“Thanks!” Lillian climbed to her feet, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “I hope I didn’t make too many mistakes.”
“Are you even serious right now?” Jack gawked at her. “That was flawless.”
Lillian shrugged, pacing to the other side of the room to retrieve her water bottle.
“You, my friend, are in trouble.” Mia elbowed him with a knowing smile.
“What?” Jack tore his eyes away from Lillian long enough to meet his friend’s gaze. “Seriously, what?” He shook off his Lillian stupor.
“You like her,” Mia sang in a low whisper.
“Do not.” He could feel his cheeks warming. Lillian was so far out of his league,
“Whatever.” Mia shrugged. “But sparks are going to fly once you two start that schmexy dance you’ve been cooking up for your school project.”
“Schmexy? You’re ridiculous.” He shoved her playfully. “Get out of here.”
“Have fun, you two!” Mia called, waving at Lillian as she headed for the exit.
“Your girlfriend is so sweet to film this for me.” Lillian sank to the floor to stretch her legs and feet. “I’ll be able to use it for tons of applications to schools and dance programs.”
“Mia’s the best.” Jack leaned back on his elbows. “But she’s not my girlfriend. She’s my best friend.”
“Really? I mean, Wylder mentioned that, but she’s so pretty.” Lillian frowned.
“Yeah, but she’s also like a sister, so… gross.” Jack gave a nervous laugh. He hadn’t realized Lillian thought he was with Mia this whole time. Mia was the best person he knew, but there were zero romantic feelings between them.
“We did it.” Lillian beamed at him.
“You did it,” Jack said. “That was all you.”
“I would have never come up with anything remotely as creative as you did. Seriously, Jack, you have so much talent for choreography. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with for your project.”
Lillian’s eyes sparkled with excitement. He’d never heard her be so liberal with her compliments, it startled him.
“Speaking of.” He moved to stand up. “We still have some time left today. If you’re up for it, we could run through the high points of this dance… if you’re game?”
“Sure.” Lillian stood up to join him at the center of the room.
“Okay, the point of the project is to illustrate two opposing emotions using a medium I’m passionate about. Lucky for us, that’s dance.” Jack moved to pace in front of Lillian, excited to finally get to work with her on his project. “I want to illustrate love and hate.”
“Powerful.” Lillian nodded. “Which emotion is mine?”
“Hate,” Jack said hesitantly, not sure how she would respond to his ideas.
“I can work with that.” Lillian smiled.
“I think you could work with anything.” The compliment slipped out without warning, and Jack dropped his glance to the floor, feeling flustered. Jack Butler was never flustered with girls. This uncertainty was a first for him.
“Well, I’ve never danced with a partner before, so I hope I don’t disappoint you.” Lillian didn’t seem to notice his fumbling.
“I’ve never danced with a partner either, so we’ll figure it out together.”
Jack started the music he’d chosen for this piece and set it to repeat on low. “Above all, we’re telling a story,” he explained. “In this story, the guy is hopelessly in love with a woman he can never reach. She is cold and distant, oblivious of him and his feelings for her. She doesn’t even know he exists, yet he’s always dancing around her, aching to hold her. She is perfection, yet fragile as a glass figurine. She could shatter at any moment.”
“Classic unrequited love story.” Lillian nodded.
“With an ultra-modern kick.” Jack raised his brows for emphasis.
“Of course. You wouldn’t be you without something sleek and modern and totally unexpected.” She laughed, the happy sound caught him by surprise. After weeks of working together, she was much more relaxed with him now than she was in the beginning. Yet the intimacy of the dance he was about to teach her had him worried she might withdraw from him again.
“All right, show me what you’ve got.” Lillian shook out her limbs, stretching her arms over her head. “Let’s do this.”
“Yeah, so…” Jack ran his hand through his hair, feeling suddenly nervous. “We’ll just move through it so you can see my part, and I’ll talk you through some of the high points of your part. Then we’ll start breaking down each segment piece by piece later this week.”
“Sounds good.” Lillian stepped closer.
Get it together, man. He took a deep breath, which was a bad idea when her flowery scent overwhelmed him.
Jack took her by the waist as the music restarted. He moved slowly at first, leading her through the steps, impressed when she was able to improvise and keep up with him.
“Here, we turn away from each other.” Jack turned his back on her, leaning his back toward her as she instinctively leaned away. “Perfect. Now turn back to me and push me away. Like you hate me.”
Lillian did as he said, putting her own spin on it, lifting her knee and arching her back as she gracefully pushed him away and fled en pointe into a powerful bourrée.
“Love that move.” Jack gave chase, pulling her back against his chest. “We’re keeping that one.”
Lillian laughed, whirling away from him as they made their way across the studio in an elegant and exciting tug of war of high emotions and deep sensuality. Jack marveled at her ability to follow his lead, picking up on his cues as if she already knew the choreography by heart.
He could almost feel her hate as she pushed him away, leaping back into a pirouette, leaving him without her yet again. True longing rose within him as he chased the unattainable perfection that was Lillian Preston.
