Class Reunion Read Free Page A

been a long time.” He added something about Nicholas stealing his favorite girl as he gave Dana a wink. “Hey there, Dana. You’re looking good, you know?” Nicholas thought she winced.
    Seemed like suddenly, horribly, he was Mr. Popularity among people who had despised him and whom he had despised in turn. Well, he did not want to spend time with these clowns; he wanted to be alone with Dana.
    “Okay, you guys,” Jay said to Sally and John, “let a guy have a chance to talk with his best bud.” He pulled out a chair from the table and sat down announcing, “Me and my best bud, Nick, have a whole lot of catching up to do.”
    Clearly it was time to cut and run.
    “We were just leaving,” Nicholas said. Dana looked surprised but stood as he pulled back her chair. He was about to say a polite “Nice to see you” to everyone, but decided against it, seeing as it wasn’t true.
    He steered Dana toward the door. They passed the waiter bringing their food and Nicholas told him they had to leave unexpectedly and stuck a few bills in the man’s pocket, asking him to take care of the bill and to keep the rest.
    The man said something about the owner being on his way to which Nicholas said, “Tell him I’m real sorry I missed him.” Holding her elbow, he steered Dana out the door.
    “How about we go back to the hotel and order room service, if that suits you? I don’t think the food will be as good, but at least we won’t be interrupted.”
    That,” she said, smiling, “would be lovely.”
    He offered her his arm, which she took. He remembered how their hands had touched back in school when they’d hung out at the Dairy Queen. Her touch as they passed the cone back and forth between them had thrilled him and caused strange, new sensations and desires to course through his adolescent body.
    Now his heart beat fast and loud. When he gathered his courage and laid his hand over hers, the feel of her hand beneath his own ignited a flame in his belly. Made his cock begin to stiffen. Made him want desperately to stop right there and take her in his arms, to kiss her—
    She sighed softly and he wondered—no, hoped—that perhaps she felt something too.
    He was speechless all the way back to the hotel. They’d been talking so easily before, but now he was overwhelmed with all his pent-up yearning for her. He longed to explore her beautiful body, to see, to caress, to kiss and lick and—but he was determined not to show it. For an instant he’d been certain that he’d seen desire flash in her brown eyes at the restaurant, but then it had passed. Perhaps she regarded him only as an old friend, her pen pal in the flesh. He didn’t want to scare her with the ferocity of his desire for her.
    We’re just going to share a meal in peace, that’s all that’s going to happen, he told himself.
    He led her to the door to his suite, fumbled with the key card though he’d used others exactly like it a hundred times, and clumsily opened the door.
    Not in complete control of himself, he let go of her arm, strode over to the desk, and picked up the menu. Dana came and stood beside him. He could smell the slight fragrance of freshly washed hair and the delectable, indescribable scent that was hers—something like mown grass on a summer morning. That scent had sent him reeling when he was four years old and in the sandbox with her. It did the same thing now.
    He managed to say, “How about...” and he put his finger on the menu, without having read a word of it. “This.”
    “Sure,” she said, looking at the menu. “That sounds great. I love scallops.”
    Uh-oh. He despised scallops. Trying to recover as quickly as possible, he moved his finger down the menu and pointed again at something. “How about...” He forced his eyes to focus. “The beef stroganoff?”
    “Sounds great.” He wondered for an instant if she cared as little as he did about the food. Wondered if she was feeling... something for him, something like