The dancers are in two even rows, doing the same exact dance in perfect sync with each other. I stop at the end of the row and turn to look at all of them. I pretend to mock them and bend over silently laughing, making the crowd laugh. I shake my head, and pull one of the female dancers away from her male lead and twist her around and shake my head.

  I snap my fingers, and they make the lights flash like lightning with the sound of thunder. I grab the sides of her dress, and as I pull down, they create a loud sound effect of cloth being torn and the huge skirt of her dress comes away in my hand, leaving her standing in front of me in a beautiful modern gown. The crowd erupts in applause again.

  I toss the skirt across the stage and grab her hip and shoulder and start dancing with her in a more modern slow waltz. Then I stop and shake my head. I snap my fingers again, making it thunder and lightning. I tap my foot several times and wiggle my hips, making the audience laugh. The music changes to a modern medium tempo song, and I dance with the woman again. The audience applauds and cheers in approval, so I spin her around back into the arms of her male lead, motioning with my hand for him to mimic me, and they start dancing.

  I quickly run through the dancers, ripping skirts off of all of the women and snapping my fingers, making them instantly change their dance. When all of them are dancing, I approach Jaime and kneel in front of her again. She stands, lifts me by the chin, and kisses me. Its quick and soft, but it makes me smile. I feign being blown away by the kiss, and stumble backwards. I control the fall, but just before I land on my back, two ribbon dancers fall out of the sky and catch me, making the audience gasp in awe again.

  I’m draped in a gold ribbon, and the dancers twist and twirl up their own ribbons as mine is pulled up into the air with me appearing to be unconscious.

  When we reach the catwalk, the crew helps me out of the ribbon and immediately start helping me into a tuxedo and shoes. I lose my awesome claw gauntlets, but my faux fur cape is placed back over my tux.

  They help me step into the ribbon, secure a harness on me, and then the two golden wingless fairies get in position to dance again as I make my decent back to the stage. I whisper, “You two look amazing,” and the male and female dancers smile at me and whisper, “thank you”. The makeup and costumes really are incredible – like something I’d expect to see on Broadway or in a movie.

  While my ribbon is slowly lowered, with me just standing in it like it’s my own personal elevator, the two fairies twist and twirl, unwinding from their ribbons with some really cool tricks. The audience goes nuts with cheers and applause.

  As soon as I step onto the stage, I quickly release the harness and bow to Jaime. She offers me her hand, which I kiss, and then immediately pull her into a dance. We dance in and out of the other dancers, covering the entire stage. I do several spinning lifts, which the audience loves, and then we make our way back to her throne with her arm looped through mine.

  I stop several feet in front of the throne, look back at the audience with a grin, and snap my fingers, making it lightning and thunder. Sparks around the throne start shooting off, as if the throne is burning, and its lowered under the stage. I snap my fingers again and a new two-seater throne appears on the platform. It’s a really gorgeous piece of furniture with silver and gold twisting vines scattered with fairies and wolves incorporated throughout. The seat and back cushions are black velvet, which makes the details in the weaving vines really pop. I walk Jaime forward and we take a seat on the throne.

  The audience claps and cheers and Jaime and I look at each other with a grin and then snap our fingers at the same time. A dozen ribbon dancers drop from the ceiling on either side of our throne with simple two-seater cushioned benches being lowered in front of them. The dancers’ makeup and costumes have been done so they look like they are half wolf and half fairy – without wings. The benches are set to face the audience and then the ribbon dancers twist and twirl up their ribbons. Jaime and I snap our fingers again and the ballroom dancers stop and come take a seat on either side of us. We call the wolf fairies again and half of them drop and dance around the stage in a flighty lyrical dance, while the other half stay on the ribbons, doing really amazing tricks.

  After a few minutes. Jaime and I stand, making the wolf fairies bow and retreat up their ribbons, disappearing into the ceiling again. The other dance couples also stand. With Jaime’s arm looped through mine, we step off of the platform and walk towards the audience.

