The Twelve Hot Days of Christmas Read online

  The company was doing a darker piece based on the Nutcracker called Jack and the Jester King, about a young woman who receives a jack-in-the-box for Christmas. Upon discovering how lonely Jack is, she helps him return home to the Land of Harlequins. But the lecherous Jester King has his eye on her, and Jack has to fight for her hand.

  The Harper twins, being the only men in the company at the time, were cast in the roles of Jack and the Jester King, with Daniel playing the part of the hero. Lisa, who’d had a crush on Daniel since joining the youth side of the company five years before, was thrilled to be dancing the part of Clara. It was exciting to come to rehearsals night after night and be manhandled by one brother, then rescued by the other.

  Daniel, who had opted for an actual pair of tights tonight instead of sweats, pulled around one of the rolling chairs and sank into it, pressing the back against the dressing table so it wouldn’t roll. He patted both of his muscular thighs with his hands. For a moment, Lisa forgot everything else, as her gaze followed the path of the beautiful, snaking veins up his arms. He had dancer’s muscles, which meant his arms were larger and sexier than those of average slim guys, but they weren’t too big. His shoulders were nicely rounded in the tank top he wore for rehearsal.

  All of a sudden, Lisa felt extremely self-conscious.

  “Losing your nerve?” he asked. He cocked his head at her and grinned.

  She chuckled nervously and stepped to him, standing beside his chair and bending over his face. He looked up at her as she primly screwed the cap off of the white foundation. Daniel laughed and shook his head. “This isn’t going to work,” he said. “You’re going to have to sit on me.”

  “Sit on you?” she exclaimed, trying not to let her eyes stray to the bulge in his tights. Ballet tights were so snug, there was always a bulge. You could practically tell whether a dancer shaved his balls with little more than a glance.

  Daniel reached around and put his hand on her hip, guiding her against his leg. “Come on…be a good girl and hop on,” he said. For a moment, she just looked at him with wide eyes. Even though Daniel was the “good” twin, he had quickly turned the tables on her little flirtation.

  He waited patiently while she decided to do what he’d suggested, then let his arms fall to the side as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. As she put the red circles on his cheeks, she felt grateful he had decided not to watch her, because her face had warmed so much she felt feverish.

  Her friends, Paige and Sara, who had joined the professional side of the company when she had, would never let her live this down.

  “It’s funny that you’re saving me from your brother in this production,” she said when the circles were finished.

  “Oh, really?” he asked, keeping his eyes closed. “Why is that?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just think the parts fit you.”

  He chuckled. “What if I didn’t save you from him? What would you do then?”

  Lisa thought it was a strange question. “You have to save me from him,” she said. “It’s in the script.”

  “Scripts can be changed.” He wasn’t smiling anymore.

  Lisa furrowed her brow at him, wondering why he was teasing her like that. She swallowed, and shifted absently on him, accidentally pressing against his bulge. He gave a surprised groan. Lisa froze.

  “I’m sorry,” she said hurriedly. “Oh God—I didn’t mean to do that.” Mortified, she tried to stand. “I’d better start getting myself ready.”

  Daniel’s hands moved more quickly than she would have anticipated. He held her hips firmly in place. “Nooo…” he said, drawing out the vowel. “You started this. You have to finish it. Besides, it’s not like I minded.”

  He opened his eyes and smiled at her mischievously. She smiled back and began again to dab white paint on his forehead. This time, he watched her. She wondered if he could tell how turned on she was getting. It was all she could do not to rub herself against that bulge. The only thing that stopped her was that the thought embarrassed her too much, and the other dancers would be coming in soon.

  Oh God, the other dancers! She couldn’t let them see her like this. There were eight other women in this production—Paige and Sara, plus six girls all in their twenties. Paige and Sara were the very ones she could trust to never let her live this down. She grabbed the makeup wheel and swiped her finger over the red. When she tried to apply it to Daniel’s lips, he stuck out his tongue.

