Marita gave Lisa’s hand a pat. A lovely, elderly touch. “Oh, okay, then,” she said. “If you’re too timid to go by yourself, I’ll come with you to a couple of classes.”

Miguel nodded. “You’ll enjoy the dancing, I know.”

Marita gave a short laugh. “No way, José. I’ll just be watching. My ex and I took ballroom dancing years ago, but I never exactly morphed into Ginger Rogers.” That was a years before Ron decided to dance off with another partner.

“So you know the tango? That’s great,” Miguel got up and extended an arm to Marita with an exaggerated bow. “Madame, may I?”

Marita flushed bright red and knew the others couldn’t have missed seeing it. “Don’t be silly, my boy,” she cried. “There’s not even any music.”

“We’ll make our own music.” And Miguel began to hum a very energetic rendition of “Kiss of Fire” as he pulled Marita up onto her feet.

There was nothing to do but submit, because refusing and making a scene would have been embarrassing. With his arm firmly around her waist he drew her to the middle of the living room floor, which now was almost free of boxes. Marita’s heart took up the flaming rhythm of the tango, only the pulsing inside her was ten times faster and the heat easily equalled the fiery kiss in the song.

“You dance like an angel,” Miguel whispered in her ear. “Light and easy.”

Marita felt the arm around her waist tighten a notch and his dark head inched closer to hers. His face was slightly above hers. He leaned down to place his cheek against hers.

Dare to Love is available in print and as an e-book from Amazon.