Chapter 29

The tooth-jarring slap to the face took me completely by surprised.

“You bastard,” snarled Joanna Kafkasian. “Cayenne convinced me that you wanted to dance with me and that it would be worth my while staying. She even persuaded Jaymon to go with her. Since then you’ve danced with all these girls while totally ignoring me. I should have known you were playing me!”

My friends looked shocked at yet another weird revelation.

My first thought was how gorgeous Joanna looked when she was angry, especially with her eyes flaring. Then when my brain stopped rattling, I realised that Cayenne Proctor had set me up with an opportunity to dance with my secret dream girl and I had totally blown it! Or had I? Desperate times called for desperate measures.

I dropped to one knee, not worrying about the tuxedo’s encounter with the dusty floor: it would be dry cleaned before its next outing. “Miss Kafkasian,” I said, “I fully deserve that slap for being so stupid. I assumed you would be going to the party with Cayenne because I didn’t listen carefully enough to what she actually told me. If you could find it in your heart to give me a second chance, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to dance with you.”

Okay, it was as corny as hell and I didn’t actually know Joanna well enough to be certain that dancing with her would be a pleasure, but I knew I had to try or regret missing the opportunity for the rest of my life.

While Joanna was thinking that over, we were approached by a couple of the final-year students who were helping to run the prom. “Is everything alright here?” one of them asked.

“Yes,” replied Joanna, her expression softening, and she held out a hand to help me up.

“Okay,” said one final-year student. “Just stay cool. We don’t want any trouble.”

If the final-year students recognised that one of their peers was part of our group, they were too polite to comment on it, and they departed as quickly as they had arrived.

There was a spontaneous round of applause from my friends as Joanna led me onto the dance floor.

“You step on my toes, I break your nose,” warned Joanna. “My father said I’d be a target because of our wealth and made me take self-defence classes. I can break your nose in five different ways.”

Luckily a slow dance was just starting. I quickly found that Joanna’s dancing ability was on a par with my own and, despite needing time to familiarise ourselves with new partners, no toes were stepped on and my nose stayed unbroken. Joanna’s classy dress had no gaps to showcase her flesh, but I savoured the warmth of her body through the thin material.

When the dance concluded, Joanna effected her cute, slightly lopsided smile, revealing the small but alluring gap between her top front teeth. “Well?” she demanded. “Was a dance with me worth risking Jaymon’s wrath and the integrity of your nose?”

I pretended to think about it for a second. “I’m not sure. I’ll need at least one more dance to be certain.”

The next dance, a fast one, started up. Joanna grinned. “It’s your nose,” she said.

After that, we never left the dance floor. I was very glad that I had conserved my energy during the disco.

During an interval between dances, my friends came to tell me they were leaving and I confirmed that I’d meet up with them at Dimitri’s the next day. Their partners also took their farewells, although Maria and Dem seemed disappointed that they’d only had the one dance each with me. I reckoned that was for the best because, although I enjoyed dancing with them, I didn’t wanted to alienate their partners, my nerd friends.

During each successive slow dance, Joanna and I held each other progressively closer until our bodies were pressed firmly against each other. I wondered whether the ‘inappropriate touching’ rule still applied, but any teachers still on site had long since made themselves scarce and the final-year students who were running the event didn’t seem to care.

Joanna’s body felt remarkably similar to Terri’s; taut, with small, firm breasts, but her smell was quite different and beguiling.

As the evening went into wind-down mode, the alternation between fast dances and slow dances stopped, changing to a succession of slow dances.

Eventually one of the final-year students announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, please take your partners for the final dance of the evening.”

I looked around in surprise: I had been enjoying myself so much I hadn’t realised how time had flown. At first Joanna and I were the only couple on the dance floor, then Cheryl and Melinda joined us; I gave them a wink and a smile because I was pleased they were still going strong. Three or four others joined us as the music resumed, playing ‘The Last Waltz’.

Finally it was all over and Joanna and I reluctantly peeled apart from each other.

“I wonder if there’s anything left to drink,” said Joanna, just as I was thinking it.

We made our way to the drinks table and found a couple of bottles of water left. We snagged one each and, swallowing in sync, eagerly drained the contents to slake the thirst we had worked up.