“Can I buy you a drink?” A low, smooth voice brushed up against my ear and made me shudder. I turned to my left as Kevin gingerly sat atop the bar stool beside me and grinned. I lost myself in his eyes for a moment and swallowed hard.

“Sure, but I don’t think that would be legal.”

He cocked an eyebrow and chuckled. “Actually, Emily, the legal drinking age in pretty much all of Europe is 18. Surely you’re older than that.” His sparkling green eyes danced in amusement. “What? 20?”

“Eighteen. Nineteen next week.” My cheeks burned in embarrassment. Here this older man was doing what? Flirting with me? Nah...just being nice. And here I was admitting that I’m younger than I look.

            He had to fight to keep himself from spitting his beer all over the bar. He was hitting on an 18 year old? Real smooth Richardson. “Oh, uh...sorry.” He mumbled.

            I shrugged, trying my best to keep my composure while my heart beat wildly in my chest. “It’s okay. Common mistake actually. I’ve spent most of my life feeling older than I am.”

            “Well, you seem older.” He inched a little closer and smiled as his eyes landed right in front of my face. “A lot older.”

          I raised my eyebrows. “It’s not generally socially acceptable to tell a woman she seems old, Kevin.”

          He closed his eyes and looked down, shaking his head as he laughed quietly. “I’m sorry. I just meant you seemed closer to my age.” He looked back up at me and smirked.

“And your age would be?”

“I turned 26 earlier this month.”

“Oh.” 26 was probably a little too old for me-- at least a little too experienced for me anyway.

“You wanna dance?” He jumped up and held a hand out to me.

“Really?” Shock registered in my head and I tried not to act too star-struck.

“Yeah, really.” He smiled and grabbed my hand, jerking me out of my seat and pulling me towards the dance floor. His hand wrapped around mine was strong, warm, and a little bit painful. I was used to the limp, sweaty hands of nervous high school boys leading me on to the dance floor. This was certainly no high school dance.

“This is a new one by an American group called Next. Get ready to dance a little “Too Close!” The DJ’s strong British accent echoed throughout the club.
Kevin smiled genuinely and stepped closer to me, placing one knee between mine and his hands on my hips. As the bass echoed throughout the club be began to lead me naturally. I was mesmerized with the man who moved so fluidly with me but blushed at the song lyrics and looked down at our feet. The only problem was that our thighs were in the way, which made me blush even harder. One muscular leg clad in dark jeans rested comfortably between my black dress pants and the other gripped the outside of my right thigh. His hands gently guided my hips up and down and when he pushed my body down so that my crotch rested on his thigh, I nearly passed out.

“Relax.” He whispered in my ear, the vibrations of his deep baritone making me shudder. “Have fun.” And we did.

My embarrassment quickly melted away as he moved me along the dance floor swiftly. I tried not to notice the racy lyrics and instead focused on the dance moves. We were essentially “bumping and grinding” but the footwork felt oddly familiar. “Are we doing the tango?” I asked, looking up at him in amusement.

He snorted softly. “You’re the first woman to ever call me out for that on the dance floor.”

Had he just called me a woman? Why was that so strange to me? Maybe because I‘d just graduated from high school a few months ago and still felt like a kid? I gulped and spoke.

          “So you do a lot of ballroom dancing in the clubs?” I smirked.

“Well, I used to be an instructor in Orlando...before Backstreet.” He shrugged and laughed. “I can’t help it I guess. You’re a good student.”

“Well I guess you’d have to say I’m in the advanced class.” I laughed.

“Yeah....I noticed you in the monitors backstage while you were out there tonight. So you’re a dancer?” He had a thing for dancers.

“Well, I could have been so much better, but I was a little ADD growing up. I wanted to do too much and could never really focus on just one thing, ya know?”

“Yeah. I’d still love to act one day, do some producing, maybe even own a horse farm one day. But the Backstreet Boys thing...it’s great for now.”

“Yeah....” I trailed off, not really sure where the conversation should go next. “So are you counting?” I asked, referring to dance steps.

He chuckled. “Are you?”

“Guilty.”

“Me too.” We both burst out laughing as he placed a hand in mine and twirled me around so that my back was now facing him.

Across the club, several pairs of eyes were locked on the couple on the dance floor. “Wow. Do you see that?” Brian placed his beer on the high-top table, his eyes wide.

“That’s pretty hot...” AJ answered as he pulled his sunglasses off.

Mel giggled loudly, having already had way too much to drink as she held on to Howie’s arm and nuzzled his shoulder with her head. “She always was looking for a man who could actually lead her on the dance floor.”

The dance had started to get a whole lot more interesting when he twirled me around to face away from him. His arms snaked around my waist and he pulled me against him. That was when I felt his erection pressed against my backside. I tried not to laugh at the irony of the song lyrics “I feel a little poke coming through from you.” But come to think about it, I didn’t really feel like laughing. His breath was hot on the back of my neck. I swallowed hard and tried to focus on the dancing, but this was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced. Not that I’d experienced much in my short 19 years, but I had a feeling that this would rank way up there as one of the most erotic experiences in my lifetime.

When the music stopped, Kevin gulped and pulled his hands off my hips. He looked down and stuffed his hands in his pockets, pushing them out with his fists to try to hide his arousal. “So, uh...do you want to keep dancing, or um....”

          What? This gorgeous man wanted more than one dance with me? ME? “Uh...sure..yeah. I’d like that.” The next song came over the speakers. “So what this time, the paso doble?” I giggled as his hands found my hips again and leaned into me.

          “Now you’re speaking my language,” he replied huskily his eyes darkening slightly. Oh wow, was this really happening? My breath hitched in my throat and my heart beat wildly. There was no way he could be expecting...that...right? I’d never done....that. I coughed and pursed my lips, rolling them between my teeth as I tried to find a way to lighten the mood.

