Center of Gravity

by K. K. Allen

  I was a pig. I knew it.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Her shoulders seemed to relax.

  Janelle clapped her hands, and Lex turned her body away from me. “All right, dancers. We’re going to ask those of you who made it today to please stay for a few announcements. Everyone else, thank you so much for your hard work. Your efforts did not go unnoticed.”

  I was fully aware of how close Lex was to me, and it wasn’t hard to appreciate what I saw. From this angle, I had an amazing view of her sunkissed skin and the deep crease of her spine that dipped into her tight waist. I could see how well her black leggings hugged her firm ass and soft hips and the way her sweat shone off her, as if she were a fucking diamond in the sun.

  I’d always valued how dancers’ bodies came in all shapes and sizes, but I’d never considered myself to have a favorite until that moment.

  Lex flipped her hair, and a fruity scent caught my nose. It reminded me of the peach cobbler Granny Pearla used to cook up at the rec center every Saturday morning. I inhaled deeply and shut my eyes, taking in more of the few positive memories I had of growing up. The fact that Lex brought those memories to mind confused and intrigued me all at once.

  When I opened my lids, my eyes fell on her bare neck. I couldn’t help running my gaze up the length before stopping at her ear. I imagined my tongue journeying the same path next, and—

  Fuck. I had to get away from her, but first, I needed to get closer.

  I stepped forward, placed my hand on her hip, and leaned in. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lex.” My words whispered against her ear, and I watched in amusement as her skin leapt to life. After another inhale, I moved away to join Janelle and Winter at the front of the room.

  “You all ready to find out what you’ve signed up for?” Winter called out, earning a round of laughter and cheers. “Starting tomorrow, you will be rehearsing for a six-month concert series.” She glanced around, suspending the news to play off their excitement. “In Vegas,” she squealed.

  Gasps, then more cheers, shot around the room.

  “In addition to your salary, the show will pay for your board, food, dry cleaning, and you’ll get a little something extra each week as a spending allowance.” She glowed at the crew’s positive response then turned to me. “Theo, do you want to talk about rehearsals?”

  I took the mic from her, wondering why we needed the damn thing in a room filled with fewer than twenty people. Instead of questioning her, I decided to be a team player.

  “Everyone needs to be here tomorrow at nine a.m. In this room. Expect a similar schedule as today. Small breaks throughout the day with a bigger break for lunch. You’ll get two days off a week, determined by the studio schedule. And since Gravity is booked solid for months, they’re doing their best to work with the instructors to get us the space we need. Some days we’ll be in here, other days we’ll be in the smaller studios. You’ll get the schedule tomorrow.”

  “And pay starts tomorrow, as well,” Winter cut in, her smile bright.

  Again, everyone roared happily.

  “You’ll have six weeks to learn the choreography,” I continued. “And two weeks to rehearse on the stage in Vegas. Don’t let that time frame fool you. There’s a lot of choreography. You’ll be performing four days a week, so take care of yourselves and prepare for nonstop work.”

  “And fun!” Winter shouted out to soften my serious tone, I was sure.

  I nodded. “Yeah, that too.” Laughter filled the room, and I handed the mic back to Winter, giving her and Janelle a one-armed hug. “Now,” I said to the crew with a slight wave of my hand. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do tonight. Congratulations.” I slung my jacket over my shoulder and headed for the exit.

  “Give it up for Theodore Noska, everyone, your choreographer for the ‘Love in the Dark’ Vegas concert series.”

  I didn’t stop for the applause. I didn’t even look back. Because what they didn’t know would have shocked them all.

  If I didn’t get back to work, there wouldn’t be a Vegas concert series.

  CHAPTER 12

  Lex

  Diva Dive was a club in downtown LA that wasn’t a dive at all. Reggie had invited all of us out to celebrate after auditions, and by the time I’d arrived, he’d scored us a table with bottle service. Shane came along too and brought some dance buddies. And there we were. Our first outing together in weeks.

