trying to ensure he wasn’t just a figment of my imagination. He was a few yards away, standing in the middle of the crowd and watching me. I paused for a moment, faltering on my heels, and then his eyes smoldered in a silent challenge.
He wasn’t going to rip me from the stage and he wasn’t going to admonish me for being up there. He wanted to celebrate the wicked sensuality I craved, and it was up there, on the stage that I saw a piece of myself reflected back to me in Erik. We were so similar, he and I.
The sleeves of his black button-down were rolled to his elbows and I took in his strong forearms as I dipped down the pole, slowly spreading my knees wide. My dress hiked up my thighs, but my panties covered me as much as my leotards did.
Noah’s head nearly exploded, but Erik stepped closer, weaving through the crowd to get to me.
My stomach fluttered as I stood back up and spun around the pole, pressing up onto my tiptoes and then letting my head fall back as I dipped into a backbend. The red haze lingered overhead, casting my skin in devilish light. I stood back up and spun around, pressed my back to the pole, and met Erik’s gaze again as I trailed my fingertips up the sides of my body. My skin tingled beneath my touch. I stroked my neck and collarbone, and then I tugged on the strap of my dress, toying with it.
Every time I moved, I caught Erik’s eyes. Like a pendulum, I’d swing away for a moment, but I always came back to him, finding him in the crowd and using him as an anchor. There were hundreds of people watching me, but I was dancing for him, teasing him with my fingers on the hem of my dress, tugging it an inch higher on my thigh. I could feel my nipples tighten against the silky material and I wanted it gone. I wanted to slip out of the straps and let the material slide down my body.
Erik tilted his head, taking me in with a heated gaze, that hint of a smirk still playing on his lips. I wanted to slide off the stage and steal those lips, push them down my stomach and feel them between my thighs.
I swore he could hear my thoughts spiraling through me because he stepped even closer, coming within a few feet of the stage. I inhaled a shaky breath as the hazy red light drew him in. In the light of day, he was so handsome it hurt, but the shadowed light of that stage turned his seductive features into something dangerous, scary. He wet his bottom lip and my stomach quivered.
I swallowed and turned away, trying to calm my heart, but it was no use. I knew his gaze was still on me, dragging across my back. I pictured his eyes hitting the spot where the hem of my dress stretched across the back of my thighs and a shiver ran down my spine. A light layer of sweat coated my skin as I realized how much he was getting to me.
I was the one on stage.
I was the one in charge.
I won’t let him win.
With a shaky inhale, I walked to the pole and circled around it, picking up a leg and wrapping it around the cold metal. My dress barely covered me as I spun, and I knew the sight of me up there would drive any man insane. I’d never stripped completely for Erik. I’d never given him full rein of my body, but up on that stage, I was showing him everything he could have if only he said the word. One fucking word.
And if he didn’t want to, someone else would.
I smirked and glanced over my shoulder, circling around the pole slowly, taunting him, but when I caught sight of him the crowd, he was backing up, letting other people push forward and overtake his spot in front of me.
Our eyes locked for a brief moment and I could see the lust there, building inside him. He looked hungry with it, consumed by me, and yet he was walking away, backing up and leaving me like that, completely exposed.
I circled the pole again, using his disappearing silhouette as my point of focus.
Each spin took him another foot away and sank another dagger into my heart.
I wanted to reach out and call