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The irritable h the door with Eve didn’t have a chance It exploded in the sheer volume and exuberance of Mavis Freestone’s uniqueas she stepped up to the doorway of what Roarke referred to as the parlor

There in all the splendor, the elegance, the antiquity, Mavis danced—Eve supposed that was the closest word for it—bouncing and jiggling atop graduated stacked heels that lifted her tiny frareen patternbraids around her flushed, delighted face and fairy body

Her sli up in a spiral pattern, then disappearing under the tiny, flippy skirt of fuschia that barely covered her crotch Her torso was decorated in a crisscross of the two colors with one pretty breast in pink, another in green

Eve could only be relieved that Mavis had chosen to go with the green for both eyes You just never knew

Roarke sat in one of his lovely antique chairs, a glass of straw-colored wine in one hand He was either relaxing into the show, Eve thought, or he’d lapsed into a protective coma

The , plaintive wail froo ship of bricks

“What do you think?” Mavis tossed back the ood follow-up number for the new video Not too tame, is it?”

“Ah” Roarke took a moment to sip his wine There’d been a moment when he’d been mildly concerned that the decibel level would shatter the crystal “No No indeed Tame isn’t the word that comes to mind”

“Mag!” She bounced over, and her little butt wriggled with energy as she bent down to kiss him “I wanted you to see it first since you’re, like, the money man”

“Money always bows to talent”

If Eve hadn’t already loved hi the absolute joy his words put in Mavis’s eyes

“It’s so s, the concerts, the way iced costun for me It’s hardly even like work If it weren’t for you and Dallas, I’d still be scraping gigs at joints like the Blue Squirrel”

She did a quick spin as she spoke, spotted Eve, and beaot a new number”

“I heard Totally ”

“Roarke said you’d be late, and you—Oh , is that blood?”