Building the Life (The Dancing Wolf Book 3)

by Amy DeMeritt

  The original ending for the dance is to embrace and lay down with her on my chest, but Giz wants to feel this between her legs. In the final sequence, I pull Symone in close with her back to me and gently caress her right cheek with my hand while I gently drag my lips up the left side of her neck. Symone tilts her head back with a look of need and passion on her face, then spins and hops up to wrap her legs around my waist. I grab the backs of her thighs and kneel down, carefully lower her to the floor, and while I’m between her thighs, I press my lips to hers.

  Our lips and tongues move together in a hot tumbling of sucking lips and twisting, flicking tongues. I can feel the heat and pleasure coming off of Symone. Her body arches up against me, firmly pressing our bodies together and she inhales deeply. I press a hand on her hip to push her groin off of mine and we slowly pull apart. Symone is breathing hard and looks so aroused that it makes my face blush beet red.

  “You are a fucking walking vibrator. Shit, that was hot. No wonder you have four gorgeous women who are willing to share you. I might just have to change the lineup anyway.”

  Symone and I scramble to get up and we huddle around with the others.

  “What do you mean, change the lineup? I gave you what you wanted.” Giz smiles and licks her lips. “Too well, actually.”

  “I can tone it down if it’s too much.”

  “I don’t want you to tone it down. But maybe you’re kissing the wrong girl.” I look at her confused and look around at the group. Everyone looks nervous, except for Sara – she looks pissed. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m just wondering if I’m ok with just being a bystander in my own music video. You made me want to be in this dance with you. I may need to replace one of them. But then again, I don’t think I can learn that choreography in time to film. Maybe we should just go to dinner.”

  “Excuse me?” I look around and even her producers look uncomfortable and have taken a few steps back, like they want to run out of here. “Dinner. You and me.” I shake my head and walk over to Awenasa and take her hand. “I’m married. I’m here to dance for you and that’s it.”

  “Think of all of the people I could pass your name to and all of the new job offers that would be rolling in. It’s just one night of fun followed by unlimited career possibilities.”

  “I earn my jobs by dancing. I’ll never do what you’re offering to get a job.”

  “If you won’t have dinner with me, then we’ll just change the video.”

  “I’ll quit and then the lineup will really have to change. You won’t exploit me like that. I’ve already given you what you asked for. You can’t make me kiss you.”

  Giz smiles and slowly claps her hands loudly a few times, before walking over closer, waving the others over to huddle around us.

  “Well played. Look, that was just a test. I do want the two kiss scenes, but I’m not switching anything else up. There’s going to be a lot of people hanging around us this week while we rehearse and shoot the video. I needed to make sure you wouldn’t become a liability and cause strain and drama for the production of the video. You’re a very desirable and controversial figure right now and will no doubt have women throwing themselves at your feet. I need you to have that same attitude you just gave me. Any slip up and the press will go insane and it will cost us a lot of money and time trying to be able to work around it. Understand?”

  “Yes. You don’t need to worry about me ‘slipping up’.”

  “Good. Let’s go talk so we can work out a plan to make this happen.” She turns and walks back over to the producers and they get into a quiet conversation while we slowly turn and grab our bookbags. “You ok?” I look up at Jaime and shrug a shoulder. “I’ve just been singled out as the scapegoat for anything that goes wrong with production just because of my sexuality and lifestyle. Yeah, I’m fantastic.”

  “I’m sorry. I can’t believe she did that to you.” I shake my head and take Awenasa’s hand. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care about taking the blame to protect the rest of the group, but I’m really disappointed. I thought she would be a really cool, down to earth person. She’s one of my favorite artists, but I just lost a lot of respect for her. If she was worried about me whoring up her set, all she had to do was pull me aside and talk to me. She didn’t need to make a whole production of it and scare the shit out of the group like that.”

  “You know none of us see you that way, right?” I smile and we start following the others. “Yeah, I know. Thanks.”

