Page 86 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10
I smiled at him. "Good boy."
"Kristen's right though," said Bryce. "I'm not sure how long I'll be able to contain myself when you're out there dancing."
"Are you sure you're okay with me doing this? I'm basically going to show the entire world my ass."
"I want you to do whatever it takes to beat Gabriela, even if it means showing the entire world your ass. They can look all they want, but as soon as the performance is over, it's all mine."
I swallowed hard. "How soon after the performance?" I asked with a wink.
He shrugged. "I dunno. I might not be able to wait for you to get off stage." He put his hands on my hips.
Oh my God. Is he serious? He seems kind of serious.
"Alright you two," said Kristen. "Keep it in your pants for another five minutes. I think Gabriela's performance is almost over."
I looked back out through the curtains just in time to see Gabriela unclip her bra and throw it into the audience. She shimmied for a second and then turned back around to walk back to center stage. I was happy to see that she was at least wearing pasties and hadn't just completely flashed the judges. No one seemed to care, but it was pretty obvious that her tits were fake. Just like everything about her.
She danced around a little more and then finished by making out with one of her dancers.
"I hope that guy realizes he just contracted AIDS," said Kristen.
As soon as the music stopped, Gabriela put her arm over her chest and laughed like she was actually embarrassed to be half naked on stage. Owen Harris came out and was about to start talking when a hand on my shoulder pulled me away from the curtain.
"What are you three doing?!" asked Tim. He looked exasperated. "I've failed as a teacher if you don't know that you should neverwatch the performance right before yours. You should have been meditating."
"Sorry, I just wanted to see the competition," I said. "Do you know what scores the other girls got?"
"China forgot about the whole strip part of the dance and ended up with a score in the low twenties. Germany got a 37 and Russia got a 41. Those are good scores, but they're both beatable with the routine we have planned."
"Good, because there's no way I'm walking away with anything less than gold."
"That's the spirit. Okay, one quick thing before we begin. You know how we practiced ripping shirts open for that one part?"
"Yes."
"Well, instead of that, during that part you're going to pull these tabs." Tim felt around on Bryce's morph suit until he located a little piece of fabric sticking out. "Got it?"
I reached out and felt the tab Tim was talking about. "Yeah, okay."
"Great. Kristen, take Alina to the curtain behind center stage. Bryce, follow me. I have a last minute change I want to go over with you."
"What's the last minute..." I started, but Tim had already pulled Bryce away. Not only was I curious about the last minute change,but I had hoped for a few final words of encouragement from Bryce.
I walked with Kristen around the perimeter of curtains until we were on the spot marked as center stage. I peered through the curtain to look for Gabriela's scores on the jumbotron, and...Holy fucking shit.The auditorium had been intimidating when it was empty, but now that it was completely full, it was a million times worse. Kristen was right that I couldn't see the faces of the audience, but I could still tell that they were there. The cameras were just as intimidating. Not only were they showing HD close-ups on massive TV screens mounted on the wall, but they were broadcasting those same images to millions of people around the world. My knees started to feel weak and I grabbed onto Kristen, nearly knocking her over.
"Oh God," I said.
"What's wrong? Shit, did she get a perfect score?"
"What? No. I didn't see her score. I just saw the crowd. Kristen, that's so many people. How am I going to do this?"
"Alina, you're going to be amazing. Just focus on hitting your first few moves and you'll be fine. Now, let's figure out what scores Gabriela got so you know what you have to beat."
Kristen and I looked out through the curtains again and located her scores on the jumbotron. It wasn't broken down by judge, but it was split into the two categories. She scored 28 out of 30 for technical difficulty, and only 15 out of 30 for creativity and sensuality.
"Damn," said Kristen. "Only 15 for sensuality after she pulled her tits out and made out with someone?"
I shrugged and scanned the other scores. Gabriela had scored the highest of anyone for sensuality. The Chinese girl had only scored a 4 in that category, and the other girls both had sensuality scores in the low teens. "It looks like that's the best score yet in that category though. And overall she's winning with 43 out of 60 total points."
