Love's Dance

by Marianna Roberg

  "You do, huh?" Jaina smiled.

  They got out and he walked with her to the door. Jaina unlocked the door, then turned to Colin. The sheltered porch hid them from view from all directions save the house across the street, and Jaina knew those people were on vacation. She reached behind and pushed the door open.

  Looking up in silence for a moment, Jaina then said softly, "Stay with me."

  Colin pulled her into his arms. "Jaina, it would take all nine Ringwraiths and the Four Horsemen to make me leave."

  The door shut behind them.

  ♥♥♥

  Inside the house, Jaina reached over and flipped the light switch. To her dismay, nothing happened.

  "Power's out," Colin said, moving into the living room. "Lights in here don't work, either."

  She made a face, then said, "And I don't know where the flashlights are. Well, I know where one is."

  Jaina found the stairs and went up to her room. Colin followed. He was able to see a lot from the moonlight through the window, but it wasn't enough for anything more than the vague outlines of anything.

  There was a rather distinctive noise, a flash of green light, and a steady, two-pulse hum. He burst out laughing.

  "You're kidding!"

  Jaina help up the Luke Skywalker lightsaber replica and shrugged. "Hey, it works. Now we can find where Teniel keeps the candles."

  The plastic blade of the lightsaber connected with her desk. The sound of lightsabers crashing went with it. Colin laughed again.

  "Yes, it makes sounds," Jaina grabbed the handrail as they went down the stairs. "Your stairs are highly unsafe. Big, gaping hole, free-standing glass panel, and no handrail."

  "I know, I should install one." Colin touched her shoulder as he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. "You find the candles, I'll see about dinner."

  Her whole face, not just her eyes, was green in the light. "Power's off and it's an electric stove. What are you going to fix?"

  "My specialty," he said with a grin she could barely see. "Delivery. Where d'you keep the phone book?"

  ♥♥♥

  Fortunately, Teniel was very fond of candles, so they were everywhere. Jaina put an assortment of candlesticks on the table and sitting side by side, they had Chinese food by firelight. Colin had ordered something with lots of vegetables in it. Jaina had sesame chicken and sweet and sour pork, with sweet rice.

  Colin had chopsticks, Jaina was using a fork. He kept eyeing her.

  "I'm not using chopsticks," she said.

  "Don't you know how?" he asked, correctly guessing why she couldn't.

  "I'm not very good at it."

  He handed her a set of chopsticks. "Here, I'll show you."

  Colin demonstrated the proper form, then one of the chopsticks fell from his fingers, hitting the table. Jaina snickered.

  "Yes, I can see I'm going to learn a lot from you, Mr. Miyagi," she deadpanned.

  "Oh, quiet," he said, acutely embarrassed.

  Jaina tried to hold her chopsticks the way she'd been taught. Colin apparently though she was doing something wrong, because he reached over to correct her, his fingers brushed hers, and Jaina dropped her chopsticks. One bounced off the edge of the table and onto the floor, the other flipped out of her hand as she grabbed for it, and landed point-down in Colin's rice bowl.

  For several seconds, they stared at it, then both started laughing.

  "Such talent," he murmured.

  "Shut up, Pierce." Jaina rolled her eyes and picked up her fork.

  Colin used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of chicken and held it up to her lips. Jaina watched him as she took it. His eyes darkened. Her breathing quickened in response.

  She put down her fork, took his chopsticks from his hand, and stuck them in his bowl. Then she left her chair and climbed onto his lap, facing him.

  He had a bit of sweet and sour sauce just below his lip. Jaina very slowly licked it away. A tremor ran through him.

  Jaina hesitated just millimeters from his mouth, and drew back. Colin let out a shuddery sigh.

  "You're learning, grasshopper," he breathed.

  "Good teacher," she replied.

  Picking up the bowl of pork, Jaina offered him a morsel. Eyes never leaving hers, Colin bit down on it. A bit of sauce dribbled on his chest, where his shirt was unbuttoned.

  Jaina lifted one brow, then bent her head and drew her tongue over his skin.

  "Jaina," he groaned, breathless.

