Read Online Dance With Me by Heidi Cullinan - Free Book Online Page A

remembered he hadn't changed the bulb, then limped to the other lamp on top of the stereo cabinet. When that bulb also proved to be burned out, he swore again and headed over to the front door, where the light switch was easily findable on the wall, and he knew the light worked.
    Now that he could see, he rooted through the pile of junk on the couch, marveling briefly to see that this was where that new toilet paper had ended up, found the remote, and settled in on top of probably clean laundry he hadn't gotten around to folding. He surfed aimlessly, landing on an infomercial for a memory-foam pillow-and-mattress set because the blond male model kind of gave him an erection.
    He was too tired and too sore to jack off, though, and when the male model gave way to a female, Ed's attention drifted back to dancing and to Laurie.
    Somehow the evening had softened Ed's feelings about him, even when he'd kicked him out for no reason and then called him back to teach him Cuban motion like he wasn't going to sleep if he didn't. He still thought Laurie was a snot. A rich, spoiled snot who was mostly in his way. Except...well, outside of being snippy, he hadn't been a snot tonight. He was just different, that was all. He was a neurotic mess, but he wasn't as arrogant as Ed had been thinking he was. It had been nice of him to give Ed lessons. And once he let go, once he got the corncob out of his ass, he was actually pretty fun. Cute too.
    Not Ed's type, though. Not even close.
    But Laurie changed when he was teaching. He'd been good with the couples—weirdly nervous but good. And he'd been amazing when he'd been teaching Ed about the hip thing. He was better than any coach Ed had ever had on the field, and he'd had some damn good coaches. Laurie made you want to do well, not to please him but to get it right . Except Ed had wanted to please Laurie too. Because as they were doing that last dance, all he could think of was how he wanted to come back and do it again.
    Ed turned off the TV and the light and shuffled back to his bed, moving the ice pack from his pillow and setting it on the bedside table on top of a dirty plate resting on top of a stack of magazines. He took a second to make sure it wasn't all going to topple over, then rolled on his side and stared out across the room into the open door of his closet, where junk was spilling out randomly onto the floor. His eyes fell on a pair of cleats, and he studied them for a minute.
    The thing was, teaching the class at the center had felt good, but dancing with Laurie had felt better. It just wasn't the same to tell other people how to lift weights as it was to lose himself in something. To fight with something and achieve it. To wrestle with his own body and convince it that it could do more than it wanted to. And dancing had been fun. Really fun. Dancing with Laurie, sparring with him—all of it had been fun. And when he'd been doing the rumba with the Cuban motion done right, he'd felt a buzz like he hadn't felt since he quit playing for the Lumberjacks. Like he'd been eating cardboard pizza for five years and gotten used to it, and now somebody had waggled a Chicago-style deep dish under his nose. He had to have more.
    So why the hell hadn't that happened when he'd taken the class with his mom?
    His eyes unfocused as he remembered the way it had felt to take Laurie in his arms, to touch him, to watch him move. He was really good, that much Ed could tell. Laurie made it look so easy. But he made it beautiful too. It was different, dancing with Laurie.
    Fuck, maybe it was just that he was a guy. Ed hadn't ever done that before—danced with another man—not like he had tonight. Sure, he'd ground against a guy at a club. Who the fuck hadn't? But he'd never danced with a guy before. Never held hands and put his hand on a guy's waist as he turned him around, then met him back again for another round. Never had a guy tell Ed to move his hips, to be sexy, to listen to his body, not