Luckily, her commute was short and she arrived on set twenty minutes later. She headed straight to the studio where she'd told Reed to meet her, but he wasn't there yet, which she'd expected since she was a bit early. Placing her dance bag on the shelf to one side of the studio, she pulled out her heel dancer shoes with a cute buckle T-strap over the top of her foot and put them on. She pulled on a loose fitting, light sweater over her leotard for some coverage, since it reached almost to the bottom of her ass.
Next, she began to shimmy out of her leggings, since she was able to work a lot better in her leotard without restriction to her legs. She got down to her knees before she realized that being bare legged would reveal the scar on her leg. Quickly, she slid them back up her legs.
"Shit."
Teagan whirled around, looking for the person who'd just broken the silence around her.
Reed Scott. Of course.
"You scared the crap out of me," she told him, grateful that he hadn’t been able to see her scar from where he was standing for the brief moment her leggings had been down.
"Sorry," he replied, clearly making an effort to look anywhere but at her. "I didn't know you'd be…uh, I mean, I wasn't expecting…"
She rolled her eyes. Actors were so dramatic. "I'm not getting naked, Reed. I was just, uh, putting on my leggings to dance."
"Sure. Right. Yeah." He was rambling, clutching the gym bag over his shoulder. "So, time to get started?"
"Yep. Put your stuff on the shelf and we'll get started," she instructed, doing her best to ignore the butterflies fluttering in her stomach at the very sight of him. Fuck, he looked even better than he'd looked the last time she'd seen him. Tall, broad shoulders, olive skin under thick black hair with a scruffy beard she remembered was very soft. And those eyes…God, the way those light green eyes pierced through her.
He stood you up at the altar, she reminded herself. For a damn movie.
"Sure." He headed toward her and placed his bag on the shelf. "What are we practicing today?"
"It's a pretty short routine today, actually. It shouldn't take us too long." Though she doubted he'd be the quickest learner after his warning yesterday. "Ready?"
He turned around to look at her, his eyes trailing down her body in a way that made her heart pound faster and faster. Suddenly his gaze stopped, pausing on her legs.
Her heart pounded, terrified he could see through her thin leggings to the bump of her scar. But he said nothing, and his gaze kept traveling. She was safe.
Honestly, she was a little surprised he didn't already know about her accident. It hadn’t been a secret. Everyone in her life knew, and she'd certainly expected someone to pass along the message. Or for him to check in, even once.
She'd waited for him in the hospital, expecting him to come. Expecting him to apologize. Expecting him to beg her forgiveness, realize what an idiot he had been and take her back, care for her, return her to health with his love and affection.
That hadn't really worked out.
Finally, his eyes returned to his face, and his tongue slid across his bottom lip. “You look…damn, Teag. You look amazing.”
"Listen, Reed," she began, setting her jaw and sticking out her chin. "We work together. That's it. You don't get to look at me like that anymore."
Reed looked startled, taken aback at her abruptness. Then the saddest look she'd ever seen passed over his face. "You're right. I'm sorry."
"Let's get started." She moved to the center of the studio. "I'll show you today's sequence, and then we'll go through it step by step. Okay?"
He nodded, but said nothing.
Carefully, she posed herself in the center of the room with her toes pointed and her arms around her waist. In one slick move, she sidestepped and kicked one leg out to her left, flipping her hair with the motion. She then tucked her foot, her knee pointed out horizontally from her body and spun in a circle.
On her second spin around, she kicked up high, like an incredibly tall karate kick. When her foot touched back down on the ground, she lunged to the right and threw her arms out, tossing back her head with the motion. She curved her spine outwards, pulling her stomach in as she moved her arms in a circular motion toward herself.
She twirled then, spinning on the tips of her toes while keeping her eyes on one stationary spot so she didn't get dizzy. After her fourth spin, she shoved her arms down by her sides and lifted her chin. With that, she spun back in the direction she’d just come from and leaped multiple times across the room with her arms out and her fingers pointed.