  We follow Giz and her producers into a big room with a long table and chairs. Giz and the producers sit at one end, and we leave a chair between us and them and sit at the other end. I try to sit as far away from Giz as possible, which she notices and laughs a little.

  “Sorry about Giz. She’s a bit of an asshole sometimes.” Giz smiles at the guy with the beard and shrugs a shoulder. “This schedule is going to be very fast paced and very hectic. You’ll have the rest of day to prepare and rest, but we start tomorrow at 4am and you won’t go back to the house till late afternoon. I hope all of you brought formal attire. There will be a formal dinner party with the music label and the music video sponsors tomorrow night. This party isn’t just good buzz for Giz. Use this opportunity to network. Rub elbows the right way, and you may be able to line up some additional work before the end of the evening. If you didn’t bring formal attire, you need to go shopping when you leave here. Dress code is mandatory and attendance is mandatory.”

  The meeting goes on for another hour before they’re finally standing and wishing us a good rest of the day. They walk us back to the front of the building and before I walk out the door, Giz grabs my arm and stops me. I look down at her hand and up at her face and she immediately releases my arm.

  “I didn’t say it before, but thank you for being willing to work with me on the kiss scenes. I could tell that wasn’t an easy decision for you, but it really makes a huge difference in the power of the dances, if that helps to make it any less uncomfortable for you.”

  “You’re welcome.” She smiles and nods in an understanding way, as if she can tell that I’m not interested in getting into a conversation with her. “Ok, see you tomorrow.”

  No one says anything the entire drive home and we’re even quiet when we get back in the house. We grab waters from the fridge and we sit down in the living room. The whole group looks stressed out and it’s my fault.

  “After these two videos, you guys should replace me. I’m too controversial and will just keep causing problems for you.” All of them snap their heads up and look shocked. “Are you quitting the group?”

  “No, I’m just offering to back out if it would be easier for all of you if I wasn’t around.”

  All of them start speaking at once, saying they don’t want me out of the group and that it doesn’t matter what people think. Sara sits forward and waves her hands to get everyone to be quiet.

  “Kayla, we deal with shit like this all the time. Some directors and producers like to push buttons to test a dancer’s loyalty to a project or their integrity. A dancer that will sleep with the producer, or anyone that can help them get ahead, can be a big liability and cause issues for a production. If an affair like that gets out, it can kill a project dead. Sometimes it helps, but a lot of times it just causes problems.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” Sara smirks and laughs a little. “You didn’t need a warning. You did great, baby sister. I honestly didn’t see that coming. I’ve gotten so used to you having this whole family of women that I keep forgetting it’s not normal to the rest of the world.”

  “Are you calling me a freak?” Everyone laughs really hard and Sara nods. “Yes, a huge freak. I don’t even want to know the shit that goes on in your bedroom.”

  “I’ve seen some crazy pornos, but I just don’t understand how you make that work in real life. Is it even possible for all of you to be together at once?” Everyone looks at Tonya and then at me with curious grins. Tonya giggles and adds, �
��Can you give to all of them at once? That would be impressive.”

  “Now, who’s the freak? Stay out of my bedroom, weirdos.” They laugh and Keira says, “Hey, it doesn’t always happen in the bedroom. The first time we met as a group for the competition, you couldn’t even wait two minutes after we left you in the basement to rip Sam’s clothes off. I’ll never get the image of you going down on her out of my head. That girl looked like she was having an out of body experience.”

  “I lost count the number of times I walked in on you and Sam because you never fucking close doors or Sam just rips your shorts off in some random spot in the house. Even with three broken ribs and unable to move on your own, I walked in on Shannon and Madison about to take you to happy town in your damn hospital bed. And let’s not forget this one.” She points at Awenasa and grins. “You two running off to the tipi during the family gathering will be the talk of the family forever. You two were so fucking loud they had to tell the children that animals and hawks were wrestling in the woods.”

  I laugh hard and look at Awenasa. She has a very calm smile on her face and doesn’t look embarrassed at all.

