Page 17 of Lovers' Dance

“You arrogant arsehole. She’s twenty-six-years-old and has her own house and business. She may be in debt, but she’s sounding pretty damned smart to me.”

Nathan poured himself another drink, tossed this one back too, then took a deep calming breath, before saying evenly, “Go to page twelve. Have a gander at that for me.”

Matt didn’t appreciate Nathan’s overreaction. He flicked a couple more pages, saying to Nathan as he did, “Mate, I never asked you to do this. You’re the one that took it upon yourself to find her and run a background check.” He paused, then queried sharply, “Who did you hire to get this info? By God, if you had some shady outfit looking into her, I swear I’ll wring your bloody neck.”

Nathan snorted in disgust over Matt’s misplaced lack of trust in him. “I used the company we always use. Everything is confidential and destroyed upon request. Read page twelve for me. Once you’ve done that, we’ll talk. I mean, I don’t have a problem that she’s black.”

Matt looked at his friend coldly. “Yes, you do, and the fuck I care if you do. Now shut up.” He turned his attention to page twelve. When he finished reading it, he rested his hands over the file, fingers laced together tightly. That was the only tell-tale sign of his sudden nervousness.

“I’m assuming you have more information on this Kincaid character. Page twelve gave me nothing more than innuendo and light suspicion. Bloody hell, Nathan, how many times have my family’s sub-companies been levied with untrue charges? I can’t even count.”

Nathan poured his third glass. This time, he poured one for Matt and slid it over to him. “I’m still looking into this Kincaid, but, Matt, please stay away from her—this girl-

“Woman.” Matt corrected tersely.

Nathan waved a hand in the air. “Fine, girl, woman, whatever. She’s got trouble written all over her. Trust me.”

Matt leaned back in his chair, his interlaced fingers now resting on his chest as he appraised his closest friend dispassionately. “Trust you? You went behind my back and ran a background check on a woman I had decided not to contact. I could’ve found her myself if I wanted to. You barge into my house with your Scotch and this file, order me to read it, and now you’re warning me to stay away from her? I love you like my own brother but, fuck you, Nathan. Did I not support you when your family were dead set against you seeing Bella?”

“That’s different.”

“How so?” Matt asked, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Because she’s white like us?”

“I don’t know, it just is. Look, I’m not the bad guy here. I want you to remember who you are and, bloody hell, Matt. Everyone expects you to marry Louisa. You need to forget Madison DuMont.”

Matt was tense and furious at Nathan, but he knew deep down his friend was trying to protect him. He unclasped his fingers and ran his hand wildly through his hair before groaning in frustration. “I can’t stop thinking about her. How preposterous is that? A woman I’ve known for less than twenty-four hours and she’s all I think about. Every single day. Don’t you think I’ve tried to forget about her? She’s not like us, and I don’t mean her race. We’re from different backgrounds, different social groups.” He sighed loudly. “But I can’t get her out of my head.”

Nathan topped up his glass, fidgeting with the edge of Matt’s desk. He wouldn’t meet his friend’s gaze as he asked in a solemn voice, “You likelikeher?”

“I told you I can’t stop thinking about her. What do you think?” Matt asked through gritted teeth. “You shouldn’t have done this, Nathan.”

“I know, but I couldn’t help myself.” Nathan took a civilized sip from his glass. “Are you sure you like her, or do you simply want to shag her and move on? Because shagging her is fine. Get it out of your system. She’s a looker, I’ll give you that. I mean you should see her dance on that website of theirs. I’d shag her brains out if Bella wasn’t—”

“What? A website? There’s no mention of it in the file. Why didn’t you say something before?” Matt was turning on his laptop. His increasing anger at Nathan’s offensive words pushed aside at the thought of seeing her again, even if it was on a website. He did mention tartly though, “Don’t ever speak about her in such a manner in my presence again. Shag her brains out? Do you want me to hurt you?”

Nathan snorted something under his breath. Matt ignored it.

“Give me the name of her website,” Matt ordered.

“I can’t remember,” Nathan replied innocently.

Matt directed a hard look at his friend, who shrugged nonchalantly.

“Fine. I’ll Google her dance studio.” He put the name in the search engine, then showed Nathan two expressive fingers. “You twat.”

It was at the top of the search results. He double-clicked and his gut clenched sharply. The home page gave the basic info about their dance company. Matt clicked the galleries icon, a soft smile gracing his lips as he scrolled through the pictures. There weren’t as many as he’d like of her. Most were of students, costumes, ballet shoes, their premises. Nathan got up to stand behind him. “Hit that icon right there. The website needs work. They probably couldn’t afford to have it professionally done. Some of the links are—”

“Will you shut up,” Matt hissed as he clicked on the icon Nathan had pointed out. It brought up a list of past productions. He clicked on the most recent, then sat in awe as he watched his dark beauty dance to a classical piece from the Nutcracker. His eyes followed her movements over the screen, barely paying attention to the other dancers.

“My God, she’s amazing,” he whispered. “Nathan, look at her. That’s incredible.”

“I’ve seen it already, Matt.”

“Yes, but still—”

“You should see the video of them dancing to modern music,” Nathan interrupted, closely observing his friend’s demeanour. “The dross these young people listen to, no appreciation for real music. Come out of that link and go to the street dancing one. You’ll see why I said I wouldn’t mind shagging her, too.”

Matt’s head snapped around. Nathan put a little space between them in case Matt took a swing at him. He looked angry enough to do it. Nathan chuckled. He’d never seen his friend act possessive over anyone. Nathan’s humour disappeared almost instantaneously. If Matt was reacting strongly now…maybe he shouldn’t have located her. Maybe his interference was a mistake.

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