Seduced by Moonlight by Janice Sims Page B

on, Ma. He cooks, sews and knows every musical that ever appeared on Broadway practically word for word. Either he was gay or very strange for a straight guy. Now I know he’s just strange.”
    â€œAnd that comforts you?” her mother asked, amused.
    â€œMa, half the kids at school are strange in some way. It comes from trying to find out where we belong in the great scheme of things. There are a lot of neuroses floating around the halls of my school. I can work with strange but not gay. If Echo turned out to be gay there was no chance for us.”
    There came a knock at the door.
    â€œThat’s Harry,” Cherisse announced. She started walking to the door.
    â€œNo,” cried Danielle, “let me get the door. You’re supposed to make an entrance.”
    â€œYou’ve been reading too many romance novels,” her mother accused lightly.
    â€œAnd you haven’t been reading enough,” Danielle countered, hurrying to the door. “For once, listen to me. And when you come into the room, watch Harry’s eyes.”
    Shaking her head, Cherisse decided to let her daughter conduct her experiment. She went into the bedroom to get her purse.
    When she walked back out, Harry was sitting on the couch laughing at something Danielle had said. He looked up and the laughter died in his throat.
    Rising, his eyes possessively raked over Cherisse. Crossing the room to her, he suddenly found his voice again. Keeping his words low, and personal, for Cherisse’s ears only, he whispered, “Damn, you’re beautiful!”
    Cherisse was beaming. Beautiful, he’d said, and he was standing there looking so devastatingly handsome in his dark blue suit that he took her breath away. This wasn’t working out the way she had figured. She was supposed to come here with Danielle in order for her to meet her sponsor. Not to meet a man who would leave her trembling with desire. This wasn’t the right time for her and Harry Payne.
    Still, she couldn’t resist saying, breathlessly, “Not half as much as you are.” After she’d said it she wondered where that sexy tone had come from.
    Harry just smiled at her and offered her his arm. “Shall we go?”

Chapter 7
    W hile they were leisurely strolling through the lobby on the way to Solomon’s Danielle couldn’t help noticing the funky beat of hip-hop in the air.
    â€œWhat’s that?” she turned around and asked Harry, who was walking beside her mother a couple of paces behind her.
    â€œThat’s coming from the ballroom where the youth dance is held,” Harry said. “What you hear is the DJ warming up. The dance starts at eight and lasts until around midnight. It’s a Saturday night staple around here. It’s kind of a multimedia event. The DJ plays lots of songs that also have videos, and while he’s spinning the disc, the video is playing on a wide screen set on the wall. No alcoholic drinks are served.”
    â€œMay I go check it out after dinner?” Danielle asked Cherisse, her tone not quite pleading, but promising full pleading mode if she got a negative reply.
    â€œAlone?” Cherisse countered. “No. You know the rules.”
    Danielle started to say something, saw the warning expression in her mother’s eyes and thought better of it. Earlier when she had ignored that look she had done it out of an unselfish desire to get her mother and Harry alone. This time she knew she was asking her mother to let her break a rule she had never let her get away with before: no going to dances without a suitable companion who would look out for her.
    She therefore let it go and resolved to have a good time at dinner.
    Once they arrived at Solomon’s, Danielle noticed that several diners watched them cross the room to their table in the beautifully decorated and subtly lit restaurant. She supposed that was because of Harry. Like the captain of a ship, as the owner of