Page 48 of Silent Secrets

Grace walks with me to the ballroom where the lessons are being held, and we find the guys are already there. Their heads shoot up when the two of us walk in and I can see that they want to ask why we’re late and why we’re together, but luckily no one opens their mouth.

I glance past the other three until my eyes meet Kai’s. He looks better than he did last night, but I also can’t see his torso. When he smiles, I return it in kind. I’m just glad that he seems like he’s doing better.

My eyes wander to Caiden, who is leaning against the wall on the other side of Kai. He’s smirking as his eyes drag up and down my body, obviously liking what he sees. I shake my head at his ridiculousness, but can’t help remembering the kiss that he’d given me the night before that had blown my mind.

Hunter is standing on the other side of Caiden, eyes narrowed and his usual scowl in place. The moment he realizes he has my attention, he turns away. But he’s not fast enough for me to miss how his eyes dragged up and down my body, just like Caiden’s. So maybe there is something to what Grace told me about them being drawn to me as I’m drawn to them.

Fuck, I’m totally not getting into that right now.

“Good morning, kitten.”

Marcos is suddenly standing in front of me, startling me as he cuts off my view of the other three. I shake my head as our eyes clash, a grin on his face as he makes sure that I watch the way his eyes move over my body before returning to mine.

“Looking hot as always. Are you ready to dance?” He extends his hand to me, bowing low.

I laugh because what else am I supposed to do when he acts like this? Placing my hand in his, I let him lead me to the center of the dance floor. I freeze when he pulls me into his arms.

“Wait a second. Aren’t you going to tell me the steps before we start?” I might love dancing, but I don’t enjoy dancing a dance that I don’t know.

“It’ll be easier if I explain as we do it, kitten. Trust me.”

Grace clears her throat. “We should probably wait for the instructor.”

“You’ll be waiting awhile,” Caiden snickers. When Grace turns to glare at him, he just smiles. “I just want you to know that it wasn’t my fault this time.”

Glancing over my shoulder at him, I frown. What isn’t his fault? And what does he mean by this time?

“He was incompetent,” Marcos tells Grace as his hand lands on my hip. “I’ll teach Hadley the dances.”

And without another word, he does just that. It shouldn’t be so easy for me to trust him, and yet, my body relaxes in his hold as soon as the words leave his mouth. I lift my chin to meet his eyes and then I fall under his spell as he walks me through the first dance until I have it down before moving onto the next. Time has no meaning as I lose myself in Marcos, in the dances that he teaches me.

“Why are the rest of us even here?” Hunter growls, drawing me from the spell I seemed to be under.

I jerk away from Marcos, blinking as I come back to the surrounding room. A glance at the clock tells me I’ve been dancing with Marcos for nearly two hours.

“Because she must dance them with each of you so that she is used to different partners,” Grace tells him with a shake of her head. “If there’s anyone who doesn’t need to be here, it’s me. Seeing as you’re so bored, why don’t you dance with her next? This time with music.”

Frowning, I turn my attention to Hunter, who is scowling at me. What a surprise—not. I turn to Marcos with a smile and a nod. “Thank you for teaching me the dances.”

“It was my honor, kitten. But don’t think that you’re getting rid of me. I have plans for once we’re done with this—plans with you.”

“Plans with me?” I want to ask more, but Hunter has made his way over, clearing his throat when I don’t immediately turn to him.

I squeeze my eyes shut and fight against the urge to just ignore him. As I turn to face him, I try to keep my face neutral. He doesn’t move, eyes focused over my head instead of on me.

“Well?” I’m sure my impatience is bleeding into my voice, but I don’t know how anyone would expect me to behave any other way with this brute of a man. At least I haven’t lost my temper already. I consider that an accomplishment. “Are we doing this or not?”

Hunter’s head jerks down so our eyes meet before nodding. Then he’s pulling me into his arms as the music begins. I’m surprised by how well he dances. For such a large man, he moves fluidly, elegantly as he leads me across the floor—even with as tense as I am in his arms.

Forcing myself to relax, I focus on the unfamiliar music. I may not know the piece, but I can feel the emotion behind every note that makes its way to my ears. A smile along my lips and tears threatening to spill as I feel the notes lifting me higher and higher. It’s so beautiful.

We stop moving as the song ends. My eyes, that I didn’t remember closing, slowly open and I find Hunter staring at me. He looks like he’s trying to figure out a puzzle, and I guess I’m that puzzle.

Not wanting to deal with it or him, I pull away and dip into a small curtsey. “Thank you for the dance.”

Without waiting for a response, I turn to the other two men. “Who’s next?”

I’d only danced a single dance with Hunter, even though Grace had said that I would need to attempt each dance with all four of them. No one calls me out on it as Hunter storms out of the room, the door slamming so hard against the wall that I’m sure there will be a hole in it.

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