Page 40

The sight of it stopped me for half a second.

Then it irritated the hell out of me.

Jade glanced from him to me. “You know him?”

“Unfortunately.”

She looked at Declan again. “Complicated?”

“So complicated even I don’t understand it.”

Jade nodded as though that made perfect sense.

Behind her, Declan started moving.

Toward us.

I looked back at the pole.

Jade looked at me. “Still want another?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth twitched. “All right, runner.”

I put my hands where she had taught me.

I could feel Declan watching. That should not have mattered.

I had been doing this before he walked in.

I had not known he was coming.

I was not going to scramble off a stage like a guilty child because he had decided to look at me that way.

Jade put one steadying hand at my hip. “Tuck.”

I did.

“Hips.”

I lifted. This time the movement came easier. My body knew the sequence now. Knees. Core. Hips. Up.

My hair spilled toward the stage. The room tilted.

Jade’s hand stayed firmly against me. “Good,” she said. “Hold.”

I did. For one second. Two. Then I came down.

My feet hit the floor.

I lifted my head, throwing all that hair back out of my face.

Declan was closer now. Still watching. His jaw looked carved out of stone.

I smiled at him. Not sweetly.

That might have been a mistake.