“It’s one of my gifts,” I teased, throwing back my head and laughing when he simply patted my ass and sent me back to my task.
We reworked more dances before calling it a day. It was beyond productive and people were excited to update club managers and dancers. Some clips were cut and sent out to make it clear we were serious and working on it.
Working hard for them to be better and have help.
The only hiccup was no one was into my idea of a male and female pair dancing for a set. It wasn’t our normal brand and—people weren’t seeing the vision.
“So show them,” Aidan cut in when the conversation was over and it was clear that I was frustrated. He smirked at me when I raised an eyebrow. “You have a very popular club right here that does shows and rotates a lot of everything. During buffets—you have the audience. Show them in one quick performance. You would all sense how well it works.”
I beamed at him and winked, letting him know he would get rewards too. That was brilliant… And super fucking simple. We should have thought of that instead of arguing.
But we were all so tired. The seven of us were beyond exhausted, overwhelmed, and struggling. Time to admit that. We were completely overhauling our organizational structure. It was too much change and we were all going to struggle.
But we were too smart to be stupid and adjust while overhauling so much else. I pulled Kyria aside and asked her to make it work with the new club managers that were taking over for her.
And she did. In two days, I told all the other VPs to just give the idea a chance. They’d sense it all, and if it didn’t work as I thought—or at least have a decent positive—then I’d drop it.
I was glad when they all agreed. It wasn’t asking too much, and they also needed to acknowledge that if they shut me down as Jasmine… That was why I went off on my own.
Not as the owner. They listened to her when I wore the boss hat. It was when I was Jasmine.
Yeah, it was super confusing for me too, but that was life.
Mason was on board because he just wanted to dance with me and any chance to enjoy each other.
The second day, Evan was late, but when he showed up he winked at me. I found out later that he’d had a good talk with Mason about what had happened and where they were both at. And Owen didn’t even need to interject or back things down.
I was thrilled. None of this was easy, and I could never share my lover, so them trying so hard—thinking I was worth trying this hard for healed a lot of my past pain. Made me feel like I could deserve their love.
Aidan wasn’t there the second day which was fine since he had so much going on. But he’d sentmanymessages letting me know how much he enjoyed watching me work.
And that he wanted me to dance for him… And on him.
Duh.
The second day was just as productive. Reworked a list of dances and came up with a few Cyr wheel routines.
The third day, Owen was actually there and just as into seeing all of this as his twin was. There was something else swirling around him and he was gone for a bit, but that was fine.
I was so ready that night to get this idea out of my head even if it didn’t work as I wanted. So after we wrapped at corporate, I went home—a word that still seemed a bit foreign to me—and made sure to take a long shower with Mason.
“You want the sparks between us to be overpowering just as much as the dance, don’t you, muffin?” he checked, searching me.
“Yes. I want—it’s supposed to be like foreplay. It is for us. We can find couples that dance. It doesn’t have to be demons. There are lots of supes or even humans who dance together and would love to travel between clubs and—this has a lot of possibilities.”
“Then I won’t let it fail,” he promised with a wink. “But you’re hungry, so let’s eat so you stay strong.
His words hit me when we reached the kitchen. “Don’t cheat.”
“Not what I meant,” he promised. “And I’m not going to take offense that you basically just accused me of planning to use magic to sway people.”
I winced. That was horrible of me. “Sorry. Yeah, I mean…”
He did a double take. “Sorry. You’re used to using your influence and—sorry. It’s different with magic. You give them a bit of a hit and magic is more like possession.”
I’d done that as well, but it was instinct and self-preservation at times. I wouldn’t ever apologize for it.
I didn’t do it just for shits and giggles to fuck with people. I understood where his head was too. It made me smile at him.
