by Sarah Thorn
Then a man came up behind her.
“May I have this dance?” He asked.
Liana curtsied slightly, a tacit yes. He took the lead, knowing how to move, but more importantly how to make her move. Liana felt beautiful like she was a character from a poem come to life. His hands felt strong and steady. She looked at him. His face was almost entirely covered by his mask. It would be hard for anybody to recognize him. But Liana did not need her eyes to tell her who it was. She felt it. His confidence and warmth could penetrate any disguise.
“And who are you pretending to be?” asked Liana with a coy grin.
“Someone who notices you,” he said.
Everything seemed perfect. He always knew what to say and how to carry himself. He seemed to glide across the floor with her, making her feel weightless. Their bodies seemed in sync.
“Aren’t you worried about someone seeing you, seeing us, you could get fired,” said Liana.
“Yes...aren’t you worried about your boyfriend seeing you.” said Lance.
“Yes…” but they continued to dance anyway.
“How do you feel right now, Liana?” Asked Lance.
“Scared, excited, happy,” said Liana.
“That is how you should always feel,” replied Lance.
Liana nodded in agreement. She tried to let go of her fears. But she felt like everyone was watching them. There were only a few dozen couples dancing. Liana felt sure that Jamal would see her with another man. He would figure out that Lance is who she has been thinking about all this time.
“Liana, live in this moment, for it can last forever if you let it,” said Lance.
Really? yes, it can. This is what I have wanted. Liana let go of her anxiety, and for that moment, she was eternally happy.
“No matter what happens, we will always have this dance, this final dance,” said Lance.
Yes, one dance, that is all we need. Liana felt peace like a river wash over her. Suddenly, snow began to fall from the ceiling. It was fake but set the mood nonetheless. The music swelled, it was nearing the crescendo.
“Don’t let this moment slip by,” said Lance.
Liana closed her eyes, focusing on herself, how she felt, and then on the environment around her. She focused on the feeling of the floor on her feet, the heels she was wearing and the orchestra playing the background. She could hear individual instruments and feel the sound entering her ears and filling her being. Liana opened her eyes. She saw blue. Lance gazed right back at her. He saw green. They danced in that moment and were lost in a beautiful eternity. Time slowed down for Liana. She breathed deeply and savored the smell of Lance. It made her feel safe. The music began to grow softer; it was nearing the end. Liana began to think again, instead of feel, and time sped up. The music stopped.
“That is all for tonight,” said Lance, and as quick as he showed up, he was gone.
Liana stood speechless.
“Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you,” said Jamal.
“Oh...hey...ya sorry I couldn’t find you either,” said Liana.
“I was standing in the same place, waiting for you.”
“Well this is a large venue, I tried to find you, but I guess I got lost, I’m sorry.”
“You have just been acting so strange lately. And who was that guy you were dancing with?” Asked Jamal.
“What are you talking about,” said Liana.
“Nevermind, I need to get out of here. I need some fresh air,” said Jamal as he turned to leave the dance.
Liana followed him. Now she felt the weight of her day to day problems. She hated it and wanted to return to Lance. He never brought problems into her life, only joy and peace and happiness. They went outside to the parking lot.
“You know what Liana, you have never really showed much affection to me, and I get it, that is just your personality. But this past week, it has just been a different ballgame. You don’t even give me the time of day,” said Jamal in anger.
“Jamal, I have a lot going on, you can’t expect to always be in the center of my world,” replied Liana.
“See, that’s just it. I am never the center of your world; I am just a convenience to you. You know what? I am tired of doing everything I can to understand you and treat you right. I’m tired of the games and putting myself out there and getting nothing in return. I’m going home, said Jamal.
Liana just stood there, as Jamal got into his car and left. She turned and looked back at the dance. There were couples outside, holding each other, laughing and seeming to love each other. Why can’t I find that? Why do I turn guys away? Lana sat down on the curb and began sobbing. It was supposed to be a special night. Christmas had always meant so much to her. Now she was alone, with nobody to console her. Lance is just a fantasy. He would never truly love me. He probably thinks I’m just a stupid girl. I’m sure he gets hit on by tons of young girls. Who am I that he should care. She remembered their dance, but it felt as if a dream. How could that be real? Did that really happen? She wondered what kind of guy Lance really was if he could be trusted. Her thoughts made her sadder, and she continued to weep. A light snow began to fall, and she was very cold.
Chapter 8
Lance got in his car to drive home. He had taken a huge risk to dance with Liana. Driving home, he felt something. There was a look in her eye that he couldn’t shake. Innocence. Lance took a deep breath. He couldn’t turn around and go talk to her. This was forbidden. He should never have come. But I must return. Lance would lose his job immediately and get his teaching license revoked. It isn’t worth it, just a fantasy, nothing more. There have been countless girls in the past he has liked and have liked him back. And there would be countless more. Why should Liana be any different? But she was. He knew it to be true. Lance turned around.
