Page 11 of In Step

Feeling like a spy in some low-budget movie, I detoured down the small bank and picked my way across the sodden grass to the open fire door, the muffled thuds of feet hitting the floor growing louder by the second. The studio floor sat about thigh height, and I dropped my bag on the damp ground and sneaked my head through the opening.

The room was about twenty by thirty metres, big enough for Judah’s kids to comfortably move around with their wheelchairs and canes and other equipment that might be necessary, but tonight there was only one person using the space. Abe. And I was instantly spellbound.

His body flew across the room in a whirlwind of turns and leaps in sync with the rhythmic bass so loud it rattled my spine and thundered in my chest. Big band music—horns and saxophone, and double bass and piano, and drums. Memories crashed through my head and almost took my knees from under me—my mother dancing in our kitchen, my tiny hands in hers, spinning and laughing, dipping me, spoon in one hand like a mic as she crooned words that never seemed important at the time. The music was everything. How had I forgotten that?

A word popped out at me. Swing. This was swing music.

Then I startled as Abe landed a jump close to where I was hiding, so close I could pick out the small holes in those soft-as-butter leggings. The thin material outlining every fibre of muscle in his thick thighs and the bunched muscles of his arse, his cock nestled soft and large in his groin. The waistband rolled low on his flat stomach tight with ridged abs over a steel core lightly dusted with hair. The cut-off T-shirt wet with sweat and clinging to his toned chest and budded nipples.

Holy fucking hell.

I barely contained a yelp, ducking back into the shadows until the sound of his feet fell into the distance and I risked another look. Perspiration coursed down his face, his dark hair threaded with silver pulled into a topknot that bobbed with every leap and turn, eyes closed like he was dancing by feel, led around the space by some invisible force. And I stood transfixed, my ridiculous dick thickening in my jeans like the traitorous fucker that it was.

And still Abe danced, sliding past the open door where I crouched watching, his voice low with the music, singing, stray words catching in my ears, arms wide, then high, then circling into a spin. Around and around until he suddenly stopped, dancing on the spot, tap, shuffle. Whatever the fuck it was called. His body dipping and rocking to the beat, a wide smile on his face.

And then he was off again, and I lost myself in the pure, raw joy of his energy, pretty sure of only one thing: that I’d never feltanythingclose to whatever Abe was feeling in that moment—the energy of life rippling through him, power and hope and emotion. I’d never felt that, not even close. There was a magic to it, and heat and lust and wonder. A hunger I’d never allowed myself to feel ripped open in my heart. In that moment, Abe was alive to his core, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what that felt like.

But I wanted it, more than I’d wanted anything in my life.

A change in tempo along with dying footfalls signalled the finale of the music and shook me from my stupor.Shit.I needed to leave. Now, before Abe saw me. I had no business stalking the poor man when he’d thought he was alone.Jesus Christ.If Judah found me...Way to go, idiot. I released my death grip on the edge of the door and fumbled at my feet for my bag.

“Kane?”

I froze with my backpack halfway to my shoulder and slowly stood, registering the gasping breaths, the tang of fresh sweat, and Abe’s shadow falling across my face.

“I-I’m sorry,” I stumbled, the height difference between studio floor and the ground leaving me staring past the bulge in his crotch, a long way up into those intriguing, mismatched eyes that I’d carried with me all day—one grey, a small scar bisecting the eyebrow above it, and the other the palest blue. “I heard the music and was curious. I shouldn’t have, I know. I just thought...” I trailed off into a heavy sigh. “I only meant to have a quick look, but you were so... good, so... beautiful.” I ducked my head, unable to hold his calculating gaze. “I shouldn’t have stayed. I’m sorry.” I stepped away, intending to bolt back to the road before my humiliation buried me.

But all Abe did was smile. “I don’t mind. I was just letting off a bit of steam. You liked it?” He stepped forward, which only made the height difference between us more awkward, putting his groin way too front and centre for my poor, sex-starved body to ignore.

I retreated further. “Yeah, of course. It was amazing.” Lord knew what he read in my expression. Envy, admiration, lust? Mostly that last one, knowing my luck. “You’re really good. But I’m guessing you probably know that.”

He shrugged. “I’ve never met a performer who didn’t suck up a compliment like it was water in the desert.”

A silence stretched between us.Just leave. “It was swing, right? The music.”Or don’t leave. There is always that option.

He looked surprised. “Yes. You know it?”

Heat bloomed in my cheeks, and I shrugged. “Not really. It reminded me of my mother. She used to dance to that kind of music when she was cooking, and sometimes she’d drag me into it. I’d almost forgotten. Anyway, I’m sorry for creeping on you. It was rude.” I shouldered my pack and started to leave.

“Wait up,” he called after me. “You’re welcome to watch, anytime. Or join in if you’d like?”

I nearly tripped over my feet.“Join in?” The horror in my voice had his lips twitching.

“It’s not dental work, you know.” He grinned. “I’d even let you come in the front door.”

I returned the smile. “If you knew me better, you’d understand just how ridiculous that idea is. I don’t dance, never have, except with my mum, of course. But thank you for asking.”

He shrugged. “I’ll leave the invitation open.”

“Do you often ask random guys into your studio to dance?”

He studied me for a long second as if holding back a laugh, and I replayed the words in my head, feeling my cheeks blaze. “Shit, I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I didn’t mean—fuck.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners and his mouth curved up in a slow, sexy smile. “Only the... gorgeous ones.”

The what?My mouth opened and closed like a degenerate guppy as heat pooled in my belly and every sensible thought north of my dick went AWOL.Holy fuck. Was Abe... flirting with me? The gobsmacking question was quickly followed by another far more disturbing one. He knows? How does he know? He knows because you were creeping on him, you total nutjob.

Fuck.Abe was Judah’s friend. What if he...?Shit!

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