The Thorndyke Trilogy 2: Dancing at Midnight (22 page)

He turned her, kept one arm over her breasts, and caressed her stomach, letting his fingers stretch as far as her mound. She moaned, no simulation that, and moved into him, as she did in bed. As he enticed her to.

Using their private movements in public drove her wild, but not wild enough to forget the dance. They performed the flicking and kicking part, but he took care to keep her nipples hidden, teasing the audience with the possibilities without allowing them a real look. She didn’t mind them seeing, but it seemed he did.

He bent her back over his knee and came down over her to give her a kiss. This time, he turned it into a real kiss. He drove his tongue into her mouth, and she had no option but to suck on it and accept it, caress it as she lifted one hand to cup his cheek. He separated their mouths so they were a breath apart, licking her lips, tracing them with his tongue before sinking down, holding her tightly.

The dance hadn’t ended this way before, but this time, it was right. It formed a fitting conclusion. He held her close and she held him, two lost souls coming together.

The last haunting notes faded away, and the lights went down.

Nathan stood, lifting her and then lowering her to her feet. When she stood, he wrapped something around her. Not her dress, not silk, but smooth cotton. His shirt.

The audience was silent for that single, magic moment as they realized the dance was over. Chairs clattered to the floor as people got to their feet in one surge, and they applauded, cheered, wouldn’t stop.

Flushing, she bowed and then bowed again. Her first instinct was to believe it was him. Nathan owned the club, he was a famous enigma, and he never danced in his own clubs, although people knew he could. There was no footage of him on the Internet—she’d looked—just rumors that he had started as a dancer. Some said a male stripper; others said a ballet dancer.

“Both,” he murmured in her ear. He’d picked up her thoughts again.
“I got rid of the evidence.”

Not that she cared, because he responded to her generously, opening himself to her and sharing in her joy.

“It’s not you, it’s not me. It’s us.”

He was right. Without him, she was good and she could be better, once she’d conquered her nerves, easily capable of living up to the publicity. With him, she was spectacular because he evoked the passion she needed. He wouldn’t let her remain still but led her into the next move, their personal connection bleeding onto the dance floor. If people didn’t know they were lovers before, they did now.

Eventually they stopped clapping, once it became obvious that there would be no encore. Nathan led her offstage, where the other dancers were applauding. This time, Kristen knew it was for their boss, Nathan. He relayed the thoughts he read in them to her. Jealousy of her, desire for him. Some of the men wanted her, the ones who hadn’t noticed her before. Uncertainty from one direction. Steve.

Nathan beckoned to Steve, and smiling in acknowledgment, he led them to the back of the club and up the stairs that led to the gallery containing his office.

A bottle of champagne sat in a bucket of ice on his desk. She didn’t know how he’d had it delivered.

Nathan eased out the cork with barely a
pop
and poured the foaming liquid, giving her and Steve a glass each. She swiped off the sweat over her body before she took a seat on one of the black leather easy chairs before his desk.

Nathan perched on the desk itself, the heavy mahogany surface accepting his weight without complaint. “We’re keeping this. You dance the waltz with her, Steve, and then start the tango, and I’ll take her from you. We’ll work out the details later. We need to do something afterward. We can’t leave them at that.”

Steve drained his glass before he nodded. “That sounds good. So I’m the spurned lover?” He grinned. “I should get some sympathy for that.”

“We’ll see if we can’t get you lined up with someone else. Make a narrative of it. So after Kristen and I finish the tango, you can appear with somebody else and win them.”

“Or they can win me,” Steve said, holding out his glass for more. “Maybe something upbeat, like a salsa.”

Nathan obliged him. “I like that. We’ll find someone to court you. I’m thinking Betty. Then a last dance with Kristen and me.”

“A ballroom tango?” she said. No, that was too much like the Argentine. But it needed to be emotional. “A Fred and Ginger routine.”

Nathan snapped his fingers. “Perfect. We’ll start first thing in the morning. Block it out and make a start.” He held the bottle, dripping from the ice, toward Steve. “Now get out so I can celebrate with my lady.”

