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The lights of the club oscillated with the beat of music, the multicolored array bathing the scene in a riot of color. The place was awash with a rainbow of bodies, the rhythm of the movements on the dance floor matching the thumping bass of the songs the DJ played.
Penelope wasn’t normally one to be found there on a Saturday night, but she’d had an awful week, and the group had decided the best way to shake off the drudgery and anxiety from her job was to literally shake it off.
Which is how she found herself currently pressed up against Colin, her back to his front as they swayed to the hypnotic pulse of the music. She had one arm entwined around his neck, the other wrapped around the top of his muscular thigh. Both of his arms were wrapped around her waist, his hands splayed on her stomach. Her hips were grinding indecently into his groin, a fact for which neither seemed to notice nor care about.
When the song changed, however, Colin quickly maneuvered his hands to her hips, twisting her to face him instead. She slid both hands to wrap around his neck, finding herself staring into his eyes as the cadence of the song drew them closer together. He dragged her forward, nearly every part of her now touching him in some way.
She could feel herself getting lost in the sea of his eyes, her emotions cresting over her in a wave brought on by a mixture of serotonin and shots, courtesy of the dancing and Kate, in that order. She had to remind herself that Colin was probably feeling the same flood of chemicals and intoxication, which was why he was watching her so intently with that look on his face. It didn’t mean anything, not to him, anyways.
Colin was having a fantastic night. He was feeling pleasantly buzzed, the din of the club helping to drown out his inhibitions. Everything was slightly fuzzy and hazy around the edges in a blur of colors, lights, and sounds.
Except for Penelope. She was crystal clear, a homing beacon to his senses. Her auburn hair framed her face in a cascade of loose curls, highlighting the apples of her cheeks. The topaz of her eyes was accented by a sleek swipe of eyeliner, her eyelashes accentuated by a bold mascara that drew his focus even more so to the long line of them. The dress she was wearing, a tight baby blue number, was cut tantalizingly low, showing off her ample cleavage to anyone with a pair of working eyes. He couldn’t help admiring her, in more ways than one.
Colin knew she’d had a rough go of it this week, her coworkers being especially awful while her boss took advantage of her helpful personality. She was always willing to go the extra mile, even if it meant someone else got the credit for it. Which is why he’d suggested they all come out here tonight. He knew this wasn’t her usual bag, but she’d needed to let off some steam after her work nemesis, Cressida Cowper, had been given the cover assignment, even though Pen had done all of the research for it and had even poached the artist to get him to agree to the interview.
He’d wanted to punch something when he’d find out, but he knew Penelope wouldn’t appreciate that, so he decided to help her relax instead. And nothing worked better to help Pen relax than losing total control of herself on a dance floor, the heavy drum of the club music letting her free her mind and wash away all her worries.
And it had obviously worked incredibly well, the results evident in how he’d found himself with his body aligned with hers, their figures virtually molded to one another. He could feel his heartbeat thrumming in his ears, the staccato tempo moving ever so slightly faster than that of the music surrounding them. He chalked that up to their motion, the fast beat of the song making them move with a quick rhythm.
He also assumed their firm hold on one another was what was causing his current situation, hoping that Penelope couldn’t feel the tightening in his pants. He told himself this would happen with anyone he was dancing so closely with, that it had nothing to do with the specific woman he held in his arms.
As the DJ switched to a more romantic mix, Colin felt the sudden urge to see Penelope’s face, to look into her eyes. He spun her around, turning her to face him. She went along with the motion, wrapping her other arm around his neck. He kept his hold on her hips, the softness of her body playing against his fingertips. He suddenly felt like she wasn’t close enough, though, pulling her body flush against his. He found himself mesmerized by the feeling of her against him, feeling drunk on more than just the alcohol coursing through his system. He found that he couldn’t look away from the pool of her eyes, worried he might drown in them if he continued to stare into them for too much longer.
“I’m gonna get something to drink!” Penelope shouted over the throbbing bass, inclining her head toward the bar. He nodded, indicating he heard her. Colin waited a moment before he headed towards the other end of the bar, feeling like he suddenly needed a drink himself.
“Come with me!” Penelope grabbed Edwina’s hand, basically dragging her towards the bar in her haste to get away from Colin and her feelings for him. She could feel them quickly running away from her and she needed something to distract her, struggling to hide how she felt for him when they were dancing so intimately.