  The next bit dropped on his shirt. Jaina, without comment, unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it on the floor.

  Colin knew they were entering very dangerous territory, had known, in fact, since the moment he'd attempted to help her with her chopsticks, but he was helpless to stop her, or himself. Once had definitely not been enough. That thought brought forward a memory of a chip commercial he'd seen in America once...

  Jaina stopped when Colin giggled. "What?"

  "Nothing," he said, voice strangled.

  "Okay." Jaina dipped her finger in the sauce and drew a line of it over his collarbone, following with her tongue. His comment was not fit to be repeated.

  "Bad boy," she murmured.

  "More than you know," Colin said.

  That made her give a small laugh. "We could both be very bad and ignore the doctor's orders..."

  He sighed. "Tempting as the thought is, we'd better not."

  Jaina pouted.

  "That's not working. Really, it's not." It was very difficult to protest when Jaina was drawing designs on his shoulder. "Jaina..."

  "I heard you."

  "Are you trying to kill me?"

  "No..."

  Colin confiscated the bowl of sweet and sour pork. "Is there something in this?"

  She wrinkled her nose at him. "Of course not."

  He sighed. "I've created a monster."

  Her laugh was low and husky.

  Colin placed his hands on her shoulders. "Jaina, I mean it. We're not going to. Not for another-" he checked the light-up display on his watch "-twenty-two hours. Okay?"

  She reluctantly acquiesced and slid off his lap. "So you decided Doc Grey meant seven o'clock?"

  He laughed ruefully. "Jaina, it has to be. Neither of us will last until Sunday morning."

  "Well, we could..." Jaina eyed him. "You'd just have to be on the other side of the planet."

  "Me? Why would I have to go?"

  "Because I can't leave the country until I've got permanent residence here. And they're taking their sweet time in processing my application."

  He was surprised. "I thought you were here on a visit VISA, and then a work VISA. You've applied for permanent residence? When did you do that?"

  "A couple of weeks ago." Jaina used her fork to spear a lemon slice out of his bowl. "I kept trying to tell myself this move was only temporary, but I know now that it's not. I feel I belong here."

  Colin smiled. "That's good for me, then, isn't it? Otherwise, you'd have to move back to the States in September."

  "Ha. Right. Well, yeah, I'd either have to get another job, or I'd have to move, and I really don't want to leave." Jaina reached over and grasped his hand. "Especially now."

  They finished their meal in comfortable silence, then retired to her room, where Colin fell into an immediate, exhausted sleep.

  Jaina lay with his head pillowed on her breast and watched the snow fall, finally sure that her decision to stay was the right one.

  Chapter Twenty

  The bed beside Jaina was empty and the room was bright with light reflected off the snow when she woke. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and looked around. The bedroom door was open, which meant Colin had ventured out. She couldn't think why; the house was freezing with no heat.

  A moment later, there were footsteps on the stairs and Colin came in, wearing his sweater from the other day and his pants. He was barefoot, and Jaina thought it was a very appealing look.

  "Power's still off," he said. "And the only thing in the refrigerator that
doesn't require cooking is the ice cream."

  "Too cold for ice cream," she said.

  "That's what I thought. So... I figured we could go over to my place for a while."

  Jaina sat up, pulling the quilt higher. "That sounds good. I assume you'll have hot water there."

  "Should. I tried calling, and the machine picked up, so there's power."

  "Yay." Jaina reached out and grabbed his hand. "C'mere."

  Colin landed on the mattress with enough force to almost bounce Jaina off the bed. He grabbed her and for a moment, they both giggled. She reached up and lightly brushed at the short, dark hairs that fell just a bit over his forehead. As she stroked his cheek, he turned and kissed her palm.

  In that moment, the reality of the last forty-eight hours hit her, and a well of emotion rose within her.

  "Are you really here?" she whispered. "It's seemed impossible for so long, I almost can't believe it."

  "I'm here. Believe me, it's just as strange for me." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I've been going insane since that night in the club."

  "What night in what club?"