He had just got done telling Liana that she should always feel alive, on the edge, excited and dangerous. Now he would live out those words. He sped up, his heart rate rising. Lance felt alive now. Lance was Don Quixote rescuing Dulcinea, or Romeo about to meet Juliet, knowing that their love was forbidden. Lance knew the cost. He knew that Pyramus and Thisbe died, that Romeo and Juliet committed suicide. He knew that forbidden love often ended with tragedy, but that was made it beautiful, and why the poets and muses sing of it. Lance had lived his life according to the rules, and it was good. But now Lance was no longer satisfied with good. He wanted a beautiful, dangerous love. He wanted Liana.
Now his heart was soaring, as he imagined the scene that was about to take place. Forbidden love didn’t have to be forbidden for long. There was a way for them to be together, and he would make it happen. His car continued. He turned the last corner and there she was, alone in the cold without a coat.
Chapter 9
Liana’s spirits were now completely downcast, and any hint of forlorn hope seemed to slip away. She was nearly out of tears. The cold set it, and she began to shiver. She looked around. The ground was beginning to cover up with snow. A few people were still entering the dance; it had not ended yet. She didn’t feel like going back, though. There was nothing for her there but pain and sorrow.
Suddenly, a large truck pulled up right beside her. She looked up. The door opened, and a well built handsome man stepped out.
“Lance!” said Liana surprised.
“Liana”
“You came back for me. I didn’t think you really cared. I thought that…”
Lance put a finger to Liana’s mouth. “Liana, you are young, and there are a lot of things about life that you do not know. I have noticed that you love the romantics; you love Romeo and Juliet, Guinevere and Lancelot, and other of the great love stories. I think that is wonderful, attractive, and really admire that in you. But what you must understand, is that at my age, I have lived long enough to see how precious they are. Those stories remind us of the power we have to feel. Liana, if we live our lives by the rules, and we do what others tell us, and try to do what we think is right, we will never feel. I want to feel agai
n. Ever since I laid eyes on you, I have felt deeply. You have stirred within me something new, something I never even realized existed. I don’t care how old you are, or our backgrounds. I just care if you feel the same way. When we danced in there earlier, we floated, like a prince and a princess, as if we were animated from the pen strokes of Lord Byron himself. I say that we live out what we believe, and we follow our hearts. What say you?”
“Oh Lance, you have no idea how often this past week I have dreamed of something like this. Every love story I have ever read is fulfilled in you, Lance. You captured my heart when I first saw you. You spoke not just to my mind or my body, but to my spirit. I feel that kindred connection that you speak of. Lance, you speak like a poet, articulate and deft of tongue. I could listen to you hours on end. Your voice is like a balm to my ears. I do love you, Lance, with all my heart,” said Liana, with tears of joy streaming down her face.
“Then take my hand, my dear. Let us walk arm and arm into the party together. Let dance there without our masks on for everyone to see. We need not be ashamed of our love,” said Lance.
“But if they see us together, you will lose your job,” said Liana.
“Probably, if that happened, if I lost my job, then our love wouldn’t be forbidden, would it?”
Liana understood. He really cared for her, and would sacrifice his career for her. They walked in together, arm in arm. Liana’s favorite Christmas song was playing, and her and Lance slow danced in the middle of the dance floor. Neither of them had their masks on, and neither of them cared. They could not keep pretending to be other people and live the lives others expected of them. This is what they wanted.
The other teachers took notice and began talking to one another and notified the principal. The teachers and the principal stopped dancing and gathered to the side. Now the only people dancing were Liana and Lance and a few other students. Eventually, the students saw what was happening, and it was just Liana and Lance.
“Do you see what is going on around us?” asked Liana.
“Of course,” replied Lance.
The snow continued to fall on them, and the music continued to play. The ground was now white with only Liana’s red dress flowing across it.
“Everybody is looking at us,” said Liana.
“No, they are looking at you,” said Lance. “You have no idea how beautiful you look right now.”
“This dance can last forever, right?” asked Liana.
“Of course it can, because every Christmas we are going to dance, from now until forever,” said Lance.
“You promise?” asked Liana.
“Promise”
Lance kept his promise. They did dance every Christmas, and do to this day. Lance lost his job of course, but with Liana by his side, he took up freelance work doing stuff he really enjoyed. Being the couple that they were, with such a vast age difference, and racial difference, they could never blend in. But that is how they wanted it. They never wanted to return to being normal again. For it was only in following their hearts that they found each other, and with each other found happiness.
*****
THE END
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Here is a FREE bonus 10.000 word romance story by Blue Sky Books, “Mr. Learner”
Mr. Learner – An Older Man, Younger Woman College Romance
“Alright, who wants to discuss the significance of Hamlet’s soliloquy in Hamlet?”
