Bold(11)

Jerking his attention to her scrunched-up face, he noticed for the first time her eye patch. “Hmm. A pirate.”

She released an exaggerated breath. “Yeah.” And then she disappeared behind the curtains once more.

He slipped his feet from the railing to rest on the thinly carpeted floor. Easing out of his seat, he moved toward the stairs leading to the stage. When his boots struck the waxy floor, Tabby came whirling across the platform dressed in a soft pink Nutcracker ballet tutu costume. The sugarplum fairy skirt glittered beneath the lights. Her hair was a curtain of silk whipping through the air as she spun again and again, laughing. The girlish sound wrapped around his heart and tugged.

Taking another step, he sneezed. The musty scent of time and dust teased his nose.

When she came to a halt, her breathing was labored. Her breasts rising and falling were hard to ignore. “I always wanted to be a ballerina.” She stood with her left foot in front of her turned at an angle while stretching her right foot behind her. Her arms held gracefully before her.

God. She was beautiful, like a delicate fairy too whimsical to believe. His palms itched to reach out and touch her, prove she was real, but he resisted the urge.

“Why didn’t you pursue it?”

Her shoulders rose and fell on a sigh. “I’d have to leave Whispering Cove.” As if that was a valid answer to his question, she performed a perfect pirouette and tiptoed elegantly out of his sight.

He heard the rustle of clothing, and then a thud followed by an unfeminine “crap”. “Is that why you dropped out of college?”

“Uh-huh,” she murmured, before the delicate toes of one foot peeked from behind the waterfall of forest green drapes.

His heart skipped a beat as a shapely ankle appeared, followed by a calf and a slender thigh. Her hand was next, along with an almost transparent black scarf pinched between her thumb and index finger. She let it slowly fall before her head appeared, the lower half of her face shielded by a veil that lent an air of mystery and sensuality.

Instantly, his throat went dry. When she stepped out in the open, he pulled in a breath, his muscles clenching, his body tightening. A whirl of blood swished in his head.

Delectable breasts were barely concealed in a black, sheer, belly dance coin sash, baring her back and dipping low in the front. His hungry gaze followed a span of tanned bare skin to her glistening bellybutton ring to the matching hip scarf she wore. A variety of different colors and lengths of the diaphanous material dangled around her legs. As she undulated her body in sexy and enticing waves, coins jingled, spurring his arousal.

“Tabby, s-stop.” He didn’t recognize the thick throaty voice as his.

Instead of heeding his demand, she giggled, stepping before him and yanking a scarf from her waist to let it float to the floor before she drifted away.

He died a little inside. He had never wanted a woman like he did Tabby. She stirred something deep within him he hadn’t even known existed. Desire so potent it felt as if it touched his soul. The raging need inside him quieted some when she spun around and smiled, showing him the young girl he once knew. Several more times she returned to test his willpower, each time disposing of a scarf to expose more and more of her delectable limbs.

“Please,” he heard himself beg, weakly fighting against the years he had secretly wanted her but stayed away because of her brother and their families’ relationship.

He didn’t know what came over him, but the next time she came close, his hand jutted out and pulled her into his arms.

Their eyes locked in a sultry battle of attraction.

When he ran his fingers across her veil, electricity ignited and snapped, stinging him. The next thing he knew he was kissing her with an unleashed hunger that scared the shit out of him. Dammit. He was actually trembling with the need to take her. It didn’t help that Mine whispered through his thoughts, over and over.

A growl rumbled in his throat. Sliding his tongue along her lips, he nudged the crease and she opened for him, granting him entry. She tasted dark and sultry. When her tongue slid along his, the vision of her kissing him, her mouth all over his body, flashed in his head and he knew he needed more. He couldn’t get close enough. His hands circled her waist to draw her in tighter, holding her against him so hard he felt the rigid tips of her nipples pressed against his chest.

“Reece—”

He silenced her with another deep, penetrating caress meant to devour and conquer.

Her skin was warm beneath his palms, silky and smooth, as they roamed her curves. On their own accord, his fingers found the ties of her sash. She gasped when the material loosened and his wayward hand cupped a heavy breast.