Finally, she came down on one foot and spun in several circles before coming to a stop in front of Reed. "Annnnnd, that's it."
"Shit, that looked complicated as hell," he admitted. "Though you looked incredible doing it."
She ignored his compliment. Or, rather, she tried. Admittedly, her heart pounded a little harder. But, that was being ignored for now. "Let's go over the first step." She repeated the side steps and kicking her leg to the left. "Just like that. Let's see what you can do."
Reed followed in her footsteps, and honestly, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't great either. "Like that?"
"Close," she admitted. "Let's go through it again."
They went through the first few steps multiple times, and over the course of a few hours, he had the majority of the routine down and almost perfect. She figured even if it wasn't perfect, he was hot enough to capture the audience.
"I think we're pretty good to go," she admitted after five hours of practice. "Filming starts soon anyway."
Reed nodded, panting. "I need a shower. That was a hell of a workout."
Teagan tried not to think about him under the water, lathering soap over his naked body. "Do you feel like you've got the routine down? Feel confident?"
He nodded, though he was still panting. Sweat pooled on his chest and back. He grabbed at the top of his shirt and lifted it over his head. Teagan turned away quickly, not wanting to stare at his eight-pack or that sexy V that dipped into his sweatpants.
"I feel pretty good about it. Will you be at filming?"
She nodded. "Yes, but only for help if needed. You should be able to do this on your own."
"I've got this," he repeated. "You're a good teacher. As talented as I remember. Honestly, I'm…"
"You're what?" She dared him to continue along that line of thinking, after she'd already warned him that he didn't get to know her life anymore.
"Surprised," he finished, his tongue sliding across his bottom lip. "Surprised you're a teacher, or, uh, choreographer. I expected to see you in my position, starring in films. Or on stage. You were headed for Broadway. That role you landed…it was your break-out role."
Don't remind me. She'd turned down the role of a lifetime on Broadway to marry the love of her life. Sure, she hadn't told him that, but she also hadn't expected him not to show up at their wedding.
"Reed," she warned. "Don't. Okay? Just…just don't."
He nodded slowly, but clearly was having a hard time with holding back what he wanted to say. "You're a great teacher, Teag. The best. You just…you never wanted this."
"Well, I do now." She lifted her chin defiantly. "Is that okay with you?"
He looked startled at her animosity, but she wasn't sorry. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm overstepping." He moved closer to her, like he was walking toward his gym bag, but she knew he wasn't. "I just…I think we should talk. We need to talk about everything that happened."
Teagan shook her head. "That moment passed eight years ago, Reed. There's nothing left to talk about. It's over. We're over."
"I know," he replied, looking unsure despite his guarantee. "But, like you said, we have to work together."
"And we just did. Pretty well, I might add." She walked over to her bag and grabbed it. "Stop looking for problems where there aren't any, okay? I got over you a long time ago. We're not young kids anymore. Despite my feelings—or whatever they are—for you, we can work together and be professional."
"Hatred, specifically," she clarified, almost wanting to laugh at the dramatics with which she said it. "And a few dashes of extreme anger."
"Ah, those feelings." He chuckled halfheartedly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Got it. Loud and clear."
"Tomorrow, six in the morning." She slung her bag over her shoulder. "Here. Don't be late."
"I'll be here." He grabbed a fresh shirt from his bag and pulled it on. "See you on set later."
With that, she walked out of the studio and quickly rushed to the closest dressing room, collapsing on the small futon inside. She wasn't even sure whose dressing room this was, but, damn, her heart was still racing. Staring up at the ceiling, she felt the tears slipping down her temples.
She hated that he could still have this effect on her. That she still cared. It'd been eight years, and yet seeing him made it feel like yesterday. Her body still reacted to his exactly like it once had when they'd been together, tangled up in each other regularly. But it was more than the way he looked or the chemistry between them. It was that ease and comfort, which, despite her anger, was undeniably still between them.