Swallowing thickly, Alice tried her best to pay attention to the man standing at the front of the classroom. A part of her wanted desperately to look anywhere else, but of course, a good student would pay attention. Under normal circumstances, she would have raised her hand almost immediately. She knew Hamlet back and forth – as well she should as a graduate student of British Literature.
But just now, she didn’t dare.
Raising her hand would mean having to speak directly to her Professor, which for Alice, was impossible.
She didn’t think she’d be able to talk to Thomas Learner again for a long time.
What the young woman could do, however, was look. And she certainly looked her fill.
When Thomas Learner had joined the staff at Saber College, none of its female students had been able to believe their luck. Almost none of the faculty members were younger than fifty; but at only thirty-two, Learner was only a few years older than they themselves.
He was a British Import, hailing from North Eastern London – and quite possible the most gorgeous thing in the entire cosmos. Close to six and a half feet tall, the statuesque man looked more like a basketball player than an intellectual. His dark brown hair hung haphazardly around his face and it, along with the constant five o’clock shadow he sported, gave him a more relaxed appearance than most of the university’s other professors. A strong jaw, high cheekbones and intense blue eyes that could see right through any excuse his students had were enough to render the female ones breathless
And watching the way the muscles of his broad shoulders contracted beneath his crisp shirt when he wrote on the board called more attention than many of his lectures.
Alice, for her part, had always loved British Literature. She’d been hooked on Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen almost since she’d learned how to read, and she’d been a talented writer since her early teens.
But nothing could have prepared her for the first time her Professor read aloud from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It had been sometime during the first two weeks of class, and Learner had chosen an excerpt to demonstrate Shakespeare’s particular style.
The way his low, British lilt had all but caressed the syllables made Alice’s knees so weak she was glad that she was sitting down. Her heart had stumbled in her chest and, to her utter embarrassment, she grew instantly damp between the legs.
In all her twenty-six years, Alice had never encountered a man who could make her wet purely with the way he sounded. It was both exhilarating and frightening at once.
She carried her torch for Professor Learner in silence until, one day, he pulled her aside after class to discuss a paper she’d written. Alice was terrified that he would ask her to write it over. While she wrote she’d been able to think of little more than what she’d rather be doing to her professor instead of her homework. Instead, however, Professor Learner had praised her paper, and invited her to dinner to talk about her writing technique.
It was the beginning of what the young woman tried to tell herself was a platonic relationship. Not once – at least in the beginning – had Learner put his hands on her. They had lunch once, maybe twice a week, and discussed how he could better help his students with their papers. Of course, while the breathtaking man had spoken to her about syllabi and grading curves, Alice memorized the scent of his cologne – the way his dimples made themselves known when he smiled, and the way he liked his burger cooked.
She relished every moment she spent with him – and, one day, her indulgence got the better of her. After one of his classes, the young woman sat next to his desk, reading through her most recent paper. After a night of little sleep, she found herself nodding off – right into Learner’s lap.
Where she discovered his hard-on.
Her professor acted dreadfully embarrassed, apologizing profusely for the two minutes it had taken for Alice to seize her opportunity.
Very shortly, she discovered that the man who spoke to her of poetry and metaphors had secretly been just as hungry for her as she was for him. The experience culminated with Thomas locking the door of the lecture hall and taking her right there on the desk. As gentle and mild-mannered as he appeared, the man had done nothing less that screw her silly – pound her hips against his desk until they bruised
and made her come so many times it was hard for her to see straight.
Even now, as she watched that divine, full mouth of his form the syllables of his lecture, she remembered how divine they’d felt kissing and biting at her nipples, sucking at her neck as long, slender fingers clutched almost desperately at the creamy white skin of her thighs.
She had never known sex could be like…that.
And yet…it had been a mistake.
The thought made her bite down on her lower lip as her gaze darkened. Who the hell slept with their professor? It was like a clichéd porno plot, complete with the naïve girl who all but jumps onto her lover’s cock. Alice had every intention of actually getting her master’s degree, and how was she supposed to do that when the man who played the biggest part in her education wasn’t able to see her objectively?
Once their lust for one another had cooled and they came back to their senses, she and Learner had agreed never to speak of what happened between them again. They would go on as if nothing had changed – that would be the best policy.
Yet, here Alice was, three weeks later, still throbbing between the legs every time the man so much as looked at her. She could avoid him all she wanted, but nothing could burn the memories of how he’d made her feel from her mind.
**
He missed her.
So much so that he almost regretted what they were together – almost. Thomas didn’t know whether he could ever regret how right it felt to be inside Alice – how divine her body felt against him and how gorgeous her face looked in the throes of orgasm.
Despite all the physical chemistry, however, there was no chance of recapturing the way they’d been before they got their hands on each other. Alice was a brilliant student, and Thomas admired her drive both as a professor and as a man.