A violent shudder coursed through Jannie’s body. Whether it was the spectacle onstage or Nick suddenly in her space, power and heat radiating from him, she didn’t know.
What to answer? She licked her lips.
He didn’t retreat but stayed there and nuzzled the sensitive spot just below her earlobe.
Heat surged, pulsing deep inside her.
“Look at me,” he murmured.
I shouldn’t.
But she was helpless to stop herself. She turned her head.
Oh, the way he looked at her. She felt laid bare, penetrated without so much as the touch of one fingertip, her entire body humming with something she had never felt before.
He held her gaze a moment longer, his eyes a deep, dark fire, burning so hotly that she had to fight the urge to fist his hair and kiss him until she owned his very breath.
He seemed to know, because something flared in his dark gaze, and he nodded, then moved away and turned his attention back to the stage, a smile touching his lips.
Immediately, she missed his closeness. Needed it. She reached out, finding his hand, tracing her fingertips over his knuckles. He turned his palm up, intertwining his fingers with hers.
Onstage, Jordan was entirely focused on his lady, as if the audience didn’t exist. Not a single glance or acknowledgment to the hundred or so people watching in quiet fascination.
Smiling and never breaking eye contact, Jordan asked the girl something, and she nodded, still gazing up at him as if he owned the sky and was preparing to gift her every star.
She moved to stand in front of the sphere, and he gripped her waist, lifting her with effortless ease to drape her across the surface, her back arched beautifully, legs wide apart as she settled her feet on two barely visible footrests.
A hush fell on the crowd.
No one dared to move, it seemed, as he gripped her chin, leaning in to look into her eyes. The lights shone through the sphere, illuminatingher entire body in that sheer dress, her breasts rising and falling.
Jannie was sure Jordan would kiss her. But he didn’t.
Instead, he reached for something at his hip, drawing out a wicked-looking knife, the polished steel gleaming dangerously in the spotlight. He turned it in his hand, and Jannie noted its sparkling jeweled handle. Garnets, she thought; they gleamed blood-red.
Slowly, slowly, he brought it to the base of her throat, then lifted her chin with the tip.
Jannie’s eyes widened. Her fingers spasmed over Nick’s hand, and he squeezed back reassuringly.
Jordan trailed the tip of the blade downward, caressing the woman’s throat, pausing to touch her with the flat of the blade where the life pulsed at the side of her neck. With the curved tip, he parted the neck of her gauze shirt, toying with the thin string tied in a bow that held the ends together.
And then, with a quick flick of his wrist, he snapped the bow in two.
An audible inhale from the audience.
Jordan strutted to the other side, undoubtedly for the viewing pleasure of those with an obstructed view. A few more sure, swift cuts and the delicate blouse split in half, the fabric fluttering, parting to reveal her curvy form.
She wasn’t naked.
Jannie stared. The bra and panty set, if you could call it that, was made up entirely of strings of white pearls. Gold O-rings connected the strands, three that fanned over each breast, three on each hip, and one string nestling perfectly in the line at her crotch. Strings of nearly invisible gold chain held everything together.
Jordan leaned over her, bending low over her left breast to catch a strand of pearls between his teeth. He tugged, causing them to tighten and squeeze, drawing a whimper from her lips, clearly audible from where Jannie sat.
Jordan sheathed his knife, and Jannie felt electricity course through her as he began a slow, deliberate caress of the woman’s parted thighs, then downward, all the way to her ankles, where he paused to draw circles with his fingertips. He reached into his pocket and withdrewsomething, holding it in his fist, looking up again to catch her gaze, a question in his eyes. She nodded. He opened his fist, revealing a long handful of pearls, which he let unravel to show loops on the ends.
He slipped one loop over each foot.
Cuffs. He was cuffing her with pearls.
