Tonight

Chapter 12

Dianne tried to hold in the giggle that had been threatening to escape for the past three minutes as she watched Joe wobble around the open field to the blaring Latin song playing through their head phones. She had tried to get him to follow her lead into a simple samba step - but without being able to hear her instruction over the loud music, he had eventually given up with a shrug and begun to wiggle his hips to his own beat - somehow a completely different one than what was playing in their ears.

"Jesus Christ, look at those hips," she mumbled with a smile as he began to turn in a circle, turning her as he did so, under his handcuffed arm. His hips jutted out at strange angles and his face formed into a dramatic pout as he winked slyly at her, adding in a shoulder shimmy for good measure.

"What?" he yelled, as he noticed her lips move.

Dianne shook her head, letting the giggles finally escape.

"What?" Joe insisted, moving closer to her, shimmying into her personal space and leaning forward and pecking her lips.

Dianne felt, for just a moment as his lips pressed against hers, as if the world stopped. As he backed away, still dancing like a fool, Dianne felt as though her heart was about to explode. She wondered again, just like she'd done numerous times since she'd been handcuffed, how she'd ended up here. How she'd gone from wanting to kill the man in front of her to wanting to jump into his arms and never let him go. It was confusing how addicting his lips were. Gentle, yet strong. Confident, yet a bit tentative. They'd kissed numerous times now in the past hour - some short, some long, some hard, some soft.  Dianne felt the urge to keep exploring his lips, testing out new kiss combinations to add to the list of intoxicating Joe qualities that was growing longer by the minute.

"Damn it, Dianne." Those were the words Joe had muttered right before he had kissed her. Right before everything had changed. There had never been truer words spoken, she thought to herself with a grin as she continued to watch Joe dance around her. They had been pulled toward each other from the start, despite their immediate dislike. Joe's short, frustrated, profanity-laced declaration fit the situation perfectly - they wanted to hate each other...but for some reason, they couldn't.

"Damn it, Joe!" Dianne echoed Joe's words from before out loud, as she was broken out of her daydream by him stomping down on her foot while jumping in the air, limbs flying everywhere. She groaned out loud as she hopped on one foot, hoping that would help eliminate the pain.

Joe whirled around at her exclamation, eyes wide in apology as he stopped dancing and pulled her into his body, rocking back and forth. The music began to fade, and she realized he was pulling the headphones off her ears, letting them rest around her neck as he grasped her face between his hands.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, leaning down to kiss both of her cheeks. "I got a little carried away."

"A little," Dianne grumbled, choosing to ignore the blush on her cheeks his lips had caused, reaching down to attempt to rub her foot through her boot. "You look like you're 12 pounds but that felt more like 12,000."

"Offensive, on both accounts," Joe smirked, before hugging her tighter. "How can I make it up to you?"

"Never dance around me again," Dianne deadpanned, tilting her head back to gaze into his big blue eyes. Unable to resist, she smiled.

"Fine with me," Joe shrugged, leaning in to kiss her temple. 

"No, actually...I know how you can make it up to me," Dianne grinned, an idea popping into her head. "Dance with me."

"Dianne, has anyone ever told you, you're an incredibly confusing woman," Joe furrowed his eyebrows at her contradictory statement, watching as Dianne put their headphones back over their ears, messing with the dial on the side, before settling on a slow, melancholy instrumental song.