Learning to Tango

by Louise Hall

  They were interrupted by Mateo. “Daddy,” he reached his arms up to Kian. “I’m thirsty.”

  “What are you doing out of bed, little man?” Cate went to pick him up.

  “No,” Mateo shook his head. “I don’t want you. I want Daddy.”

  Kian looked helplessly at Cate. It felt like every minute was breaking her a little more. “It’s OK,” she shrugged, “you get him a glass of water. I’ve been away a lot recently.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “I’ve been tough on you in the past for not working hard enough,” Bruce said after Declan and Cate had finished their Foxtrot on Saturday night. “Tonight, I want to applaud you because I can tell that you’ve been working your little socks off on that dance, missy. It is notoriously difficult to master the footwork for a slow-Foxtrot but yours was some of the best I’ve ever seen on Stepping Out.”

  “However, there’s a line in the song which says, “you have a certain lil’ cute way of flirtin’ with them there eyes.” That’s what we wanted to see tonight - the sparkle, the bubble, the whole lot of trouble.” The audience laughed. “You’ve got three children, Cate; you know what I’m talking about.”

  Cate held Declan’s hand as they walked up the stairs. After he’d stormed out of the studio, Cate had apologised and they’d forged a delicate truce.

  “Don’t you listen to Bruce,” Annie gave Cate a hug after the judges had revealed their scores; they’d got straight sevens. “You looked gorgeous out there. I think he must be going through a midlife crisis or something. Have you seen how he slobbers all over poor Poppy?”

  They watched as Vladimir and Poppy got the first ten of the series for their Argentine Tango. “Oh Lordy,” Annie said, fanning herself. “I’ve got to go on after that?”

  “You’re going to be awesome,” Cate said genuinely. Her curvy friend might not be built like the average dancer but she had that something special. She went out on to that dance floor on Saturday night and “funned the shite” out of every single dance she did.

  “I’ll see you on the other side,” Annie blew Cate a kiss as she smoothed out her high, silver-grey ponytail. Annie and Michel were doing a jive this week to “Hey Mickey” by Toni Basil.

  When they finished, the applause was deafening. The poor host spent nearly five minutes trying to get the audience to quieten down enough that they could hear the judges’ comments.

  “How did that feel?” Tom asked as Annie and Michel came back upstairs.

  “It was fun,” Annie shrugged, “all our dances are fun. Life’s too short to do anything else.”

  There was loud booing in the audience as the judges gave their scores; Charlene and Rich gave them nines but Bruce only gave them a six.

  “Seriously, you’re my new girl crush,” Cate said afterwards, giving Annie another hug. “I can’t remember the last time I smiled that much. My cheeks hurt.”

  During the break between the live show and the pre-recorded results show which would be shown the following night, Cate and Annie went backstage to get their hair and make-up redone.

  As they walked past Vladimir, he had a strange grin on his face. “I guess we’ll be seeing that sparkle, that bubble, that whole lot of trouble a lot sooner than we thought.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Cate asked Annie.

  “Who knows?” Annie shrugged. “Nobody listens to Vladimir; they just look at his six-pack.”

  Cate had just sat down in the make-up chair when one of the runners called her name. “Can I borrow her for a sec, Velma?”

  “Sure thing,” Velma said. She’d already started touching up Annie’s make-up instead.

  Cate’s stomach churned as she followed the runner through a maze of narrow corridors until they ended up outside the storage cupboard where they kept all the old props for Stepping Out. The runner pushed open the door, the light was already on inside. “I wouldn’t get too close to the shelves,” she advised, “it’s dusty in there.” Cate was still wearing her pale lavender Foxtrot dress.

  Kian was leaning against the wooden shelves. “What are you doing here?” Cate asked. “Has something happened?” Her first thought was for her children.

  She closed her eyes, “please just tell me they are OK?”

  “Yes,” Kian said quickly, “they’re fine. I’m not here because of them.”

  “I don’t understand. You’re supposed to be at home in Seattle.”

