Page 43 of Emerge

"Holy shit." I stood on wobbly legs and pulled Riley against my chest, as Blake stumbled backwards a little bit. "You okay there, Blake?"

"Fine. Just fine." He had a hand on his chest and was panting.

I laughed. Fine was an understatement.

* * *

"I don't knowif I can handle dancing for long." I parked Blake's car in an empty space in front of the dance studio. "My legs are still really stiff."

Riley unbuckled her seatbelt and turned toward me, putting her hand on my cheek. I loved when she did that. I'd always been a touchy-feely guy, but with Riley's touches, I felt as if she was touching my soul. "Just try. If it's too much, you can watch."

"Oh, I definitely like watching." I winked as her face turned pink.

We hadn't talked about what had happened just a few short hours before. It had been hot as hell and I couldn't wait to explore what else the three, or hell maybe even four of us, would do in the bedroom.

Riley was unlike anyone I'd ever been with. It seemed like overnight she had blossomed into her nickname, a vixen. I could have been having truly mind-numbing sex if only we had discovered each other sooner.

For three years she'd been right there in front of us, and we hadn't seen her because we'd had our eyes closed.

"What are you thinking about?" She grabbed her bag with her dance shoes from the backseat. "Wait, let me guess..."

"Can you blame me?" I grinned. I wasn't about to tell her all the mushy stuff I was thinking.

We got out of the car and headed inside Spotlight Studio. I felt like we hadn't danced in forever. The competition in Hawaii was a few weeks away, but I didn't know if we'd be ready. She would be, but I was unsure if my legs would be able to handle all the dancing.

Bernardo greeted us with a huge smile and even bigger hugs. I was ready to put the work in to make up for the lost time.

"How are you feeling?" Bernardo looked down at my legs as I sat down to put on my dance shoes.

We had told him I had a nasty fall and we weren't sure about our plan to dominate the dance competition in Hawaii. It was just around the corner, and if I was honest with myself, who knew what the next few days and weeks would bring.

"I'm great. We'll see how today goes." I did have my ability to pick up on the steps on sight, but that didn't help with the connection needed for each dance.

I'd always had this innate ability to learn easily by sight. Too bad that skill didn't extend to written words or numbers. It was like learning a foreign language. What good was knowing the square root of something if I was protecting a castle anyway?

I'd never given much thought to ballroom dancing when I'd seen it before, but now I found myself analyzing songs on the radio to see what ballroom dances they'd fit.

Once my shoes were tied, I took Riley's arm and led her to the center of the main floor. When we were dancing, it was just her and me; everything else faded away.

"Let's work on smooth first." Bernardo turned on the music and we began gliding around the dance floor.

Over the next two weeks, we would run through each dance and finetune the technique and showmanship.

I made it about halfway through the lesson before my shins felt like they were about to explode, and I had to sit the rest of the lesson out. Twenty minutes was better than expected and we'd be dancing less than two minutes per dance with plenty of rest time between each dance heat.

I picked up my phone and opened the message I had from Blake.

Blake: When are you and Riley going to be back?

Me: Why? You ready for more of what happened this morning?

Blake: Always down for that, but no. Just wondering.

Me: I was going to take Riley out to dinner, so maybe an hour and a half?

Blake: I think you should come home as soon as you're done there.

Me: Did something happen?

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