“Sex with clothes on,” Connor added.
“Imagine Julia’s act with the right lighting and when she’s in costume.” Susan went up on stage and gave her a swift hug. “You will wow the crowd tonight.”
Julia kept busy for the rest of the day, and each time her mind wandered to Ryan, she yanked it back to work. She checked the books, did the roster for the following month and cleaned up the dressing room. She rang her mother, who’d come through heart surgery well, and popped out to visit her in the hospital. If she kept moving, her fears wouldn’t catch up with her. She wouldn’t stare at her phone, waiting and wondering why Ryan hadn’t rung her.
One by one the staff arrived. When she walked outside to open the front doors and do her normal stint of meet and greet, she found a line. The cool breeze snatched away her startled laugh.
“Good evening,” she said to the group of women standing at the front of the queue. She recognized them from the previous weekend. “Thanks for coming back. Go straight on inside.”
“Thanks!” one woman said as she and her friends wobbled through the doors on their skyscraper heels, delicate and musky designer perfumes combining into an original bouquet.
“We loveMaxwell’s,” the last of the women said. “It’s so classy.”
“Thank you.”
She greeted the next couple with a smile and nodded to several customers who’d visited the club during the previous week. Repeat customers. They were doing something right.
After half an hour Julia strolled back into the club and watched one of her acts with a critical eye. She nodded when the music ended, unsurprised by the enthusiastic applause. The girl was good. She checked her watch and headed for the changing room.
As usual, it was a cacophony of noise and dancers and color. Comforting and accepting. Julia dropped onto a chair in front of a lighted mirror and added more eye makeup. She pulled her hair out of the upswept do she’d started with and bushed it until the blonde strands glowed under the lights.
“All ready?” Susan asked.
Julia nodded, shrugging aside the unease that had crept inside her while she sat still. “Let’s do it and get the crowd warmed up for our special acts tonight.”
After her first routine, the evening passed in a flash. She rang Janet and ask how her mother was doing.
“She’s doing great,” Janet said. “The doctors are pleased with her recovery and say she should be out of hospital sooner than they’d envisaged.”
“That’s great news! Give her a hug for me, and tell her I’ll pop in to see her tomorrow morning.”
Julia mingled with customers and soon she was ready to introduce her new act with Susan performing straight afterward.
The onstage lights dimmed. Julia walked silently into position, despite the spiky heels of her red shoes, despite the faint tremor of her knees. She struck a pose, caught her breath and waited. The spotlight snapped on, enclosing her in a beam of light.
The aliens have got me. The fanciful thought curved her lips, and just like that her nerves settled.
She could do this.
The musical introduction started. Her fans fluttered above her head, showing the audience her sparkling black and red bra top and matching long skirt. The light caught the sequins, her sashaying steps displaying the long length of her legs, encased in fishnet stockings.
The vocalist crooned, his husky voice coming faster as the song swelled around her on the stage. She strutted, swayed, created mesmerizing patterns with each swish of her feather fans, yet never revealing her torso to the audience. Her back arched. She stripped the skirt off with one quick twist of her wrist. The silky fabric sailed toward the wings, one of the other dancers whisking it off the floor.
Julia glanced at the audience, those seated in the front near the stage. They weren’t talking. They weren’t drinking. They were watching her with avid attention.
The sultry music ebbed and flowed, the singer’s voice a husky croon slithering through her veins. The front closure of her bra top opened with a flick of her fingers and her breasts spilled free. She tossed the top into the audience and winked toward the man who caught it. Her feather fans fluttered, teasing. Always moving, yet never revealing her bare breasts.
The singer held the last note of the song before tailing off. Silence fell. Julia bowed, fans concealing her partial nudity. The crowd remained quiet, and the only audible sound was the pounding of her heart.
Frowning, she straightened, peering out at the shadowed club. Hadn’t they enjoyed her dance? Had she misjudged her audience? She opened her mouth to ask where she’d gone wrong. Then she noticed her customers standing. The applause and cheering was the sweetest music she’d ever heard.
Ryan stood in the back ofMaxwell’swith Caleb at his side. Awe battled with an edgy side of jealousy as he stared at his wife gliding about the stage. Although the fans screened her body, he realized she was almost naked. Hell, every red-blooded male in the room knew her breasts were bare, their lustful thoughts almost deafening him.
“Your wife has spoiled me for every other woman,” Caleb said. “I wish she had a sister.”
The roar in Ryan’s head was loud and thunderous. It certainly stifled rational thought. His hands balled and his body tensed.
“Don’t hit me,” Caleb said after a sidelong glance. “Man, you’re in enough trouble without adding brawling to the list.”
