A/N Of course, I still don't own any of the characters. Hope you guys enjoy the story and feel free to leave a review.

Chapter Fifteen

Nancy's POV

I walked next to Frank as we went up the stairs leading to the dance club in the same building as the restaurant. Dinner was enjoyable even though we mostly talked about the case. As much as I loved working on mysteries, I felt like a needed a little break from this one.

Everything just seemed to keep spiraling out of control. Just as we were about to get the name of main person behind it all, our suspect gets shot before our very own eyes. We find Demetri's wallet near the scene of the crime, which still confuses me. I'm not sure how much I really trust the guy, but I'm also not sure that he would have committed this type of crime. Then you have Officer Turner popping up at every turn. Of course, he is in charge of the investigation, but I would still love to see him less frequently. All in all, I have a lot more questions than answers.

I felt Frank place his hand on the small of my back as he guided me up the stairs. I smiled at the intimate touch. I could feel myself growing more in tune with him and wondered if this might end up leading somewhere.

Even though it's been a while since I was in a relationship with Ned, I haven't dated anyone else since that time. I guess our breakup made me rethink dating other people. I didn't want to have it end so badly again. I think that I'm just now coming to terms with the fact that I'm scared to move on with someone else. Ned and I were together for such a long time and then everything hit the fan. I'm not sure I want to take that chance with another person.

The main problem with this philosophy is that even though my mind might be saying that I should be careful around Frank, my body is responding to every touch. Even when he's in the same room, I seem to gravitate toward him.

We entered the dance club to loud, beating music. The place already had a large number of people around tables and on the dance floor dancing to the thumping beats. I just followed everyone else as Alice apparently led us to an empty booth that was big enough to fit all of us if we squeeze in together.

I squeezed myself in next to Jacob as Frank slid in next to me on the outside. A waitress came by within seconds and took our drink orders before heading off toward the bartender to have them filled.

A few minutes later, the waitress returned with all of our drinks and placed them in front of each of us. I saw that Edward, being the cautious one, just had a bottle of water in front of him. The rest of us either had a beer, shot, or in my case, a Martini.

I wasn't much of a drinker, so I sipped slowly as I listened to everyone's conversation. Frank was quiet beside me as he nursed his beer. The conversations had turned away from the mystery and work and were now centered on fashion and what to do this weekend, which was a welcome distraction for me.

Jacob leaned over to me and said, "Hey, you mind letting me out of the booth? I spotted someone that I want to dance with."

I smiled at him and then nudged Frank, who was next to me.

"What?" Frank asked.

"Scoot out," I told him.

Frank gave me a quizzical look because he had been off in his own little world and paying little attention to anything going on at the table. He got out of the booth allowing me to scoot myself out. Jacob then got out and gave me a quick smile before heading off into the throngs of dancing bodies.

"What was that about?" Frank asked leaning down to speak into my ear because of the loud music.

I shivered slightly at his closeness before answering, "He saw someone he wanted to dance with."

"Let's dance!" Alice shouted from the booth.

I looked over and laughed at how energetic she was. Frank had told me a little about her from his time spent at work, but even that couldn't really prepare me for what she's really like in person.

I was surprised Alice didn't just crawl over people's laps in order to get out quicker with the way she was bouncing in her seat. Since everyone had slid out of our booth, all the couples took off toward the dance floor. It just let me with Frank and Joe.

"You going to dance?" Frank asked Joe.

"Maybe if I can find a hot girl to dance with," Joe told him.

With a mischievous smile on his face, Joe turned toward me, "Hey Nan, you want to dance?"

Before I had the chance to reply, Frank had his arm wrapped around my waist. "She's with me. Go find your own girl."

I looked up at him to see if I could read his face to tell what he was thinking. I'm not sure what was really going through his mind right now, he just had a very determined, almost angry, look on his face.

Without saying anything, Frank led me out to the dance floor. He found some space between all the dancing bodies for us to dance together.

"Are you okay?" I asked standing on my toes to get as close to his ear as I could so he would be able to hear me.

I felt Frank relax his arms around me a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied but it didn't sound convincing to me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

I could tell he was debating internally as to whether or not to answer my question. He finally leaned down and replied, "Later."

I nodded my head and decided to try to get him to open up to me once we were out of the club. That way we would be able to really have a conversation without loud music or someone overhearing in the background.

A new song started playing with a great beat to it. I had my arms on Frank's shoulders as I moved to the beat. Frank's hands moved from their position on my waist upward. I looked up into his eyes and found they were sparkling back at me. His hands crept up along my sides until they wrapped around my wrists lightly.

I looked up at him confused as to why he was taking my hands off his shoulders. I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal. Before I could ask him about it, he had spun me around so that now my back was pressed up against his chest. He placed my hands back on his shoulders where I wrapped them around his neck. His hands then migrated past my waist to land on my hips. He used his hands to moved my hips to the beat of the music.

I leaned my head back against him. It felt so right to be this close to each other. I don't know how Frank feels about any of this, but for the first time in my life, I feel complete. I have never danced with someone like this before. Even Ned and I always kept a decent amount of space between our bodies. Somehow this lack of space between us ignited more desire and pleasure than I have ever felt before for someone. I come to the realization while I'm in the middle of a dance floor with hundreds of people around that I'm in love with Frank Hardy.

We spent another thirty minutes or so dancing with one another to the music in the club. I was almost oblivious to the people around me because my thoughts kept swirling around Frank.

At some point during our dancing, Frank leaned down slightly, "Do you want to go home?"

I nodded my head at him and we then went to find the others to let them know we were leaving. Alice was the only one that seemed disappointed that we were leaving so early. I'm pretty sure based on some of the looks that we received from the others that they would be on their way out shortly as well.

Frank kept his arm wrapped around my waist as we headed out of the building into the cool, night air.

Once when were clear of the building and most of the people, I looked up at Frank and asked, "So are you going to tell me what was going on earlier?"

Frank glanced down and sighed heavily. "I've been holding back from you," he finally replied.

"I don't understand," I told him puzzled.

Frank stopped walking and turned to face me in the middle of the parking lot. "I haven't said anything about our relationship with each other because I've been afraid it might change things for the worse."

Realization set in as I realized that he must have noticed how I felt about him. Frank was trying to take the high road and push me away gently, but was afraid of hurting my feelings.

I tried to keep my face from revealing too much as I said, "It's okay. I won't let this disrupt how we work together. We can just forget all about it."

"No!," Frank said abruptly. "I can't just forget about how I feel about you. Over these past few days, I've wanted to spend every second around you. I think it's always been like that, but because we were both in relationships with other people, we never really thought to explore where this could go."

Now I was really confused. "But I thought you were telling me that you don't want to be with me like that."

Frank laughed softly and cupped my face in his hands. "How could you ever think that? I got so jealous when Joe asked you to dance tonight that I wanted to hit him. That's not exactly normal behaviour for someone who doesn't want to be with you."

"So what are you saying exactly?" I asked. I was pretty sure what Frank was getting at, but decided that it might be best for both of us to hear it out loud.

"I love you, Nancy," Frank replied softly as he gazed into my eyes.

"I love you, too," I told him.

Frank leaned down ever so slightly and pressed his lips against mine. Even though we've shared kisses before, this one was different. Maybe it was because we didn't have a guilty conscience this time since neither of us was together with someone else. All I can say is that kissing Frank Hardy was an experience I would never tire of.

Frank finally pulled away and smiled down at me with eyes sparkling in their joy. "Let's go home," he said.