  Colin froze. He hadn't meant for that to slip out. He figured he'd better tell the truth "Um. It was before we met. I was at a club, and I was sitting by myself in one of the rooms, and you walked in. You weren't even aware I was in there."

  Jaina frowned, puzzled, trying to remember. Then it hit her. That night, when she'd been dancing by herself, and though someone had been watching her. "That was you?!"

  "Well, uh, yeah. Me. Which is why I was so flustered the day we met. I'd just found that I was going to be working on a day-to-day basis with my fantasy woman."

  Jaina grinned at that. "Fantasy woman, huh?"

  "Ohh, yeah."

  "You're amazingly good at resisting temptation," she said suddenly. "I threw myself at you last night and you said no."

  Colin fixed her with a look. "Do you know how hard that was, Jaina?" he asked. "Here I was celibate for a few years, and one look at you and all that self-control goes right now the drain."

  "You were celibate?" she exclaimed, disbelieving. "I thought you were joking about that. Why?!"

  Colin looked sheepish. "All the women I would have asked out thought I was gay. I couldn't get a date. I mean, with anyone interested in me as more than a celebrity."

  Jaina looped her arms around his neck. "Well, I don't give a monkey on a rock if you're a celebrity. Admittedly, when I first met you, I had a moment of, 'It's Colin Pierce!', but after that..."

  Propped on his elbows, he gazed down at her. "Is this going to change us? Make us just about sex?"

  "Shouldn't I be the one to worry about that?" Jaina asked. "Well, if you're going to, then I don't have to."

  He lifted a raven brow.

  "Okay, okay. No, I don't think it will," she said, sobering. "I mean... Okay, so we've added sex to our, uh, routine. We got along fine without it, right?"

  "Yeah. But now, if we stop, I think I'll die."

  "Wuss. I went almost 22 years without it." Jaina pushed him off and sat up. "Let's get going. Faster we distract ourselves, faster it'll be evening..."

  He grinned.

  ♥♥♥

  After declining to shower with him--knowing Colin wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself then--Jaina fixed them breakfast in the now-familiar kitchen in Colin's house. They ate sitting at the counter.

  Jaina was washing the dishes when she said a word that made Colin jump and drop one of the mugs.

  "What's wrong?" he asked, as he stooped to pick up the large shards.

  "I forgot to take my medicine. We'll have to go back."

  "Maybe the power will be back on," he suggested, as he threw the pottery in the trash. "So much for that mug."

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

  He laughed. "It's fine. I've seriously been looking for an excuse to get rid of that for years. My sister gave it to me."

  "That's Mary-Jane, right? And your brother is Benjamin?"

  He nodded.

  "And Benjamin's married, and you've got... how many nieces and/or nephews?"

  Colin began drying one of the plates. "I've got two nephews. One is five, the other is three."

  "Wow," she said.

  "What?"

  "Oh, I was just thinking, it's kinda weird..." Jaina shook her head. "We both have an older brother and a younger sister. Both brothers are married. Both brothers have two children."

  Colin looked thoughtful. "That's interesting."

  Nodding, Jaina looked at her watch. "I'm supposed to take two doses a day, which means I need to get the first one in the next hour, or the timing will be all off."

  "Talking from experience?" he asked.

  "Yep."

  They had the dishes done in a few minutes, then grabbed their coats. As they were headed out, they saw one of Colin's neighbors shoveling the sidewalk. Jaina knew what was going to happen before Colin went over and offered to help the elderly man. Leaning against the car, she watched as he shoveled the snow, not doing much better of a job than the old man, but sparing the neighbor from having to do it.

  She smiled, and wondered what had inspired him to take on charity work as a hobby.

  ♥♥♥

  Back at her brother's house, Jaina took her meds, then, since they didn't have anything else to do, brought out the Star Wars Monopoly.

  "Oh, this should be fun," Colin said.

  "Well, it's this, Scattergories, or Candyland." Jaina set out the pewter figures. "Who do you wanna be?"

  "Han Solo," he said immediately.

  Jaina grinned and picked Leia. "How about this. Whoever wins this game... gets top."

  Colin looked at her for a moment, then said, "I don't know if I want to cheat to win, or purposely lose."

