Circus Excite by Nikki Magennis Page B

she felt suddenly as though she were under the same powerful scrutiny. His easy confidence both unsettled and aroused her, and she felt his question creep under her skin. With a shiver, she was reminded that under Joe’s shirt she wore only the thin white wrapper. She felt as vulnerable as if she were sitting naked under Robert’s eyes.
    â€˜Getting it wrong?’ she asked hopelessly. ‘I’m scared of missing my cue, and fucking up the whole show, I suppose.’
    â€˜Julia, without being cruel, one nameless dancer dropping a glass will not fuck up the whole show.’ The comment stung. ‘What will, however, let the show down, is if one of our performers is up onstage going through the motions. I couldn’t care less if the whole set came crashing down around you.’ He paused. ‘This circus is about arousal, Julia. About getting horny. What I want from you is a mind-fuck. You can’t just wriggle your ass and turn me on.’ Julia felt the white-hot shock of his words, so intimate and direct. Was he still talking about the show? Was he bluntly telling her he didn’t want to fuck her? Robert seemed to read her mind:
    â€˜What you fear is often the source of your most powerful sexuality. What makes you angry, what disgusts you, even. What were you thinking of, this afternoon? What is it you really desire?’
    Julia hesitated, her mind racing. How should she react to this? She didn’t know if Robert was offering a challenge or asking a rhetorical question. As she sipped ather wine, playing for time, she remembered the photo of Josephine Baker, curling over on her back with an expression of tense joyous sensuality. The image of a woman so explosively sexual, so dynamic and vibrant, was what had driven her through dance school.
    â€˜I want to blow everyone away,’ she heard herself blurt out.
    Robert remained silent, waiting, it seemed, for Julia to elaborate. When she stayed silent, feeling embarrassed, he spoke in a voice so soft Julia wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.
    â€˜Take off the shirt, Julia.’
    She felt a thrill of uncertainty run through her, and her stomach flipped with shock. A delicious buzz of warmth started between her legs as she raised her eyes to Robert’s, questioningly.
    â€˜Take it off.’ He nodded at her, locking his eyes on hers.
    As if mesmerised, Julia reached for the top button of the shirt and worked it loose. She held Robert’s gaze as she undid the buttons, feeling as though she were stripping for a teacher. Something told her it was wonderfully, dangerously wrong to be undressing for Robert alone. He sat relaxed in his chair, impassive, as he had during her audition. Julia pulled the shirt off and sat in her revealing wrap, now crumpled and ridden up. She had wiped off the panstick with cold cream, but traces of it remained in the folds of her skin, white rims of paint rubbed into her fingernails and between her toes. She knew that under the short fringe of the wrap, her pussy was still brushed with make-up, and she thought of her painted clit with a frisson of desire as she wondered what Robert would ask of her next.
    â€˜Close your eyes.’
    Julia complied, giving in to the irresistible feeling of being under Robert’s control.
    Robert stood up, placed his glass on the table and disappeared through the curtain that separated his bedroom from the living area. Julia felt disorientated, able to hear his footsteps but unable to see what he was doing. She waited, feeling her breath start to quicken and the tightly wound fabric of the wrap crush her breasts with every inhalation. The friction against her nipples was fantastic, and she felt them stiffen with pleasure, hoping Robert was getting a good look at her as she sat nearly panting on his couch. As she heard Robert re-enter the room and move around, she pressed her thighs together as tightly as she could, feeling her muscles clench against her