  “I wanted to tell you before you found out from somebody else.”

  Cate was almost hysterical, “tell me what?”

  “You should sit down.”

  “I can’t sit down, I’ll ruin my dress.”

  “A porn site is claiming that they’ve got a sex tape of us. They’re threatening to release it.”

  “What?” Cate sat down on a cardboard box and then immediately jumped up again. “That’s… It’s impossible. We’ve never made a sex tape.” It just wasn’t something that turned either of them on.

  “Unless we didn’t know we were being filmed.”

  “But we’ve never… oh God, the Cabaret!” Cate thought about their night of debauchery in what she’d thought was a private room at the Cabaret. The reality of the situation began to sink in. Cate felt sick to her stomach. She grabbed an empty bucket and dry-retched. It had felt intrusive when only the details of the night she’d lost her virginity had been printed in a national newspaper but this was so much worse. If it was true, strangers were going to be able to pay to watch her and Kian be intimate. It truly felt like the end of the world.

  “Look at me,” Kian said harshly. “Nobody is going to see that tape, Cate. I’ve got my lawyers working on it right now. I will go fucking broke before I let anybody hurt our family.”

  Cate wrapped her arms around him, “I’m so sorry, Kian. It’s all my fault.”

  The runner knocked on the door, “Cate, we need you back in hair and make-up.”

  “I’m going to quit the show,” Cate reached up to remove the silk flower from her hair.

  “Don’t you dare,” Kian warned, gripping her wrist. “You’re not quitting because of this, angel.”

  She thought about Vladimir’s evil grin. “How am I supposed to go out there and smile for the cameras, knowing full well that everybody is gossiping about me behind my back? It feels like that Christmas Eve party all over again. I just can’t do it.”

  “Yes, you can,” Kian insisted. “If you quit now, it’s like admitting that you’ve got something to be ashamed of. You had sex with your husband in what we both thought was a private room.”

  “I’m terrified,” Cate admitted. “Will you wait for me after the show?”

  Kian softened, “of course, I will.

  Cate reached for the door handle and turned back to look at Kian, “how do I do this again?”

  “One foot in front of the other, angel.”

  Somehow, Cate made it through the results show. Afterwards, she met Kian at the back of the studio where he had a car waiting. “Let’s go back to the hotel.”

  Cate cringed. Even though it was late and it was probably more sensible to go back to the hotel, Cate was so paranoid that all she really wanted to do was go home to Seattle.

  Kian slid his arm around her shoulders, “I’ve had a security firm check your room for hidden cameras. It’s clear.”

  Cate was relieved but angry, “what a horrible world we live in.”

  When they got inside the hotel room, the first thing Cate did was close the heavy drapes across the large windows. Even though Kian had assured her that they were completely safe there, she didn’t feel it.

  When Kian came out of the bathroom, he found Cate trying to turn the heavy TV screen so that it was facing the wall. She had already blocked the peephole on the door with a plaster. “What are you doing?”

  Cate pushed it so the screen was right up against the wall. “The red standby light… It felt like somebody was watching us.”

  “Cate…”

  Cate hugged her arms
across her chest, “you don’t have to say anything. I know I’m being paranoid, Kian.”

  “You’re tired, angel. Let’s go to bed.”

  Kian pulled back the covers. “Aren’t you going to get changed?”

  Cate shook her head, “they’ve seen too much of me already.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Kian looked grim-faced as he walked into the bedroom; Cate felt her stomach plummet right down to her ankles. He’d just been on the phone with their lawyers.

  “What is it?” Cate braced herself, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “What did they say?”

  “They’ve got a copy of the tape.”

  Cate shook her head, “you can’t let them watch it, Kian.”

  “They are our lawyers, Cate. We can trust them.”

  “I know but it’s my naked body on that tape. I don’t want them to watch it.”

  Kian sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. He was exhausted. “What do you want me to do?”

  Cate gently placed her hand on his shoulder. “Will you watch it instead?”

