Page 8 of Dancing With Lies

“No, I don’t have a class until Monday, and it’s only Friday. It’ll be okay.”

“Good. You’re staying tonight, right?” She asked, knowing only that she didn’t want him to leave.

“I’ll be here as long as you want me to be, honey. I’m not going anywhere.” He pulled up to sit with his back against the black headboard, the covers just over his hips. “Are you hungry? We can get room service.”

“No, it’s too late for food. I’m not hungry anyway. I am thirsty, though.” She rolled out of the bed far enough to pick up the backpack where she’d put the bottles of water he’d bought. When she put the bag on the bed she heard a tinkle inside, a metallic sound, and she remembered. The watch. The very fucking expensive watch encrusted with diamonds that made it nearly impossible to tell what time it was, there were so many covering it.

The fucking thing even had diamonds on the wristband and faceplate, not just around the facing. What was she going to do with that?

It didn’t matter right now, she reminded herself, took out a bottle of water, and handed the other to Lincoln.

“Thanks.” He said and leaned over to kiss her just to the side of her lips.

“Thank you, Lincoln.” Words she never dreamed she’d say, but here she was, naked in bed with him. “Shower?”

“In a minute. I need to just look at you, if that’s alright?” He stroked her cheek and she smiled before she looked down at her unopened bottle.

“You’re so weird, Lincoln.” She laughed and took a drink finally.

“You’re weirder, weirdo.” He replied but took the sting out of it with a kiss. “You sure about that shower?”

“I was...” She started but he pulled her down for a kiss that stole her plans away.

She laughed as he pulled her over his body, until she sank down onto him and their eyes locked together, warm brown against ice blue. Oh my, she thought, lost in his eyes.

“I like your weird, Chloe.” He whispered, and she tilted her head with a smile of her own.

“I like yours too.” She mimicked him with a smirk that matched his.

“Good. We’re getting somewhere.” His hands clamped around her tight ass and rocked her against the very hard proof of how much he wanted her.

“Again, so soon?”

“Oh yes. I have a feeling I’ll be walking around like this for a long time.” He laughed ruefully, shaking his head. “You’ve got me all fucked up, Chlo.”

“Hmm. Good.” She answered impishly, delighted with her effect on him.

By the time they made it to the shower an hour later, she knew a lot more about sex, about pleasure, and what Lincoln Young had to offer. He showed her again in the shower, their faces drowning in water that sprayed over them, but neither cared. It wasn’t a time to worry about being able to breathe. It was about pleasure and forgetting the waves of fire and roiling smoke they’d both seen in the sky above what used to be Chloe’s home.

Tomorrow would come soon enough, and with it the cold dawn that wouldn’t let her escape her new reality. For now, there was only Lincoln and Chloe and that was the way it had to be.

6

Present Day

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Roxie stared at the ashes of what had once been a thriving business called Elmo’s and tried not to let memories intrude into the present. So many years had passed since that last fire, since the world as she’d known it ended. Out of those long-cold ashes, a new girl had come alive, one with a different name, one with different hopes and dreams. What would she become now, she wondered? Who would she be this time, when the ashes blew away and the remains of incinerated timbers and steel beams were taken away to a landfill?

A memory tugged at her mind, that night so long ago, that last fire, something she hadn’t thought about in a long time. A memory of a light-filled room and the sound of two young girls, giggling with delight as they practiced steps that weren’t so complicated, not after a year of practice. That was when her name was Chloe, Lolly to some. When she was innocent and waiting for the life her mommy said was her due as an Abshire.

Roxie looked down at the note in her hand, decades-old words scrawled across a page of notebook paper. On the table in her kitchen was the lip balm Liam had bought for her, as sweet and innocent as her memories of him, even after ten years. That’s probably the last trace of her old self in that case, she thought with tired eyes. She brushed hair out of her face, her hands still besmirched with the soot and ashes from what used to be Elmo’s after her visit to see what was left of the place earlier that morning.

Her gaze went back to the note. Promises of kisses in the dark, on midnight streets, and things that never happened because she left Lincoln the next day. She left Liam as well and never looked back. She couldn’t, her life was in danger back then and still was now, if anyone ever found out who she really was.

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up when she saw a WhatsApp message from her best friend, Emily.

Hey, Chanel have brought out their new line and I’m having someone bring it over to see what I want. See you at my mom’s in an hour?