Seduce(8)
Antoine looked thoroughly unimpressed when she risked a glance in his direction.
She tried to claw things back by doing a sexy little shuffle across the stage, her mind racing to remember the moves that Elizabeth had shown her and all the things she had witnessed in this theatre.
On this very stage.
A stage she was now performing on even though she had promised herself it would never come to this.
Sera tackled Victor’s jeans, popping the buttons while clumsily kissing the whip mark across his chest. She gasped when the final button gave and his rigid cock sprang free, already eager for her. Her heart bolted into action again, galloping so quickly that she felt dizzy.
She looked at anything but his erection, battling her nerves and panic again. It was just sex. Sex on a stage. Sex on a stage in front of a man whom she really desired and whose opinion of her was probably rapidly sinking into seeing her as just another whore for his theatre.
What the hell was she thinking?
Sera squeaked when Victor pulled her blue baby-doll t-shirt over her head, catching her blonde hair and yanking it at the same time, and exposed her torso to the chilly air of the theatre.
Antoine sighed and stood.
It was over.
He was going to tell her thanks but no thanks and kick her out for wasting his time.
“Leave,” he said and she grabbed her t-shirt off Victor and went to put it on. “Not you.”
Sera froze, clutching the top to her chest. Victor casually buttoned his jeans, shot her a smile, and then dropped down off the black stage. He sauntered towards the doors at the edge of the theatre, opened them and disappeared from view. Sera remained paused on the stage, waiting for Antoine to throw her out.
“I am not looking for solo acts, but clearly this is your first time on stage. Do you feel you can perform now?”
Sera didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t kicking her out? She swallowed and faced him. He was serious. He had made Victor leave so she would feel more comfortable, and she did. Being on stage in front of him still felt wrong, but the thought of performing for him alone had a strange appeal. If she had ever wanted a chance to seduce him, they didn’t come more perfect than this. She could do this. She could tease him with a slow reveal of her body to his eyes only, and from there it would only be a small step to other more wicked things. She was sure that once she was nude and bared for him that the feel of his gaze on her would give her the confidence to take things further and really perform.
And she was sure that performance would give her the chance to crack the armour around his heart.
What had looked like it was going to end in disaster was now looking as though it was a chance at victory.
A chance that she wouldn’t squander.
Sera nodded and dropped her t-shirt onto the scuffed black wooden boards.
Antoine’s gaze flickered down to her bra-clad breasts and then he sat back in his red velvet chair in the middle of the front row and stretched his long legs out.
His eyes held hers, cool blue and beautiful, fixed on her with such intensity that her cheeks heated with a blush.
He waved his hand.
“Perform for me then.”
CHAPTER 3
Antoine couldn’t believe that Callum had roped him into this and he had allowed it to happen. When the black-haired elite vampire had walked into his office earlier this evening and announced that he would have to interview Elizabeth’s child because Kristina had managed to get an appointment for her first ultrasound, Antoine had done his best to convince the elite vampire to get another appointment for her. He had even offered to arrange it himself. He knew some of the best vampire doctors that money could buy and all of them were discreet. Callum had refused to hear a word about it. The elite vampire was irritatingly stubborn when it came to matters surrounding his offspring or the werewolf bearing it.
Not that Callum being here tonight would have made much difference. He had been distracted from the moment he had met Kristina close to three months ago and that had only grown worse when he had discovered that she was pregnant. On top of that, Callum still hadn’t apologised for the whole fiasco that had severely damage the theatre’s reputation. Talk of what had occurred that night, and that Callum’s lover was a werewolf, had spread like wildfire through vampire society. Attendance was down but Antoine could smooth things over with the elite and the aristocrats given time.
He sighed and relaxed into the theatre seat, trying to get his mind off business and onto the woman on stage. It was impossible when his anger was riding him so mercilessly.
What Callum had done wasn’t the reason he was so annoyed. It was what he had done. It haunted him. He should never have allowed the performance that night to start, let alone degenerate to the level that it had. If Kristina had died, Callum would never have forgiven him. Antoine knew what it was like to lose someone you loved with every drop of blood in your body and it wasn’t something he wanted Callum or anyone to go through.