  An unseen announcer presents us to the crowd as, “Kayla Johann, The Dancing Wolf, and Jaime Monroe, The Goddess!” We walk to the front of the stage, and as we stop, the square we’re standing on rises a few feet, making the audience go wild again. When we stop, I look around and smile really big. I can see my wives, family, and dance squad. All of them are smiling really big, cheering, and clapping. My wives and mom have tears in their eyes and look so proud. Little Bella and her mother look really nice and look like they’re having the time of their lives.

  The announcer introduces each dance couple as they take their places on their own raising platforms. After each couple has been introduced, our platforms lower, and Jaime and I lead the dancers off the stage.

  When we get backstage, the crew and all of the dancers erupt in excitement. Everyone gushes over the wolf fairies and Jaime and I, even though several of them had given us attitude before. I’m sure the friendliness won’t last after this moment for most of them, but I’ll take it, even if it’s only for a moment.

  We don’t get to celebrate for too long before we have to get ready for the actual competition now. Jaime and I will be last to perform, and each dance can be no more than four minutes, so we have an hour for our artists to transform us for the next piece, while the others have only several minutes to get changed for their individual performances.

  Tonight’s dance has to be inspired by the tango, which is a very sexy dance. I’m dressed in black plants that are pretty form fitting from my hips to my knees, a white sleeveless tuxedo style white shirt that has three columns of black buttons, that I’m wearing open to the center of my breasts. My hair is staying in the amazing design my designers did for the opening performance, but they’ve lessened the intensity of my makeup. Jaime is dressed in a form fitting glimmering gold dress with red flames climbing up her skirt with her hair pulled up in an intricate bun. Most of her makeup is left the same, except the gold on her arms and legs is removed so it won’t rub off onto my clothes with the tricks we’re doing.

  When we take the stage, the audience bursts in loud excited cheers, but quiets down as the lights dim to just a bright spotlight above us. Jaime and I are standing close, with our cheeks pressed together, her left hand in my right at our shoulders, and I have a hand on her lower back, while her other hand is pressed to my other cheek.

  The music starts and we start to step and move together, twisting our legs and shoulders at just the right moments in beat to the music. Every couple steps and twists, I pull her in close, dipping my face into her neck as she slightly tilts her head back, or just hover my lips above hers, but don’t actually kiss her. While we dance, we accentuate the passion and heat that the tango is supposed to have. It’s exhilarating and addictive. With each step we take, and each breath of hers on my skin, I feel my confidence growing.

  I twist her out to the side, pull her in quickly, swiftly jerking her arm up, and she fluidly leaves the floor and rolls up across my back and down my other outstretched arm. The audience goes crazy, and before they can stop, I make them erupt again. As soon as Jaime lands on her feet next to me, I take her hand and wrap my left arm around her back, while walking backwards, twisting our feet together in a fast, intricate pattern. Suddenly, Jaime locks her arm, and I use it as leverage, while holding her back, to lift her a couple feet and she does a couple split kicks in the air, before I set her down.

  Pulling her in close, we play up the passion as I bend into her neck, and she digs her fingers into my shoulders. I quickly wrap my arms around her, bend forward, making her legs slide between mine, so she looks like she’s laying down. Then I quickly pull up, flip her onto her stomach facing the stage, and pull her up to my chest. I roll her up behind my shoulders, and as she falls forward, she wraps an arm behind my neck, I catch her by her ribs, and thigh, bringing it to my hip. She looks like she’s flying in front of me like a fiery angel. I spin around once and then pull her up to stand and we dance close together again.

  We finish the dance with her doing some falling splits. She first drops into a spilt facing me, then I quickly pull her up before she even fully touches the stage. I twist her, and she drops again facing the audience, and then I lift and spin her to face me again. I then twist and dip her a few times, pulling her in close and barely touching my lips to hers each time. We do one final intricate pattern with our feet and hips, twist our shoulders sharply, and then I firmly pull her flat against me, holding her thigh against my hip and our lips are almost touching.

