The very thought stilled herbreath.
Yeah,they’re already eatingme.
And have they eaten part ofyou?
If we put our backstogether,
Maybe there’s something we coulddo.
Put your back tomine
And your feet against thatwall
You step. Istep.
And this time we won’tfall
Put your back tomine
And neither one looksdown.
If the beast bitesyou,
I’ll kick him to theground.
Put your back tomine.
It gets easier, you’llsee.
When the fiend grabshold,
I know you’ll set mefree.
Put your back tomine.
Put your back tomine.
Put your back tomine.
Put your back tomine.
Every voicein the house joined Jacques’s for the repetition. Two girls emerged in front of the stage and started dancing together with the beat. The words became a chant two hundred voices strong, and the dancers moved with an unlikely combination of passion, grace, andspeed.
Soon, all eyes seemed to be on them, even Jacques’s. He regarded them with both recognition and amusedsurprise.
Both girls were attractive — the tall black one more than attractive. The short one with the curly hair looked too young to be in a bar. Rainey didn’t want to feel jealous, but the feeling took hold all the same. She also wished she had their courage and their freedom. Why couldn’t she stand in front of the crowd and dance to Jacques’s song that touched the heart of her and promisedhope?
Well, she knew the answer to that. Because it was terrifying enough just to stand pressed against the rough pillar and watch him. Jacques commanded the crowd like each among it were foot soldiers in his battalion — drunken, raucous foot soldiers, true, but they obeyed him just as well. His power and his talent awed her to an almost alarmingdegree.
Rainey took a deep breath and let it go, trying to shake off her self-doubt. In the grand scheme of things, tonight was a major personal triumph. She’d left the house by herself, and it wasn’t because she had to, and it wasn’t to run an errand. She’d ventured out to meet a guy. A really cute, incredibly sweetguy.
One who could sing like he was born forit.
The song ended, and the crowd roared with applause and whoops. Rainey joined in, smiling at Jacques when his eyes found her again. He gave her his knee-buckling, lopsided grin, and Rainey could actually feel his touch on herskin.
When he’d kissed her in the courtyard, it had intoxicated her just as much as the first time, but what she loved most about his kiss was how hungry he seemed for her. The way he held her in his grip, the bunching of his muscles, the roughness of his breath, all suggested an urgentdesire.
Had she ever felt wanted like that? If so, it was in another life. One she no longerclaimed.
