Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(59)

Theo’s smile faltered, but he just said, “Aren’t you always telling me to apply myself?”

“What are you doing here? This is an important night.”

Theo downed the glass. “Jason wanted me here, so I’m here. Shocking, I know.”

“You will not embarrass us tonight,” Michael whispered furiously. “Not when so much is on the line.”

“Have you met Diana?” Theo said. “Diana, this is my father, Michael Santos. The savior of Keralis Labs. He’s quite the strategist, but not what I would call a lot of fun.”

Michael ignored him and offered Diana his hand. “A pleasure. Are you one of Alia’s friends from Bennett? She’s usually with that pudgy little Indian girl.”

“I’m not sure who you mean,” said Diana, feeling her anger prickle. “I’ve only met her friend Nim, the brilliant designer.”

Theo beamed and held up his remaining glass of champagne. “How about a sip to wash the taste of your foot from your mouth?”

“Just make yourself scarce,” hissed Michael.

“I would,” said Theo loudly, stepping past his father. “But I promised Alia a dance.”

Alia looked over. “You did?”

Theo snatched her hand and bowed theatrically. “You’re not going to change your mind, are you?” He dragged her after him to the dance floor. “My fragile heart couldn’t take it.”

With a nervous glance at Dr. Han, Michael laughed again. “Spirited boy. If he would just apply himself the way Jason does.”

But Diana wasn’t listening; her attention was focused on Alia vanishing through the crowd. Her gaze met Jason’s, and he held out his hand. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Han,” he said. “But I have the uncontrollable urge to dance.”

Diana’s brows shot up. Maybe not all mortals excelled at subterfuge.

She took Jason’s hand, and they wended through the partygoers to the dance floor. Diana allowed herself a small sigh of relief when she spotted Alia and Theo swaying together in the spangled light. Alia was laughing and seemed to be all right, but Diana didn’t intend to lose sight of her, no matter how many guards Jason had posted.

Jason led her onto the dance floor, sliding his hand beneath the golden fall of the lasso shawl as he drew her closer, his fingers brushing the bare skin of her back. She stiffened, then flushed when she realized he’d noticed.

“I have to touch you if we’re going to dance,” he said, sounding bemused.

“I know that,” Diana replied, bothered by the edge to her voice. “We don’t dance like this where I’m from.” Alia laughed again, and Theo spun her beneath his arm and into a dip. “Or like that, for that matter.”

It was comforting to focus on Alia and Theo instead of the scrap of distance between her body and Jason’s. Why should standing so close to someone make her pulse jump? Was it simply because he was a male? It’s a novelty, she told herself. Or maybe it was because, poised this way, her hand clasped in his, their bodies separated by a breath, felt almost like the moment before an embrace. Or a fight. Why couldn’t they just wrestle again? That had been easier. And she would win.

Jason pressed his hand firmly to her back, and she nearly lost her footing.

“What are you doing?” she asked, more irritably than she’d meant to.

“I’m trying to lead.”

“Why?” It was hard enough to manage these strange movements in new shoes and a borrowed dress without him jostling her around.

“Because that’s the way it’s done.”

“That’s a lazy answer.”

He huffed a small, surprised laugh. “Maybe it is,” he said. “This is how I learned. I guess I don’t know how to do it any other way.”

Diana felt something in her relax. “I like it when you’re honest,” she said, realizing the truth of the words as she spoke them.

“When I make my case like a human?” he said, a grin in his voice.

She let herself yield to the pressure of his hand, the tilt of his body—for now. Dancing might not be quite like fighting, but you still had to be careful when someone stepped into your guard.

“Better,” he murmured. “Next time, you can lead.”

What next time? she wanted to ask.

Alia’s laugh floated over the crowd, and Jason swung Diana around gracefully, cutting through the other couples so they could keep Alia and Theo in view—they were laughing, breathless, hands clasped, spinning in a tipsy circle. Theo’s style of dancing was definitely more theatrical than Jason’s.

“I don’t hear Alia laugh enough,” Jason said.

“I suspect she’d say the same of you.”

His shoulders lifted slightly in a shrug. “Maybe. She needs to meet more people, have more fun, but with the danger…”

“She’s having fun now.”

“Well, I don’t want her having too much fun. Not with Theo.”

Given the display with his father, Diana wasn’t sure Theo was the best thing for Alia, either. Even so, it was hard not to think of what Theo had said about Jason not wanting him around. “I thought you were friends.”

“We are. But Theo isn’t exactly…steady. He falls in and out of love like a kid on a waterslide. Falls hard, hits bottom, wants to go again.”