“You and Colin looked like you were having so much fun out there!” Edwina said as they flagged down a bartender. They quickly told her their drink orders and waited for them to be made as they chatted.
“Yeah,” Penelope replied hesitantly, unsure of where this conversation was heading. She could already sense what Edwina was going to say, and she truly wasn’t in the mood to be dealing with this. The bartender delivered their drinks and Penelope sipped on hers slowly, hoping to put an end to this awful exchange soon.
“I can’t believe you two aren’t dating. You would be soooo cute together!” Edwina squealed, wrapping her arm around Penelope’s and giving it a squeeze. Penelope laughed and played off the comment like she hadn’t heard this a million times already from their other friends.
“You’re drunk, Edwina! We’re only friends. Plus, he belongs with someone else, someone… I don’t know, hotter and cooler than I am.”
“You are totally hot and cool enough to be with him, Pen!” Edwina insisted, and Penelope wrapped an arm around her waist, hugging her to her side, grateful to have a friend as loyal and kind as Edwina.
“Thanks Win. Well it doesn’t matter anyways because as I said, we’re just friends. And even if we weren’t, he’s not interested in me, so the point is moot.” This time, it was Edwina who initiated the hug, pulling her friend into her arms sympathetically. “Come on, let’s go dance some more. We’re both too hot and too single to be sitting here right now!”
Penelope smiled, letting her friend pull her back out into the sea of bodies.
Colin was nursing a glass of whiskey at the other end of the bar, lost in thought when he sensed a presence at his back. Make that two annoyingly familiar presences, both of whom he knew wouldn’t leave until he dealt with them but that he didn’t particularly want to talk to at this moment. He turned with a sigh, facing his brothers.
“Anthony, Benedict,” he said, nodding at each one in turn.
“You and Penelope certainly seem cozy tonight.” Benedict said pointedly.
Colin rolled his eyes. This was an old argument, one that had nearly cost him his friendship with Penelope a few years ago and that he was truthfully just tired of having. Nevermind the fact that he was struggling to figure out his own feelings about her right now; he didn’t need to deal with anyone else trying to tell him how he felt about her. “Ugh, not this again. Will you two let this go?”
“I’m just saying, Kate and I didn’t dance that way until we started dating,” Anthony remarked, raising an eyebrow at his younger sibling.
“You danced like that during your third date. With her sister.” Colin countered, remembering how Anthony had made a mess of things with his current wife by dating her sister when he was (very obviously) attracted to Kate at the time.
“Okay, fair point, but still. What’s going on with you two? You were practically dry humping on the floor just now.”
“Don’t be crass.”
“I just call it like I see it.”
“Well then get your eyes checked.”
“So it won’t bother you that Penelope is currently dancing with someone else, then?” Benedict told him, his voice lilting knowingly.
Colin’s head shot up, his eyes quickly finding Penelope amidst the mass of writhing humans. She was currently embracing a dark-haired stranger, her arms draped around his neck, looking entirely too cozy. They looked seconds away from making out in front of everyone, a thought that sent a bolt of jealous heat straight through Colin’s chest. He quickly tossed back the rest of his drink before determinedly making his way towards her.
“Yeah, they’re totally just friends,” Benedict said to Anthony, who smirked in agreement.
Penelope was enjoying dancing with John? Jack? She couldn’t remember his name, but it didn’t matter really; all that mattered was that he was an excellent dancer and that she was having fun, her mind finally shutting up and letting her forget about all her worries. She was just fully getting into things when she was suddenly pulled into a different set of arms, her equilibrium thrown off balance by the sudden change in momentum. She stumbled into the chest that had now grabbed her, nearly tumbling to the floor, but was saved from doing so by the person who had interrupted her dance with Josh?, only realizing belatedly that it was Colin.
“Oi, mate!” Jim? yelled, angry at losing the person he had been entwined with so abruptly. “We was just dancing togeva, bruv!”
“She’s with me! Find a new partner!” Colin told him, and the look in his eyes brooked no argument. Jake? took off, easily finding someone else to grind with in the crowd.
“What the hell, Colin?” Penelope all but screamed, pushing away from him angrily. “You had no right to do that!”
