I swallowed hard, daring to look at Gabriele. He was staring straight ahead, his jaw tight, a twitch of tension in his cheek. He didn’t want me to get the job, that much was obvious. No doubt there was another dancer he preferred. And as the leading man, he’d probably have the final say.
‘We will be in touch,’ announced Carlos.
‘Thanks for seeing me,’ I said, smiling at the panel, and purposely not giving Gabriele the satisfaction of smiling at him, just for him to ignore it. Seriously, who did he think he was? It was for the best that I probably wouldn’t be getting the job – even if we could turn it on when a performance required it, it would make for a very unpleasant couple of months if we were at each other’s throats behind the scenes.
After I left the studio, I strode towards Leicester Square tube, arms folded around myself, no longer enjoying theMay sunshine. I didn’t stop to notice the tourists, the shops I might usually find enticing, the buskers, the taxis, the honking horns as traffic snaked from six different directions at the bottom of Long Acre. I felt so many emotions at once that it was entirely overwhelming, each one so big that I wanted nothing more than to shut down my mind to stop me having to think about anything at all.
I’d danced at a professional level again today, and it had gone…well? I’d impressed Carlos Torres. I’d proved I was more than a dance teacher at my parents’ studio.
And there was Gabriele.
My heart hammered so violently in my chest when I pictured his face there, right in front of me, that I rested my hand on it to steady it. How the hell had we just pulled off a dance that good, given the tension between us? An Argentine tango so heated that my breath had caught in my throat afterwards, and not just because of the physicality of it, but because of the feel of Gabriele’s arms around me, the way his hands had spanned my waist, the way he’d gripped me when he’d turned me; it had sent shivers coursing through my entire body. Yep, there was no denying it, he still looked as hot as hell. My legs had felt actually, properly weak when we’d finished dancing, so much so that it had taken extreme effort to thank the panel and walk off the dance floor and look remotely okay while doing this normally very natural task. And now I’d have that agonizing wait for Carlos to call and tell me whether or not I’d got the job.
I wanted to forget about it, to assume I wouldn’t be cast,to be grateful I’d even had the chance to try. But there was part of me that knew Gabriele wouldn’t have generated that much heat with anyone else.
What if they were looking for chemistry above all else? Because as much as I didn’t want to admit it, we had that in spades.
I pulled out my phone before heading down to the tube. Gabriele wasn’t the only person I had chemistry with, I reminded myself, tapping out a message to Jack.
Do you have time for a PT session this afternoon? Could swing by the gym on my way home.
He picked up my message immediately and I waited as he typed a reply.
Sounds good. I’ll be waiting for you in my office.
CHAPTER FOURGabriele
After Carlos sent everyone out of the room, I knew immediately what he was going to say. I was going to make him squirm, though. I refused to cut in and tell him what I thought, what I felt about Lira’s performance – he was going to have to have the balls to tell me himself. Then again, Carlos was hardly a wallflower.
‘We need to cast Lira in the leading role,’ he said, looking me directly in the eye.
I bit my lip. Now who was squirming?
‘No,’ I said. ‘Daniella and I know each other much better. We don’t have as much time to rehearse as we would have liked. It will be easier that way.’
Carlos sat back in his chair. From across the table, he observed me for a second or two.
‘And that’s how you want this show to be? Easy? Gabriele, you are coming off the back of huge success in Italy.Bring the Heatwas the top-rated show in your country, no? As big asStrictlyis here in the UK. Your celebrity appeal has never been higher and if you want to push your career even further, you are going to have to do something that surpasses even that. Something spectacular.’
‘It will be.Slow Burnwith me in the lead and your choreography – it is going to be a guaranteed success.’
‘But not if it’s you and Daniella.’
I tutted impatiently. ‘You do not know that.’
‘We need to give the lead to Lira James, and you know it.’
‘She is too inexperienced,’ I argued. ‘Has she ever even worked professionally?’
Carlos placed his elbows on the table between us, resting his chin on the backs of his hands, his eyes boring into me. ‘Maybe she hasn’t, but she’s the best dancer we’ve seen by a mile. I know you could feel it, so why are you resisting?’
I wanted to deny it, it was on the tip of my tongue, but that would be a lie, and I did not lie, not ever. Okay, maybe very occasionally, if it was absolutely necessary.
‘The chemistry between you two was off the scale,’ continued Carlos, clearly not prepared to give up. ‘Something special happened as she walked into the room. A moment sparked between you. Have you met her before?’
Butterflies ripped through my stomach.Porca puttana, why did thinking about that night still have this strange effect on me? I had slept with countless women since then,some of the most beautiful women in the world, so why was I still hung up on the one night I had spent with her? If I was going to analyse the situation, I would say it was because she had been the one woman who had not been available to me. I had not been able to get what I wanted – she had walked out on me, the one and only time it had ever happened. Not to sound arrogant – although I was acutely aware that I could be – but women loved me. They begged me for more, they begged me to call, they wanted more sex, a dinner date, a relationship I could not give them. But not Lira James.Li. She had not been able to get away from me fast enough. Sure, it hurt, but I suspected that had more to do with my battered ego than anything else.
‘Briefly, many years ago,’ I replied, keeping my voice steady.