  “We both have jobs,” I squealed in his arms.

  He squeezed me tight before spinning me around and placing me down. “I am so proud of you, Lex. You must have lost your shit when they announced.”

  “She totally lost her shit,” Amie confirmed with a laugh. She stuck her hand out and shook Shane’s. “Hi. I’m Amie.”

  Shane grinned. “Amie. You took care of my Lex today, and for that, I am eternally grateful.” He gave her a little bow, making her chuckle.

  “You should have seen her. You would have been so proud.”

  Shane’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. “Already am.”

  We slid into a section of banquettes at the table where Reggie had migrated. He’d already poured us a round of shots and started to hand them out. I refused mine while Shane and Amie took theirs.

  “Where are your friends?” I asked Shane. I hadn’t met any of his dance crew yet, and I was curious.

  “I’ll bring them over later,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I want to hear more about your audition.”

  Amie threw herself on the couch next to me. “Theo’s choreography was insane.” She did a little couch-dance version of the routine that had the table howling while Shane practically salivated in his seat. I had to do a double take of Amie to see if she was already drunk but quickly realized it was just her personality—loud and proud. Like Shane. No wonder I gravitated toward her today.

  “Oh. My. God.” Shane was shaking his head and waving his hand over his face while he watched Amie’s version of Theo’s choreography. “I would swallow that man whole if he’d have me.”

  I giggled and nudged his side. “Don’t get your hopes up. You’d be fired for even speaking about him under the contract we had to sign today.”

  Shane’s eyes grew wide. “Say what? Tell me more.”

  Reggie slammed his shot glass down and pulled another one to his lips. “Trust me, guys, Theo is not someone you want to fuck around with, anyway.”

  Amie ignored him and leaned over my lap to fill Shane in. “There’s a no-fraternization policy.”

  “But it would be so worth it,” Shane groaned.

  “She’s serious,” I added. “Backup Dancer shall not initiate, engage in, speak of, or entertain romantic relationship with hired Choreographer. In turn, Choreographer shall not initiate, engage in, speak of, or entertain romantic relationship with contracted Backup Dancer.” I recited the terms as well as I could remember them, but I knew there was more to it.

  “Paying a little too much attention to Section Four of the rule book, aren’t you, Lex?” Reggie narrowed his eyes at me.

  Amie snorted. “Says the guy who knew which section of the rule book it was.”

  Shane and I laughed with her. Reggie remained stoic on his corner of the couch. “Doesn’t matter, anyway. Theo has a rule about fucking around with anyone who works with him. Especially backup dancers. He won’t cross that line. He cares too much about his job and reputation. But the artist, however”—Reggie threw up his hands—“that’s fair game.”

  Amie’s jaw dropped. “You’re saying Winter and Theo?”

  Reggie nodded, and something twisted uncomfortably in my gut. “Yup. How do you think he got the gig?”

  Shane and I exchanged glances. I was sure we were thinking the same thing, only he was bold enough to spit it out. “Because he’s one of the best choreographers in the world. He’s choreographed for her before. It’s not like the guy came out of the woodwork.”

  Reggie shrugged, looking unconvinced. “All I’m saying is there�
��s something between them.”

  “Well”—Amie looked around at us—“I guess they’d be cute together. Right?”

  “The cutest,” Shane answered dryly.

  I didn’t say a word.

  CHAPTER 13

  Theo

  I pulled into my garage around midnight after a full evening of choreography following the auditions. I was fucking exhausted. I’d been at it for three weeks, and the show still wasn’t coming together at the speed I’d hoped it would. No way could I admit that to Winter. Up until tonight, I couldn’t even admit that to myself.

  Winter’s set was twenty-four songs long plus a half dozen instrumentals, and all of that needed my attention. I’d created maybe a third of the show, and tomorrow, I would start unloading choreography to Winter’s backup crew and Winter simultaneously. Somehow.

