His Dancer, His Chains novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Loose Knot

I did not tell him what I was planning.

I let him cook, badly, and I let him burn the garlic, and we ate on the sofa with our shoes off.

When he rose to take the plates, I said, "Leave them."

He sat back down.

"Go to the chair by the window," I said.

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then the corner of his mouth moved, and he went and sat in the leather chair.

I put the small box on his knee.

"Open it."

Inside was a plain steel ring, the cheapest in the case, with a flat top and no stone.

"Term three," I said. "I bought you something with my own salary."

He did not say anything.

He put it on his left hand.

It was a little too big, and he turned it with his thumb, and he left it on.

"Now," I said. "Hands on the arms."

He put them there.

I took his charcoal tie from the back of the sofa and came around the chair.

"Cora."

"Quiet."

I wound the silk around his right wrist and the arm of the chair, and knotted it.

I did the left one.

It was a loose knot, and we both knew it.

He could have worked free in a few seconds.

He looked at it, and then he looked at me, and he did not pull.

I crossed to the speakers and put on a slow, heavy song.

Then I went and stood in the lamplight in front of the window, with the whole city dark and shining behind me.

I wore the green dress.

I had not put it on for a stage or for a party or for a donor.

I put it on for a man in a chair.

I started to move.

I was not counting bars.

I was not watching the clock.

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