  The audience goes wild and the lights come on a bit more so we can see the audience for the first time. I give her a tight hug and then we wave to the audience, before we have to take a seat with the other dancers that have already performed. We take our seat on our throne from the opening performance next to the others on a side stage.

  The commentator takes the main stage and starts fluffing up the crowd, getting them really worked up and excited for their favorite dancers, telling them it’s time to vote. They give some recap highlights from each dance on the huge screens above the stages, and the pieces we see are really good. He then talks to the viewers at home, telling them all of their options on how to vote for their favorite couple.

  The winners and losers are determined by a combination of a popularity vote from the viewers and a score from a panel of professional judges. The viewers’ votes have a higher weight than the judges, but if the viewers pick the judges least favorite couple, the couple has to perform again.

  I cling to Jaime’s hand while we watch the giant screens with the tallies counting up America’s favorite dancers. So far, we’re in the lead, but the voting is open for the next five minutes.

  Jaime leans over and whispers in my ear, “You were amazing tonight. You made me feel like I was weightless.” I smile really big and lean into her more. “Thanks. It felt amazing. You were so perfect in your execution of everything and you looked crazy beautiful.” She smiles really big and squeezes my hand. “Thank you. I had a lot of fun with you tonight.”

  “It was definitely a huge rush.”

  The voting ends and I have to resist the urge to shoot up off of the throne. We won the popular vote, by a lot! The commentator talks for a little bit, explaining the computers are factoring in the judges scores. A woman in a beautiful gown comes out and hands him an envelope and he fluffs up the audience again, increasing the anticipation.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, they wowed us with a passionate tango. They made our hearts nearly stop as they defied gravity. They made us feel the heat of their passion as they moved like lovers on this stage. I give you tonight’s winners, the young and beautiful modern day beauty and the beast. Jaime, the Goddess, and Kayla, the Dancing Wolf!”

  We jump off of our throne and I pick Jaime up, squeezing her tightly as I spin her around. The audience is so loud in their happy cheers and applause that we can’t even hear each other laughing, I can just feel her breath of my neck. This victory feels so amazing. After a couple minutes, the commentator gets control of the audience again and we sit down. Jaime’s arm looped through mine, and we entwine our fingers together, holding both of each other’s hands.

  All of the dancers here are extremely talented, but this is a competition, so someone has to go home. We watch as two couples are eliminated, and I can’t help but feel good about one of them because they were pretty rude to us during rehearsals for the opening performance. The other couple was very nice and closest in age to us, with the woman being only seven years older than me. I’m the youngest lead in this competition by ten years and Jaime is the youngest woman by four years.

  I’m also the only dancer in the competition who hasn’t had extensive professional training. Everyone in this competition has been taking dance since they were children, went to dance colleges, and all of them compete professionally. There are three couples who are internationally accomplished in the ballroom dance competition world.

  We have to talk to the press, take more pictures, and then we’re able to get changed back into our original clothes we came in. As we walk back into the banquet room we left our group in, we’re greeted by applause and cheers. Jaime and I leap for my wives and we hold each other close for a couple moments. I kiss all of them on the lips and cheeks before we pull back. They just can’t stop smiling and they have tears brimming in their eyes.

  My wives, family, and the dance squad just go off in a fast bursting of excitement, telling us how impressed they were and how good our performance was in the opening and our tango. Even Bella and her mom, Karen, toss out comments about how good it was.

  I’m really glad Bella was able to stay and have this experience. She is positively glowing. Her sickly pallor she had before, seems to have diminished with new life filling her cheeks.

  Everyone seems to have a burst of extra life in them tonight. It’s really intoxicating to be around.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Oh, baby, that feels so good. Right there. Yeah, that’s the spot.” Shannon giggles and bends down to kiss my cheek. “Your back has gotten so strong in the past few months. I love seeing and feeling the long muscles along your spine and in your shoulders.”