Steve grinned, took the bottle, and sauntered out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

“You should close your mouth, sweetheart,” Nathan said softly.

“You called me—”

“My lady. You are.” He slid off the desk and held out his hands. She got to her feet lightly, gazing up at his face. He pushed the rags of his shirt off her shoulders so she was bare except for her panties and shoes. “I couldn’t bear for them to see what was mine.” He smiled ruefully, humor lighting his eyes. “That’s a strange reaction for a dancer. That was when I knew.”

“Knew what?”

She licked her lips, and he groaned before covering her mouth with his. He tasted her, making the kiss tender, caressing her lips with his.

Giving everything to him, she flung an arm around his neck as he held her close to his bare chest.

He released her mouth and gazed into her eyes. “That I love you.”

Below, the crowd, liberated from tension, milled about. People lined up at the bar; others talked animatedly, their excitement palpable.

But not as palpable as hers. Only one response was possible. “I love you too,” she murmured.

He smiled and kissed her again, a reverential seal to their mutual opening. “Nothing else is as important as this. Everything else in our lives will take second place to this. We’ll talk about other things, I’m sure, but for now, I want to make love to you and then take you home.” He hesitated, and she caught the trace of a thought as he firmly put it away. He smiled. “Yes, there are complications, but I don’t want to talk about them tonight. When I saw your breasts bared to the crowd, I wanted to kill them all. Personally. I’ve danced with naked women before, bared myself for them on occasion, and I’ve never, never felt that kind of jealousy. Then you taunted me, little cat.”

She let a secretive smile curve her lips. Yes, she had. Flaunted herself, but at the time, she’d been desperate to make the dance work.

She loved this man, irrevocably. Whatever happened next in her life, she’d have this.

Although the crowd couldn’t see them, they could see the people below, and in full view, Nathan made short work of her panties, then the remainder of his clothes. He kicked aside the rags of his shirt. “I need a costume I’m not going to destroy every night. That shirt cost five hundred dollars.” He laughed. “It was worth every penny.”

She laughed, too happy to hold it in. When he held out his arms, she jumped up, wrapping her arms and legs around him, and he slid inside her pussy, the place that was made just for him.

He walked her across the office as if she weighed nothing and pushed her against the glass separating them from the people below. Could the people below see anyone pressed so closely against it? She had no idea, but she wasn’t about to change her mind. If Nathan wanted to alter the role of the club from dance to live sex, that was all right with her. As long as it was her he was having sex with.

Single-mindedly, he drove into her, reaching into emotional parts of her she had no idea he could reach. Mind and body, he was hers, and he let her know with every drive, every kiss.

Lost in him, she held on and responded, arching into him, her clit meeting his pubic hair, grinding against him in an effort to find relief.

“Fuck, you are beautiful,” he said, breathing the words against her lips before taking them hungrily again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth in counterpoint to his thrusts below.
“This is yours, my love. All for you.”

Still, she could hardly believe it. He loved her? No more than she loved him. She’d tried not to, knowing there was nothing in it for her but heartbreak, but she gave herself up to him now. Dangerous but necessary in a visceral way she’d never experienced before. She hadn’t thought it possible.

She came in a series of hot, hard pulses, crying his name repeatedly, her voice higher each time.

He growled her name once and then came, his essence spurting inside her in jets, his cock swelling each time he shot his seed into her.

Dazed, Kristen let him carry her to the big squashy sofa and sit down with her in his lap. Entwined, his cock still inside her, they kissed, caressed and repeated the words of love they’d held back before.

Now there was no possibility of holding back.

Chapter Eleven

“Sweetheart, I have to go away,” Nathan said the next morning.

Her heart sinking, Kristen leaned up, her elbow against the pillows. “Why?” Did he want to finish this already? Was he so commitment shy? “What we said to each other—”

He caught her hand, smiling up at her. “I meant every word. No, my love, this is business.” He squeezed her hand. “Kind of.”

Reassured, she nodded. Of course he’d have to carry on. Their personal bombshell couldn’t signify the end of their other lives. They’d have to get up and call Steve to tell him Nathan was going away, for one thing. “How long will you be gone?”

