Page 24 of Fools in Love

“There really isn’t anything more on it, other than a few reviews of the show since Isabella took over for you.” He showed her those.

She read, soaking in each and every word. One reviewer described Isabella as stiff with a serious lack of emotion in her dancing. Another said that it was the most dispassionate display that they had seen all year.

The more they read about Isabella taking over for her, the more it seemed that everyone had really been looking forward to seeing her dance instead.

“Was she really that bad?” Tom asked as he put his phone away.

“No.” Kate frowned. “But then again, she was my understudy. She practiced when I wasn’t there. At times, to begin with, we practiced side by side. But I was too focused on my own form and portraying my character to even look in her direction. Then again, I would have thought Gabriel Léandre would have spotted any issues and chosen someone else if he didn’t like what Isabella was giving him.”

“So, the question is, why would your partner dump you for Isabella then?” Tom asked. “Rumors were that they were an item.”

Kate frowned at this. “No.” She shook her head. “There’s no way. Dmitri is…” She dropped off as she bit her lip, remembering she’d been sworn to secrecy.

“Gay?” Tom asked.

Kate shook her head. “Not all male dancers are gay.”

“I didn’t mean to assume,” Tom added.

“No, at one point, Dmitri dated men. I walked in on him and his old partner once. But in the past year he’d confided in me that he’d found someone new. Someone he really wanted to be with. He didn’t give me a name, only that it was a woman this time. Anyway, I’m sure the rumors are just a misdirection somehow from the real reason. Maybe he did just… slip.”

“How do you stop yourselves from slipping all over the stage?” Tom asked, shifting slightly. His knee brushed up against her good one, and she felt her heart rate spike.

“There are many ways to stop slipping. For big performances, a sort of wax is placed on the stage. For practices, dancers can dampen the bottoms of their shoes.”

“What did Dmitri use that day?”

Kate shrugged. “I didn’t ask or check. We trusted one another.” She felt her heart sink slightly. “It’s hard to recover after something like that.”

He was silent for a moment, and when she glanced over at him, she realized he was staring off over the water.

The sun was finally setting, and she felt her stomach growl. When she was dancing, she would be on her feet for almost ten hours a day, either walking to and from SAB or dancing in classes, which meant she had a very tight eating schedule and her calories all laid out for her each day. Since returning home, she’d just eaten whatever she’d felt like or whatever had been set in front of her. The first few days, that hadn’t been a lot due to her medications.

Now, however, if she didn’t get back on some sort of schedule, she would be fighting the same weight issues she had as a youth.

“How about we head to Baked?” she suggested and was thankful when he smiled and then helped lift her from the sand.

She hadn’t meant to lean on him so much but ended up plastering her body against his. He stilled, his eyes moving to her lips.

“Kate.” Her name was a whisper in the warm air.

She didn’t know what caused her move, or even who moved first, her or him. The moment their lips touched, it was as if she’d been dancing for an entire day. Her breath hitched and her heart raced as her body arched into his even more.

The taste of him was almost too much. Every fiber of her being ached for more.

Her fingers dug into his jacket, holding onto him as if he was her lifeline. His hands snaked up and buried in her hair, pulling it free from the ponytail she’d had it in. When it fell around her face, he groaned and tipped his head slightly until his lips ran over her neck.

A shiver of excitement raced through her entire body the moment his lips touched just below her earlobe. His warm breath played along her skin, causing bumps to rise over her everywhere.

“Tom,” she sighed and leaned her head back, watching the sky grow darker above them as he continued to trail kisses over her neck.

Then, she shifted. It was stupid, really. She’d been so focused on the pleasure that she’d totally forgotten about her leg. Forgotten that she couldn’t trust her own body to do something as simple as hold its own weight.

Stars burst behind her eyes. White hot pain seared her mind as her entire body buckled. If not for Tom’s strong arms around her, she would have crumpled to the sand beneath them.

Instead, she felt her entire body go numb and weightless as Tom lifted her in his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he said next to her ear.