Excerpt: Second Chances III: Life's A Dance

“Ummm, thanks for the dance, but I better be getting back now.” She took another step backwards and tried a trembling smile. “It was nice meeting you. Good luck with the album.”
Her farewell snapped out of his stupor, but instead of letting her go, he grabbed her hand and dragged her off the dance floor. She gasped and would have cried out, but before she could gather her thoughts he had opened a door and propelled her inside. A long hallway stretched in front of her. When she heard the door slam behind them, she tried unsuccessfully to jerk away. “What are you doing? What's going on?”
He had the strangest look on his face. Disappointed? Angry? Confused? Maybe a bit of all of them.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You let him treat you like that? If—” he swallowed heavily, “—if he’s your husband, he should treat you with more respect.”
She shook her head dazedly. “You’re mad because he wouldn’t dance with me?”
“I’m pissed for a lot of reasons. That being just one of them.”
Heather felt like she’d just stepped into the hallway of the Twilight Zone. “I don’t understand. You’re not making any sense.” She glanced back behind him at the door. “I should be getting back. Eddie will get irritated if I’m gone too long.”
“Fuck Eddie.”
His rude remark shocked her, but she was angry, too. “What’s going on? You act like I’ve done something wrong.”
He gave a furious growl that made her blink. “You deserve better, damn it. If you…if you have to be married to the jerk, don’t let him treat you that way.”
All at once, she understood, and a little thrill shot through her. Without thinking, she stepped closer to him. “You don’t even know me and you’re worried about me?”
Dustin fought back the emotions rocking through him. They’d hit him so fast and hard he could barely speak in coherent sentences.
She was married. She was six years old than he was. She had kids half her age. Which meant… “You were just a kid. How could he—”
Her face closed up like a rose at night. “I won’t talk about that. Not with a stranger.”
He growled out a curse that left her mouth hanging open. “Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger, but damn it, that’s not what we are. Can’t you feel it?”
She took a step backwards, but those violet eyes softened and her hand lifted as if to comfort him before she jerked it to her side. “Maybe, though it makes no sense. God, we just met.” At his pointed look, she sighed. “All right, I don’t understand it, but yes…yes I do. But I’m sorry. No matter how comfortable you make me feel. It’s private. I can’t.”
“So you love him?” Just the words hurt to say. It wasn’t logical, but he’d quit trying to understand why it was so damn important…why she was so important. All he could think to himself was that she didn’t wait for him. How crazy was that?
Heather gave a sad little laugh. “There was never love.”
Hope flared. Another emotion that made no sense. “Then why stay with him?”
She arched a brow. “I have two children, Dustin. And while he’s not a great husband, he is a good father. He loves those kids and they adore him.”
“It’s not enough.” He’d only known her an hour and he could see that. “You need more.”
“What I need isn’t important. They are.”
He knew by the tone of her voice she wouldn’t change her mind. Her kids were her first priority. But worry still tore at him. “I saw how he treated you. He shouldn’t abuse you that way.”
“He’s never hurt me.” But her gaze fell from his. “Not like you mean it. Emotionally he could do better, but I can deal with that.”
“You shouldn’t have to, damn it.” Dustin couldn’t help himself. He pulled her against him, cradling her face in his hands. “You are beautiful and smart and so damn sexy you make my teeth ache. He should care for you like the precious jewel you are, not like a nuisance he has to put up with.”
Her eyes had filled with tears as he spoke. “You don’t know what it means to hear someone say that to me. I must be dreaming.”
“You aren’t.” He touched his forehead to hers, his hands sliding down her arms to link their fingers together. “You’re special. Christ. I just met you and I don’t want to let you go. Knowing how he treats you makes me want to—”
“Don’t…please,” she begged softly. “He’s my husband. For better or for worse. I-I shouldn’t even be talking to you like this.”
It took all he had not to storm out the door and get rid of her husband forever. Never before in his life had he felt such a killing rage. Yet, knowing how fragile she was, he held her as if she was made of spun glass. Slowly, he took a deep breath and let it out again. “Then promise me. If it gets worse…if he hurts you in any way, you’ll get help.”
A sad smile touched her lips. “Not a lot of places like that in Mountain Pine.”
His jaw clenched. “Then you’ll leave. Take the kids and disappear.”
She sighed and nodded. “I promise. I don’t think it will come to that, but I promise. I mean it,” she said when he shook his head. “He’s never really gotten physical…except...” She blushed and he swore again when he understood what she was trying to say.
“Rough sex can be abusive, too,” he growled.
Heather was as red as a rose. “It’s not like that. I mean, it used to be, but we haven’t been together in almost a year.” She bit her lip. “I can’t believe I’m saying these things.”
“You know you can trust me.”
“But I don’t know you. Not really. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Honey, sometimes it just happens that way. It’s fate. It is what it is.”
“The first time you touched me, I felt safe.” She shook her head and laughed softly. “Now that doesn’t make sense.”
It made perfect sense to Dustin. From the moment he’d seen her face he’d known something unusual was going on. But he’d expected a quick bounce back in her hotel room, not this wealth of emotion that was tying him in knots. And to find out she belonged to someone else…someone who might mistreat her… “I have to know you’ll be okay.”
She touched his cheek with a shaking hand. “Who are you? How can you make me feel like this?” His heart raced as a tear slid down her soft cheek. “I’ve never felt—” She cut herself off, but he understood completely.
“I don’t want to let you go,” he muttered as he threaded his fingers through her hair. The next words that left his mouth surprised him as much as they did her.
“You should have been mine.”