Like they still fit as easily now as they once had so many years ago.
Teagan wiped at her eyes, pushing away her tears. She'd cried enough over Reed Scott. He didn't deserve another second of it, and she wasn't going to give it to him. Climbing back up off the futon, she stood and re-centered herself with a deep breath.
She could do this. She could be a professional. She would not fall back in love with Reed Scott.
Chapter Three
The first week of filming was a whirlwind in front of the camera. By six in the morning, Reed was at the studio practicing with Teagan for several hours, then on set filming until close to midnight, then going home and studying his lines for the next day before catching barely three or four hours of sleep—only to repeat the entire cycle again the next day.
"We're going a little tougher today," Teagan informed him when he arrived back on set the following Monday morning. They'd had a break over the weekend, which had given him a small chance to recharge his batteries. "Last week was basic steps, and it's time to ramp it up a notch."
"That was basic?" Reed groaned and ran his hand over his forehead. Last week had been damn near impossible, and while he'd gotten a good handle on the moves and been able to perform well on camera, it certainly felt nothing close to basic.
Teagan nodded. "You did well, so I'm sure this won't be as hard as you're thinking."
"Wow, a compliment." Reed smiled, enjoying the short-lived feeling of a nice moment between them. Working together had not been easy—and even that was an understatement.
Teagan was clearly still angry, which he understood, even if he didn't like it. Standing her up at the altar was the worst day of his life, and to this day, there's nothing he felt more ashamed of than that. He'd had his reasons, but as every day went by, they seemed harder and harder to make sense of. His excuses felt flimsy when he reflected back on everything that had happened.
At the time, he'd thought he was doing the best thing for both of them. They were young, so young, and had their entire lives and careers in front of them. Teagan had just been offered an insanely amazing break out role in a Broadway show, and was preparing to turn it all down to marry him. He'd wanted more for her than that—she deserved more than just being his wife and living in the suburbs behind a white picket fence. But they were in love, and there was never a possibility that she'd choose anything over him.
So, he’d made the choice for her.
Then a few days after their wedding day, he was offered a role in a small indie film that he'd thought would go nowhere. The timing seemed like fate—something he had to pursue on the heels of leaving a relationship he’d thought would be his forever.
Surprisingly, the movie won contests and festivals and blew up into one hell of a box office hit. His fame had skyrocketed and he was catapulted into a career he'd longed for but wasn't nearly mature enough for. Hence the partying and women and drinking.
And why he'd never looked Teagan up again.
Still, it bothered him to know she'd lived a whole life in the last eight years without him. She seemed…wounded. He wasn’t sure how, but there was a pain underneath her anger toward him that felt like it went deeper. Like it wasn’t just him who’d hurt her. There was more he didn’t know, but all he really wanted to do was sweep back into her life and fix everything he'd broken.
It was insane he felt that way, especially after so many years apart, but every day he spent around her, he couldn't deny it. Despite the wounds she was hiding, she was every bit the beautiful woman he'd fallen in love with—fiercely hardworking, graceful and poised, and though it had yet to be directed toward him, he'd seen her sweet side with other people. He'd seen her laugh at others’ jokes, that perfect melodic laughter he'd thought of so many times over the last eight years.
She was lithe and lively, and despite having been handed a difficult lot in life, she was thriving. Nothing had stopped her, and she hadn’t slowed down for even a second. Teagan was a fighter, and right now, she was fighting him.
"I'm a professional, Reed," Teagan reminded him, slipping on a pair of fuzzy leg warmers over her shins and the tops of her shoes. That, plus the leotard, leggings, and loose-fitting shirt she was wearing were incredibly sexy, showing off her curves in all the right ways, but he kept those thoughts to himself. "It's not a compliment. It's just an observation as your choreographer."