“Seems we’ve been speaking the same language for a while, actually....Did I hear one of you was from Kentucky? Is that you? I think I noticed we have the same ‘twang’ ”

“Yeah. Brian’s from Lexington, and I’m from Eastern Kentucky...Irvine.”

I snorted lightly. “That’s not eastern Kentucky.”

“What? What would you know about it?”

“I know you can drive another two and a half hours east of Irvine to get to where I’m from.” I laughed.

“Really? You’re from Kentucky?”

“Yeah....Jenkins...ever heard of it?”

“Um...no.” He grinned sheepishly.

“That’s okay. I’d never heard of Irvine until we drove through it to visit my brother in Richmond at EKU. I won’t even get into the fact that it’s in central Kentucky and they call it Eastern Kentucky University.” I rambled on, trying to ignore the hardness pressed against my hip.

            “Yeah, but anything east of Lexington is considered eastern Kentucky, right?” He laughed and snaked his arms around my waist, pulling me closer into him.

“Seems that way.” I tensed as his body engulfed mine.

“What did I tell you before? Relax.” His whisper made me shiver again.
An hour later, we’d visited the dirtier versions of the lambada, rumba, and even the waltz, and I gasped for air as his hand in mine led me over to the bar.

“So what’s your poison?” He pulled a stool out for me and motioned to the bar tender.

“Water, please.”

He furrowed his brows, thinking, “Well, this is gonna be a lot harder with her sober.”  He ordered me a water and himself a beer and turned to me. Our knees brushed against each other as he tilted his head to one side and started talking. “Well, Emily Rose, so far I know you’re an almost 19 year old eastern Kentucky girl who might have been a better dancer had she not been so ADD growing up. And I know you sing, quite well I might add, with a group of your best friends....tell me more.”

I gulped me water down and sat the glass down on the bar top with a thud. “Um...what do you want to know? I’m not that interesting.”

“I think you’re very interesting.....” He trailed off and looked around the club. “Looks like we’re the only ones left.” Everybody else must have gone back their rooms like sane people who knew their buses were pulling out at 8 AM. “Can I walk you back to your room?”
Naively, I let him, and when he asked if he could come in, naively, I let him do that too. Then, when Amelia wasn’t in her bed, naively, I thought she must have been bunking with Chrissy, who’d drawn the long straw and gotten her own room for the night. When the door clicked closed behind us, Kevin let out a long whoosh of air. “You sure this is your room?”

I blushed and quickly kicked a stray bra under the bed. “Yeah...sorry it’s a mess.”

“That’s okay.” He lied. This room rival’s Carter’s, he thought to himself.

“We only had twenty minutes after we checked in to get to the venue,” I started to explain as I scooped up a pile of clothes and tossed them in to my open suitcase.

He smirked. “You did all this in twenty minutes??”

“Well, um....I had a little help. Amelia’s rooming with me. Or at least I thought she was...” I glanced to her neatly made bed and shrugged.

Kevin sauntered over to me bed and sat down at the foot. He patted the bedspread beside him and I stared at him wide-eyed. “I don’t bite.” He chuckled and I reluctantly sat. “Now where were we?” He pushed a curl behind my ear and I dipped my head to avoid his eyes. He placed a finger under my chin and pulled my head back up so that our eyes met. He smiled and whispered, “I think you’re beautiful.” My lips parted in amazement, and apparently he took that as an invitation because before I could even speak, his lips crashed down onto mine, his stubble scratching my chin in the process.

I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but then again, if I was dreaming, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to wake up. Kevin’s hands rested on the small of my back as he continued the assault on my lips. I wiggled a little closer to his lap and he pulled his lips away from mine in a quick grin as he moved one hand up so that his fingers looped through my curls. He felt amazing, and I felt a somewhat unfamiliar tingle when the hand that had been on my back trailed up to my breast. I wanted him to keep going, yet I wanted him to stop all at the same time. I was all about making out. I’d done plenty of that with plenty of boys, but when the man beside me eased by back against the bed, I froze.

“Kevin...I...Ithinkweshouldstop.” It all came out in one rushed breath and he literally jumped off of me. His hands fell on either side of my body, holding all of his weight over me but not touching. He squinted and stared down into my eyes for what seemed like ages, obviously trying to read me. Then he suddenly pushed himself away and landed with a thud on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Kevin?” I scrambled to my feet and looked down at him.

He was sitting with his feet flat on the floor, legs bent, elbows resting on his knees and his head hung down. “I’m sorry....that was really rude of me.”

“No....no, I liked it.” I plopped down on the carpet beside him. “I just, um...haven’t...”

“Oh my god, you’re a virgin.” He tilted his head up and looked at me cautiously. “Aren’t you?”

I smiled nervously. “Well, I’m only 18, and I met my last boyfriend at church camp.”

He chuckled, snorting slightly. “I lost my virginity at church camp.”

“You WHAT?!” I clamped my hand over my mouth, my eyes wide.

He shrugged. “I didn’t say I was proud of it. I just said it happened. Would it make you feel better if I told you camp wasn’t actually in session?”

“No, not really.”

He laughed. “My dad owned a camp. When camp wasn’t in session, it was where the local high school kids went “parking.” Nothing like having sex on the same property you were baptized. But, like I said, not my proudest moment....” He had reached behind him and was nonchalantly folding a thin piece of fabric. My eyes widened in sudden realization.

“Are you folding my underwear??” With the color rising in my cheeks, I yanked my panties from his hand and threw them across the room into an open suitcase.

“Emily, I’m going to have to be honest with you,” he said seriously. “This place is a pigsty.”