  “I was talking to Kayla on video chat and she and Madison just completely forgot I existed and went to happy town right in front of me.” Sara’s eyes get big and her jaw drops. “You did that right in front of Symone? Were you naked?”

  “No, damn it.” Symone crosses her arms on her chest and sits back pouting, making everyone laugh a little bit. “Damn, am I the only one here that hasn’t witnessed some of this action?” They look at Tonya and laugh hard, but Jaime chimes in, “No, I haven’t seen anything.”

  “You will. They’re sleeping in the same room with you.”

  “Hey! I have some self-control, you know!” They laugh and Sara throws a pillow at me. “Barely.”

  “Shut up. What are we doing for dinner? I’m hungry.”

  “Hold up.” Everyone looks over at Tonya, and she asks, “So, Keira and Symone, how was Kayla? Is she a good kisser?” Keira and Symone blush and smile really big, but neither of them answer. Tonya laughs and shakes her head. “Either she’s a terrible kisser and you don’t want to hurt her feelings, or you’re too embarrassed to admit how good she is. Sara, leave the room so they can answer.”

  “I don’t care if they answer. My sister couldn’t hold onto four beautiful women if she couldn’t kiss.”

  Keira and Symone look over at me, and even under their darker complexions, I can tell they’ve blushed darker red. Keira clears her throat and nervously shifts in her seat.

  “Yes, Kayla’s a great kisser. That’s all I’m saying about it.” Tonya laughs a little and everyone looks to Symone to answer. Symone looks in my eyes and smiles. “Unfortunately, it was the best kiss I’ve ever had.” She looks down and suddenly becomes very interested in her thumbnail. “Why, unfortunately?” Everyone looks at Tonya like she can’t possibly be that clueless to not know how Symone feels about me. Symone slowly lifts her head, and calmly says, “If you found the best, would you want to give it up?”

  Tonya suddenly realizes her error and her smile disappears. Sara quickly jumps in to change the subject.

  “Do you want to go out to eat or try to find some place to order in?”

  Everyone agrees they want to go out, so we go back to our bedrooms to get changed out of our dance clothes and into something nicer. Symone is about to walk into her bedroom in front of me and Awenasa, but she stops and turns to face me.

  “Are you going to be able to maintain that level after I just admitted that, or did I just make it too weird for you?”

  “You’ve been threatening to make me scream your name for almost a year, but I still give you everything in rehearsal and in our performances. I think I’ll be ok.” She smiles and laughs a little. She plays with her hair in an adorable way and stares in my eyes. “Ok. Um, how was… Never mind.”

  She starts to turn away, but I grab her hand to stop her. She immediately steps in close to me and grabs my hips, holding me close. I kind of lean back, a little startled by the sudden closeness. She caresses my cheeks and then rests her hands on the top of my chest, close to my collarbone.

  “Was mine ok for you?” I smile and shake my head. She starts to pull back looking very disappointed and I laugh a little. “It was better than ok and that’s all I’m going to say about it.” She smiles really big and kisses my forehead. “Ok, thanks.”

  When we come into the bedroom, Jaime is wearing a really cute thin strapped slinky material black dress and black flat sandals. She has also pulled her long dirty blond hair with golden highlights out of her ponytail and its laying softly on her bare shoulders.

  “You look really nice.” Jaime looks up from her suitcase and smiles. “Thank you. Would you mind putting more Aloe on my shoulders? It’s starting to sting and feels very hot.”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  I dig the bottle of Aloe out of my bookbag and Jaime lifts her hair off of her shoulders. I squeeze a large glob of the clear gel into my hand and start gently smoothing it over her shoulders and the back of her neck. I finish with her back and still have some gel left on my hands so I reapply some to her nose, cheeks, and the top of her chest. Jaime smiles at me and lets her hair fall back over her shoulders.

  “Thank you.” I smile and rub my hands together to rub in the rest of the gel. “You’re welcome.”

