked, but already knew the answer.
    “No,” she whispered.  
    Her mouth looked so soft, so sweet, and Charlie knew he had to taste her. He lowered his head slowly, giving her time to turn away, but she didn’t. No, the sweet, lovely girl in his arms rose up slightly and met him halfway. Her lips were warm and as soft as they’d looked. She tasted of coffee, deep and rich.
    She opened to him right away, and he swept his tongue into her mouth, hers happily meeting him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, his around her back.
    “Charlie,” she whispered as he broke the kiss to move to her neck. His name had never sounded so sweet.  
    Nibbling up and down her neck, he heard himself groan. His hands roamed down her back, trying to touch every inch of her, wanting to remember her—this night—forever. Slowly, his hands moved down to her ass. That shapely, enticing ass which had mesmerized him from the first moment he saw her walking away.  
    He should stop. He had just met this girl, and he was pawing her all over. He was the nice guy, every girl’s buddy, someone who’d never made a move on the girl he was supposedly crazy about.  
    And suddenly, with crystal clarity, Charlie saw the difference in what he’d felt for Deni and this burning, aching need he felt for Phee. Even after only knowing Phee for so short a time.
    This was not the sweet, good-natured feelings he had with Deni that he had thought would grow deeper. This was already deep, deeper than he’d felt about a woman before.  
    A panic went through him about leaving town, leaving Phee, after this weekend. The urgency played out in his touch, his grasp of her little curvy body, as he slid his hands lower, needing to feel the skin of her legs. Praying she wasn’t wearing hose or any other kind of barrier.
    She wasn’t. Her legs were blessedly bare under the skirt of her uniform. A skirt he hurriedly slid up and over that delectable butt, feeling the silk of her panties. But even that was too much of a barrier. His hands started to