  Her smile turned positively wicked. "Or we could save the game for later, and play Strip Monopoly."

  "Now that's an idea. Or... we could play this to see who gets top... and later we can play again..." Colin's blue eyes twinkled mischievously.

  Jaina looked fromhim, to the dice, and back to him. "You're on."

  ♥♥♥

  "I forgot how long it takes to play Monopoly," Colin said as they were clearing up the game around lunchtime. "That took what, four hours?"

  Jaina looked at her watch, which depicted Buffy and Angel. "Yeah, almost."

  "Forget what I said about playing two games. That was excruciating."

  Jaina tossed R2-D2 at him. "Ha. I'm the one who lost."

  "What, did you want to be on top? We can always say you won."

  She went red to the tips of her ears. "You like making me blush."

  "Why are you still blushing?" Colin asked. "Teach me more Gaelic. I want something to call you. Something... unique to us. Something I can say that no one else will understand."

  Jaina paused in gathering the X-Wings and Tie Fighters into a bag. "Hmm. I’m rusty on Scots Gaelic. My friend Claire and I both studied Irish Gaelic more recently."

  "That’s fine. Teach me how to say... 'I love you'."

  "'Tá grá agam duit."

  "'Do you love me'?"

  “I don’t know that one, sorry.”

  "Tell me... how do I say 'sweetheart'?"

  "There are a couple of ways, endearments that are interchangeable. A ghra, a stor, a chuisle, a chroí. Those are ‘my love’, ‘my dear’, ‘my pulse’, and ‘my heart’, respectively."

  Colin looked at her hands, which were cradled in his. "Hmm. How would I say, 'I lust for you like Gollum after his precious'?"

  Jaina cracked up. "I don't know, I'd have to look it up."

  He pouted. Then, snickering, he sat back.

  Jaina looked at him for several moments, then said, "By the way, 'kiss me' is ‘póg mé'."

  A slow, lopsided grin spread across his face. "Is it," he murmured.

  Impatiently, she lunged across the game board, scattering game pieces and cards every which way. Colin hit the floor, Jaina on top of him. He
couldn't breathe, but really didn't care, with her mouth molded to his and her body pressing him into the cream-colored pile of the carpet.

  Jaina found she liked being in control. It was very, very nice indeed. The only problem with it that she could find was that it definitely freed Colin's hands, and while that would normally be a good thing, the fact that he was employing said hands under her shirt was more than a bit distracting.

  She sat up, straddling his prone torso, and jerked her shirt back down. "Nuh-uh. Not until later."

  Colin winced as he sat up. "Ow!"

  "Oh, did I hurt you?" She was instantly alarmed.

  "No, wasn't you," Colin said, reaching behind him. Holding up Darth Vader, he said, "This guy was stabbing me in the back."

  ♥♥♥

  Rather than eat cold Chinese leftovers, they drove to the restaurant where they'd first lunched together. It was winter now, not fall, so the view outside had changed, but inside, they were able to sit at the very same table where they'd been before.

  Back at her brother's house, they spent the afternoon making s'mores over a candle, with marshmallows on toothpicks, and trading bad jokes.

  Just before seven, Jaina was in the kitchen, washing dishes by candlelight, when the microwave beeped and the first floor was suddenly flooded with light.

  Blinking in the abrupt glare, Jaina looked at Colin, who looked just as startled.

  "Power's on," she said.

  "Oh, good. I'm not fond of the dark," he said offhandedly.

  Jaina stared at him for a moment, then said, "Really. I'm not either."

  "You're afraid of the dark?"

  "No. I'm afraid of what's in the dark."

  He chuckled.

  Jaina glanced at her watch as she went about setting the clock on the microwave. "Oh, wow."

  "What?"

  Casting him a sly look, she said, "It's a little after seven."

  For a moment, his face blanked, then he grinned. Strange that it was like an almost physical tug on her. Instantly, her heart began beating double time.

  Jaina blew out the candle. "The rest of these can wait."

  Colin held out his hand. Jaina placed hand in his, and he slowly drew her along behind him as he walked up the stairs.