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“Will you teach me how to dance?”
The question is completely out of left field, and Eliot can’t stop himself from staring at Hardison.
“I thought you already knew how to,” he says, trying to stall for time to give himself a moment to think it through, “didn’t you dance with Parker already, when we worked that reunion job a few months ago?”
“Yeah, but that was high-school dancing, man and don’t tell me that you don’t know how to do that fancy ballroom dancing, because I’ve already seen the two of you dance the night away years ago.”
It takes Eliot less than a minute to figure out what the other man means, and he can’t stop himself from smirking at the memory.
“Alright yes,” he concedes, because there’s no use in hiding it. “I can dance, but that still doesn’t mean I’m gonna teach you, and why’d you wanna learn anyway?”
“I thought that maybe I’d ask…”
Hardison cuts himself off at the same time as Eliot catches sight of something in the window. He turns his head, torn between chuckling and shaking his head at the sight that meets his eyes. Parker is hanging upside down outside the window and while she had mentioned something about testing a new harness at breakfast, for some reason it hadn’t occurred to him that this was how she was planning on doing it. She waves to them once she realizes that they’re looking at her before she disappears out of sight, and Eliot bites his lip to keep from grinning at the way his friend flushes, then shuffles a little in his seat before he continues.
“Just thought it might come in handy some day.”
Eliot is tempted to tease the younger man, but the look on Hardison’s face - soft and surprisingly nervous - stays his tongue. It is not like we have anything else planned for the next couple of weeks, he thinks, considering we are between jobs for the moment. Maybe once Sophie comes back …
His girl had disappeared out the door shortly after breakfast - snatching one of their company credit-cards on her way - with plans for a day of shopping at some of those fancy-ass designer stores she likes. She had smirked at his offer of coming along to help her carry the shopping bags and told him that she would like to be able to return to these shops again.
The memory of an interrupted moment in a shop where he is pretty damn sure neither of them will ever be allowed to visit again pops into his head and he takes a deep breath hoping to push down the very inconvenient arousal rushing through his veins.
“So will you?”
Hardison’s words pulls Eliot out of his trip down memory lane.
“Alright,” he nods, then holds up a hand to stop Hardison from talking. “On two conditions: One, you actually show up the next time we schedule a self-defense lesson.” The other man starts to protest, and Eliot looks at him firmly. “Non-negotiable Hardison or you’ll have to find another teacher.” There is a grudging nod, and Eliot promises himself that he won’t let his friend slack on the promise this time. “And two, we wait for Sophie to get home, you ain’t twirling me around the floor, and besides it works better if you can see what I’m actually doing.”
“Dash all my hopes, why don’t you.”
An exaggerated pout accompanies Hardison’s words, and Eliot shakes his head with a laugh.
“There, there,” he says, patting Hardison on the shoulder as he rises, “guess you’ll have to live with it. Or…” he smirks, “I can always ask Elena if she’ll help instead next time we’re in Marbella?”
The look on Hardison’s face is probably best described as panicked, and Eliot lasts a long moment before he cracks up.
“That’s just evil, man!”
Still chuckling, Eliot shrugs then turns around. He hasn’t walked more than a few steps before a pillow from the couch hits the back of his head. He stops, but doesn't bother turning around. “Nice aim. But don't forget to lower your arm and protect your side,” he call and the subsequent grumbling from the other man about how the hell Eliot knew that, makes him grin, as he continues out of the living room.
~*~*~
Coming back from a day of shopping, the last thing Sophie expects is having been drafted for a dance lesson in her absence, and yet that is precisely what has happened.
Changing out of her tight jeans and the buttoned blouse and into something more suitable for a dance lesson, she has to remind herself that the possibility of this ending like it usually does is close to nil with Alec watching. It doesn’t stop her from smirking at her reflection though, as she pulls on her usual work-out pants, pants that they both know will slip easily down her hips at the tug of the knot.
Pausing in the doorway, she realizes that she might have miscalculated the odds of nothing happening despite an audience. Standing with his back to her, Eliot is in the middle of doing a few stretches, with Alec next to him, copying every move, and despite the folly, she allows her eyes to wander all over him.
I’m just appreciating the art in front of me, she tells the snickering voice in the back of her mind, I’m an connoisseur after all, why shouldn’t I be allowed to linger over the sight like this… especially one that looks as fine as this.
Drifting closer, her steps falter for a second when Eliot looks up, his eyes unerringly meeting hers in the mirror. The deliberate slow stretch that follows, as well as the heat in his gaze, sends a spike of heat through her body, and she works hard to suppress a shiver, although based on his smirk, she doesn’t manage as well as she hoped.
Later, she reminds herself with just a touch of desperation, it’ll have to wait until later, when we won’t have an audience.
Twenty minutes - and three slow waltzes around the floor - later, Eliot squeezes her waist before stepping away.