A girl like Lillian would never be interested in a small-town guy like him, but that she understood the way his creative mind worked—that she understood exactly what he wanted to say through music and dance—opened his eyes to the possibilities between them. They were opposites. From different worlds, yet somehow, they spoke the same language.
As he pulled her close once more, overpowering the tension in her arms, they turned into a spin. His arms around her, Jack leaned into her frame, dipping her low to the ground. She arched her back, her arms poised perfectly over her head. Their eyes locked as the music came to an end, their faces mere inches apart, breathing the same air. He closed the distance between them, pressing his lips against hers. Lillian gasped in surprise, stunned for a single moment, before her arms wrapped around his shoulders, and she kissed him back.
With his arms beneath her, holding her in their final pose, he could feel her heart thundering against his chest. She tasted like strawberries and mint, her lips as intoxicating as her sweet floral scent.
“Well, that wasn’t in the script.” Mia’s voice startled them apart.
Jack pulled Lillian up to stand beside him, both still breathing hard, her hand clutching tightly to his.
“Don’t quit on my account.” Mia marched across the room. “I just forgot one of my cameras, so I’ll be out of your hair in two seconds, and you can go back to being too cute for words.”
Jack rolled his eyes at the Cheshire grin plastered on Mia’s face.
“Yeah, so… we should do that again,” Lillian said, taking a step away from him, dropping his hand.
“Yeah, you should.” Mia made a show of packing up the camera equipment she forgot.
“The… the dance, I mean.” Lillian’s cheeks flushed a beautiful shade of pink. “We should run through it one more time before we finish for the day.”
“Definitely.” Jack winked, making her blush to the roots of her hair. That was quickly becoming one of his favorite pastimes—making Lillian blush.
“I’m sure you’ll need lots of practice,” Mia added.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?�
�� Jack turned on her, wishing she had better timing for her interruptions. He wasn’t at all sure how Lillian felt about the kiss, and he was anxious to give it another shot, but he didn’t want to scare her away.
16
Lillian
Jack kissed her and then nothing. All week they’d practiced and practiced some more, sharing secret smiles, and nailing every part of the dance like they were always meant to dance together.
But that was ridiculous. One kiss did not a fate make.
Lillian groaned as she rubbed her sore feet. “Again?” She looked up at the evil man that was Jack. “Shouldn’t we save our energy for when Mia gets here to film us?”
He shrugged. “Aren’t you supposed to be the tough ballerina? The one who wouldn’t let a little pain stop her?”
She flopped onto her back with a sigh. She was that tough ballerina he spoke of who’d dance with cracked and bleeding feet. The one who’d been told dancing en pointe was a necessary evil when she was six years old.
Jack lowered himself to the floor with a soft laugh. He leaned back beside her, his shoulder grazing hers. “What’s wrong?”
What was wrong?
She didn’t want to tell him she’d spent the hour before practice on the phone with her mom trying to convince her there was no way she would take Franklin Wellington to the debutant ball. Each day was the same. Her mom called with a new name, a new chance to remind her it would take a gigantic favor for her to have an escort.
And what had she done? “Mom, I found someone from here to take me.”
Her mom had paused like she wasn’t sure if she believed her own daughter. “From the academy, right? Not a townie?”
“Yes, Mom.” Most any boy from the academy would be a perfectly acceptable escort in her mom’s eyes. The problem? She didn’t want to take any of them, and now would show up at her ball in ten days with no one to walk her down the long staircase. Everyone would feel sorry for the poor ballerina. Her mom? She’d be humiliated and furious.
As if her daughter’s single status was a poor reflection on her.
Lillian turned her head to look at Jack. His messy hair curled over his ears, begging for someone to run their fingers through it. He returned her stare, and her gaze fell to his lips. She remembered every second they’d pressed against hers like the memory was burned into her.
Her first kiss.
Not that she’d tell him that little detail.
“Jack?”
He smiled. “Yeah, Lil?”
A laugh burst out of her before she could stop it as a stupid thought rolled through her mind.
“Care to share with the class?” His smile widened.
“I just realized… we’re Jack and Lil.”
He chuckled. “You surprise me, Lillian Preston.”
“How so?”
“You’re just so… human.”
She wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but she could guess. Throughout her life, she’d been called a robot in her single-minded pursuit of ballet. “I’ve always been human, Jack.” She sat up, unable to stand his scrutinizing gaze any longer. Pushing to her feet, she strode to the center of the room to prepare to run through the dance again.
“Did I say something wrong?”
She shook her head, willing the tears away. Lillian Preston didn’t cry.
“Lil.” Jack jumped to his feet and stepped in front of her. He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up. “Talk to me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She shifted her eyes away. “Because you’re you. Jack Butler has probably never met someone who didn’t like him. You don’t know what it’s like, Jack. The pressure…”
“I don’t know what it’s like?” He stepped back. “Let me ask, Lil, do you know anything about me at all?”
She knew he was kind, that his best friend adored him. That he was a heck of a dancer, but an even better choreographer. But something told her that wasn’t what he’d meant.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “My family… I don’t have a hope of the opportunities that come so easy to you. Going to the academy, being from a wealthy family… you will get anywhere you want to go. Some of us don’t have the option of focusing on one thing, of letting it control our lives.” He approached her again, putting a hand on each of her shoulders. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have everything, because you deserve it, but it’s good to see another side of you. Yes, a human side. You aren’t perfect, Lillian. I know that now, and it’s the most beautiful thing about you.”