  “Daniel,” she scolded. “Come on. Everyone will be here soon.”

  “All right. I’ll stop. Have your way with my lips.” He grinned.

  She slapped him lightly on the arm.

  “I’d put you over my knee for that,” said a male voice from the doorway.

  Before she could turn around, Keith was behind her, leaning into her space, fitting his chin into the notch of her shoulder, almost pressing his face against hers. “If you do my brother,” he said, “you have to do me.”

  Keith’s voice had a harder edge than Daniel’s. While Daniel softened his words by stroking the vowels, Keith hit the consonants hard and startlingly.

  Lisa swallowed. She was glad when he moved away, but only because his presence made her body do things she couldn’t control. It was more than just being turned on. She was a little afraid of him, and that made her want to fall down at his feet and beg him to do things to her. Things she didn’t necessarily like. Beg him to take her to places she didn’t necessarily want to go.

  “I’m not doing you, Keith,” she said when he pulled away. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and smirked. He kept his hair a little shorter than his brother’s, in a layered, less boyish cut that still stuck out in some places with curls. Sometimes he even slicked it back.

  “Of course you are,” he said, making his voice coarse and harsh. “You just don’t know it yet.”

  He had worn tights too—black to his brother’s light grey—with a purple wife-beater.

  Lisa swallowed. “What did he mean by that?” she whispered, looking away when Keith glanced at her and let the corner of his mouth twitch up with a hint of a self-satisfied little smile.

  Daniel smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about him. My eyes need their blue diamonds.”

  * * * *

  It wasn’t long before the girls started fluttering in. Lisa was happy to see her blond and brunette best friends, Paige and Sara. Lisa was a redhead and the twins always teased them about being a “hot set,” but Lisa had mostly ignored what the twins said.

  Tonight, however, something felt different. For one thing, a worried scowl made Paige’s forehead pucker.

  “Milton isn’t coming,” she said, trotting over to Lisa for hugs.

  “Why?” one of the other girls asked.

  “Dog’s sick. You know how he is about his ‘widdle Foofie.’”

  “What?” Lisa asked, nearing panic. “He can’t just abandon us so close to opening night.”

  “It’s no problem,” Keith said. “We’ll direct us. Won’t we, Danny boy?” He had decided to wear his makeup too, and had most of the black eye-diamonds on. When he was finished, he’d have black lips as well, and white foundation.

  He smacked his brother on the shoulder, smudging him with greasepaint. When Daniel looked up, Keith winked. Daniel turned back to the mirror, smiling to himself.

  Something about the exchange made Lisa just a little uneasy.

  When it was time for the eleven dancers to file out onto the stage, Daniel set up the music player near the back curtain while Keith walked around. “If I remember correctly, we were on the first Land of the Harlequins scene,” he said.

  Something about seeing him made up as the lecherous harlequin made Lisa shiver. She forgot to look away and wound up staring at him as he came near. He came so close, she could feel the heat radiating from his body. He kept his eyes on her as he passed.

  Too late, she looked away.

  “All right everybody, listen up!” he said, his voice more com
manding than Lisa had ever heard it before. “We’re going to try a little something new. You know how Milton is all about playing it by ear when we’re doing more modern routines? Well, I want us to do that tonight. No matter what happens, I don’t want anyone breaking character. No matter what happens. Everybody got that?”

  The older ballerinas started up with the knowing glances and giggles again. A few of them looked at Lisa, or her friends. Something weird was definitely going on, and she didn’t appreciate being kept in the dark.

  “Exactly how are you in charge here?” she asked Keith.

  Paige nodded in agreement. Sara looked at her with wide eyes, her face framed by dark wisps of hair that had escaped her pins. The other ballerinas tittered even more.

  Keith turned to her. There was something dangerous in his face, under the makeup. “We can talk about it in the back room if you want. Either way, rehearsal is going to happen tonight. If Milton walks through that door, he can have it. But until he does, I’m directing.”

