Veek joined the dance I was learning. I couldn’t help noticing how every woman there looked at him, especially the call girls who had come with that very badly-dressed man talking to Baz.
Turning my shoulder to them, I reached for my Veek, and he came to me with the movement of the dance.
Mine, I thought, like any savage.
He fixed his eyes on me, ignoring all the others. He had taken off his tuxedo jacket. His snowy linen shirt and black tuxedo trousers fitted exquisitely. He moved precisely as much as the dance called for and no more, not flailing like the white guys trying to learn the dance, not showing off like the call girls. I realized that, compared to him, I was flouncing like a teenager.
Veek danced as if he owned it—as if he had learned it years ago and forgotten how he knew it. His eyes never left me. It was if his every move was meant for me.
I didn’t need to flounce to be seen by him.
Thirstily, I drank up his attention.
We moved away from the group and their dance. Dimly I realized we were dancing something sexy and simple like a samba. Miraculously, we moved as one.
“How can you do that?” I murmured under the noise of the band.
“Do what?” He held my gaze, turned me away from him, pulled me back. My skin burned where he looked at me.
“This dance!” I couldn’t talk and hold his attention at the same time. I thought I might stumble. Almost, I did. But his hand was there to support mine before I had fallen an inch. “That! As if you—know what I will—do next.”
He brought me up to his chest and held me there, swaying. His eyes smoldered down into mine. “I am in you, Sophie.”
Oh, I felt that! We dipped, swung, turned, and swayed together. It was magical. I wanted to ask more, but the movement was like a drug, like sex, and I had yearned to be near him for weeks now, and here he was, reassuring my lacerated heart.
He pulled me to his chest again.
“Heal now, Sophie. I’ve hurt you and now I must mend you. Take the medicine and talk later.”
So I shut my eyes and lost myself in his touch, in the music, in our mirrored movements, perfectly matched.