Chapter 3 – Stay on Target

Vacy laughed as Corso led her in a back-and-forth quickstep, shaking her head. "Riggs, color me impressed. You've got skills!"

He let her twirl out, then pulled her back in, and with his arms wrapped around her, he winked. "Captain, you've got no idea."

It took her a moment to catch the beat again. Her brows arched so high she wondered if they'd reached her hairline.

"You all right there?" He was grinning broadly. "Don't worry. I can cover for you if you don't know this one."

"That – it – I was talking about dancing!" she sputtered.

They spun, slid out, pulled back. "So was I. Why, what did you think I meant?"

It was impossible to tell if his grin was because he was enjoying the music and the dancing or because he was enjoying her discomfiture. "Not dancing," she muttered, and maybe he was being sort of a brat, but somehow she couldn't get rid of her own grin either.

Four songs later? five? they ordered drinks from a passing server then headed back to the table they'd been sitting at before. Corso dropped into a chair with a gusty sigh. "We need to do this more often." Another server brought their drinks over, and he chugged back several swallows and sighed again. "Get so caught up in rightin' wrongs and savin' lives… can be awful easy to forget about yer own."

Vacy sipped hers a bit, testing, and smiled kind of sadly. "Maybe. Just seems there's always an emergency of some sort or another. Someone needing our help absolutely right now, no delays, lives on the line, not a moment to spare." She sighed, shoulders raising, then drooping in a weary shrug.

Somehow the carefree mood they'd had moments ago had turned somber. Corso sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You can't carry the weight of the whole galaxy on your shoulders," he said, though he was looking into his mug rather than at her. "It ain't actually possible to save everyone."

Blast, girl, you've gone and sent him back to Mantell. Absolutely brilliant. Vacy took a breath, then lifted her glass and drained it before setting it back down. She might regret that in a short while, given that they'd stopped neither for lunch nor dinner, but right now sober wasn't much fun. "You're absolutely right. So. Best enjoy ourselves for now. We'll worry about saving more lives once we've had a full night's sleep, how's that sound?" This time she extended her hand to him.

But before he took it, the beat shifted to a more sultry rhythm, the bass pulsing harder. Corso hesitated, looking over to the dance floor, his brows pulled together in thought.

Frustration surged through Vacy in time with the beat. She could feel her jaw tensing as she looked down at him. "You gonna let me head out there all by my lonesome?"

"Well, Captain that depends." Corso looked at her with a wry smile. "This just a dance, or you lookin' for somethin' more?"

One brow arched, and then she smirked right back at him. "Well, Riggs, that depends," she replied, "on what my partner wants."

He slipped his hand into hers and let her pull him to his feet. "How 'bout right here, then?" He nudged the chairs away with his boot, creating just enough floor space to move around in, though not for anything fancy.

In the small, boxed-in area he'd created, Vacy found herself shifting the pattern of the dance, emphasizing the turns and twists of her upper body to balance the smaller steps she was taking. It was easy to forget how strong he was, but he didn't seem to have the least bit of trouble supporting her, no matter how far she stretched her bends and extensions. And each time she returned to their frame, she found herself holding him a little closer, until her hand was clasped behind his neck rather than resting lightly out at the tip of his shoulder. Of course, by then his arm was locked around her waist, when he'd started out with his hand placed carefully at her hip.

The music had slowed, softened, but neither of them moved from the embrace, hearts pounding together.

Vacy took a shuddery breath, lifting her face to his. "So," she whispered. "This just a dance, or are you lookin' for something more?"

[ I just kind of made up the dances – something swing-style for the fast ones at the beginning, and then the later one is some crazy cross between a tango for passion and a rhumba for intimacy and longing. More like the "Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge than "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago, although that isn't quite it either. Any other suggestions? ]