  Lisa put her hands on her hips. “Talk in the back room? What does that mean?”

  The dancers grew quiet, and watched her and Keith intently.

  Daniel swept in and steered her away. “You don’t really want to know.”

  “Why not?” she asked, forgetting to be thrilled that his body was touching hers.

  “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you later, but do what he says right now, okay?”

  She pulled back to get a better look at him, studying his face to see if he was serious. He sure looked serious to her.

  Keith turned back to the dancers. “We’re going to start from Jack’s and Clara’s arrival in the harlequins’ realm. He’s happy to be home, she’s in awe of the beauty, blah, blah, blah.” He fluttered his hand in the air and turned to the newcomers. “Paige and Sara, of course, are her Soul and her Heart, so they’re close by. As the little magical fairy creatures, the rest of you dance happily around them, and that’s when I, the Jester King, notice her,” he said, opening his eyes wide and placing his hand flat on his chest.

  After the explanation, he took long strides to his place at the back of the stage, the dancer’s muscles in his thighs bulging with every step. Clapping his hands twice, he called, “Let’s do it!”

  Lisa stared at him incredulously even as his brother, the official object of her crush, had his arm around her. She felt even more incredulous about the growing warmth between her legs than she did about Keith’s arrogance. Trying not to think about it, she pulled away from Daniel and took her place near Paige and Sara. Daniel joined them. Keith turned on the music. Everyone waited.

  To the piece that in a traditional Nutcracker, would have been The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Lisa adopted an expression of wonder and minced around the stage, pretending to look at this or that, while Daniel followed her with his face open in an exaggerated smile. As Jack, he got her attention from time to time, and spun her against him before something else caught her eye. It became a game between their characters, with Clara fleeing and Jack pursuing, each embrace becoming more intense and lasting longer.

  In those moments, Lisa summoned her artistic professionalism to enable her to push her excitement aside and concentrate on getting into her character, while at the same time drawing from that excitement to make Clara’s feelings for Jack real.

  As her Heart and Soul, Paige and Sara followed her as though carrying an invisible train, making exaggerated movements of bliss, while the six magical fairy-creatures fluttered around them in a wide circle.

  The rehearsal was odd, but beautiful. Lisa spun at the sound of the music and Daniel pulled her tightly against him, pressed his warm cheek against her ear and swayed them. The music softened, then darkened. Minor chords crept from the player, and Keith, the Jester King, turned around, mesmerized Lisa’s character, and danced with her while Daniel’s Jack stood by in anguish. Paige and Sara moved around him sympathetically, running their hands over his shoulders and giving him sad looks.

  Keith’s character handled Lisa’s roughly. He spun her forcefully, holding her too tightly and too long, then let her escape before chasing her down again, a dark and twisted parody of her dance with Daniel, a human game of cat and mouse. Her favorite part was coming—the part where Jack would gather his courage and confront the Jester King, who would spin Clara away to be caught by Heart and Soul before clashing with her beloved. She had always found the fight between the two men, with all the leaping and posturing, almost unbearably animalistic and sexy.

  Daniel approached in aggressive, sweeping motions and Lisa tensed for the spin. Keith found her hand, but instead of flinging her from him, he pulled her tight. Daniel started to circle the other man, but stopped instead, and met his gaze. Even through her confusion, Lisa was struck by how gracefully he moved, and by the power of the unspoken communication that passed between the two brothers.

  She knew it was about her.

  “What’s going…hey!” she heard Paige say, and saw her come to a full stop.

  Keith’s head snapped in her direction. “Don’t break character!” he ordered. His head snapped back and Lisa felt the Jester King breathing against her shoulders and hardening against the small of her back. When she trembled, he squeezed her. Daniel looked down at her with an expression that was both kind and smoky, but somehow she knew he wasn’t going to save her from his brother as he had during every other rehearsal. There was something almost apologetic in his eyes.