  I smile and turn my head some, puckering my lips. Shannon bends down and kisses my lips and gives me a gentle nibble before sitting back up on my ass to keep massaging my back. Her hands feel amazing.

  “You should let me give you a massage next.”

  “You already gave me one, sweetie.”

  “I know, but this feels so good that I think you deserve another one.”

  “Maybe later. I’m getting hungry. Do you want me to cook something soon?”

  “No, I want to take my wife out to lunch.” Shannon lays down on me, resting her head against mine. “I love when you call me that.” I smile really big and kiss her cheek. “I love you, wife.” She giggles a little and nibbles my earlobe. “I love you too.”

  Shannon is the only one of my girls that in over a year she hasn’t been able to come away with me on her own when I’ve had to travel. After she stopped working at the hospital, the only times she was with me traveling is when all of our babies could also travel. Even though she doesn’t work at the hospital, she’s been needed at home to help run the business and help Madison and Sam while they’re in school.

  Our wives insisted that Shannon get her turn to be with me while I’m away from home working, so she has been with me since the premier night of the competition. This is our third week together, and it has been wonderful. I miss our other wives, but I’m loving every second I’m getting with Shannon.

  I didn’t think I’d be able to have any of them with me for the entire duration of the show, because the website sales have been so heavy. But my wives have been hiring our friends and some of Jaime’s teenage dance students to help fill merchandise orders. The sales have been extremely high since the weekend of our wedding when I was almost murdered, and each week that I perform in the competition, the sales spike higher for a couple days. We’re shipping merchandise all over the world. In less than seven months, the website has brought in over five million dollars. It’s amazing, but we really need to figure out a new way to handle filling the orders, because I don’t want my wives to be tied down by having to worry about filling boxes.

  We’ve been talking about renting a small office space and hiring staff to manage the orders. We’re going to continue managing it the way we are for now, but we want to have something better in place next year.

  “Are you ready to go eat, baby?” Shannon stops rubbing my shoulders and kisses my cheek. “Yes, I’m very hungry.”

  She climbs off of my back and I sit up and stretch, arching my arms and back over the back of the couch.

  “Kayla, put a damn shirt on.”

  I yawn and look to the side, resting my back and pulling my arms down to cover my bare chest. Sara and the rest of the squad just got home from shopping. Shannon hands me my tee shirt and I quickly slip it back on. Symone walks behind me with a grin and bends down to kiss my cheek.

  “Having a wild afternoon?” I laugh a little and shake my head. “No, just back massages. We’re going to get lunch now.”

  “Not even going to invite us?”

  “Not this time. I’m going on a date with my sexy wife.”

  Symone smiles as she glances at Shannon, who is standing a couple feet in front of me in a cute bright blue romper with a strap behind the neck and has little white birds on it.

  “She is looking very datable right now.” I smile really big and Shannon smiles with blushing cheeks. “I know. She’s hot.” I stand up and take Shannon’s hand to walk back to the bedroom. “Ok, I need to change into something that is half worthy of being with this gorgeous woman.”

  I change into a pair of nice straight leg dark blue jeans, a form fitting light gray short sleeve Henley shirt, and black leather casual shoes. Shannon smiles and gives me a nice kiss.

  “Your style in clothes has changed a lot this year. I loved your style before, but you always look really nice and sophisticated now. I love when you dress down though. You make a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt look really good.”

  “I have four gorgeous wives. I can’t look like a slob in public anymore.” She laughs with a brilliant smile and kisses my lips. “You never dressed like a slob when we went out. So, where are you taking me, sweetie?”

  “I was thinking about Del Frisco’s Grille in Santa Monica. It has a really nice atmosphere and the menu has a good variety. We’ve been there a few times and the service was always really good. Its located pretty close to the beach and has indoor and outdoor seating.”