"Right, don't let it go to my head, you still hate me, yada yada." Reed rolled his eyes. His irritation with the whole situation was harder to keep under wraps when he was this tired. "I got it, okay? You've made it abundantly clear that you'd rather be anywhere else but here with me."
Teagan looked taken aback for a moment, blinking slowly as she stared at him. "I didn't…I mean, I don't—"
"It's fine," he cut her off, not wanting her to have to apologize. She deserved her anger, but that didn't make it any less difficult for him to deal with daily. "Let's just get started."
She nodded, then walked to the center of the room. "Today, it's a two-person sequence. You'll be dancing these on camera with Elena. I'll show you the choreography, but then you and she will practice more together before this afternoon."
Elena Stravinsky was his female co-star on Break Down, and their love story was what carried the plot. She was absolutely gorgeous—blonde, tall, and already well known for her dancing. Being paired with her on set was intimidating because she was thousands of times better at it than he was.
"Got it," he replied, joining her in the center of the room.
Teagan took his right hand in hers, facing him. "Stand still for a moment, but then when I come in and toss my hair, spin me." She took his hand but stood beside him, their arms outstretched as they faced the same direction. With a small leap and graceful spin of her legs through the air, she turned into his body and landed squarely chest to chest. His heart was pounding beneath his ribs, aroused at both the beauty of her movements as well as the closeness with which they stood.
Next, Teagan ran her hands up the sides of his body, the backs of her fingers grazing his uncovered skin until she reached his neck. Anchoring her hands behind his neck, she tipped her head backward and flipped her hair from one side to the other in a dramatic twist of her neck.
Watching her neck elongated, open and supple…he wanted to lean forward and nip at her skin. He wanted to run his tongue from her clavicle up to her ear, and then whisper everything he was really thinking to her.
"Now," she instructed, leaving one hand free for him to grab.
He grasped her fingers in his and lifted her arm over her head, spinning her in a circle and catching her as she dipped backward toward the floor, hooking her leg around his knee and sliding into his body. She was right against him, pressing into him and it was taking everything in him to focus solely on the routine.
"L
ift," she said next.
He slid his free hand to her waist and pulled her up and over his head where she delicately moved her arms as if riding a wave. Her knees bent toward him, her legs pressed against his chest. His face was mere centimeters from her stomach, and he found himself struggling more and more with resisting touching every inch of her. He wanted to run his hands across her body in the same way she'd just done to him—even if that had just been choreography.
"Spin, and down."
He turned, spinning them around together, then slowly descending as he slid her body down against his. Her breasts passed by his face, then she was looking at him, and they were pressed so tightly together, he never wanted to let go.
"This is where you'll kiss her…" Teagan's voice was breathless, her eyes flitting from his down to his lips. They paused for a moment, as if unsure whether they should follow the routine exactly…or unsure if they could resist.
Reed lowered his head, giving her the chance to touch her lips to his if she just allowed herself. He wanted her to more than anything. God, he wanted to taste her again, devour every inch of her.
"And then back into a spin," she finished, pushing away and allowing him to raise her arm once more and twirl her away from him. She let go of his hands and took a deep breath. "And that's basically the entire thing."
"Can we go through it again?" he asked, mostly for his own selfish purposes or the fact that he was harder than a rock at having just had his hands all over her, but also because it was going to take some serious acting on his part to make this look as hot with Elena as it felt at that moment with Teagan.
She took a deep breath. "The key to today's scene will be your chemistry with Elena. This dance should have erotic undertones, since it's the first scene where your character is beginning to have feelings for Elena's."
He nodded, aware of the scene he was filming today. It was pretty tame, but the script certainly had its risqué moments. There was a sex scene scheduled for next week that he wasn't looking forward to at all. As sexy as those scenes seemed on film, acting in them was clunky and uncomfortable with dozens of people watching and recording the whole thing.
BARE_A Hollywood Romance Page 2