“Did you…” Had he just called her beautiful? Her heart stuttered in her chest. She’d experienced so many changes in the last month. She finally had friends in Wylder and Devyn. She’d realized ballet wasn’t the only way to move, challenging herself and proving to herself she could do it.
But Jack… Jack was the reason for all of it. He hadn’t kissed her all week, not since that one perfect moment, but as she stood there staring into his eyes, she realized she didn’t have to wait for him. She knocked his hands away, and disappointment shone in his eyes. She didn’t let it last as she rose on her toes, locking her lips to his.
It took no time at all for him to respond. His arms wound around her back, crushing her to him. She lifted her hands to frame his face, to feel him, the real him.
He deepened the kiss, and she didn’t want it to end. She had no clue what she was doing, and couldn’t quite believe she’d initiated this at all. But that didn’t matter. None of it did. Only her and Jack and the dance that brought them together.
He smiled against her lips. “I should argue with you more often.”
“Ugh, why don’t my fights with boys turn out like this?” Mia said from the doorway.
Lillian pulled away, her face flushing in embarrassment. Jack smirked at her. “It’s just Mia.”
“Oh yes, just poor little Mia who hasn’t kissed a boy in like a month.” She sighed dramatically. “You’re killing me, Smalls.” She swatted Jack as she passed them. “I thought you didn’t like her.”
“You said that?” Lillian frowned.
Jack brushed a thumb over her cheek. “Only to stop her from being embarrassing.”
“Oh, I’m embarrassing?” Mia set her camera equipment down. “Last time I had a date, Jack showed up to give him a talking-to.” She exaggerated her air quotes. “Guy never spoke to me again.”
“I didn’t like him,” Jack said.
Mia grunted as she dug through her camera bag. “For the record, I totally approve of the smooching. Just don’t tell Jack’s mom I knew about this before her.” She cackled.
Lillian looked from Mia to Jack in question.
Jack rubbed his eyes. “Mom can be a little nosy. She spends her working hours listening to people’s problems.”
“Is she a psychiatrist?”
“Something like that.” He laughed. “Come on, we have a dance to film now that Mia finally decided to show up.”
Mia stood. “Hey! I’m only like an hour late.”
Jack held a hand out to Lillian, and she took it, but she couldn’t look him in the eyes as they took up their first position.
“Hey,” Jack whispered. “Don’t hide those pretty eyes from me.”
She met his gaze.
One corner of his mouth tipped up. “There we go.” The music started. “And in case you didn’t know, I’m going to kiss you again. And more after that.” He flashed a smile, not giving her a chance to respond before pulling her in for the first step.
Lillian’s brain could barely compute everything he’d said, but she went through the moves with a new determination. She wanted, needed this video to be perfect for Jack.
She wanted to be perfect for him.
So, she danced. She embodied the feeling of hate that was the opposite of his love, knowing there was no world in which she could truly hate this boy with the smiling eyes and strong arms.
The music wound to a close, and Lillian no longer registe
red her aching feet. Her hand curled in Jack’s shirt, and she swore she could feel his heartbeat underneath. They stared at each other for a long moment before Mia’s cheer tore them apart.
“That was perfect!”
Jack finally ripped his eyes from Lillian to regard his friend. “Really?”
Mia nodded. “I don’t even think we need another take. That’s the one. With some editing, it’ll be amazing.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “We done?”
That was the fact of the matter, wasn’t it? This video was the last thing forcing them together. The solo dance for the competition was finished, and Lillian could practice it on her own now.
Where did they go from here?
I’m going to kiss you again. And them some more after that.
Jack’s phone dinged, and he dug through his bag to find it. He cursed. “I have to go.” Hiking his bag on one shoulder, he looked back at the girls. “Thank you both. For everything.”
Mia waved, but Lillian stood frozen, watching him leave.
Mia turned back to pack up her camera equipment, and Lillian shoved her water bottle into her bag and pulled on her shoes. She was about to leave when Mia whirled around. “Do you like milkshakes?”
She loved them, but it wasn’t like she’d dare drink one. “Sure.”
“Come on then.”
Lillian hesitated before following her. She should have called for a ride back to the academy, but she found herself getting into Mia’s car instead.
They ended up at the diner where Cara greeted them near the door. “Hi, girls!”
Mia gave her a hug, but Lillian only smiled as they slid onto opposite sides of a booth.
Cara pulled out a pad of paper. “Let me guess… two strawberry shakes and two cheeseburgers with fries.”
“Sounds great, Mrs. B.” Mia didn’t even take out a menu.
Mia and Lillian didn’t have a lot in common besides Jack. Silence stretched between them as they waited for their food. When it finally came, it was a relief.
The burger smelled so good, Lillian’s mouth watered. She’d only allowed herself a couple fries each time she came to the diner, but as Mia stared at her, she found herself reaching for the shake.
Kissing the Debutant (The Dangers of Dating a Diva Book 3) Page 11
