Page 65 of Heavenly Bodies
He pulled her to the large grassy clearing that acted as a dance floor in the centre of the room.
‘Now, you’re going to smile and look at me adoringly as we dance.’ In the dim shimmering ballroom, Enzo took Elara’s hands in his, an arrogant smile on his lips.
‘You have to be joking.’ She cast him a frown. ‘We have to find Sofia.’
Enzo mastered an easy smile as he pulled her in closer. ‘We have to blend in. To act like guests. If we begin sneaking around the moment we enter the ball, we’ll be caught.’
A familiar tune started to pick up from the band hidden between the trees. The Celestian Waltz. Elara remembered her mother sweeping her around the room to its gentle rhythmic sway, her father then taking over and Elara watching as her parents drifted in each other’s arms. She forced her rising panic down. Enzo was right.
‘Stars above,’ she muttered, her heart still hammering, as she held him more tightly.
‘Scared?’ he taunted, his hand still around hers.
She placed it hard on her waist as she determinedly pressed her other hand to his shoulder.
‘Hardly.’ With one more breath, her worries were locked into her box, and she flashed a winning smile as they began to spin. His grip on her waist tightened a fraction and a wave of heat overpowered her. His arrogant smile faltered, that cool composure slipping, before returningso quickly, she wondered if she’d imagined it. Before she could ponder it for too long, she was dipped towards the floor by Enzo.
Elara had always loved dancing, and she had always been good at it. But this felt…different.
‘Now this is the part where you laugh delicately and tell me you’ve never danced with such a handsome, charismatic man.’ He lifted her effortlessly by her waist then dropped her back down, not missing a beat as they continued to spin. They rose and fell, lost in their own world underneath the twilight and the stars.
‘Then,’ he said, ‘you add that you can just tell by how I dance that I’m aravishinglover.’
Elara scoffed. ‘You’re an average dancer,’ she lied. ‘So what does that say of your skills in the bedroom?’
A gleam came into Enzo’s eyes as they both clapped twice, before joining hands again.
His mouth came to her ear. ‘You lie so prettily,’ he murmured, brushing her ear with his lips. ‘Though I’d be more than happy to show you my talents, princess.’
Elara’s eyes fluttered shut, if only for a moment.
Whatever Enzo was doing, it was working, distracting her from the thought of just how wrong her plan could go.
As the flute joined in, so came the next part of the waltz. Twirled and passed between partners, palms outstretched, Elara weaved through the masked men, her neck craning to find Enzo, smiling as she saw his eyes still locked on her even as he spun with other women. Her hand brushed a stranger’s, and she stopped herself, only just, from sucking in a breath.
A Star’s charm was coating her, the bare contact of a god’s skin on hers, electric. The charm felt like storm clouds and solving puzzles; smelled like rain and cedar. Her stomach turned as she pretended to peer up shyly behind her mask, anabashed courtier overwhelmed by a Star’s presence. The pale, dark-haired god glanced down at her, his cunning coal eyes fixed on Elara as he tilted his head, intrigued. Elara took in any detail she could. A black pinstriped suit, the shirt beneath unbuttoned low to show a row of silver necklaces. One with a key hung between his collarbones, another with a blade on it hung low by his sternum. She folded away the details, nodding her head demurely as his brow furrowed. Then before she knew it, Elara was whisked back into the dance.
She made her way back to Enzo as the music picked up pace, the orchestra a frenzy of violins, flutes and cymbals.
Enzo grabbed her with ferocity as she reached him, hunger in his movements dominating her as he pulled her flush to him, leading them to the demanding beat.
‘Eli certainly seemed to like the look of you,’ Enzo murmured, picking up his pace as the music became deafening.
‘Holy shit, that was Eli? One of the twins?’
‘The very same,’ Enzo replied, his head whipping to where the Star was now dancing with a ravishing redhead, though his eyes were still pinned upon Elara.
Enzo smoothly moved her towards the edge of the ballroom and out of the Star’s sightline as she shivered.
The melody followed them, rising when Enzo lifted her, speeding when he spun her. She could feel a frisson in the air like the raw power he wielded between his hands, crackling with energy. Her heart raced as the signal for the final steps of the Celestian Waltz sang to her. His fire fed into her, and she shot him a smile. Matching it with one of his own, he lifted her arm, spinning her with vigour.One, two, three, four…
Then mustering all her focus, she took three strides back and darted, leaping into his outstretched arms. He pushed her up, his muscles corded behind his jacket as he stretchedher above him, holding her. Dizzy with euphoria, the world that surrounded Elara was left behind. She hung among the stars, envisioning plucking them with vengeance one by one, her body weightless. She barely noticed the other guests suspended around her. Then Enzo lowered her gently to the ground as the refrain stopped and they both snapped out of it, looking around the room.
Noise that had seemed distant was now loud and close—the crowd laughing and clapping as they dispersed, the music shifting into a new song. She blinked.
They made their way off the dance floor as Enzo led her to the shadowed wall nearby.
‘Perhaps it’s best we find other dancing partners now, mingle, and see what we can discover.’ His eyes were pensive as they searched the room. ‘Do you see Lukas anywhere?’