Is it a gamble? Yes. But isn’t everything?

I’m done analyzing Brandon like one of my accounting spreadsheets. He said something he regrets and I overreacted. The simplicity actually numbs my mind.

Not that I haven’t thought about what he said yesterday. I’ve replayed every word, every movement, every emotion a hundred, a thousand, a million times, and each new rendition only makes me regret I waited so long to call him and didn’t just make up my mind on the spot.

When did I become so indecisive? I’ve never, ever had this problem before, and it’s an ill-fitting look and feel for me.

Maybe that’s a sign. I’m reacting differently to this relationship than I ever have before, and all my other attempts at getting close to someone ended in disaster. The more differences I can name between me and Brandon and the trysts of my past, the better, because I think I finally understand that he isn’t a fleeting passion.

I want this to last. I want to feel this way all the time. I want Brandon. Anyway, I made a promise, and the means to keep it is draped over my arm.

Gemma gives the hanger and dust cover a curious glance as we take the elevator down to meet Cullen. “What’s that for? Going somewhere after work?”

“Maybe.”

For once in her life, Gemma doesn’t press, but maybe that’s because her face lights up at the sight of Cullen.

I’m not a fool. I know Brandon was avoiding me yesterday. Today, he makes every effort to be somewhere within my sight, and I make sure to give him a smile whenever our eyes meet. This is my way of apologizing for the cliffhanger of last night’s drama and promising him something has changed—that I’ve changed.

He’s still in sight when my workday ends, and I get the feeling he’s only pretending to be busy.

“Are you sure you don’t need a ride?” Cullen asks. He’s standing with his arm around Gemma’s waist.

“Positive,” I tell him. Why am I lightheaded?

“Okay. Good work today.” He smiles. Gemma gives me a thumbs up as they turn away, and I roll my eyes.

I head into the staff rooms and shut the door of the one that will be Cullen’s office. With shaking hands, I change, folding my business clothes formally and neatly.

When I leave the room, Brandon is standing at the bar. One look at me, and his face shows he’s blown away.

“I promised,” I say, twirling neatly in my favorite blue dress. My stilettos tap against the wooden floors, and the sound echoes in the silent club.

“You promised,” he agrees, his voice soft as though he fears I might disappear before him.

“I want to show you something.” I take his hand and lead him through House of Stars. We pass the door that leads to the screen room, one that I know he hasn’t worked on, and I open another door, pulling lightly so he goes inside first.

“Wow.” That was how I felt when I first saw this room.

A round, raised stage about ten feet wide is set into one side of the room. A metallic, painted jungle surrounds the stage, glinting green with the flat, leafy blades of palms, still, hanging vines, and fronds of ferns and undergrowth. The pole in the center of the stage gleams, but not with silver—with a luxurious brown, just like the painted trees in the background.

I click a button on a remote built into the wall, and a quiet rushing sound breaks the silence. Blue water trickles from hidden pipes in the walls and fills a shallow, two-foot-wide trough that runs around the stage, and two waterfalls splash in unison into the sides of the filling blue stream.

“I realized something,” I say quietly, taking the front of Brandon’s shirt and maneuvering him backwards toward a lush arm chair. The back of his knees knock into it and he sits down, watching as I stride slowly to the stage.

Taking the pole in my hands, I circle it slowly. I pause and reach between my breasts, pulling out my glasses. I put them on, and watch Brandon twitch and chew his bottom lip. I knew the throwback to high-school-Taylor would send him into a frenzy.

The lights dim, leaving only the mood lights behind the metal foliage—the ones that turn me into a water goddess beneath the shifting lights under the canopy of the jungle. The music comes from everywhere, and it’s slow, haunting, and beautiful.

“I thought I needed this.” I turn my gesture into a graceful dip of my entire body, my dress brushing the stage before I curve my spine and rise seductively. “This stage, the adoration, the lifestyle.”

My stiletto hooks around the pole as I spin around it twice. My dress flares out with my change in speed, and for a moment I can’t tell where the blue fabric ends and the falling water begins. “I didn’t understand why I couldn’t dance. After all, I wanted it so badly….”

Brandon’s fighting to stay still, and I can see my beauty mirrored in his face. I’ve found it. The place I belong. The place I can be an accountant and a showgirl and everything else all at once.

“I couldn’t dance for Zinzy and everyone else,” I whisper, my voice one with the splashing of the falls. “I needed someone to dance for. Someone I love.”

Suddenly, Brandon is at my side, taking me into his arms. “And I don’t want to share you.” His voice is low and husky, like the calls of the creatures in the jungle. “I want you to dance only for me.”

He spins me into a dip, supporting my entire body with just one arm as I hover parallel to the floor. His other hand hooks into the soft spot behind my knee as I wrap my leg around his waist.

“Taylor,” he murmurs, tracing gentle circles on my thigh. “You are… everything.”

I know exactly what he means, but I’m too content to open my mouth.

“Everything I ever wanted, or dreamed, and so much more.” He pulls me up into a deep, soul-penetrating

kiss. He has my heart.