Chapter 9
EMILIO
When I arrived in the studio, Darla, the receptionist glared at me.
"You have a new client," she hissed, head indicating a young guy sitting over in the corner. His head was down as he studied something on his phone. "You could be a bit more professional and be on time, at least for the first lesson."
Eh. The guy was getting his lesson for free, if he couldn't chill out a bit...
At the sound of footsteps approaching him, my guy looked up.
Wow. Wasn't sure what I'd expected, but it wasn't this.
Dude was about my age, I guessed, with an oval-shaped face, stunning blue-grey eyes, and a shy cute-as-fuck smile.
His head was covered in short-cropped bleach-blonde curls, which I knew weren't natural since his beard and moustache were dark.
He had an aura of reserved innocence about him, and my first reaction was that I would love to be the one to fuck that up.
That wasn't what I was here for though, so I held out my hand.
"Hey, Lucas, is it? I'm Emilio. It's good to meet you, dude."
"Oh, hey, yeah." As he stood up, I discreetly gave him a quick up-down. Dude was lean but muscular, in good shape. I probably shouldn't be checking out a client, but hey, I was a healthy, red-blooded male, what's a guy to do?
"Come on and I'll show you the studio where I give my privates," I told him, indicating a passageway where the private dance studios were located.
The floor to ceiling glass was frosted from about a third of the way up, offering a level of privacy so no-one knew who was receiving the lesson, avoiding embarrassment if things weren't going well.
Studio 4 was set aside exclusively for my use today and I gestured to Lucas to enter, before closing the glass door behind us.
Remembering I wasn't supposed to let on that I'd been corresponding with him as Aunt Macie and that these lessons were an emergency measure since I'd overspent my budget in that role (bah!
budget smudget, those guys needed help), I said, "Um, so, Lucas.
I understand you need some help with your following technique. What's going on, man?"
The pink dots which tinged Lucas' pale cheeks were cute. I smiled encouragingly.
"Uh, so I, er, asked this guy to dance and at the end of it, he told me I needed to work on my following.
" The pink dots had fanned out and Lucas' entire face was now flaming.
He shifted uneasily and suddenly seemed to find the polished floorboards deserving of his full attention.
I felt a surge of fury towards the guy who had undermined his confidence like that.
It was no small thing for a guy to ask another dude to dance, and taking on the role of follower was not insignificant if you weren't used to it.
Other dude probably was a bit on the arrogant side.
Honestly, Lucas might be better off leaving him alone and looking for someone nicer.
But... the heart wants what the heart wants, or perhaps more appropriately in this case, the body wants what the body wants, and I was here to help Lucas secure the man he wanted, even though everything told me that wasn't a great idea.
Mierda! Even I would be a better option for him. Though I didn't believe in anything more than a one-night-stand, at least I would have left him feeling like the king of the world.
I suppressed a sigh.
"Mmm, well that's a bit rough. I want you to forget about him. I'm an instructor, a teacher. I'm not going to judge you for whatever you can or can't do, okay? But I need to get a feel for how you dance now, so we can work on specific things and help you get better. Does that sound okay?"
"Yeah. Sounds good."
"Alright. I'm going to put on a song, we'll do some warm up exercises, and then I'll run you through some moves and see how you follow, okay?"
"Yeah, perfect."
"Ok, amigo, let's go!"
Moments later, I had the upbeat sounds of my favorite bachata song blaring through the speakers and my feet were already twitching as we lined up in front of the mirrors.
Turned out Lucas had the makings of a great dancer.
He had excellent rhythm, perfect timing, and he moved his body well.
A little too well, in fact. I was grateful I had a legitimate reason for keeping my eyes on him, because it was hard not to stare at that masculine grace as he worked his way through the warm up routine.
His tight ass executed a pretty smooth booty roll stretching his cutoff denim shorts tight and I swear the temperature in the room shot up a few degrees.
Fortunately my face was already flushed with exertion, and I was wearing baggy cargo pants - there was nothing to give away the uncomfortable truth that I was inconveniently attracted to my client.
As the music faded away, we finished up with a couple of body rolls.
I tried to be professional about the way I was watching him, but I already knew the next hour - never mind the next few lessons - was going to be distracting.
Dios mio! I scolded myself. He's your student! You must not think about him like that!
Eh, but how could I help myself?
◆◆◆
An hour later, hot and sweaty, we pulled apart as the last notes of the song faded, and we stood there grinning stupidly at each other.
"You dance well," I told him. "And your following improved a lot even just in that one hour. How did you feel about it?"
Lucas grinned at me, cheeks flushed, a small dimple appearing near the corner of his mouth.
"I enjoyed it. You make it seem easy."
"It is easy once you know the cues and provided the lead dances to your level."
A frown scrunched the brows over Lucas' eyes, darkening his eyes.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I was just thinking back... to that dance I had... the one that went badly," he admitted.
I cocked my head, waiting to see what conclusion he came up with.
"Now that I think about it, we launched straight into some fairly advanced moves right from the start. I guess I didn't realize at the time because I'm used to leading."
"Uh-huh," I nodded along, waiting to see if he came to the same realization I had.
"I shouldn't have danced with him, should I? He's too good for me."
"No! Not at all!" He'd misunderstood. I was going to have to lay this out for him.
"As a leader, it's his responsibility to ease into the dance, to find out what level you dance at, and then to dance at that level.
Beginners dance with more expert dancers all the time.
Have you ever danced with an instructor, at a social, I mean? "
Lucas shook his head. "Nah, never been game to be honest. Some of those ladies are terrifying."
"You'll find they really aren't. I mean you might find the occasional one that's stuck up, but most instructors will make sure you have as enjoyable a dance as they can. They'll match their level to yours. Any experienced dancer should do that. You were quite within your right to ask him to dance."
"Mmm," Lucas didn't sound convinced, but I could see he was thinking about it. "Maybe he was uncomfortable dancing with a man?"
I shrugged. "Maybe. But it does happen. Not a lot, but especially amongst the more experienced dancers who like to experiment and push the norms. Nobody would think anything of it."
"Well, whatever. After what he said, I can't dance with him again until I'm much better."
I shut up. Clearly the other guy was a dick, un idiota.
If there was anything wrong with Lucas' dancing, it was simply that he wasn't experienced at interpreting the leads and responding fast enough.
It was one thing entirely to be the one giving the leads, since you already knew what move you were asking your partner to execute, and quite the mystery box when you were on the receiving end.
"You'll be fine," I assured him, "a few more lessons and all will be good."
Lucas' answering smile didn't reach those gorgeous eyes, and I could see he didn't really believe me. No importa! I knew with a few more lessons, I'd have him dancing at another level entirely.
We made arrangements to have another lesson next week, and said our goodbyes.