Cadence giggled. “That was just silly. I’m talking real dancing. I’d do better to stand on your feet and let you move us around.”
Mark looked at her thoughtfully. “You know, if you’d have said that to me a year ago, I might have agreed. But you’re not a little girl anymore.”
Cadence shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“But you’re my girl,” Mark said, pulling her close. “And you’re little.”
She looked up at him and smiled.
“Put those little arms around me,” he said.
She complied, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Just follow my lead,” he whispered, moving her side to side.
They danced to the story of Romeo and Juliet, and Cadence thought it couldn’t be more fitting. Forbidden love. The world against them. Well, maybe not the whole world. Just the right amount of melodrama. Mark kissed her neck and hummed the tune in her ear. She kept stepping on his feet until he finally picked her up and let her legs dangle as he continued around the living room.
“See,” she said softly. “Should have let me stand on your feet.”
He chuckled and squeezed her tightly.
“I love you, Cadence.”
She pressed her mouth to his and spoke against his lips.
“I love you, too,” she replied. “Now put me down.”
He looked at her confused but did as she asked, setting her on her feet and watching as she strode to the record player. She stopped the player and put away the vinyl.
“But it wasn’t over yet,” Mark objected.
“I’m over it. I’m over anything sweet and sappy and tears-inducing and heavy and deep. You got it?”
Mark cracked a smile and nodded.
“Now go sit on the couch. Well, wait. Move that coffee table aside and then sit on the couch.”
He had no idea what she was up to, but he was intrigued. And turned on. He liked when she bossed him around. He sank into the couch and waited for her next demand.
“You have an obsession with ass,” she said thoughtfully. “I thought this could be your theme song. I heard it last year on the radio.”
She pressed PLAY on the CD player, and Mark listened as the whine of an R&B song filled the apartment.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he laughed, watching her walk to the center of the living room.
“I should have taken a shot first,” she mumbled to herself as she bent her upper body side to side. Next, she did overhead tricep stretches, and Mark stared at her, confused. She dropped her arms and looked him straight in the eyes. “Okay. Here goes. You want my ass? You’ve gotta beg me for it.”
Cadence spun around and rolled her hips from side to side to the beat of the song. Mark watched, noting how round and perky her backside looked in her skinny jeans. It was monstrously unfair, the way she teased him. He reached out to touch her, but she swatted his hand away.
“Nuh uh,” she said, running her hands all over her thighs and bottom. “I can’t slow dance, but I can bump and grind.”
“Fuck. Yeah,” Mark replied, gawking at her tiny frame moving fluidly to the most ridiculous song he’d ever heard. Some guy searching for booty. Obsessed with it, really. But he liked it. And he liked her. He especially liked her dancing for him. Not sad Cadence when she danced to Tori Amos. Not scared Cadence when he took her to the club. Not stumbling Cadence when he held her in his arms and rocked her to the soft melody of “Romeo and Juliet.” Nope. This was sexy, exhibitionist Cadence, and he thought he’d come in his pants when she looked over her shoulder, grinned at him seductively, and shook her tiny hips.
“Get over here,” he said huskily.
“Nope. I’m not done,” she argued, turning to face him.
“Yes, you are,” he replied.
“I’ll be your personal stripper,” she purred.
“Oh my God,” he breathed. He looked down. “Cadence, I’m hard as a rock. Please come here.”
“Nope,” she said.
She pulled her shirt over her head. And then she did a sultry move where she bent over, ran her hands slowly up the front of her legs, then ended standing upright with a finger in her mouth. She shook her hips again.
“I learned that from Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease.”
Mark’s mouth hung open.
“I’ve been practicing with Avery.”
All he could do was nod.
She wiggled out of her jeans and tossed them to him.
“You wanna see some floor moves?” she asked.
He stared at her through bug eyes.
“Mark?” she asked, grinning.
“Here. Now.” That was all he managed to get out.
“But don’t you wanna see me gyrate on the floor?”
“Yeah. Under me,” he replied.
She cracked up. And then she pounced on him, straddling his hips and sinking her teeth in his neck.
“Ouch!”
“Am I sexy?” she whispered.
“So fucking sexy,” he replied. “I want you to dance for me like that every night.”
She sat up and looked at him. “What are you gonna do for me?”
“Anything,” he said quickly. “Whatever the hell you want.”
She chuckled then leaned in and whispered the dirtiest thing he’d ever heard.
“Are you sure?” he asked. His face sported the widest grin.