Dance to the Piper by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

His lips hadn't pressed hungrily to hers. Yet she'd relived that instant of contact again and again. Somehow she thought—somehow she was sure—he hadn't been unmoved. However foolish it was, she dredged up that quick flood of sensation and reexperienced it. It added a fine sheen of heat to already-warmed skin. Her heartbeat, already thudding rhythmically with the demands of the exercise, increased in speed.
    Amazing, she thought, that the memory of a sensation could do so much. Launching into a series of pirouettes, Maddy brought the feeling back again and spun with it.
    With her hair still dripping from the shower, Maddy pulled on a pair of patched bright yellow bib overalls. The rehearsal hall showers themselves were ripe with the scents of splash-on cologne and powdered talc. A tall woman, naked to the waist, sat in the corner and worked a cramp out of her calf.
    "I really appreciate you telling me about this class." Wanda, resplendent in jeans and a sweater as snug as skin, tugged her own hair back into a semiorganized bun. "It's tougher than the one I was taking. And five dollars cheaper."
    "Madame has a soft spot for gypsies." Maddy straddled a long bench, bent over and began to aim a hand drier at the underside of her hair.
    "Not everyone in your position is willing to share."
    "Come on, Wanda."
    "It isn't all a big sisterhood, sweetheart." Wanda jammed in a last pin and watched Maddy's reflection in the mirror. Even with the reddish hair curtaining her face, Wanda saw the faint frown of disagreement. "You're the lead, and you can't tell me you don't feel newcomers breathing down your neck."
    "Makes you work harder." Maddy shook back her hair, too impatient to dry it. "Where'd you get those earrings?"
    Wanda finished fastening on the fiercely red prisms, which fell nearly to her shoulders. A movement of her head sent them spinning. Both she and Maddy silently approved the result. "A boutique in the Village. Five-seventy-one."
    Maddy got up from the bench and stood with her head close to Wanda's. She narrowed her eyes and imagined. "Did they have them in blue?"
    "Probably. You like gaudy?"
    "I love gaudy."
    "Trade you these for that sweatshirt you've got with the eyes all over it."
    "Deal," Maddy said immediately. "I'll bring it to rehearsal."
    "You look happy."
    Maddy smiled and rose on her toes to bring her ear closer to Wanda's. "I am happy."
    "I mean, you look man happy."
    With a lift of her brow, Maddy studied her own face in the mirror. Free of makeup, her skin glowed with health. Her mouth was full and shaped well enough to do without paint. It was a pity, she'd always thought, that her lashes were rather light and stubby. Chantel had gotten darker, longer ones.
    "Man happy," Maddy repeated, enjoying the phrase. "I did meet a man."
    "Shows. Good-looking?"
    "Wonderful-looking. He's got incredible gray eyes. Really gray, no green at all. And a kind of cleft." She touched her own chin. "Let's talk body."
    Maddy let out a peal of laughter and hooked her arm around Wanda's shoulders. Friendships, the best of them, are often made quickly, she thought. "Good shoulders, very trim. He holds himself well. I'd guess good muscle tone."
    "Guess?"
    "I haven't seen him naked."
    "Well, honey, what's your problem?"
    "We only had dinner." Maddy was used to frank sexual talk. A lot more used to the talk than to acting on it. "I think he was interested—in sort of a detached way."
    "So you've got to make him interested in an attached way. He's not a dancer, is he?"
    "No."
    "Good." Wanda sent her earrings for a last spin, then began to unfasten them. "Dancers make lousy husbands. I know."
    "Well, I'm not thinking of marrying him…" she began, then widened her eyes. "Were you married to a dancer?"
    "Five years ago. We were in the chorus of Pippin. Ended up getting married on opening night." She handed the earrings over. "Trouble was, before the play dosed he'd forgotten that the ring on my finger applied to him."
    "I'm sorry