Dana
I tried not to think about Hector’s warning, and frankly it wasn’t too difficult. It’s true, it wasn’t everyday that somebody came up to me and told me I was going to die, but it was only a dream, after all. And Hector tended to be superstitious about that sort of thing. Still, he seemed pretty convinced, and at twenty-one years old and having spent the last ten years on a floating vacation resort, I couldn’t claim to know very much about the world. Thought I did know a bit more than I had before Hutch came aboard Oceania, and I felt like it was informing my every step, my every turn. My body was even then still ringing with the memory of his touch, the thrill of his nearness, the violent surge of my orgasm. I had to force myself not to think about it, at least for as long as I could manage. I had other things to worry about.
I didn’t like the way the band had treated me, Eric and Barry and Sticks especially. I knew Eric was jealous, that he felt rejected. He’d longed for me from afar for a few years, and our only real disconnection was my chastity and his shyness. Now I’d given up one, while he still had to wrestle with the other. I thought about how I might help him, reassure him, give him the confidence to go out and mingle with the passengers. There were a few eligible girls in the crew and I’d be happy to do what I could for him. But I wasn’t going to be sympathetic to some lonely heart who was pining away for me when that just wasn’t going to happen. He and I both knew I didn’t sleep around and, if I did, it wouldn’t be with anybody in the band.
But the rest of them had other concerns about me. I understood that they were a bit upset that I wasn’t towing the line the way I usually was. But they had to see that this was a special circumstance, one that was simply beyond my control. Sure, things seemed to be going well for me at that time, and I couldn’t argue that they were, but that wasn’t because I’d arranged them that way or tricked anyone. And they could change at any time, something else that coiled in the back of my brain like a snake ready to strike. But I put that out of my brain too as I looked at myself in my cabin mirror. I looked good, I had to admit. A spangly dress clung to me, accentuating my curves, sparks of silver and shades of purple and light blue jumped from my tiny waist, my round breasts, making me feel sexy, gaudy, tantalizing. And there was only one person I wanted to tantalize.
I was already on the stage when he walked in, dapper in his black suit, one brow cocked. I knew at once that Blu had chosen to stay in for the night. And I knew what progress that was, what it meant to her and to us that she would remain calmly behind while Hutch came out to play. It meant she felt safer, that she trusted me and him and herself, it meant that she trusted the three of us, that she wanted us to have some time to ourselves the way she’d had some time with Hutch to themselves. She was maturing even by the day, and I knew I had something to do with that, something positive. I knew Hutch could see that, and I knew it was turning him on as much as it was me.
He stepped up to the stage while the band swelled behind me, a row of horns offsetting the rhythm section. I’d led this band through swing, big band, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, all manner of music. But we’d never played this song before. I’d never sung it before, not even in rehearsal. But I’d never lived it before either.
“When you wish upon a star,” I sang, the long and languid melody embedded in my memory. “Makes no difference who you are.” I held that last note long, giving it a delicate vibrato on the back of my tongue. It was a lovely melody and a beautiful and I understood immediately its timeless and dauntless appeal. I looked into Hutch’s eyes and he back into mine from the front of the stage, and it was if the song had been written just for him, just for me, just for that moment. “Anything your heart desires will come ... to ... you ... ”
He stepped up onto the stage and I stood looking into his eyes, already tearing up from the sweet sentiment of the tune. Then he sang, in a tenor so supple and stunning that I was left breathless. “When your heart is in your dreams, no request is to extreme ... ” He stretched out the note to an exquisite pause, the band waiting as that single, gorgeous pitch hovered above us all.
I joined him on the last line, finding a natural harmony that couldn’t have been better or bettered, a perfect meeting of mind and moment, heart and soul. “When you wish upon a star as dreamers do.”
Hutch stepped down from the stage and turned to extend his hand. I took it and he led me to the empty dance floor. Lights sparkled from the disco all above, a star scape streaming across the polished wooden floor. He led me in a ballroom waltz, spinning around that dance floor, the music swelling and swirling around us. I’d never danced like that before, but I knew instantly that I was once again in the hands of a master. He spun and the world twirled around me, the starry lights and the music and the motion had my heart pounding, lungs strong and ready. I never felt stronger than when I was in Hutch’s arms, as if his personal power was filling me, elevating me somehow toward his level. I was a princess in my own ballroom, private orchestra playing, a prince more charming than any other taking me in his arms, into his heart, into his life. Hutch was a man who would be king, and I felt like his queen.
No, don’t even dare to dream of such a thing, I told myself, even in that sweet second. Don’t get carried away! But that was as far as my skeptical self would get. There was too much magic in that room for skepticism, for hurt or pain or anything other than me and Hutch, that music, those lights, our love, all things becoming one in our heated waltz, blending the elements into a single, heady brew that went straight to my head and then all the way down.
The band seemed to sense that, because they broke from the venerable ballad into a spicy, salsa rhythm. The whole room took on a wildly different tone. Sticks hit a mad pattern on the cymbals and snare drum rim, pushing the seductive rhythm forward with the support of the steady bass guitar. Horns pulsed out a cushion while the trumpet screamed in an impassioned wail, as if it had come out of my own body.
Hutch changed his dancing technique, but it was a seamless transition, and he was as fast and loose with his salsa technique as he had been with the waltz. He seemed to be a master of everything, and each new skill only drove my admiration and my desire to knew and delirious heights.
He led me back and forth in a sensuous pace, hips very close, my leg passing between his as we dominated the floor, our eyes locked, his strong arm around the small of my back. That sexy latin music pushed up from the wooden floorboards as they seemed to vibrate with the irresistible thump of the bass drum, the crack of the snare. The piano chords pumped the harmonies into my legs, the musical combination swirling in my loins, heart beating in perfect sync. Hutch moved with amazing grace and style, effortless despite his size, an athlete and a dancer. Our hips ground together as the music got louder and my breath became shorter, my hands trembling with their fainting resistance to the temptation to tear his shirt off and bite right into his muscular chest.
Hutch threw me out, body spinning, my right hand still in his. When both our arms were outstretched I stopped and we both froze to face each other. He pulled me back in, spinning in the other direction to roll into his sexy grasp. I landed in his chest, face to face with him, our eyes locked on each other’s lips.
His heels clacked against the dance floor, feeding the rhythm as much as being fueled by it. He pulled me close and we stuck two arms out in an improvised tango. Just on cue, Hutch turned and dipped me, my blonde hair falling back as I dipped further and further back, never doubting the security of his powerful grip.
We danced on, rhythm after rhythm, styles from every corner of the Earth, a whirlwind tour of the world around us, within us, and between us; us and only us.