Human Luke scowls, his eyebrow lifting. “Oh, isthatwhat we decided to do?”
“Sorry.” I offer him a sickly smile.
I can tell the second the plot seizes control of us. Luke grins at me, his eyes glittering with promise. “Yeah, let’s learn to dance real good.”
I wince internally at the grammatical mistake, knowing the real Luke will hate using the wrong word.
But my body does its new eyelash-fluttering trick, blinking so rapidly I get dizzy when the room starts to flicker like someone set off a strobe light. A high giggle escapes me, and I bat at his arm. “Why do you care about dancing all of a sudden?”
“Wanna learn how to dance all sexy with you, babe.” He gives a pleased little nod, his expression smug. “That’ll be hot.”
“The hottest!” I titter. Flutter. Flutter. Blink.
He looks at the dance instructor. “The waltz is boring. Teach us the sexy dances, Miss M!”
“Don’t you turn that charm on me, young man. It won’t work.” She waggles a finger at him, but she’s grinning so widely you can see she’s totally charmed. “Once you learn the waltz, we’ll take a look at the more complex dances.”
She corrects our position and has us move through the steps while she claps out the three-time beat. Then with a click of the remote, music fills the studio.
Luke misses a step, and we get off track. He slams to a halt before he steps on my toes a second time.
Golden sparkles fill the air, and the world swirls around us. We’re dropped back into the center of the dance studio, everything quiet—no music, no instructor.
“Did we just reset?” I whisper-hiss. “After one little mistake?”
Luke glares at me. “It was hardly enough to be called a mistake.”
“I did say ‘little.’”
Then Miss Michelle emerges from the back, and the book takes over.
Luke asks for sexy dances, and my eyelashes flutter so hard they must be going for the Olympic gold.
It’s actually a relief to start dancing again, because at least then, I’m the one moving my body.
We make it further into the lesson this time, but as soon as Miss Michelle adds the step turn, we mess up.
And get sent back to the beginning again.
And again.
And again.
My eyelids go numb after the fifth round of power flutters, and Luke’s fake human smile takes on a dangerous edge.
“When will we haveGroundhog Day-ed this scene enough?” Luke asks in those few seconds we’re allowed to speak as ourselves.
If I weren’t so tired, his use of my new verb would make me laugh. As it is, I mumble, “Until we finish the entire lesson without a single misstep.”
As mortified as I feel because we’re only in this situation due to my misbehaving magic, I’m elated to be back in Luke’sarms. I also love the expression on his face as we dance, because it must be the real him—there’s no way the book character would wear that same look of determined focus he gets when he goes into research mode.
Luke’s entire body becomes attuned to mine. His every touch pushing for a reaction he can feed off of to take us through the next steps, the next turn, the next sway. We become one, losing ourselves in the movement and music, and it’s everything I ever dreamed of when I imagined what dancing with a partner could be like.
It takes us two more tries of making it almost all the way through the hour-long lesson before we finally get to the point where Miss Michelle claps her hands and says, “Great job today, you two. Keep up the good work. You’re really coming along.”
A jagged breath of relief escapes me as the golden sparkles of the spell swirl us away and back to the library. As soon as my magic releases me, I slump backward in a chair, my arms dangling uselessly by my sides.
“What was that?” Luke jabs a finger toward the romance book hanging in midair. “There’s simply no way the couple in the book is learning how to dance so quickly.” Luke drags his claws through his long auburn hair, his tail lashing with irritation. “This was the second lesson, and we’re to imagine they wouldn’t make a single mistake? It’s not realistic.”