  Kian lifted her up on to his lap. He hated how she quickly checked that the curtains to their bedroom were fully closed.

  They hadn’t been intimate since before the miscarriage. As she wriggled in his arms, trying to get comfortable, Kian gritted his teeth, fighting the masculine response which was already pushing hard against his zipper. She wasn’t wearing a bra; the only barrier between them was a thin cotton t-shirt which did nothing to hide her delicate pink buds. He ached with how much he wanted to taste her; her mouth, her breasts, between her legs.

  “Kian?”

  She brought him back from his X-rated fantasies. “I’ve only ever been with one man, you.” Fuck, the thought that she was his and his alone didn’t help the tightness of his jeans.

  Cate held his face, her fingers gentle against his rough stubble. “I have never regretted not being with anybody else. You have given me everything, even things I didn’t know I wanted.”

  Cate laughed; her soft breasts rubbing torturously against his chest. “We both know that I’m not very good at trusting people. I know they are our lawyers but… That night at the Cabaret, it was supposed to be something private between the two of us. I can’t watch the tape; I feel violated enough just knowing that it’s out there. I trust you. I need you to watch it for me.”

  “OK,” Kian lifted Cate up off his lap and stood up. “I’ll let the lawyers know.”

  After he’d made the call, he waited in his study for the encrypted file to be sent to him. As the file appeared in his in-box, Kian poured himself a generous tumbler of scotch and adjusted the front of his trousers. That tape was one of his worst fucking nightmares. If it was released, any pervert with an internet connection and a credit card would be able to jerk off to his wife’s naked body.

  Kian slammed his fist against the wall. It might not be politically fucking correct but Cate was his; she’d been his since that first kiss on Christmas Eve when she was just eighteen.

  Kian downed the scotch and quickly poured another. Cate needed him to watch this. He needed to man the fuck up and open the file. He double-clicked on the file and the video started playing. There was no sound. It was too grainy for him to see anything at first. He gripped the back of the chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

  As his eyes adjusted to the poor quality, he could tell that it wasn’t the Cabaret. It looked like a hotel room but he didn’t recognise it. The more he watched, the more his heart began to pound. At first, the man in the video looked like Kian, he had the same long, black hair but as he turned towards the camera, Kian noticed that his skin was clean; he didn’t have Kian’s tattoos marking his chest.

  As soon as he realised that it wasn’t him in the video and therefore it wasn’t Cate, he went to switch it off. As horny as he was, he would feel like a perverted bastard watching any more. His finger was hovering above the cross in the top corner of the screen when the woman turned around. She looked eerily like Cate. Fuck, the relief he’d felt when he’d realised that it wasn’t him in the video had been well and truly squashed.

  Cate was lying in bed staring at the ceiling when he went upstairs. “It was bad, wasn’t it?” She was biting her lip and he could see the tears glistening in her beautiful, black eyes.

  “Fuck,” Kian dragged his fingers through his black hair. “It wasn’t us, Cate.”

  “What?” Cate could scarcely believe what she was hearing. It couldn’t possibly be true.

  Kian sank down onto the bed. He wished that this was the end of the story.

  “I don’t understand,” Cate shook her head. She crawled across the bed and onto Kian’s lap. “Why aren’t you happy?”

  “It’s Ruby and Nico.”

  Cate panicked. “What happened? Are they OK? I didn’t hear the phone ring?”

  “The couple on the sex tape… it’s Ruby and Nico. That’s why everybody thought it was us. Nico’s grown his hair long and Ruby, she looks just like you, angel.”

  It was almost worse to think of her sister being so publicly humiliated. Ruby and Nico were both such private people.

  “We need to tell them.” Cate couldn’t even begin to think about what she was going to say to Ruby. “This could destroy her career, Kian.”

  “We can’t think like that,” Kian stood up. “I’m going to let the lawyers know.”

  “They have to keep working to make sure that tape doesn’t get released.”

  Kian kissed her forehead, “she’s your sister, angel. We’re going to do everything we can to protect her.”

