playin’ at, boy?"
“Not a damn thing, Oncle,” Renaud told him. He went on, “I'm gonna have a beautiful woman drape herself all over me. I'm gonna teach another beautiful woman that I cain't be led around like a dog on a leash. Life is good. Excuse me."
War watched his nephew stalk to the center of the room and begin stretching. Zierra trained her gaze on Renaud and never looked away. Anna was so excited that she couldn't sit still.
War fixed his eyes on the couple in the center as the lights dimmed to a single spotlight trained on them. He'd never watched his nephew dance before a few nights ago. The opening chords to Chris Isaak's Wicked Game began to play.
The two dancers were pressed body-to-body—toe-to-toe, hip-to-hip, and torso against torso. When the music began, they raised their arms in unison. They slowly laced fingers over their heads. Somehow they were turning in circles in opposite directions and hadn't let go.
They stopped turning and began swaying together as one. Slowly, one at a time, they separated their fingers.
Renaud gracefully leaped away from Lorelei, spinning and turning across the room. Lorelei leaped after him dragging her hands across his shoulders and chest as she revolved around him. She pressed her front to his back and began to sway with him.
Lorelei began to turn, moving away from Renaud. She began a jump, and he met her in midair. With both hands, he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her without losing momentum.
The two completed a revolution with Renaud ending flat on his feet. He held Lorelei facing him with her body above his. She raised her arms over her head as Renaud began to lower her so that her petit and feminine body slid down against his muscled and masculine one. Her arms were around his neck when her feet finally touched the floor.
She lifted her hands and placed them on each side of his face then swirled, nimbly bounding away again.
From opposite sides of the room, the two moved toward each other, first with small jumps then finally, they met in midair in the center of the room in a hurdle-like jump. They each looped one arm around the other's waist and turned, landing on toes that allowed them to revolve together in the perfect ballerina stance.
They continued to chase one another around the floor with fluid grace. He chased her, and she leaped away. She turned to pursue him and he bounded agilely out of her reach. Their bodies stroked one another intimately throughout the dance.
As the song ended, the pair pressed together with their bodies locked. Renaud bent his head to hers, and she flowed backward till she was bent nearly double. As the lights dimmed, it was impossible to tell if they were kissing or not.
Most of those people who'd watched from the anteroom spilled out onto the floor immediately and swarmed the two. War didn't move. He was awed by the intensity and beauty of their dance. As he turned his head, he saw that Zierra hadn't moved either. He looked at her and arched an eyebrow.
Zierra's chin wobbled. She shrugged her shoulders and looked away. He held out an arm, and she scooted over and nestled against him crying softly. After a moment, he handed her a tissue from a nearby box. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. He took a deep breath and looked at the group.
In the center of the excited throng sat Renaud and Lorelei. Neither of them spoke. Leaning against one another, they sipped their water and allowed the chatter to flow around them. Sometimes one smiled, sometimes one nodded but, War noticed, neither had much to say to the crowd. They were separate from their surroundings.
Their dance had been maddeningly intimate. Under any other circumstances, War knew he would want to rip his nephew's limbs off his body. He wasn't sure he didn't want to do that anyway.
He knew the two were not romantically involved. He'd known that before he asked Lorelei. They were bonded in some way, sure. That Legacy was vague enough that he couldn't tell if