Free Her Master's Servant (Lord and Master Book 2) by Kait Jagger

as the same character as Isabelle, wouldn’t I?’
    ‘You’re worth ten of her,’ Jem said vehemently. Like Luna, Jem had known the Marchioness’s youngest daughter since grammar school and had formed deeply entrenched negative views of her. Jem’s boyfriend and business partner Rod approached, enquiring in an accent that was equal parts Mancunian and Kenyan, ‘Can I get you girls a drink?’
    Before Luna could reply, the opening strains of the next song began to play and she felt a shudder go down her spine.
    ‘Fuck me,’ said Jem. ‘It’s the Backstreet Boys.’
    Jem had good reason to be dismayed. The defunct American boy band was a shared childhood obsession of Nancy and Kayla’s, so much so that during their first year at the University of Manchester they forced new roommates Jem and Luna to enter a Halloween dance contest performing to this, the band’s most successful anthem.
    Surveying the tent anxiously, Jem said, ‘Let’s get out of here before they—’
    ‘Jem!’ Nancy yelled from the dance floor. ‘Jem, get out here!’
    It was no exaggeration to say that the expression that came over Jem’s face then was one of sheer, blind panic. Nancy had been a vicious taskmaster during their endless rehearsals for the dance contest, and as her chosen partner Jem came in for much of her vitriol. Luna, in the meantime, had had a more helpful partner in Kayla, who materialised from the loos at that very moment, running to clutch Nancy’s hand in joint delirium.
    ‘Come on, babe, come on!’ she shouted, waving urgently to Luna.
    Luna sighed. They weren’t going to get out of this. Ah, God, Kayla was actually stood in the centre of the dance floor now, howling along with Brian Littrell to some of the worst lyrics in pop music history, heralding the Backstreet Boys’ mission to ensure that the entire world rocked its body.
    Truth be told, Luna had a secret soft spot for this song. In addition to being an actress and singer, Kayla was an accomplished dancer; it was no exaggeration to say that over the years, she’d taught Luna every decent dance move she knew, and their rehearsals for the dance contest had marked the start of their friendship.
    ‘The choreography for this song is actually really simple,’ Luna remembered Kayla saying reassuringly as they sat watching the video together in their dorm room. When Luna looked dubious, Kayla laughed and said, ‘You can do it, I promise.’
    Sure enough, as she and Jem joined Kayla and Nancy and a few others on the dance floor, it was like riding a bike, going through their old moves, Kayla quietly prompting her in time to the music.
    ‘And hop. And twist. And shuffle. To the left. And bend. And lift. And shake. Your lit-tle-butt.’
    Nancy was being slightly less supportive of Jem, screeching, ‘
Move
, bitch!’ as the number transitioned into Luna’s favourite bit, where they coupled off into a swing dance, just like in the video. Kayla twirled her around the floor (because of course Luna and Jem were the ‘girls’ in the routine, and Kayla and Nancy were both Brian Littrell, apparently), Luna noticing to her complete amazement that some of the other dancers were also mimicking the moves in the video. Who knew the Backstreet Boys had such a UK fan base?
    She saw Rod standing next to Stefan, gesticulating toward them animatedly. And Luna knew, she could tell from the massive grin on his face, that he was encouraging Stefan to keep watching. Their performance featured a ‘money shot’, Kayla having decided during rehearsals that they needed to make the routine more ‘sex-u-al’ even though, as Luna privately observed to Jem, ‘This is literally the least sexual song
ever.
’
    In the video, the boy band members were all dressed as horror figures, the mummy, a wolf man, and the like. There was one brief shot of one of the singers, dressed as a vampire, hungering over a beautiful model’s throat, and it was this that inspired Kayla to add a sapphic