The book versions of us do everything fairly well… until they get to the final lift, where Skye crashes into Luke.
“You’re both messing up the lift.” Miss Michelle hits pause. “Skye, you’re not jumping high enough, and Luke, your hands need to be on her hipbones to balance her, not her stomach. Got it?”
“Got it, Miss M.” He shoots me the wide grin of the book character. It’s dazzling and gorgeous… and makes me miss the real Luke’s smaller yet more-sincere smile. “Okay, babe. We’ll take it from the top just like we practiced, yeah?”
“Yeah!” The book takes over, and I beam up at him, fluttering my lashes so rapidly I get a little dizzy. Blink. Flutter. Flutter.
Music fills the room with the opening notes ofTime of My Life, and Luke grips my waist.
We make it through the first few moves before missing a turn. My magic descends in a blizzard of golden snow, returning us to the start of the scene.
In those few precious moments we have before the book takes over, Luke growls, “We should make errors during the opening steps so that we may study the video several times.”
“Good thinking,” I whisper. “How many times?”
“At least five.”
So that’s what we do. It feels majorly weird toGroundhog Dayourselves on purpose, but he’s right—it gives us a chanceto study the choreography closely.
The next time we try, we make it all the way to the carousel lift. Luke wraps his arm around my waist and picks me up but halts when he can’t complete the spin. I hang, face level with his, pressed against his firm muscles from chest to thigh, the feel of his body lighting up mine as a tingling awareness fills me.
Luke stares at my lips, his gaze heating.
“She’s supposed to be in front of your hip, not on it,” Miss Michelle says. “That’s why you can’t move.”
Her words fade into the distance as my magic swirls us back to the start. It’s jarring to be standing on my feet, an arm’s distance from Luke instead of held close.
Get your head in the game, Skye, I whisper-hiss to myself. You donotwant to be stuck in this scene for the next bazillion years!
Or do I? a tiny voice counters. As long as we’re here, he’s still touching me, still dancing with me, still potentially mine. When we go back to the real world, I’ll lose him. It’s selfish to want to stay so I can dance with him forever.
It’s also really fudging attractive. I hang in the moment, rolling the idea over in my mind as the video plays. Then I sigh.
I can’t do that to him. Luke hates all of this. If I love him—and oh, how I love him!—I can’t grasp for my own happiness at his expense.
Damn. Sometimes being a good person really fudging sucks.
When Miss Michelle turns on the music, I take my position and dance, putting my all into it.
I lose myself in the dance, in our bodies moving as one, the back and forth of give and take. It’s a manifestation of trust and cooperation and harmony. It’s the ultimate physical metaphor of love and sex and intimacy. Dancing with another person is exactly as magical as I always imagined, made even better by the fact that it’shim. Luke’s hands on me, Luke’s thigh brushing between mine, Luke’s eyes burning with all of his intensity and focus as he stares at me, Luke’s strength lifting me higher than I could ever go on my own.
It takes three more tries, but we eventually make it all the way to the final lift without beingGroundhog Day-ed.
I run toward him, all our training at the waterfall filling me with a certainty I’m unused to. But this time, it’s the real me who’s confident instead of the book character. Luke and I have practiced this move every evening for over a week. We can do this.
Ican do this.
My feet hit the perfect spot on the wooden floor, and I spring upward, arms stretched overhead.
Luke’s hands find my hips, and he straightens.
I make it almost all the way up when he wobbles below me, taking a half step back while lowering me quickly to the floor.
“Sorry,” he growls. “I’m not used to this body. My balance is different without my wings and tail.”
And I’m not thin like the actress in the movie. My size hasn’t been an issue in the real world, where Luke’s so amazingly strong I kind of forget my weight. But here he’s only human, and I’m a big girl.
I brace, expecting the spell to snap us up and deposit us back at the start of the scene. But my magic doesn’t whirl us away, so the book couple must not be able to do the lift yet either, which means we actually completed the scene exactly like we were supposed to.