  I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to pull off any of the featured solo and partner routines since I was out an assistant. Janelle wouldn’t be available, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be asking Reggie to fill in. Except … he was beginning to look like the best choice.

  To make everything worse, it was late, and I hadn’t eaten a thing all day besides a bag of peanuts and a store-bought salad. I pulled out a few leftovers from the fridge. Chinese, Italian, Mexican. I warmed them all up and ate them in one sitting.

  I should have been tired. I should have been asleep when the doorbell rang at one in the morning. And when I looked through the peephole and spied Winter standing there, a knee-length white trench coat pulled tightly around her, I knew I shouldn’t answer the door. Not now, my inner thoughts groaned.

  I propped the door open, catching her as she swayed a little on her heels while her high ponytail swirled and slapped her in the face. She giggled.

  “Are you drunk?” It was a stupid question. It would have been a miracle for her to have shown up sober.

  “Hey, Theo,” she purred, or maybe slurred.

  I kept myself wedged in the doorway.

  “Can I come in?”

  I held her stare with one of my own, mentally calculating how to approach the situation. This was already bad. The car that had brought her here was waiting in the driveway, and I had a feeling it would stay there until she decided to leave, whenever she thought that might be.

  “Why are you here?”

  A manicured hand reached for the tie at her waist. “I can tell you or I can show you.” She slipped off one heel and chucked it down the concrete steps. Her next heel followed, then she turned to me with another drunken smile.

  “Maybe you should tell me first.”

  “You want words?” She exaggerated a pout. “Okay. You seemed tense at the audition today. I don’t want you to be tense working my show. So”—she popped a smile and dropped a finger down the opening of her jacket—“I brought you something to help.”

  I felt the familiar growl low in my belly, my groin tightening and threatening to spring to life if she made good on her threats. As much as I wanted her to leave, my body wanted the opposite.

  “Whatever you brought me, I can’t accept. Not right now. I have too much work to do, and it’s late. And you’re drunk.”

  “Don’t you want me?” She pouted again, slipping her fingers over each button from the top down and popping her jacket open to reveal her expensive red undergarments.

  Fuck. My cock pushed against my sweats, disobeying my desperate internal objections. Did I have the willpower to stop this? Sure. But did I want to?

  She pushed her jacket completely open then slid it down her shoulders until it was a crumpled pile at her feet. I looked over her shoulder again. The driver’s eyes glanced away. I sighed and pulled her into my house before slamming the door behind her to keep her out of view.

  I’ll grab her some clothes and send her home. This can’t be the way rehearsals begin.

  Winter didn’t have the same thoughts. She pressed into me, her hands cupping my cock and squeezing.

  Fuck me. A release would be nice. I didn’t even want to think about how long it’d been since I’d properly fucked a woman. I refused to think of the last time. The memory was too painful. Yet here one was—the queen of them all—offering herself to me on a silver platter.

  I knew that getting this job would put me in close proximity to Winter, closer than I’d ever been. I worried about it. About the expectations that came with the job. But not enough for me to turn down the biggest opportunity of my life.

  I didn’t have time for expectations in the romantic sense. And I certainly didn’t want to give Winter the wrong idea. Nothing against Winter. Those were my rules. No cuddle sessions, no daily repeats. No cravings for deeper connections. And definitely no public appearances.

  But then again…there was something amazing about letting a powerful woman sit on my cock and watching her fall apart on top of me, but that was where the intimacy ended.

  Her lips met my collar as her hand moved beneath my shirt, scratching my abs with her nails. “Ah,” I hissed, pushing her hand down and out of my shirt. “Winter. We can’t do this.”

  She pressed against me again, dipping her free hand into my pants and boxer briefs, stroking me before I could protest again. I groaned and thought about moving her. I thought long and hard about how I should send her back to the car and tell her driver to take her home. And I thought about how pissed she’d be at me in the morning.