  While the music boomed darkly on the stage, Paige trotted over toward Daniel, with Sara following close behind. “What are you doing? We don’t have time for…”

  Grinning mischievously, Daniel backed away and began dancing around Paige and Sara, while Keith continued to hold Lisa captive. Sara moved closer to Paige to escape him.

  “Daniel…what are you doing?” Paige demanded.

  Refusing to speak, he danced closer, herding the girls toward his brother, while Keith lowered his head and breathed in the scent of fear mixed with excitement from the side of Lisa’s neck. She looked around at the others. The older girls now stood around watching, smiling and pointing as the brothers took control of the three newcomers.

  “This is bullshit,” Paige declared and turned to stalk away. Daniel placed his body in front of hers. “Move!” she growled at him. He responded by running his gaze over her body, grinning and taking her head in his hands, then kissing her while Lisa watched. Lisa’s heart pounded even harder, partly from the horror of seeing her crush kiss one of her best friends, and partly because he was holding her captive—as though story of Jack and the Jester King had actually come to life.

  Paige pushed at Daniel’s biceps. He responded by sliding an arm around her and grasping her rear, pulling her against him until she responded. Her surrender was palpable. She stopped pushing against him, and started moving in time with his swaying.

  Sara stood by helplessly for a moment, then shot Lisa a questioning glance. Lisa couldn’t do anything more than return the look while Keith’s hand moved up, grazing its graceful fingers over her arm.

  Daniel pulled away from his kiss with Paige, and turned her to face his brother, hooking an arm around her waist and extending his free hand to Sara, who widened her eyes at him before glancing back at Lisa.

  But by that time, Keith’s hand had made it up to Lisa’s shoulder. He hooked his thumb into the thin fabric of her unitard and tugged. Brought back to reality, she tried to pull away, but he tightened his other arm around her. “Shh-shh-shh,” he said, and bared her flesh.

  Sara backed away, but by that time the older women had moved closer and clustered around her, herding her back toward the brothers. Lisa heard whispers of, “You’re the lucky one,” and “Don’t worry. You’ll like it,” as they handed her friend over to Daniel, who no longer seemed as so shy and innocent as he had earlier, but was still much less frightening than his brother by a long shot.

  Lisa’s stomach grew hot as she was fully confronted by the knowledge of wh
o held her captive and who was pulling her clothing off her shoulders. “No,” she gasped, wanting so badly to mean it.

  “Yes,” Keith whispered back. His hot breath seemed to scorch her ear. Her trembling had become uncontrollable. Now he would know just how afraid of him she actually was, that her brattiness was nothing more than a brave front, a protective shield.

  The thin fabric moved down slowly, releasing her breasts. She moaned with the knowledge that she was no longer in control of her own body. Whatever happened here tonight, it would be at the whim of Keith and Daniel Harper. For tonight, she was Clara, only her Jack was complicit with the lecherous Jester King in her capture and ravishment.

  Daniel watched her. There was something unsettling about seeing such a smoky look in his clown-doll face, and about the eyes of the older girls being on her and her friends. She felt like some kind of offering, and she was much more aroused than she thought she ought to be. All at once, it was too much. She pushed away from Keith, stumbling a little out of surprise that he let her go, and held her arms over her bare breasts.

  Daniel let Paige come after her. The older girls came closer, surrounding the five of them, circling the group without touching, clustering whenever one of the three tried to make a break for it. Inside the circle, the men began to stalk the three girls. Still trying to hide her breasts, Lisa pressed against her friends, watching Keith with undisguised trepidation. In spite of the purple wife-beater and tights, the makeup made him look like a frightening apparition. It reminded her of The Crow. She watched him pass to her left, watched as his focus switched from her to Sara, who cringed back against her. Movement beside her startled her. It was Daniel. She looked up at him, unsure what was going to happen.