  I return to Awenasa’s side and she already has outfits for both of us pulled out of the suitcases. I pull my tee shirt off and Awenasa hands me a tight black tank top and a very light weight light gray button up collar shirt that has very thin royal blue pinstripes through it. I pull my sweatpants off and she hands me a pair of black pants and a black woven belt with a silver buckle. She finishes off my outfit with my hawk necklace she made me and black socks with my black Vans.

  “How do I look, baby?” Awenasa looks me up and down and smiles in an approving way. “Really nice. But,” she leans in and carefully pulls my hair out of my ponytail. She runs her fingers through the full length of my long hair, straightening and combing my hair. “Perfect.”

  “Thanks, baby. Let me help you get dressed.”

  She smiles and lifts her hands over her head. I lean in and give her a soft kiss on her lips and lift her tee shirt off over head. I wrap her arms behind my neck and pull her into a kiss while I trail my fingers down her stomach to the waist of her shorts. Very slowly, I pull the button apart and pull the zipper down. At the same time that I push her shorts off her ass, I tug her bottom lip with my teeth, making her release a small moan and press her body against mine.

  Her shorts drop to her ankles and I reach over to the bed to grab the cute gray dress with little blue flowers and swirls on it that she pulled out for herself. We bend down some, not losing pace with our kiss, and I have her step into the dress. As we stand upright, I pull the dress up her body. One at a time, I pull her arms forward to slip through the thin straps. I reach behind her and unhook her bra, and slip her arms out of the bra and then adjusted the padded shell of her dress over her breasts and zip up the back of the dress. I straighten her dress and slowly pull back to look at her.

  “Gorgeous.” Awenasa smiles and runs her fingers through my hair. “Thank you, puppy.”

  We pull apart so she can put her sandals on, and I smile and release a small nervous laugh. Jaime is sitting on the edge of her bed, slightly leaning back, watching us with a smile. I actually forgot she’s in here.

  We’re the last ones’ ready again, and we find everyone standing in the foyer waiting for us. I walk out with Awenasa’s arm looped in mine and I have Jaime’s hand in mine on my other side. Sara is dressed in an awesome distressed charcoal gray Henley style long sleeve top with three buttons at the top and a pair of black casual pants like me. Tonya, Symone, and Keira are all wearing dresses and look great. They turn to look at us and smile. Keira looks me up and down and grins.

  “Hey, stud.” I smile and laugh a little and look at Sara. “I want your shir
t.” Sara looks down at her shirt, smiles, and runs her fingers through her hair. “You can’t have it. My girl got it for me. You can give me your shirt though.” I smile and shake my head. “My wife bought me this shirt.” Everyone laughs and Symone asks, “Do either of you buy your own clothes anymore?”

  At the same time, Sara and I say, “Nope,” and they laugh again.

  “Ok, let’s go. There’s supposed to be a really good restaurant with a dancefloor about three blocks from here.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  We should be exhausted because we’ve been up for nearly twenty-four hours, but we fall into the house in a laughing excited heap after the big formal party with the music label and the sponsors. There were so many important people at this party and we made a ton of new contacts with several potential really big projects. Including, more music videos, a concert tour, and a sponsorship for an international dance tournament next summer with an insane payout.

  Before the party, Sara asked Jaime to join the group. She’s not going to replace Jade, but will be a new addition. Jaime agreed to join, despite her differences with Symone. I could tell at the party that Jaime was really happy and she still looks like she’s on top of the world.

  Sara and Keira come into the living room carrying bottles of wine and champagne and glasses. Keira gives everyone a glass and Sara walks around pouring one or the other depending on each person’s preference. Awenasa and I try to decline, but Sara laughs and pours us wine anyway, saying that we have to have one glass. After everyone has a glass of something in hand, Sara sets the bottles down on the coffee table and lifts her own glass in the air. We follow her lead and I laugh a little at how happy she looks. Sara has worked really hard to get here and tonight felt almost like a golden ticket to a successful dance career for her and the rest of us.