He glanced down at Gina in time to see her lips tighten at the corners. So, Donna rubbed her the wrong way, too.
With a soft sigh, Gina gave his arm a squeeze. “Let’s get this over with and get back to dancing, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
For the next two hours, Stone stood in the middle of the set with Gina while Donna, the director, and the photographer instructed him to lift her, hold her, and grab her. Finally, he understood Gina’s comment about this show making them intimately acquainted with each other’s bodies. Their foxtrot was tame in comparison.
It wasn’t that he had a problem with having Gina drape herself all over him. On the contrary, he liked it far too much. Filling his hands with her hot, tight body while she curled her strong limbs around him? Not the worst way to spend an afternoon. If they hadn’t been surrounded by production people, he might have enjoyed himself.
Except Donna’s hungry eyes kept him on edge, and it seemed like she had the same effect on Gina.
Gina was the consummate professional, of course, completely unfazed by anything Donna asked her to do. Sit on Stone’s shoulder? Sure. Wrap her legs around his waist? No problem. Rub against him while whipping her hair? On it.
But there was a tension in Gina’s body that hadn’t been there during their rehearsal, and a tightness to her smile. He also got the feeling Donna was pushing Gina to do sexier moves on purpose. Still, Gina handled herself with grace.
He, on the other hand, sweated through it, and needed his makeup touched up multiple times.
At the end of it all, Gina chugged a bottle of water and flashed him a wry smile. “You holding up okay?”
“I guess so.” He could barely look her in the eye, feeling like they’d just fucked in front of an audience. How the hell was he supposed to get through a dance in a ballroom full of people, on national TV? “Is it always like that?”
Gina was quiet for a long moment. “No,” she said in a low voice. “Not quite.”
Before he could ask why she thought Donna had been pushing them so hard—he’d lost track of how many times the producer had shouted “More sexy!” at them—Gina said, “How much you wanna bet they’re going to go with the footage of you breakdancing?”
“No way.” He chomped on a protein bar. “Really? After making us do all that?”
She shrugged, like what they’d done had been no big deal. “They try to get as many options as they can. But unless Jackson García can also breakdance, my guess is that’s the footage they’ll use for our intro every episode.”
“Who’s Jackson García?”
“One of the other celebrities this season. TV actor. Also young and fit.” She gave Stone a once-over. “Younger than you, but not as fit, I have to say.”
His cheeks warmed. “I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not.”
“Something in that realm.” She grinned. “Come on, let’s change and get back to working on your footwork. It’s atrocious.”
“That definitely wasn’t a compliment.”
“Nope. But it’s true.”
As they left the studio, Rick’s words came back to him. Thiswasa competition. And Gina was the only one fully invested in his success. Despite his conflicted emotions toward her, he and Gina were a unit. For at least the next month, they were partners.
He’d better get used to it.
Seven
“Hey, Gina! Hold on a sec.”
Gina paused outside the door of the rehearsal room as Lori Kim, one of the other pro dancers, jogged up to her. Lori was a petite Korean American woman with a bubbly personality and an extensive collection of baseball caps. Today she wore a black one with the wordHYPEspelled out in silver studs.
Gina leaned in and kissed Lori’s cheek. “What’s up?”
A big grin lit Lori’s face. “We’re going out tonight.”
Gina put a hand to her forehead and exaggerated slumping against the wall. “Oh, thank god. I need a break.”
After a week of rehearsals, everyone had cabin fever. The celebrities were feeling the wear and tear of full-time dance practice, and the pros were pulling their hair out trying to teach ballroom dance to a bunch of newbies with big personalities. Even the producers had all but given up on coaxing soundbites out of the cast.
