Page 11 of The Devil and the Dancer
“Yes.” He wanted to reassure her somehow, but he didn’t want to explain Vivian. “There’s something I have to talk to Cormac about. It came up at the last minute.”
“Right.” Chloe climbed out of the hot tub, steam rising from her glowing brown skin.
Gavin wanted to bite her. He wanted to wrap her up in the soft towel and cart her to his bed. He couldn’t do any of those things. Not with Vivian’s arrival hanging over his head.
Chloe wrapped the towel around herself and forced a smile to her lips. “Okay. See you.”
He bent down and kissed the arch of her cheek. “Tomorrow night. Sleep well, dove.”
The endearment softened her expression, but only a little. “Night. I’ll see you after rehearsal tomorrow. I’m working until closing.”
“Good.”
Gavin walked back in the house and down to his office before he could do or say anything that would reveal the churning anger in his belly. He wasn’t angry with Chloe, and he didn’t want her to even entertain the thought. The inevitable mess that Vivian would bring was not her concern. He only hoped he could shield her from it for a little while longer.
“I don’t know.”Chloe sat on the ground, stretching her hamstrings while Arthur took measurements from her partner. “He was… distant. Not like himself. It was weird.”
“Chloe, all your friends are weird,” the costume designer mumbled through lips holding pins.
“Except for you.”
Arthur removed the pins from his mouth and his jaw dropped. “I beg your pardon. I am the weirdest of all.”
Chloe’s dance partner, Paulo, looked over his shoulder. “You and Drew have been living together for three years, Arthur. He works in finance and you’ve adopted three rescue dogs. You’re like the most stable person I know.”
Chloe nodded. “I’m afraid it’s true.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes. “Take it back. Both of you.”
Paulo continued, “Chloe, on the other hand, has a part-time not-relationship with her mysterious, hot boss, and I’m pretty sure she’s sleeping with both her other roommates. She makes the rest of us look boring.”
She put her head in her hands. “I’m not sleeping with either of my roommates.”
Paulo rolled his eyes. “Then you’re an idiot. ’Cause I’ve seen ’em.”
“Agreed.” Arthur started pinning the seams of the flowing shirt Paulo would wear over his flesh-toned tank top. The burgundy color would be stunning against Paulo’s light brown skin and shoulder-length black hair.
Chloe and Paulo were only one of five pairs of dancers who would be performing three new contemporary dance pieces at the theater on the Lower East Side. Far from the simple, skintight minimalism shown in most modern dance, this time the choreographer had asked for flowing costumes that almost resembled feathers.
The choreographer was a personal friend of Arthur’s, which was the only reason Chloe’d even had a chance to audition. They were rehearsing at a shared space on 8th Avenue, and they had just four weeks until the performance. They had one weekend to make an impression, but she was hoping it could be a break.
It wasn’t what Chloe had dreamed of when she first moved to New York, but then what was? She’d thought she’d work her way up to Broadway; instead, she hooked up with a narcissist who tried to crush her spirit and keep her just low enough to always need his help.
The new show was her first real opportunity to shine again. She felt like she was getting her life back on track. Her confidence was growing. She was making things happen, not just reacting when life happened to her.
So why was she allowing herself to second-guess what she and Gavin shared?
“I’m overreacting,” she told Arthur. “Everyone has off nights. Everyone gets stressed out sometimes.”
“Even Tenzin?”
“Tenzin is the exception to most rules,” she muttered.
“Okay, baby, you’re done.” Arthur smacked Paulo’s butt and sent him on his way. “Don’t let me catch you calling me normal again. And tell Carrie I’m ready for her.”
Paulo gave them both a shake of his hips before he walked back to the floor. “Carreeeeeee!”
Chloe smiled at the easy camaraderie between her fellow dancers. She was a couple of years older than most of them, but they still made her feel welcome even though it was her first show in two years.
