Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
As much as I’d loved teaching young dancers this summer, I’d missed my class in Dunridge with the Naughty Nanas—which was what they’d started calling themselves over the summer while I was gone.
They’d teased me endlessly about how they probably had a wilder summer than I had.
If they only knew.
“Ava, sweetie, you’re really too young to not be out having the time of your life,” Patty said as they headed toward the door after their class had ended.
Before they got there, it opened and in walked Liam.
He stopped short when he saw the group of women, clearly not expecting an audience. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you still had a class.”
“We were just leaving,” Linda said, but she made no move toward the door.
Meanwhile, Patty looked Liam up and down like he was a piece of art she was considering purchasing. “Well, well, well. Who’s this?”
“This is Liam,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual. “He’s a friend of my brother’s.”
“A friend.” Deb raised an eyebrow. “Is that what we’re calling them these days?”
“It’s nice to meet you ladies.” Liam flashed them his most charming smile, and all four of them practically melted.
“Oh, honey, the pleasure is ours,” Barb said, before her gaze went noticeably to his bicep. “My goodness. Do you work out?”
“I play hockey.”
“A hockey player!” Linda fanned herself dramatically. “Ava, you’ve been holding out on us. You never mentioned your brother had friends who looked like this.”
“It never came up,” I said.
Liam caught my eye over their heads, his expression somewhere between amused and desperate. I offered him no rescue. He’d walked into this; he could suffer through it.
“So what brings you by the studio?” Linda asked, shooting me a knowing look. “Picking up our Ava for a date?”
“Oh, we’re not—” I started.
“I was actually hoping to get a dance lesson,” Liam said smoothly. “Ava’s been telling me how good she is.”
All four women turned to look at me with knowing smiles that made my stomach flip.
“A private lesson,” Patty said. “How romantic.”
“It’s not romantic. He just wants to learn to dance.”
“Mm-hmm.” Deb didn’t look convinced. “Well, don’t let us interrupt. We were just leaving.” She gave Liam a bright smile. “You take good care of our girl, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And Ava?” Patty paused at the door, her eyes twinkling. “Remember what we told you before.” She gave me a very obvious wink and then they filed out, their laughter heard clearly. The door clicked shut behind them, and suddenly the studio felt very quiet.
“So,” Liam said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Those are your students?”
“They named themselves the Naughty Nanas. They’re a handful.”
“I noticed.”
I started gathering my things, hyperaware of his presence behind me. “So, what are you really doing here? I thought we were meeting up later.”
When I turned around, he was looking at me differently. With a strange, polite distance in his expression. Like we were strangers.
“Excuse me,” he said, his voice formal. “Do you do private lessons?”
I blinked at him. “What?”
He stepped farther into the studio, maintaining that unfamiliar demeanor. “Private lessons. I saw the sign outside. I was hoping you might be able to help me.” He arched an eyebrow like he was waiting for me to catch on.
Oh.
Oh.
Role-play. He was doing the role-play thing from my list.
My heart kicked up a notch, but I forced myself to play along. I set my bag down slowly and turned to face him fully, crossing my arms over my chest.
“That depends,” I said, matching his formal tone. “What kind of lessons are you looking for?”
“Dancing.” He took another step closer, and I could see the hint of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “I need to learn how to dance.”
I had to bite back my own smile. This was a dance studio, so that was kind of obvious. “Any particular style?”
“Whatever impresses women.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a pretty broad category.”
“I’m flexible.” He was closer now, close enough that I could smell his cologne—that familiar woodsy scent that always made me want to bury my face in his neck.
I studied him for a moment, playing my part. He was the hot stranger who’d wandered into my studio wanting to learn how to move. It was ridiculous, but it was also kind of working for me.
“Why do you want to impress women?” I asked, circling him slowly the way I did when I was assessing a new student’s posture. “Seems like you’d do fine on your own.”
“There’s this girl,” he said, and his voice dropped lower. “I really like her and want to impress her.”
My stomach flipped. Even knowing this was a game, those words hit me deep.
“Must be some girl,” I said lightly.
“She is.” His eyes tracked my movement as I circled back around his side. “She’s smart. Funny. Talented. Way out of my league, honestly.”
“Sounds like you’re already doomed then. No amount of dancing is going to fix that.”
He laughed—a real laugh, breaking character for just a second—before schooling his expression back into earnest stranger mode. “Humor me. One lesson. If I’m hopeless, you can kick me out.”
I stopped directly in front of him, tilting my head. “Fine. One lesson. But you have to do exactly as I say.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
God, the way he said that.
I walked over to my phone and pulled up one of my favorite playlists. All the music was slow and sensual. It was the kind of music I’d never play in an actual class. When the first notes filled the studio, I turned back to find him watching me with an intensity that made heat pool low in my belly.
“First things first.” I crossed the distance between us and placed my hands on his shoulders, adjusting his posture. “You’re too tense. Loosen up.”
“I’m plenty loose.”
“You’re standing like you’re about to take a hit on the ice.” I ran my hands down his tattooed arms, feeling the muscles bunch under my touch. “Dancing is about fluidity. About letting your body respond to the music instead of fighting it.”
“And how do I do that?”
I moved behind him, pressing my palms flat against his lower back. “Start with your hips. Feel the beat?”
“Yeah.”
“Move with it. Not big movements. Just…” I guided his hips with my hands, showing him the motion. “Like that. Small and controlled, but still loose, moving with the rhythm.”
He followed my lead, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t affected by the way his body rolled under my touch.
Liam was athletic and extremely coordinated.
He picked things up fast. Within a minute, he’d found the rhythm, his hips moving in a slow, sinuous pattern that was doing things to my self-control.
