touched her.
For several minutes, the female bodies above them twisted and swayed in mind-boggling, breathtaking positions. At some point, Lucy realized she was breathing hard and that she’d somehow put her hand on Jamie’s knee.
She automatically tried to jerk her hand away.
But before she could, Jamie covered her hand with his.
One night. No strings attached.
His offer was a temptation she couldn’t put from her mind.
It felt so good to be touching him again. He was warm and strong and God she was getting goose bumps all over just thinking about his hand touching other parts of her body…
He rubbed small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb, sending jolts of electricity all the way up her arm and down her spine. The show was enthralling, but doubly so when combined with Jamie’s touch.
He turned his hand over, so his palm was facing up, and before she knew what was happening, she was caressing it with feather light touches of her thumb and fingers. She had the overwhelming urge to pick up his hand and kiss it, to run her tongue along his lifeline…
Instead, she caressed his hand the way she wanted to caress the rest of him. His entire body tensed when she traced between his fingers and she could tell by the way he shifted in his seat that he was as turned on as she was.
She couldn’t stop her mind from replacing the acrobatics of the dancers in the show with those of hers and Jamie’s bodies, bending and twisting and writhing as they kissed and touched one another.
Her breaths quickened and she felt so hot she knew her whole face had to be fire engine red. The more he stroked her palm, and the more forcefully he did it, the hotter she got.
Lucy’s world became focused on Jamie. They were in public but also very much alone.
In the dark.
Surrounded by eroticism. Artistry. Poetry.
Magic.
* * *
By the time the opening acrobatic act was over, Lucy was shaking. Desperate, she grabbed Jamie’s wandering hand and held it tightly in both of hers. At first, he resisted being restrained, but then Max came on stage. Jamie stopped fighting her, but entwined his fingers with hers.
Max did several tricks that Lucy had seen him do before. Then he introduced a new one. The only thing on stage with Max was a huge metal box resting on a stand so the audience had a clear view of the space from the bottom of the box to the floor beneath it. Max lifted the lid of the box and helped out two scantily clad, very sexy young women, who he introduced as Amanda and Tina. After Max closed the lid again, Amanda lay on her back across the top of the box. Then he handed a satin rope to Tina who tied Amanda up while swaying her hips seductively to the sound of the music. In the meantime, Amanda arched her back and her hips would rise up off the box just slightly, and Tina paused every so often to look back at Max. The air sizzled with sexual tension.
Once Amanda was completely restrained, Max lifted her and gently deposited her into the box before closing it and locking it. He then lifted Tina so she could stand on the box in her high heels and skimpy outfit with the lights shining behind her.
After a few moments, she reached down and picked up a velvet curtain that encircled the top of the box. She pulled it up over her head and completely disappearing from view. Max said a few words, there was a puff of smoke and when the curtain dropped, Amanda, the woman who he’d originally put inside the box, was standing on top of it. He unlocked the box and opened it, and then he reached inside and lifted out Tina with her extremities tied in the same way that Amanda’s had been just moments ago.
The audience clapped loudly. Once the catcalls and whistles had died down, Amanda and Tina left the stage, and Max was joined by another assistant, who he introduced as Gina. Max motioned for Gina to climb into the same box he’d used in the previous trick. She melodramatically shook her head and said, “No.” Max once
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain