‘Try it,’ she invited.
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘You know why.’
I didn’t, but I didn’t argue further. I undressed quickly and put it on. It reached my ankles. There were two deep slits on either side of the dress that ended at the hips. When I moved it showed the entire expanse of my bare leg.
‘This is a belly dancer’s costume. It belongs to my daughter,’ Mysha said, and fitted on a thick belt made of green beads, tassels and coins around my hips. ‘Twist your hips,’ she instructed.
I moved my hips and the belt tinkled, shivered and shook.
She smiled approvingly. ‘Now you must let your hair down.’
I pulled the pins from my chignon and shook my hair loose. It fell down my back. She walked around me teasing and spreading my hair over my shoulders and back. She made curls in her small hands and pulling them forward coiled them around my neck.
‘Look in the mirror,’ she invited.
I looked and gasped. I had never seen myself look like that before.
‘How do you know Miko?’ I asked her reflection.
‘He is our savior,’ she said simply. ‘This party is in honor of him.’
I felt sad suddenly. Soon he would be gone from my life forever.
‘That man is yours, not hers,’ she said in a firm voice, and opened the door. ‘Now go get him.’
I opened my mouth to tell her he was not my man at all, but she put her finger to my lips. ‘All the men dream of the beautiful belly dancer.’
~~~~~
Nine
I followed her down the stairs in a daze. It was all so strange. The woman, the house, the dress, the music, the people. I entered the room where I had left Miko, and almost instantly our eyes met. He had been looking for me. Layla stopped her boneless gyrations and turned around to stare at me, but I was not looking at her. I was staring at Miko. His eyes. They were alive. Blazing across the room at me. Devouring me. For a while I could not move and we simply stared at each other. Then he left the woman and walked toward me.
He had a red lipstick kiss on his cheek. I raised my hand to his cheek and rubbed it away. The flush of excitement in his dark eyes dazzled me. I felt a fever start up inside me. Unspoken desire crackled between us like magic, and itched deep inside like a curse. It would only get worse if something was not done about it. He was the hunter. I was the prey. That was the story anyway. The night could belong to the hunted. The blood hummed in my veins.
‘Will you run away again, if I tell you how beautiful you look?’
Flustered and unable to speak, I shook my head.
‘You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.’
I licked my bottom lip and he stared, transfixed.
‘It’s our dance, I believe,’ he said softly.
I had drunk only a sip of wine, but I felt light-headed suddenly. As if I had drunk half a bottle of something very strong. He took my hand in his and it was as if the world was right again. Everything was the way it should be. Warm, right, safe. He looked down at me and at that moment I knew. I was in love with him. I always had been. Tears brimmed in my eyes. I blinked them away and moved my hips in the way the other women were doing. Slowly, sensuously. We were all snakes on that dance floor.
For a moment he watched me and then he pulled me close and fitted me between his hipbones. His erection was unmistakable.
‘Who is Layla?’
He looked searchingly at me. ‘Who is Nigel?’
‘No one.’
‘So is Layla.’
‘She seemed…potent.’
‘Try deadly,’ he said dryly.
So I snuggled closer to him and wished with all my heart that it was not just one night in Miko Barokas’s arms, but forever.
That dance was like a dream. I luxuriated in the way his body felt, molded to mine as the music flowered around us and his warm breath stirred the tendrils of hair at my temples. It felt as if he would never let go. What an illusion.
‘I like your hair like this,’ he whispered.
I lifted my head and looked up into his eyes. They were dark and full of unspoken desire. He bent his head and lightly kissed my lips. It was so chaste I was surprised.
‘I’m not a fan of audiences,’ he said, with a self-deprecating smile.
I glanced around and indeed many people were looking at us, some smiling indulgently, one or two curiously.
He broke away from me. ‘Come to the garden with me.’
We walked to the garden, lost in each other. He led me away from the long table heaped with food and the people standing about in groups. We stopped under an apple tree.
‘Tell me, what if I pulled your panties down and tasted you right here, in this garden of Eden?’
I took a sharp intake of breath, my mind stumbling, dizzy.
He pressed his advantage. ‘I already know what you will taste of.’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘Honey. A sweet taste that will stick on my tongue as I fall asleep.’
‘I…’
‘Just one taste…’ His voice was low and husky, a promise of pleasure.
Sticky heat pooled between my legs and any last remaining resolve melted away. ‘Do it,’ I whispered, my voice quivering, barely audible.
In a flash he had whirled me away to the back of a wooden shed. He put me against it, the rough wood against my back, and dropped to his knees. Before I knew it he had slipped his hands into the slits at the sides of the costume and pulled my panties down my legs.
He lifted one foot out of them and spreading my legs moved his mouth toward
my freshly shaven pussy, and for one second I looked down and made a mental picture of him, precious and breathtakingly handsome, his curling eyelashes long against his cheek—I had forgotten how long they were—and then the shock of his mouth attaching itself between my legs drove all thought from my mind. I laid my palms, the fingers spread out, on the rough wooden panels behind me and tried not to scream.
Sweet heaven!
I wanted to cry, moan and curl my legs. I had never felt more alive. His tongue moved between the folds, tasting, eating, sucking and then he lifted his head. And for the first time in my life I tasted sexual frustration. He pulled my panties back on and, standing up, pulled me away from the shed. We walked through the garden, and the house, and out of the front door.
‘Don’t we have to tell anyone?’ I whispered.
‘I’ll call Mysha later.’
‘What about this dress?’
‘Later,’ he said briefly.
We almost ran to the car and Miko drove away fast. My heart was thudding hard with excitement and my breaths were shallow. A left, then a right, meadows on either side, farmhouses in the distance, fields of cows, and another country lane later, we arrived at a kissing gate. It was the end of a dirt track, a place where we had been going all along. It was getting dark. Behind the gate the field was full of tall, silken, golden grass.
‘Come on,’ he said, and opened his door.
I got out quickly. The blood was singing in my ears. I did not have to ask what we were doing here in this deserted place. I saw it in the glimmer in his eyes, felt it in my bones. We were here to finish what we had started in that garden. He came around to my side and taking my hand took me to the front of the car. Picking me up by the waist he sat me on the bonnet of the car and pushed me back on it.
The metal was hot against my back. He pulled my panties off and opening my legs buried his face between them with a growl. This time it was not a taste he wanted. He ate me like a starving man. My fingers gripped his hair hard as I stared at the darkening sky and gave in to pure pleasure. My climax rushed upon me packed with explosives. I clenched his head with my thighs and screamed. My legs were still trembling when he flipped me over so I was lying on my front on the hot bonnet. And I was ready for it.