The Dancing Girls by M.M. Chouinard

Author:M.M. Chouinard [Chouinard, M.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786818232
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

The trite, contrived carriage ride was excruciating. Many of the carriages didn’t even try to look authentic, with multiple rows of seats to carry as many gullible tourists as possible. What was the point? Why not just take a tourist bus? That was honest, at least.

He directed her to one designed for couples, with a small white fairy-princess canopy. As they wove through the Quarter to the rhythmic clip-clopping, the driver noted points of interest and told them stories, almost certainly made up for effect. Emily snuggled into him and listened to the driver with rapt attention; her silence was a refreshing change, at least, and he was grateful for the respite. When the rehearsed litany was finished, Emily looked at the crescent in the sky, sighed, and hummed softly. He recognized the song—that one by The Police about the moon on Bourbon Street—and distracted himself from the claustrophobic feel of her clamped against him by calling up the lyrics. Then he dug deep and pulled her in closer to whisper into her ear. “The moon is beautiful tonight, but it can’t hold a candle to you.”

He worried for a moment he’d gone too far. That was horrendous—even she can’t fall for that, half-drunk or not.

But he’d underestimated the sensibilities of a woman desperate to be swept off her feet by a romantic lover in a romantic city. She responded with a shy smile. “I’m so glad I’m here with you, experiencing this in your arms. It’s just how I imagined it.”

He tilted her chin up toward his face. He gazed into her bland eyes for a moment with a dreamy expression perfected long ago in his bathroom mirror, and gently kissed her. She sighed and returned the kiss, then laid her head on his shoulder, humming again while she stared off into the night.

As Martin helped her out of the carriage back in Jackson Square, he risked a surreptitious glance at his watch. The ride had taken longer than he planned; she would have metabolized more of the wine than he anticipated.

“Let’s take advantage of New Orleans’ liberal open container policy and grab a Hurricane to share while we walk.”

“Oh, great idea, I wanted to try one anyway. So strange to be able to just walk around with a drink in your hand…” She prattled on about how random liquor laws were, and he struggled to pay full attention. Steady now, focus on the goal. Her chatter will be finished soon enough.

The club re-energized him. The music was loud, the people were happy, and Emily’s shoulders began to sway before they were five feet into the club. With the seal of the first kiss broken, their flirting became a dance of its own, bordering dangerously on foreplay—a kiss, then he’d twirl her, practice pulling her back into his chest. He’d kiss her neck, then spin her out, then back in again with soft kisses and caresses that deliciously foreshadowed the pending culmination of his effort.

After three dances, both his anticipation and hers had been teased to the edge.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.