Page 154 of The First Taste
With that, he lumbers by me, headed back toward the door that he first entered through. I don’t quite know what else to say.
But that turns out to be a good thing, because he soon disappears through the doorway, slamming the door closed behind him.
I’m left blinking at the wall where he disappeared, feeling inexplicably let down.
Calum
“Ah, there he is now,” Basil says.
I step through the doorway at 7:59, looking around at the dancers at their barres. Kaia is standing at the front of the right barre; she clearly took my advice to heart.
Pursing my lips, I set my water bottle down. I glance at Bas. “Are you going to begin?”
Bas shoots me a glare and then turns around, shaking his head. He raises his arms. “Okay, everyone. Let’s start off in first position…”
As he continues, I prowl around the room. I’m not in a particularly good mood; I started off my morning with a conference call with some bad news about my company’s stock. Now I’m here and still feeling angry.
I channel it into ballet. One of the greatest things about ballet is that you can act out your fear and anger and hatred onstage. Even greater is being a teacher and having the class make mistakes.
And this class makes a lot of mistakes. I correct every single imperfect arch and bow, remind people that their posture is essential, and always push every dancer to their god’s honest limit.
Three more dancers leave in tears. Everybody else is left shaken by the end. I sit down, acting as though I need to fix my pant leg. Everyone is out of the rehearsal space like rats on a sinking ship. Even Basil hightails it out of the room.
But when the room is empty, there is still one other person. Kaia closes the door and locks it, turning to me. Putting a hand on her hip, she cocks her head.
“You’re going to get yourself fired,” she says levelly.
Cracking my knuckles, I push myself to my feet. “What, you can’t take a little heat?”
Kaia wrinkles her nose, shaking her head. She takes a sip out of her water bottle. “If you get canned, my chances of staying in the company are slim to none.”
My lips curve upward. She doesn’t realize how good she is. Emma and Basil mentioned her performance during the auditions. She definitely would have been on their short list without me saying so.
But I will keep that close to my vest for now.
“I’m not going to be fired. I basically bankroll this entire place.” Taking a last sip of water out of my water bottle, I cast my gaze down over Kaia’s slender frame.
She’s perfection today in a hot pink leotard, light pink tights, and a gauzy white dance skirt. To top it all off, there is a pink ribbon holding back her long blonde hair. That ribbon makes her look even more innocent than she is.
It makes me think of how good she’s going to look wearing the same ribbon in her hair while she takes my cock deep in her throat and lets me fuck her mouth.
“Are you listening?” she asks, her brow furrowing.
One side of my mouth hitches up. “No. Are you ready to start work?”
Her hazel eyes go wide. “What?”
Stretching my arms out, I shoot her a quelling smile. “I’m supposed to tutor you,” I remind her.
She blushes, but she looks relieved. “Oh. Uhhh…” She glances toward the door. “I guess now is as good a time as any. I just thought we were going to start after I had some choreography to work on.”
She winces and looks down at her right foot. “Sleeping Beauty has essentially the same combinations in every iteration since the dawn of time.” I nod toward her foot. “Take care of that. Then we’ll start.”
The door knob jiggles. I walk to the door, spying Bas through the door. Opening it, I step aside.
Basil enters, his suspicious gaze going from me to Kaia. Luckily she is already across the room, sitting on the ground and peeling off her pointe shoe.
“Why was the door locked?” Basil asks me in a hushed tone. “You can’t be in a locked room with a dancer, Calum. Not with Honor, not with…” He glances at Kaia, as if trying to place her. “Whatever her name is.”