“Alright,” he says to Alec who is leaning against the wall. “Your turn.”
Sophie almost laughs at the startled rabbit look that crosses the younger man’s face.
“Wait? What? No!” Alec protests loudly, “I thought I’d just watch for today.”
“Well, you thought wrong. You were the one who wanted to learn, com’on then.”
The way Alec sighs as he straightens, combined with the look on his face when he trudges over, would probably be more suitable for a man going to the gallows instead of a man being asked to dance with a woman.
“Alright, we’ll start with the looser position,” Eliot says, once Alec is in front of her, “less chance of getting flat feet for Sophie. Place your right hand here,” Eliot’s fingers stroke over her waist, correcting Alec’s hold a bit, “and then take her hand with your left, straight arm at shoulder height. Now normally it’s the man who leads…” he pauses for a long moment, and Sophie can see Alec gulp, then open his mouth in what is undoubtedly a protest, before Eliot continues. “… but lets wait with that, until you’ve learned the steps.”
Alec’s nodding is just on the side of being frantic. Catching Eliot’s eyes, she does her best to smother a smile, the grin on his face easily telling her that he did that completely on purpose. Evil, she mouths at him as they begin to make their way around the gym in slow motion with Eliot hovering behind the younger man, and he shrugs with a big smirk on his face.
Surprisingly, Alec seems to pick it up quickly, because after just three rounds he seems a little more confident, and midway through the fifth round, she feels him actually taking the lead. He even ups the tempo a little after they take a quick break before round nine, and the small satisfied chuckle from Eliot, as he backs away to sit on the bench along the wall, tells her that he has noticed Alec’s growing confidence too.
An hour later, when Eliot calls a halt to the lesson, the endearing smile that pulls up the corners of Alec’s mouth is almost enough to make her forget feeling just a tad dizzy after the repeated circling in a room not really suited for all the twirling they have done.
“Don’t forget our deal,” Eliot calls after the younger man as Alec leaves the gym, a hand waving over his shoulder the only response. “I mean it, Hardison. Or I’ll pour out your stash of sodas again. The ones taking up space in my fridge this time!”
Alec’s face pops back around the corner in less than a heartbeat, and the horrified look he sports is nearly priceless.
“Not the imported stuff,” he says.
“Oh yeah,” Eliot nods, smirking before he takes a long swallow - her eyes linger on the way his throat works - of the water bottle, before handing it to her. “Every last drop of it too.” The two men stare at each other for a long moment, before Alec looks away. “I expect you down here at ten tomorrow morning, and if you’re not here at ten o’five I’m gonna start pouring.”
“Fine,” Alec grumbles, “ten it is. I’ll be here.”
She is tempted to ask what this deal is all about, but she has long since learned to trust Eliot and besides she is, at least for the time being, far more interested in the fact that they are now alone.
“So,” Eliot murmurs as he wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. “Any chance for a refresher course for an old student or are you all danced out?”
“There might be, what’d you have mind?” she smirks, even though she knows full well what he means based on the darkening of his eyes.
“A little of this,” he does the first few steps in a cha-cha, sneaking a kiss when she automatically falls in step with him. “A little of that,” another few steps, another kiss - her pulse is racing now. “And a lot of …”
He tightens his grip on her, kissing her before she can say do anything else. The bottle of water slips from her fingers, as she moves her hands from his shoulders to the back of his neck. Lightly scratching the nape of his neck makes him growl into another kiss, and dimly she thinks that maybe they should move this to someplace where they won’t be distu…
“Have you gu… oh you’re about to be busy having sex. I’ll come back later.”
Sophie doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the interruption. Because even though she can hear the door to the stairs falling shut a few seconds later, Parker’s unexpected appearance has, at least for the moment, killed the mood rather effectively.
Oh, she adores both Alec and Parker, and she knows that Eliot, despite his current grumbling - “Remind me again why we don’t just buy another place nearby!” - wouldn’t want it any other way either, but it still doesn’t stop her, on occasion, from longing for the way things used to be.
“Because it’s easier this way,” she smiles, watching as he does his usual check-up of the area, “because you know that we’d end up staying here most nights anyway,” he chuckles at her words, then nods as he circles back towards her. “And …” she steps backward once he reaches for her, backing out of the room out of the room, one slow step at a time as she continues. “… we can always continue the lesson upstairs …”
“Upstairs, you say,” Eliot drawls, casually pulling his T-shirt over his head, slinging it around his neck. A move she has seen him do countless times before, yet it still makes her mouth water and her fingers itch to touch him.
“Mnn,” she purrs, “maybe in a more … horizontal position. We do seem to have ti…”
He is in front of her in the blink of an eye, finger against her lips, effectively silencing her. “Don’t jinx us,” he all but growls. Her breathless laughter echoes in the hallway behind them, as he sweeps her up in his arms a heartbeat later. “Let’s just get upstairs.”