The Life of Anna, Part 3: Embraced by Marissa Honeycutt Page B

wouldn’t give me release. Then he tied me to his bed
and…he gave me a shot. My body felt like it was on fire.” She
looked at Travis with tears in her eyes. “Then Kaveh came and had
sex with me.”
    “Who’s Kaveh?”
    “An Immortal. Devin said he was…doing
something to me, but I don’t know what. He never told me what he
did to me.”
    “He had an Immortal have sex with you?
Why?”
    Anna shook her head. “I don’t know. He did it
at the Gathering too. When I was out of town. I had forgotten about
him fucking me.”
    “Devin’s such a fucking bastard. He probably
was just messing with your head.”
    “Maybe. But he seemed to be…I don’t know.
Expectant of something? Kaveh said ‘It is done’. But what was
done?”
    “I think with Devin, sometimes it’s better
just not to ask.”
    “Have you interacted with him much?”
    He shook his head. “No. But my dad has
obviously. He says it’s best if Devin just doesn’t know who you
are.”
    “Does he know who
you
are?”
    “Yeah, but to him I’m just ‘Brandon’s bastard
son’, which is fine with me.”
    “Well, you might have progressed to ‘Anna’s
dance partner.’”
    “Great.” He rolled his eyes, and then smiled
at her. “I suppose there are worse things to be.” He glanced at his
watch and stood. “We need to get ready. It’s going to be starting
soon.”
    “Travis?”
    “Yeah?”
    “This afternoon…did it make you
uncomfortable?”
    “Dancing with you while you seduced the
entire audience?” He chuckled.
    Anna winced and nodded. “I didn’t mean
to.”
    “It was one of the sexiest things I’ve ever
experienced. ’Course, if you do it again, I can’t guarantee I won’t
drag you back in here and fuck you against the wall.”
    The thought was appealing. “If you want.” It
might be a welcome distraction.
    *****
    After Travis left, Anna immersed herself in
the ritual of preparing for the performance. She pulled her hair
into a high ponytail and carefully tied the green chiffon ribbon
around the base. She took pains to arrange her costume as though
for a photo shoot, not a live performance. The gold sequined bikini
halter-top was low cut, tight enough that it stayed in place, yet
showed the cleavage of her solid C-cup breasts nicely. The low-hung
green chiffon pants—slits on the side, revealing green panties—were
gathered at the ankles with gold cuffs. A green velvet belt with
gold embroidery sat low on her hips, and the coins attached around
it tinkled when she walked.
    After she put her makeup on, she pinned a
golden circlet in her hair and went out to warm-up backstage. The
backstage was busy between acts and somewhat noisy. Aaron and Lucy
warmed up along the back wall. Anna saw Travis in the corner
talking with a couple of the dancers from the Waltz of the Flowers.
Travis gave a bright smile to one of the girls and she blushed.
Anna felt certain he didn’t sleep alone most nights. Being raised
in the Manor gave him a certain advantage over other men when it
came to flirting. He knew exactly how women ticked and how to get
them to do pretty much anything he wanted.
    Travis saw her and grinned. He said something
to the girls, and then walked over to greet her. “Damn, you look
sexy. Thank God for dance belts.”
    Anna smiled. Dance belts kept guys where they
needed to be and prevented injury while jumping halfway across the
stage. She noticed his costume was a bit higher on his hips than it
had been the last time they’d performed. Anna looked at him
curiously.
    “Preparing for arousal,” he whispered with a
grin. “Don’t want to be popping out to say hi in the middle of the
show. I think Isaak would be upset if the show turned R-rated.”
    Anna giggled and then shook her head. “Oh, I
shouldn’t be laughing,” she said with a pained expression and
sighed.

Chapter Sixteen
    The second act music began and the backstage
quieted. Anna and Travis did some pirouettes and lifts to get ready
and then moved into