“Good,” I said, my voice coming out a little breathy. “Now your upper body.”
I came around to face him, placing one hand on his chest. His heart was beating fast under my palm.
“You want to move like you’re reaching for someone,” I continued. “Like every part of you wants to be closer to them.”
“Show me.”
I started to move, demonstrating the way the shoulders and chest could follow the hips, creating a wave of motion through the whole body. His eyes never left me.
“Your turn,” I said.
He tried to mimic the movement, but it was stiff.
I stepped closer. “Here.” I took his hands and placed them on my waist. “Feel how I move. Mirror it.”
We swayed together, his hands warm through the thin fabric of my top. This close, I could see the way his eyes had darkened with hunger, and felt the tension radiating off him even as he tried to match my fluid movements.
“Better,” I murmured. “You’re getting it.”
“Am I?” His voice was rough. “Because I’m having a hard time concentrating.”
“On what?”
“On anything that isn’t you.”
I looked up at him through my lashes. “I thought you wanted to learn to dance.”
“I did.” His hands tightened on my waist. “But you keep touching me, and I keep forgetting why I came here.”
“You came here to impress a girl.”
“Right.” He pulled me closer, close enough that I could feel exactly how affected he was by this little game we were playing. “Is it working?”
I should have kept up the pretense and stayed in character. There was a thrill in dragging this out and making him work for it, but I was done playing.
“It’s working,” I admitted.
The role-play dissolved the second his mouth found mine.
He kissed me deep and hungry, one hand sliding up my back while the other gripped my hip, pulling me flush against him. I wrapped my arms around his neck, arching into him, chasing the friction I desperately needed.
He walked me backward until my shoulders hit the mirror, the glass cool against my heated skin. His mouth trailed down my neck, teeth grazing my pulse point, and I gasped.
“Liam—wait.”
He pulled back immediately, concern flickering across his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Um…” I glanced toward the front windows and the parking lot visible beyond them. “The lights. And the door is still unlocked.”
Understanding dawned. He pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Don’t move.”
He crossed the studio, flipping the lock on the front door first, then hitting the main lights. The room plunged into shadow, the only illumination coming from the street lamps outside, casting long pale rectangles across the hardwood floor.
When he came back to me, his features were shadowed in the dim light.
“Better?” he murmured, crowding me against the mirror again.
“Much.”
His mouth found my neck, teeth grazing my pulse point, and this time I let myself melt into him without worrying about who might see.
“I’ve got you, Sunshine.”
He had me more than he even knew.
His hands found the hem of my top, tugging it up and over my head. My sports bra followed a second later, and then his mouth was on my breast, hot and wet, and I was melting against the mirror.
But that wasn’t what I wanted. Not tonight.
“Wait.” I pushed gently at his shoulders.
He pulled back again, “What?”
I held his gaze as I turned us around so his back was against the mirrored wall and then sank to my knees on the hardwood floor.
His breath caught. “Ava—”
“You’re always taking care of me,” I said, reaching for the button of his jeans. “Let me return the favor.”
His head fell back against the mirror with a soft thunk. “Fuck, Sunshine.”
That was all the encouragement I needed.
I freed him from his boxers where he was already hard and straining, and felt that familiar surge of power at the evidence of what I did to him. Especially right now when he was entirely at my mercy.
I wrapped my hand around him first, stroking slowly, watching his face. His jaw clenched. His hands balled into fists at his sides like he was fighting the urge to touch me.
“Hands in my hair,” I said. “I like it when you do that.”
He obeyed instantly, fingers threading through my ponytail.
I leaned forward and took him into my mouth.
“Goddamn.” The word came out strangled. “Aves—”
I hummed around him, and his fingers tightened, pulling on my hair as his hips jerked involuntarily. I pulled back just enough to look up at him.
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean—”
“I told you before.” I stroked him with my hand while I spoke. “Don’t apologize. I like it.”
His eyes darkened. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I took him deeper this time, finding a rhythm, using my hand where my mouth couldn’t reach. His fingers kept a tight grip on my hair like it was an anchor.
“Jesus, you’re good at this.” His voice was wrecked, barely recognizable. “You’re so fucking perfect.”
I pulled back to swirl my tongue around the tip, tasting salt, and was rewarded with a groan that echoed off the studio walls.
I knew exactly what he liked by now. The way he lost it when I took him deep. The way his breath hitched when I used my hand and mouth together. The way saying his name with my lips still pressed against him made his whole body shudder.
So I did all of it.
“Oh fuck, Sunsh—” He broke off with a gasp as I took him deep again. “Exactly like that.”
I set a faster pace, feeling his thigh start to tremble under my hand. He was close. I could tell by the way his breathing had gone ragged and his grip had tightened in my hair.
“Ava.” His voice was strained. “I’m going to—you should—”
I didn’t pull back. I’d become addicted to the taste of him since that first time.
He came with a groan that sounded like it was torn from somewhere deep in his chest, and I worked him through it, swallowing everything he gave me until his body stopped shaking and he sagged against the mirror behind him.
I sat back on my heels, wiping my mouth with my hand and grinning up at him while he rubbed his hand over the top of his head.
“Goddamn, Sunshine.”
“So,” I said. “How’d I do? As a teacher.”
He stared at me for a moment, chest heaving, looking absolutely destroyed.
“A-plus,” he managed. “Top of the class. I’m never taking lessons from anyone else.”
I laughed, and he reached down to pull me to my feet, hauling me against his chest and kissing me so thoroughly it was easy to forget that we’d just crossed role-playing off my list.
Only one left to go.