Page 67 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
“It’s not your typical dancing,” Kieran explained.
“Here, we’ll show you.” Lottie snapped her fingers at the musicians. “Give us something to move to.”
The fiddle player grinned and launched into a spinning tune, with the drummer giving a steady, thrilling accompaniment.
Lottie got to her feet, and three other women and one man joined her. She nodded at each of them before they began to dance. It was bawdier than any of the performances that night, with more swiveling hips and legs being bared. Yet it wasn’tentirelyshocking.
Until the dancers started removing their clothes. A woman suggestively peeled off her gloves and let them drop to the boards, while Lottie and another dancer picked at the fastenings of their draped gowns, loosening them to reveal a peek at a shift and even bared flesh. The other woman untied her garters and tossed them into the cheering crowd.
The man, too, shucked his waistcoat and flung away his neckcloth, which landed on Hyde’s shoulder.
Celeste stared in mingled shock and delight. The expressions on the dancers’ faces were nothing short of revelatory. Because while they were the ones taking off their clothing, they also held astonishing strength as the audience watched them, enrapt.
Even Kieran watched the dance, though there was a touch more remove in his countenance. He seemed almost as interested inherreaction to it, glancing back and forth between her and the performers. Perhaps he expected her to be shocked. Surely thatcouldn’t be the case—not after all they had seen and done.
But had she doneenough? She and Kieran had a limited time together. Already he had made tremendous inroads into being accepted by respectable Society. Her heart plummeted. It wouldn’t be much longer before he didn’t need her anymore... and the Season was coming to a close. Lord Montford would offer for her soon. Then she would be forced into an even more constrained, circumscribed existence.
How many more opportunities would she get to express herself, to do something that frightened and challenged her?
She turned back to the dancers, shimmying and spinning and holding their audience captive.
What would Salome do?
Before she could think better of it, she surged to her feet, toed off her slippers, and joined the performers. She squeezed her eyes shut—it was too soon to look at anyone, especially Kieran—and fell into the music’s spell. There was a moment’s ungainliness as her limbs felt stiff and inflexible. But then she concentrated on the melody and rhythm and began to sway. She imagined herself the queen of a kingdom underneath the hills, a creature full of enchantment. Her body twisted with the music and she half believed something magical simmered beneath her skin.
Opening her eyes, she saw the revelers watching her, and she briefly panicked before pushing her self-consciousness away. The other dancers encircledher, inviting her to join them. She was a maenad now, freed from the tethers that lashed her to ideas of propriety.
The only person watching that truly mattered was Kieran. His gaze burned her as she moved, and more strength surged inside her. She bent down to grab the hem of her skirts, gathering up the fabric and twitching it in time to the music as she bared her leg.
Her heart pounded. One distant corner of her mind cried in warning—Good girls don’t show their legs—but the melody drowned it out. By the time she reached her garter, all of her inner admonitions fell silent, and there was nothing but the pounding of the drum and her heart as she untied the material and flicked it away.
Kieran snatched it out of the air. And pressed it to his lips.
The crowd bellowed its approval.
Immersed in her power, she unrolled one stocking and kicked it off, then did the same to her other garter and stocking. When she shook her skirts in time to the music, its fabric brushed against her bare legs, and air caressed her naked skin. She still wore drawers, so she wasn’tentirelyexposed, yet her whole body was aflame with the knowledge that not only was she showing herself to strangers, she showed herself toKieran.
But could she go as far as the other dancers? The male dancer’s shirt was gone, and Lottie had stripped down to her shift, her breasts plainly visible beneath the sheer cotton, while another womanunfastened the brooch at her shoulder that held a drape of fabric across her chest. A moment later, the woman’s chest was completely bare.
Celeste’s fingers halted at the fastenings of her gown. Could she?Wouldshe?
The music came to a stop. The crowd booed, but the musicians merely smiled apologetically.
“We need refreshment,” the drummer explained as someone lobbed a pillow at him.
A man brought wine to the musicians. Meanwhile, some of the dancers reassembled their clothing while others remained partially dressed. Lottie stayed in her shift as she reclined on several cushions, her face flushed and triumphant as three men surrounded her, begging for a moment of her time.
Celeste scooped up her discarded stockings, and one garter, before returning to where Kieran continued to lounge. His eyes were hot and black as she lowered down to sit beside him.
“I’ll want my garter back,” she said brazenly, holding out her hand.
“I claim it as my prize.” He patted his chest.
“What have you done to merit such a prize?” she challenged.
“The fact that I didn’t haul you off the stage to ravish you in some darkened corner deserves some recognition.”
“Men think that they’re champions if theydon’tbehave like beasts. Hurrah, you’ve done the absolute minimum.” She smirked at him, even as her heartbeat became a roar.