  As soon as Kian had gone downstairs, Cate picked up her cell-phone and called Liv. “Seriously, it’s like three am?” Liv grumbled. “You’d better not have woken up Sofia.”

  “I know, I’m really sorry. Can you come over?”

  “Did you not hear me before? I said it’s like three am, Cate.”

  Cate blurted out that it wasn’t her and Kian in the sex tape, it was Ruby and Nico. “I’ve got to tell her and I don’t know what to say.”

  “Yeah,” Cate heard Liv talking to Jax in the background. “That’ll do it. I’m on my way.”

  Half an hour later, there was a gentle knock on the front door. “Thanks for coming over,” Cate gave her sister a hug. Jax followed behind carrying Sofia, who was sleeping in her car seat.

  “You’re sure it’s Ruby and Nico?” Liv asked. She and Cate walked through to the lounge while Jax settled Sofia in one of the guest bedrooms upstairs.

  “I’ve seen the tape,” Kian grimaced, “it’s definitely them.” He wished he could wipe it clean from his memory.

  “What time is it in London?” Liv asked. “It’s like eight hours ahead, right? Shit, that means she’ll already be at work.”

  “You could always tell Nico and then he could break the news to Ruby in person?”

  “Isn’t that the coward’s way of doing things?” Cate asked, biting her lip. “Shouldn’t she hear it from us, we’re her sisters.”

  “Jax is right,” Liv shrugged, “there’s no easy way of doing this. I think we should call Nico.”

  Still unsure, Cate looked over at Kian, “what do you think?”

  “When I thought it was us on that tape, I flew to L.A. to tell you in person, angel.”

  “I guess you’re right. Can we use your study to make the call?”

  Cate and Liv walked down the hallway to Kian’s study. “This is so fucked up,” Liv cursed, hopping up on to the desk. “Why would anybody secretly film Ruby and Nico having sex? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “I keep asking myself the same thing,” Cate scrolled through the contacts on her phone to find Nico’s number.

  “Cate? Is everything, um… OK?”

  Cate put him on speaker-phone, “Liv’s here as well. We need to talk to you about something.”

  “You know the rumours that there’s a sex tape of Cate and Kian? They aren’t true.”

  Nico sounded increasingly conf
used, “well, that’s uh… good to know?”

  Cate winced. “There is a tape but it’s not me and Kian, it’s…”

  “It’s you and Ruby,” Liv blurted out.

  There was nothing but silence on the other end of the phone. “Nico, are you still there? I know it’s horrible but Kian’s lawyers are doing everything they can to make sure that it doesn’t get released.”

  “Does Ruby know?”

  “We thought it would be best if you told her?” Cate felt like such a coward. “At least that way she won’t be by herself.”

  “Yes,” Nico coughed. “Of course. I’d better go. I’ll call you tonight after I’ve spoken to Ruby.”

  After Nico hung up, there was nothing much more they could do. Liv and Jax spent what was left of the night in one of the guest bedrooms with Sofia.

  Cate climbed into bed but she couldn’t sleep. “I can hear you thinking,” Kian sighed, turning over to face her.

  “I just wish there was something I could do,” Cate said. “If people find out that it’s Ruby in that video, it will destroy her whole career.” She sat up cross-legged and began to braid her hair to the side. It felt good to have something else to concentrate on. “Can we not just lie and say it was us on the tape and then pay off whoever has got it?”

  But even as the words left her lips, Cate knew that it was an impossible choice. As much as she wanted to protect her sister, she had to think about her children.

  “We need to talk to Ruby and Nico and find out what they want to do first.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “Let me get this straight,” Cate planted her hands on her hips. “It’s all over the internet that Kian and I have allegedly made a sex tape and you want me to go on national TV on Saturday night and dance to “Sex Bomb” by Tom Jones. Are you seriously out of your freaking mind?”

  Cate hadn’t spoken to Ruby since she’d found out that it was her and Nico on the tape. When Nico had called back, he’d said that Ruby was too upset to come to the phone.