His hands were on her hips, and due to the costume she wore, she felt the heat of his palms against her skin.
"Allow my hands to guide your movements. Gyrate your hips."
He tried to guide her, but she felt too self-conscious to follow his instructions. Her hips did not move. He released her.
"What is the problem?"
You, she wanted to say. His closeness affected her. She couldn't concentrate on anything but the feel of his hands on her, the male scent of him, the whisper of his breath against her ear. She stepped away from Sterling and turned to face him.
"I think it might help if you were to show me, rather than tell me."
"I would look ridiculous."
She smiled over the slight blush that darkened his cheeks. If she could bring herself to parade around in front of him barely dressed, he could certainly suffer a little indignity on her behalf.
"I believe demonstration is part of teaching, and you did agree to teach me."
"Men and women move differently in the lower regions," he explained.
She lifted a brow. "How so?"
He reached out and pulled her around, positioning Elise as they had been a moment earlier. "Men move front to back, like this." He pressed against her in a disturbing manner. "Women move from side to side." His fingers found her hips again, and this time she followed his movements or, rather, the movement of his hips against hers.
Gradually, Elise noticed more than the rhythm of their bodies moving in perfect accord. His heat penetrated her back - wrapped around her. Although they were not overly exerting themselves, his breathing sounded labored, and so did hers. Something pressed against her. Something hard.
"As you dance, remove the veils," he said. "This way."
He plucked a transparent scarf from beneath her breast. Elise did as he instructed, plucking away first one scarf and then another until her entire midsection was bare. The costume beneath the scarves was hardly anything: an upper portion that pushed her breasts up and out, held in place by slim straps, and, below, trousers of sorts that hung below her belly button and were sheer from the top of her legs to the bottom, where they gathered at her ankles. Scarves were attached to the thin straps of her shoulders, and she understood those should be removed as well. Although her hands shook, she reached up.
"Slowly, sensually, like this," Sterling whispered, then took her hand in his and ran her palm up her stomach, over her breast. Her nipples hardened. A flush spread from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.
"Your body was made for a man's caresses," Sterling said close to her ear, then nibbled upon her lobe. "You have no idea how desirable you are, how tempting."
The heat seeped to a place between her legs. Elise knew she was not unattractive, but she'd been innocent about desire, her own, and the ability to make a man want her. And she did want a man to want her: Sterling.
"Touch me," she whispered.
He groaned, a low, animalistic sound; then he cupped her aching breasts. His fingers slipped inside of the low-cut costume and grazed her nipples.
"I want to put my mouth on you." He brushed her long hair aside and kissed her neck. "On every part of you."
A throb joined the heat burning between her legs. She wanted that - wanted his mouth on her and more.
"I don't even know your last name," she suddenly realized.
He snatched his hands from her as if she'd suddenly scorched him. A moment later, his hands were back, but only upon her shoulders, pushing her forward. The cot, she assumed. Surely they wouldn't perform the act standing up. He pushed her down upon the cot, but rather than join her, he moved to the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Out," he snapped. "Away from your sorcery. You have made me forget our agreement. Forget myself."
She blinked. He seemed angry with her. "I thought our agreement was that you would teach me to dance."
"You will have to learn on your own, which I don't believe will be a problem."
"Why won't you look at me?" Elise demanded, her temper clashing with her embarrassment. "You started this business, and now you're acting as if I've done something wrong."
He turned. "You shouldn't tempt me. I told you that things must be different between us. You must heed my warning, Elise."
A shiver raced up her back, not because of his words, but because in the soft lantern light, his eyes looked strange again. The same as they had looked last night. As if they were glowing, like the night eyes of an animal.
She blinked, hoping it was an illusion and that if she looked again, his eyes would appear normal. When she looked again, he was gone.
Sterling's emotions were a jumbled mess. Desire, red-hot and rampant, clawed at him. He wanted Elise more than he'd ever wanted any woman. But she wasn't any woman. She was an innocent, and he had no right to make her his when he could offer her nothing... nothing but a life on the road... a life with a man who felt his humanity supping away.
He ran his tongue over his teeth. Was it his imagination, or were they sharper, more canine than human? "No," he insisted, moving toward the animal wagons. Talking with Raja and Leena always soothed him. Sterling had allowed fear to play with his mind. He hadn't fallen in love with Elise Collins. He barely knew the young woman. He found her attractive, desirable, sweet, kind, with every trait a man would want in a woman, but he did not love her.
Upon reaching one of the animal wagons, Sterling wrapped his hands around the bars. "I do not love her."
Both animals were dark shapes hunched in the corners of their cages, their eyes glittering in the darkness. Raja growled low in his throat. Sterling was used to the tiger's moods, but then Leena also growled. Sterling glanced behind him. The caravan was quiet; all had retired for the night.
"What do you see?" he asked. Oddly enough, their glowing eyes seemed trained only upon Sterling. He laughed. "It's only me."
But even as he said the words, he knew they were not true.