Read Online Again by Sharon Cullars - Free Book Online Page B

type. It wasn’t her color. He had dated a black woman before, although that experience hadn’t gone down well. No. It was something else. A feeling that was nagging him to distraction.
    He’d had this response once before. As a matter of fact, Sherry had been with him that night, too, part of the favor he owed. It had been an awards ceremony for Chicago architects held at the Fairmont a couple of months back. He’d taken a breather, stepping out into the foyer. After a few seconds, a woman had come out of another reception hall almost at the same time. They had both looked at one another, and he stopped, the same sense of recognition coming over him. At first, she just glanced at him, then she stopped and stared for a few more seconds. And like today, she had quickly turned and reentered the room, leaving him alone.
    It was the same woman.
    He turned to Sherry. “She was there, at the Fairmont. That’s where I saw her before. Remember the awards thing I dragged you to? I saw her outside in the lobby. She was there.”
    “Are you sure it’s the same woman? That’d be quite a coincidence.” Sherry turned to look at the subject of their conversation. “You’re probably confusing her with someone else.”
    David shook his head, certain now that he was looking at the same woman. Just as he was certain that she had evoked something in him then that hadn’t seemed rational at the time. That he had stood there pondering the same questions in his head long after she re-entered her banquet room and left him staring after. Two encounters, the same reaction. The same woman.
    “Probably in your dreams…”
    He stood up suddenly, pushing back his chair. Sherry looked up at him curiously.
    “What’s wrong?”
    Dancers were going out on the floor again. He knew that he was going to ask her to dance. He wasn’t sure what she was going to say. Might even leave him standing there at her table looking like a fool, but he was going to take that chance.
    “I’m going to dance,” he said, not bothering to explain.
    “Good luck,” she called after him. Amusement was in her voice.
    “Probably in your dreams.” Shades of green satin and cinnamon skin…
    His breath quickened as he navigated the tables to reach her.

C hapter 8
     
    W hen Tyne looked up, he was standing over her. Her mother stopped midsentence and smiled at the interruption. To the mother of the bride, everybody was a friend today. Tyne was irritated at the incursion and inexplicably nervous. A feeling gnawed in her stomach, and the sensation was moving downward.
    Before he walked up, April’s friend, Eve, had been talking to her, or more aptly, at her and Tyne had long ago tuned her out, going through the motions of listening. As she looked up at David, her breath caught in her throat, knowing that he had searched her out.
    “Tyne,” he said her name with an intimacy that belonged between friends, not two people who just met. “Would you like to dance?”
    She was about to say no, but her mother prompted, “Go on, enjoy yourself.” Her brother smirked, having quickly sized up her reluctance and the dilemma their mother had just put her in. It would never occur to her mother that she wouldn’t want to go.
    “Um, I was actually going back to my sister,” she said, looking up at him.
    He stood there, his eyes unwavering. He wasn’t leaving. “One dance.” The voice was quiet, insistent.
    They were at an uncomfortable impasse. Eve looked on with interest, probably reading more into the simple exchange than was warranted. Tyne had two choices, both of them unappealing. She could either remain seated, and have him hovering over her or get up and dance with him once, get it over with.
    She pushed her chair back, and he quickly offered his hand. Dry fingers enclosed hers in a tight grip as though he were afraid she might change her mind and slip away. He placed his other hand on the small of her back and steered her to the already full dance floor. The