Page 64 of Your Echo
“You should have been. Whatever you were just doing looked fucking awesome. Is that part of the video routine?”
I shake my head again. “I, um...I was just playing around. I can’t see a room like this and not dance in it.”
He grins. “Of course—all the world’s a stage. We’re shooting some scenes of the band playing in here today.” He sweeps his hand around the giant room. “Kind of a step up from our first music video. It was filmed on a Smartphone at a Mexican restaurant.”
“A Mexican restaurant?” I repeat.
Ace shrugs. “To be honest, we were all kind of high. It’s not on YouTube anymore, but I’ll happily show it to you someday.”
I laugh. “I’d like that.”
He reaches out to tuck my hair behind my ears. I try to hide my shiver. It’s been weeks since he first touched me, and I still feel breathless every single time he does.
“I should introduce you to the choreographer,” he tells me. “If what you were doing isn’t in the routine, it should be.”
I balk. “I’m definitely not critiquing a professional choreographer to their face, but...”
“But what?” Ace prompts.
“It’s just...the routine doesn’t reallygetthe song. I think it could use some work.”
He gives me a searching look. “Doyouget the song?”
I stare back at him, my throat going dry as he pins me down with his gaze.
“I...I feel a connection with a lot of your work.”
He starts walking backwards away from me, and I’m about to ask him what he’s doing when he stops beside the massive sound system.
“Show me,” he orders. “Show me howyouwould dance to this song.”
“Ace...”
He presses a button and the opening notes of the song begin to play, drowning out the rest of my protests. I put my hands on my hips and strike a defiant pose instead, but he just cranks the music louder and crosses his arms, giving methe look.
It’s the lookthat has made me drop my clothes to the floor for him a dozen times. It’s the lookthat’s made me beg and whimper, tremble and melt in his hands. It’s the look that makes me start to sway for him now, even as my thighs clench at the thought of him between them.
At first I’m too self-conscious to do much, but eventually the music takes hold of me like it always does, and I surrender myself to the sound. Dancing to the cadence of Ace’s voice feels almost as intimate as laying naked beside him does, almost as erotic as his tongue against my skin. I close my eyes and moan under my breath.
The music cuts off a moment later, just as I’m landing a leap. Ace lifts his finger from the sound system and crooks it, beckoning me towards him.
“Here.” His voice is ragged. “Now.”
I hardly feel my feet on the floor as I obey. He fists one hand in my hair, the other clamped like a vise around my waist as he kisses me hard. He parts my lips with his tongue, invading my mouth and working me into a heated frenzy that makes the rest of the world blur.
He doesn’t say anything when he breaks away from me, just grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards one of the huge curtains hanging from the ceiling.
“Ace, wait. What are you—”
“I need to do some things to you that I don’t want anyone walking in on.”
I swallow down the lump that rises in my throat, trying to keep my head straight.
“Ace, my friend is waiting for me. Also we’re in a—”
My sentence ends in a gasp when he yanks the curtain aside and drags me behind it, then slides his hands under the fabric of my shirt. The lust in his face intensifies tenfold when he meets the bare skin of my breasts.
“Fuck, Stéphanie...” He draws his hands away and steps back. “You have no idea how you looked dancing to my song, how it felt to watch you...”