“I didn’t like the way he was touching you!” Colin retorted, knowing that he sounded possessive when he had no claim to her, but he couldn’t help it. Something had taken over him when he saw her with that other man, a feeling he’d never felt before, envy spilling forth like roots growing from a tree.
“Well I did! And you have no say in how other men touch me! You’re not my father, you’re not my brother, and you’re certainly not my boyfriend, since you’ve made that perfectly clear! Or do you not remember saying that you would never date me?” She shot back, her fury emanating from her in a tidal wave of emotion.
“You were practically having sex with him!” Colin shouted, realizing that was probably not the right thing to say but recognizing that it was too late to take it back. His mouth was running away from him at a speed that he was worried he would never be able to catch up with.
“So what? If I wanted to actually have sex with him right here and now, I could! And you would have no say in it! You’re acting like a bloody fucking prick, Colin Bridgerton!” She cried, and even over the noise of the club, the nearby patrons could hear the last part of her statement, she was so incensed. Some of them stopped dancing to see what the commotion was about but she paid them no mind, storming off in the direction of the exit, her hair whipping behind her as she departed.
“Pen, wait!” Colin bolted after her, weaving in and out of the people who suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. He finally managed to escape from the crowd, flinging open the door to the club. He turned his head from side to side, giving a sigh of relief when he spotted her a few steps away from the entrance, her head looking down at her phone, her face aglow in the light of the device.
“Pen!” He called, trying to get her attention. “Pen, wait, I’m sorry,” he said, drawing closer to her. He was panting, his rush to get to her making him run and lose his breath as he did so. He pivoted towards her, angling his body so that he faced her side, even if she refused to look at him. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean any of that. I was just…I was jealous, okay?”
Penelope was infuriated, slamming the door opened in her hurry to get out. The nerve of that man, talking to her that way! She couldn’t believe he pretended to be her friend when he acted like that. She honestly just wanted to scream right now; everything had been going so well up until then, and then he had to go and ruin everything. Ugh!
She took out her phone, preparing to get an Uber. She knew she couldn’t really afford it, but she didn’t want to go back inside and find her friends in the hopes that one of them was sober enough to give her a ride home. She was just getting ready to call for a ride when she heard the one voice she really didn’t want to hear from right now.
“Pen!” She tried to ignore him, hoping he would get the hint and just leave her alone. She could see him coming closer, though she wouldn’t acknowledge him at all. “Pen, wait, I’m sorry.” She could tell he was struggling to speak, his voice coming out in heaving intervals as he apologized. She still didn’t give him anything, her hurt overpowering her desire to care. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean any of that. I was just…I was jealous, okay?”
She finally looked up at him at that, a bevy of emotions tangling in her heart. Confusion, hope, anxiety, doubt; all of these warred within her, making her feel entirely unsure about the man standing in front of her and everything that had happened with them tonight.
“I don’t understand. What could you possibly have to be jealous of?”
“You’re really gonna make me say it?” He whined, his voice taking on a pitch like that of a little boy.
“Say what?” She had no idea what he was talking about.
He took a deep breath, acting like he was preparing for something terrible. “I like you, Pen. I didn’t realize it til tonight, but I do. I like you, and I was jealous, and I acted like an idiot, and I’m sorry.”
She stared at him incredulously for a second before she burst into laughter, clutching her stomach as she bent over with the force of it. She felt tears streaming down her face, she was laughing so hard. Colin’s jaw had dropped watching her.
“Why are you laughing? Do you think I’m joking?” Colin asked, his voice tinged with hurt.
“Of course I do! You said you would never be interested in me and now all of a sudden you like me? What am I supposed to think?” She replied angrily, harkening back to when she had overheard him telling his brothers that he wasn’t, and would never be, interested in her a few years ago.
“Why would I joke about something like that?” He responded woundedly.
“I suppose it’s my turn to be sorry. I just… I never thought you would feel that way about me after everything. I’ve liked you for so long, and I just never thought it would happen, so it was easier to assume it wasn’t real, I guess.”
“Well, it is real. I really do like you, Pen. I’m only sorry I made you wait so long.” He told her, his tone remorseful.
“We really need to stop apologizing to each other,” she laughed, smiling shyly at him.
“I have a better idea,” he said, gripping her chin in his hand. He lifted her mouth to his, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss.