Cut and Run 7 - Touch and Geaux

Better too. But also worse. “Wow, sweetie, you take me to the nicest places,” he drawled.
    Becky laughed and led him to a table near the middle of the room. There was a folded card with the name Garrett written on it in beautiful calligraphy.
    Zane pulled her chair out for her, then unbuttoned his suit coat and sat.
    She leaned toward him, the firelight flickering in her eyes. “I heard the two performers are incredible. And the rumor is that every Friday and Saturday night, they pick out people from the audience to join them afterward.”
    “Join them?”
    “You know, join them.”
    “Oh. Oh!” Zane laughed and looked around as Becky giggled. “What have you gotten us into?”
    “Oh come on, it’s just a rumor. It’ll be fun,” she said as she slid her hand into his and scooted her chair closer so she could settle against his shoulder.
    A woman came to take their drink order just as a man stepped up onto the stage and took the old-fashioned microphone in his hand. The people around them began to applaud, some of them even whistling and hooting.
    Zane smiled and sat back, willing to try to enjoy the evening for his wife’s sake. The man on stage wore an old-fashioned suit and eyeliner, and his long hair was slicked back to the point that the candlelight reflected off it. He held a bowler hat in his hand, pressed to his chest. Zane cocked his head as he admired the man. He had wide shoulders and compact, hard muscles that showed through the thin, ruffled shirt he wore.
    Becky whistled and began to laugh. “He’s pretty.”
    Zane clucked his tongue, mentally echoing her.
    The man welcomed them to a night of debauchery and decadence, and almost immediately he began to pick people out of the crowd and insult them. Zane was surprised at first, but the packed audience was eating it up.
    The man turned his attention on them with an appreciative whistle. “Well hello, beautiful,” he said in a deep voice as he took a few steps toward their table. “Where have you been all my life? Where are you from, gorgeous?”
    Becky laughed and sat forward. “Austin, Texas.”
    “Yeah, wait your turn, honey, I’m talking to your boyfriend.”
    Becky cackled and covered her mouth with her hands, looking at Zane as the audience laughed.
    Zane felt himself blushing. He laughed and shook his head, meeting the man’s eyes with a strange rush of excitement. He realized he was enjoying the attention.
    The man on stage gave him a rakish once over. “Congratulations on your face, darlin’,” he said, and then moved on, addressing a few other couples.
    Zane watched him, his mouth ajar. He’d rarely experienced even a passing interest in anyone but his wife. What was it about this guy that had caught his eye?
    It wasn’t long before a woman joined the man on stage. They made an attractive couple, with talent and chemistry. Their voices battled for supremacy at times, other times melding together smooth as silk. They sang, told jokes, and even performed some physical gags, almost like skits. And some of the sexiest costumes Zane had ever seen. He wasn’t watching the sensuous curves of the woman in her corset, though, but rather the solid lines of the man’s shoulders as he moved. When he offered his rendition of “House of the Rising Sun,” it raised the hairs on Zane’s arms. He couldn’t look away.
    For the last act of the show, the woman sang a rousing patriotic burlesque number as the man weaved his way through the crowd with his bowler hat, collecting tips from the tables. He would clap along with the music as he moved from table to table, egging people on and getting the crowd involved. Zane’s eyes followed his movements. Over the last hour of watching him, Zane had decided that he was definitely attracted to the man. It didn’t strike him as odd, but it was distracting enough that he had to sit and dwell on it.
    When the performer approached their table, Zane’s heart rate sped up. The man grinned at them, showing perfect teeth to go with his handsome face. He held his hat out, and Zane dug out a hundred dollar bill and tossed it in, trying to get a look at the guy’s eyes. He decided they were green.
    The guy watched the bill flutter into his hat, then twirled the hat around his hand and displayed the empty inside of it to them, his expression scandalized as he discovered the seemingly disappearing bill. Becky laughed and Zane grinned, impressed with the man’s nimble fingers. The bill was nowhere to