“I won’t lie,” Killian said at one point. “You are a horrible dancer.”
“Shut up!” Panting, she wiggled her shoulders and tried to portray a look of confidence that was horribly skewered by the peal of giggles threatening to burst out. “Maybe you’re just a horrible instructor.”
He sniffed indignantly. “Unlikely. I’m a McClary and thus born with the natural graces of a swan.”
There was no stopping the roar that exploded from her. Her head flung back as the sound exploded from deep in her thorax. Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks in a hot stream. Her legs abandoned her to be held up solely by his hands. Against her temple, Killian’s chuckle warmed the skin. It ruffled her hair. His chest rumbled against hers as she sagged into him. At one point, she was no longer even making a sound, just an odd jittering that raked through her entire body.
“Okay…” She wheezed air into her lungs and struggled to straighten. “Okay, teach me that leg curvy thing.”
“Leg curvy thing?”
Wiping her eyes, she nodded. “That thing with the leg going around her partner’s leg.”
He considered this a moment. “I think you’re thinking of ballroom dancing. We’re waltzing.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Show me!”
His eyes narrowed warily. “I don’t know if I want to. You might accidentally kick me in the crotch and I might strangle you.”
She broke out in another fit of giggles at the thought. “I’ll be careful.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he stepped back once he was certain she could stand on her own feet.
“I’ll spin you out, then back in, and when I do, you hook your outer leg around mine.”
Nodding that she understood, she waited for the tug as he spun her out fluidly under his arm. Then, with an equally perfect jerk, he spun her back into his chest. But rather than execute a flawless leg twist, she slammed into him, nearly sending them both to the ground.
“Again!” she demanded. “I almost had it.”
It was his turn to laugh, but he obliged. He even did it slower so she had time, but it wasn’t as easy as it always looked on TV. By the time her head stopped spinning, she’d missed her step, which was another tricky matter entirely. In the end, she never got it and wound up just hooking her leg around his hip for the hell of it without the turns.
“Do you think we’re ready to compete professionally?”
Killian snorted a chuckle. “Maybe if you show a bit more leg.”
“And boobs,” she added.
“Definitely boobs,” he agreed. “You certainly have nice ones.”
Laughing, she pulled away. “Our food is cold.”
“Do you want to eat or see what I have planned next?”
Juliette’s eyes widened. “There’s more?”
His answer was a grin as he took her hand and led her away from the magical room with the nearly melted candles. She paused at the door to glance back, wanting to imprint the moment forever to memory before following him down the stairs.
“I’m a little sad to leave,” she admitted.
“We can come back again,” he promised, squeezing her fingers.
The SUV with Frank in the front seat was exactly where she’d last seen it, parked out front with the engine running. Killian yanked open the back door before Frank could climb out and helped Juliette inside. He swung in after her and shut the door.
Without a word, Frank started driving.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“You’re not very good at this surprise thing, are you?” Killian mused.
She dug a teasing elbow into his side, but didn’t ask again.
They drove for twenty minutes in the endless darkness that seemed to stretch forever along the highway. Next to her, Killian sat watching the window. His stoic profile hung in shadows and a tinge of green from the dashboard in front. Juliette studied him from the corner of her eye and wondered how he could be so calm doing what he did. She would have been a neurotic basket case. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could get used to constantly being in danger. But he was right about one thing, she could never have a family with him, not like this. She could never bring a child into such an uncertain world. In the end, they really did only have less than a year. She didn’t know what she’d do after that.
As though sensing her distress, her sadness, a hand settled lightly in her lap and curled around hers. Wordlessly, she turned her palm over and threaded their fingers together.
They came to a stop outside a single level building barely visible in the dark. Killian kept a hold on her fingers as he led her around the side to a set of double doors. Black drapes greeted them in a foyer no bigger than a closet. A single light gleamed down on them, sharp and hot. Killian swept the curtains aside and followed a narrow hall deeper into the semi darkness. More lights led their way to a door at the very end, painted in black.
“It’s not one of those haunted houses at the fair, is it?” Juliette breathed, her fingers tightening around his. “I will not forgive you if it is.”
“Why would I bring you to a haunted house?”
It was a good question, one she didn’t have an answer to, but the queasy sensation didn’t abate. He reached for the gold handle and she held her breath.
It opened to—surprise-surprise—more black walls and black curtains. But the room was larger and held a gilded mirror and two black chairs. There was a series of straps and hooks on the first one.
Killian led her in and shut the door behind them. Then he began to shrug out of his blazer. He undid the tie. Then the top two buttons on his dress shirt.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he undid his cuffs. “Oh my God, are we in a sex dungeon?”
Killian froze. His back was to her, but she could see the sudden tension snapping across the widths of his shoulders. His fingers ceased their unbuttoning and hovered over the gold knot. Slowly, he turned on the heel of one foot and faced her. His expression gave nothing away.
“A sex dungeon?” He said the words as though testing them across his tongue, like the very idea was foreign. “A sex dungeon,” he repeated, still very slowly, but with a ribbon of amusement. “Would you like it to be?”
Juliette felt her cheeks prickle with heat. “Isn’t it?”
He bent his head to one side and regarded her evenly. “That isn’t answering my question.”
“I … I don’t know,” she stuttered awkwardly. “What would you do to me?”
The heat was unbearable shifting and flaring off him. It seemed to fill the room, stifling the air and making it impossible to breathe.
“Do you trust me?”
She nodded without hesitance. “Yes.”
A sound escaped him, a low, rumbling growl that raked down the length of her spine.
“Come here.”
She went. Her eyes never left his as she watched him reach for the straps on the chair. He pulled it to him and she realized the straps were sewn lengthwise across a thick vest. The thing was drawn down over her head. Her arms were passed through the holes and the straps slipped through the hooks tight.
Juliette knew nothing of bondage other than what Killian had done to her in the hotel room. She knew people did all sorts of crazy things with ropes and it was all supposed to be liberating and sensual, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about the vest.
Nevertheless, Killian had never done anything she hadn’t liked. Maybe this would be one of them.
He stepped back from her and her head shot up. He was still watching her with that sneaky grin of his. It made her insides knot.
“Should I take my dress off?” she asked.
“No.”
Her shoulders drooped. “Are you going to rip it?” Her hands went over the fabric of her skirt. “I really like this dress.”
Killian chuckled. “We’ll try to keep it in one piece. If not, I will get you another one.”
Exhaling in reluctant acceptance, she watched as he finished undoing the buttons on his cuff and rolling up his sleeve. Then he too tugged on a vest.