Page 9 of Desire

“Hi,” she replies much more assuredly.

“I-It’s been a long time.” My cocky nature leaves me, and I sound like a schoolboy with his first crush.

“It really has.” Elise nibbles at the edge of her plump, rosy lips, and I can feel my dick stirring in my workout pants. I surreptitiously place my hands over my groin to hide it.

“You look amazing, Elise.”

“I can say the same about you. You’ve certainly muscled up.”

Her chest is rising and falling rapidly, and I can see she’s as affected by our unexpected meeting as I am.

“All part of being a dancer. I need to be able to swing my partners around.”

“I bet you’re good at that.” Her face flushes crimson. “I mean…”

“Don’t worry. I know what you mean.”

I wink at her, and she smiles back. It’s one of those smiles that warms your heart and stirs your loins even more.

“Next,” Leah, the producer, shouts, and I’m ushered away from Elise before we have a chance to say anything further. Turning around, I see her watching me as I leave. Alexis approaches her, but it’s only at the last minute she takes her eyes off me. The show just got interesting…fascinating, in fact.

It seems to take forever to speak to all the celebrities in the room. There are rock stars, soap stars, politicians, some person who was famous for writing a letter to the president, and then there’s Elise. She’s by far the classiest of the contestants and the most famous. She’s Hollywood royalty. Why would she agree to appear on this show? You’d think it would be beneath her, but then I did read last year she’d taken a break from acting. Maybe this was the only way for her to make a comeback.

Reluctantly I follow the other professional dancers into the canteen for lunch. It’s the usual affair of pasta and vegetables. I’m sure the show’s nutritionists think that’s all we eat. When you’re a man of six foot two, dancing fourteen hours a day, you need a lot of calories in your intake because you burn thousands. I take two helpings of pasta and three of the vegetables before looking around for somewhere to sit. Elise is already sitting alone at a table, pushing a few vegetables around her plate. I make my way over to her, despite her aura telling everyone she needs some time to herself—I’ve never been one to listen to that kind of crap.

“This seat taken? No, good. I’ll sit here then.” I pull the canteen style chair out and park my toned buttocks on it before she even has a chance to say no. Her mouth opens as if to tell me she’d rather be alone but shuts again shortly afterward without having said a word. “I still can’t believe you’re one of the celebrities. Do you think there is any way we can rig it so we can dance together?”

I shovel a spoonful of pasta and vegetables into my mouth after I speak.

“You’d be better off with someone else. I’ll probably have two left feet.”

“I seem to remember you were an excellent dancer in high school. Do you remember the prom? We did that dance together and wowed the entire school.”

Elise smiles—it reaches the dimples on the sides of her cheeks.

“And you’ve been wowing your audiences ever since, if I’ve heard right.”

“You’ve followed my career?” I’m shocked to hear she knows what I’ve been doing.

“I’m sorry to say, no. My life took a different turn after you and I lost touch. They gave us information sheets on your backgrounds, following the meet and greet.” She points to her bag on the floor, which has paperwork hanging out of it. “To be honest, I know very little about the show or the professional dancers.”

“Nice to know you’ve done some research.”

“I only signed up a few days ago. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind since then. I’m sorry.”

“Have you at least watched the show before?” I tease playfully, but it falls flat and backfires when Elise pushes her plate away, having barely eaten anything.

“Not really.”

“Why choose to be on it then? You’re a Hollywood star, and a household name.”

During the majority of our conversation, she’s been looking directly at me, but now she lowers her head and gazes at the table.

“I’m not the name I once was. I made a decision that changed that, and I need the show to give me my confidence back. I need to know I did the right thing.”

“Right thing?”

Placing my spoon down, I reach out to take her hand, but she pulls it away from me.

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