Page 41 of When Hearts Awaken

“You won’t mess this up for me.” I slap my knees and draw her attention away.Look at me instead.

Her eyes are wild as her gaze darts from Ian to me, then back, then finally settling on me again. She blows out an exhale.

“This is more important than your promotion. The success of this ballet will impact the bank—my family’s legacy, and you better not mess this up. If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be dancing this role because you’re completely unsuited for it.”

The familiar fire in her eyes sparks again, and a crushing sense of relief washes over me. The fiery minx is back. “Your family’s legacy is none of my business, so don’t you try to pin this on me. It’s not my faultsomeonewas so oblivious he let a sexual predator work under him this entire time without noticing.”

Guilt slices through me. The minx seems to know where the weakest parts of my armor are. Taylor stands up and glares at Ian, then at me.

Ian arches his brow, a sharpness in his eyes.

“Ballet is my life. I live and breathe it. I will do my part.”

Taylor strides in front of me and I’m hit with a whiff of patchouli and vanilla. A spark of awareness lights up my gut. Slowly, I rise from my seat, enjoying the way she needs to arch her head back to glare at me.

The defiance in her eyes awakens the inner beast I struggle to control, tempting me to unleash the turbulent emotions I’ve kept restrained, to overpower and tame my prey.

“You better not disappoint me.” I watch in fascination the way her pulse jumps when I speak.

She gasps, the little sound fanning the flames in my chest and I lean down a fraction, just to drive her crazy.

She narrows her eyes, her voice taking on a throaty tone. “I’mnotdancing for you, Charles.”

The sultry image of her writhing her lithe body in those ballet shoesforme has me almost rearing back in horror.

Slowly, she rises to her tiptoes and whispers, “I’m dancing for myself. Your opinion doesn’t matter. You can take your misogynistic attitude andshove it.”

The fire is now burning hot inside my chest. My nerves spark alive at our proximity. Time slows to a crawl and I clench my fingers, fighting an irrational impulse to reach out and feel the rapid pulse feathering her neck.

How will it feel to have her burn me alive?

To feel the flames at the source?

Complete insanity.

Chapter 18

My heart hammers rapidlyin my rib cage as I stomp down the third floor corridor, only lit by two wrought iron sconces.

That strange moment in Sir Ian’s office just now. Charles towering over me, his navy three-piece suit barely restraining his raw masculinity. The way those glacial eyes of his become incandescent.

How the oxygen was sucked out of the room with every inch he closed between us, his head dipping down in those very tiny increments.

He didn’t look like the charming golden prince.

He looked like a ravenous lion, and I was his next meal.

Instead of panicking or my pulse clamoring in fear, my first instinct was to lean into him, to close the remaining inches between us and see what he’d do.

A sensual heat pulses between my legs—a sensation so strange, I almost don’t recognize it.

Until I do.

There’s no way I’m attracted to that arrogant asshole.

A shocked gasp emits from my lips.

No fucking way.

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