“I’ll block out the dances with you and Steve, and then I’ll leave. I should be back tomorrow. The day after at the latest.” His eyes turned grave. “The clubs aren’t just to keep me busy. I also help Talents get away.”

She blinked. “I thought you were all so big and strong you didn’t need helping.”

“You’re wrong. We have our vulnerable ones, mainly the young and inexperienced. And civilians. Most Talents just want to live quietly in the community they’ve chosen. When they need to move on, when they’ve aged and their bodies haven’t, then we can help. There’s a network called the Thorndykes, who will move people, either because they’re being targeted and pursued or because they’re ready for another life. We’re discreet, and we act in confidence when required. We don’t ask questions unless it becomes necessary. We won’t help a Talent evade the law, for instance.”

The world of the Talents was more complicated than she’d supposed.

Nathan circled her nipple with one finger and smiled when it tightened. “It seems unfair I have to leave you so soon, but I’ll hurry back. A young woman in the club is a vampire needing help. She thinks she might have attracted the PHR’s attention, and we need to get her away. I’m taking her to another of my clubs and handing her over to the manager there, who will move her somewhere else.”

She nodded. She couldn’t stop him helping another Talent.

“Smokey will bring you to the club and take you home when you’re done. Okay?”

She didn’t like the idea, but she knew she’d have to be sensible. He had a situation to deal with, and she couldn’t add to his concern by refusing to go along with his plans. She nodded. “I’ll do it.”

He touched her reverently, stroked her skin. “Sweetheart, are you prepared to come away with me if I ask you to?”

With a pang, she cast a thought to her newfound success and unhesitatingly made her decision. “Anywhere.”

He kissed her. “I’d have suggested we do this right away, but Diana needs my help. We won’t go for long, I swear. I want to take the dance forward. But if we’re in danger here, maybe I’ll close this place while we move to another club.”

“Oh.”

He laughed. “Did you think I meant give it up? Not a chance. I want to see that look in your eyes again, that delight when you hear the applause. You deserve that. I’m not taking that away from you. Hopefully it won’t come to that and we can continue here. Dalton will help us, and we might be able to clear the cell out.” He rolled her back against the crumpled sheets and gazed into her face. “While I’m away, I want you here. You can use the living room for practice.”

“House arrest?” she said with a smile.

“If necessary. I need to know you’re safe.”

“But what if I need to go out?”

After pausing for thought, he nodded. “Call Smokey. He’s not a Talent, but he knows about us. He’ll take you where you need to go.”

She hated the necessity. Caught in the throes of mutual love, she wanted to spend every possible minute in his company. “I don’t like it.”

He nodded. “I know. We’ll work out something better, I promise. It’s not always like this, being the lover of a Talent.”

She touched the mark, his sigil. Hot under her fingers, it seemed to move under her hand. “Is it alive?”

“No, but I am. If you don’t let me out of this bed, we’ll never make our meeting with Steve.”

“Losing stamina, are we?”

He groaned and rolled on top of her. “What’s ten minutes?”

* * * *

More like half an hour, Kristen contemplated happily as she lay in the tub later that day. Sadly, she was alone, but she’d met the girl, Diana. Tension rolled off the younger woman in waves. And she really was younger. Kristen had never met anyone less like a vampire in her life. She wondered how the PHR had ever identified the curvy blonde as a Talent, but Diana was terrified.

Kristen couldn’t doubt that Diana needed Nathan’s help. Dalton was already helping, preparing the way so Nathan would be away for as short a time as possible.

She gazed around the bathroom. Marble and shining chrome fixtures. A more luxurious prison she couldn’t imagine.

Steve had left with Nathan, shooting her a laughing glance that said as clearly as telepathy that he knew Nathan’s jealousy was real. They’d blocked out something great. She’d checked the Internet for reviews, and they were all good. Her performance had created more of a splash than she’d thought, but Nathan had replaced the posters.

That still worried her. Her lie. How could she go ahead without telling him? She’d have told him last night, but first they danced, then fucked, and then they made love. After that, they’d slept. Today they’d made love, rehearsed, and then Diana arrived. When he got back, she’d tell him, confess all.