  But when she sank to her knees and put her wet mouth around my cock, I decided that turning her away would just be rude.

  CHAPTER 14

  Lex

  Theo was an asshole. A tyrant. A relentless perfectionist. A far leap from the man who’d captivated me from behind the computer and television screen for so many years. He didn’t even smile. What kind of person living the career of his dreams wouldn’t even crack a smile?

  We’d been in choreography for three weeks, from eight in the morning until eight at night, with just enough breaks to grab quick snacks and water and take bathroom breaks. That was it. We were learning one dance every two days, which would have been fine if Theo were happy with anything.

  He wasn’t. Every other hour, he asked us to change a direction or a step without letting us in on any of the reasons why. I wasn’t the only one in the class who was frustrated. Rumors about Theo percolated in the halls and lunch spaces. Comments about him “losing his goddamn mind” were not surprising to hear.

  Theo was looking at his phone in the front of the room when he shouted. “Lex! Can I borrow you?”

  Borrow me? I approached him, a little put off. And a little nervous that he would call me out at this stage in rehearsals. Had I been doing that badly? If anything, I’d been picking up choreography faster than anyone else. And he hadn’t picked on me one bit as I’d expected. He looked up with his crinkled forehead and tired eyes, the spark that I’d thought lived in him completely gone. This couldn’t be the Theodore Noska I had adored from afar. This man was miserable.

  “Lead them from the top, okay?” He stood to face me. “Winter’s in the other studio waiting for me. She’s behind on choreography. I’m not ready to bring her in yet.” He glanced at me again, our eyes connecting. And what I saw scared me. Exhaustion, unhappiness, emptiness.

  So I did as he said, surprised by the level of responsibility he’d just given me. Leading the class while Theo tended to his girlfriend in the other studio? Would that become a regular thing?

  But the optimist in me shouted, He can’t possibly be in both places at once. And I do pick up the choreography faster than anyone else. As sick to the stomach as it all made me, I felt a little honored too.

  “Sure thing,” I told him.

  He walked forward and addressed the class. “Lex is in charge for the next four hours. If I hear a peep of disrespect, you’ll answer to me.”

  He left without another look back, leaving me red-faced and creating an ache in my gut that I didn’t understand. But as soon as the door shut behind him, I stepped to the front of the room and s
tarted marking the moves to “Rip My Heart Out,” without music. I broke it down, step by step, until it seemed as if everyone had an entire eight count down, then we’d combine what we’d done with music to get them comfortable with the pacing.

  It all seemed to be working out well, but my anxiety level rose when I turned around to watch the crew and mentally critiqued them.

  Should I give them feedback?

  Theo expected more from everyone at all times, but he wasn’t around to demand it. And I wasn’t their choreographer. The responsibility of perfection shouldn’t be on me. They were learning from me because that was what Theo had directed, but I could already feel a wedge between me and the other dancers, the jealousy floating through the air.

  When the clock hit five that afternoon, no one waited for Theo to come back into the room to run the routine again. Most of them left as soon as the time changed, while I found a place on the floor to lie. Amie joined me. “Girl,” she started. “I am more than ready for our two days off this week.”

  “Ha,” I blurted out with a smile. “Me too.”

  “I don’t know why he asked you to lead like that. Are you okay with it?” Amie asked sympathetically. She must have noticed the tension among the other dancers too.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s fine, I guess. It’s not what I expected.”

  She chuckled. “Not the glamorous life of a backup dancer you’d always dreamed of?”

  I grinned and turned my head to look at her. “Not that. I’ve just looked up to Theo for a long time, since before coming to LA. I wanted to take a class from him, not fill in for him when he disappears with Winter. It’s a little weird.”

  A strange silence filled the air and made me want to crawl right back into the turtle shell I’d popped out of.

  “Then don’t do it,” boomed an approaching voice.

  How I felt his presence before I knew he was there was a complete mystery. My entire body cringed.