Chapter 15 Calum
Calum
“Ah, there he is now,” Basil says.
Pursing my lips, I set my water bottle down. I glance at Bas. “Are you going to begin?”
Bas shoots me a glare and then turns around, shaking his head. He raises his arms. “Okay, everyone. Let’s start off in first position…”
As he continues, I prowl around the room. I’m not in a particularly good mood; I started off my morning with a conference call with some bad news about my company’s stock. Now I’m here and still feeling angry.
I channel it into ballet. One of the greatest things about ballet is that you can act out your fear and anger and hatred onstage. Even greater is being a teacher and having the class make mistakes.
And this class makes a lot of mistakes. I correct every single imperfect arch and bow, remind people that their posture is essential, and always push every dancer to their god’s honest limit.
Three more dancers leave in tears. Everybody else is left shaken by the end. I sit down, acting as though I need to fix my pant leg. Everyone is out of the rehearsal space like rats on a sinking ship. Even Basil hightails it out of the room.
But when the room is empty, there is still one other person. Kaia closes the door and locks it, turning to me. Putting a hand on her hip, she cocks her head.
“You’re going to get yourself fired,” she says levelly.
Cracking my knuckles, I push myself to my feet. “What, you can’t take a little heat?”
Kaia wrinkles her nose, shaking her head. She takes a sip out of her water bottle. “If you get canned, my chances of staying in the company are slim to none.”
My lips curve upward. She doesn’t realize how good she is. Emma and Basil mentioned her performance during the auditions. She definitely would have been on their short list without me saying so.
But I will keep that close to my vest for now.
“I’m not going to be fired. I basically bankroll this entire place.” Taking a last sip of water out of my water bottle, I cast my gaze down over Kaia’s slender frame.
She’s perfection today in a hot pink leotard, light pink tights, and a gauzy white dance skirt. To top it all off, there is a pink ribbon holding back her long blonde hair. That ribbon makes her look even more innocent than she is.
It makes me think of how good she’s going to look wearing the same ribbon in her hair while she takes my cock deep in her throat and lets me fuck her mouth.
“Are you listening?” she asks, her brow furrowing.
One side of my mouth hitches up. “No. Are you ready to start work?”
Her hazel eyes go wide. “What?”
Stretching my arms out, I shoot her a quelling smile. “I’m supposed to tutor you,” I remind her.
She blushes, but she looks relieved. “Oh. Uhhh…” She glances toward the door. “I guess now is as good a time as any. I just thought we were going to start after I had some choreography to work on.”
She winces and looks down at her right foot. “Sleeping Beauty has essentially the same combinations in every iteration since the dawn of time.” I nod toward her foot. “Take care of that. Then we’ll start.”
The door knob jiggles. I walk to the door, spying Bas through the door. Opening it, I step aside.
Basil enters, his suspicious gaze going from me to Kaia. Luckily she is already across the room, sitting on the ground and peeling off her pointe shoe.
“Why was the door locked?” Basil asks me in a hushed tone. “You can’t be in a locked room with a dancer, Calum. Not with Honor, not with…” He glances at Kaia, as if trying to place her. “Whatever her name is.”
I cock a brow. “I’m not sure how the door got locked. We were merely discussing her inability to arabesque from a pirouette.”
He narrows his eyes on my face. “I’m warning you, Calum.”
Kaia hops up, testing out her shoe. She walks over to us, looking back and forth between us. “Did you tell Bas that you’re going to give me an hour of extra training twice a week?”
I smile pointedly at her. “No. We hadn’t really gotten that far.”
Basil’s brow wrinkles. “Just the two of you?”
I nod. “Yep. Unless you want to stick around?”
Bas crosses his arms, looking between us. “Maybe I will. Just for today.”
I want to throw him out of the room. But I don’t. Instead I spread my hands wide. “Great. Kaia was just saying that she doesn’t know the choreography at all yet. So maybe you can help with that.”
He fixes me with a smug little glance. “Of course.”
He walks over to the other side of the room, dipping his feet in the box of rosin powder to increase his traction. Then he walks to the far corner, glancing at Kaia.
“What do you want to learn first? An easy combination? Or would you prefer to start with something more advanced?”
Kaia’s throat works for a second as she glances at me. “Advanced, please. I would rather do something wrong with you two here than learn easier moves.”
I fold my arms across my chest and tilt my head. Bas starts out in fifth position, arching his arms upward. “Okay. So… let’s start with this combination. It goes like this…”
He executes several turns and then two leaps, ending with an arabesque. Then he does a great big leap across the floor, his movements exaggerated.
When he finishes, he looks up at Kaia. “That’s one of the hardest combinations in the entirety of Sleeping Beauty. Are you ready to try it?”
She gives him a quick nod, trotting to the rosin box. After daintily dabbing her feet in the powdered tree sap, she takes her place in the far corner. She assumes fifth position, blowing out a breath.
“I can see you thinking,” I call out to her. “I should see the emotion from the scene or nothing at all. You’re supposed to be effortlessly graceful.”
Her eyes flit to me, then refocus. Her expression turns slightly smiling.
She raises her arms over her head and completes the pirouettes and the leaps.
I can already see that she’s too hesitant and she starts a half second too late.
There is a distinctly awkward moment when she lurches out of the last turn and into the first leap.
Kaia does her big jump at the end, finishing by kicking one leg behind her and raising her arms. I blow out a breath and rub my hand over my mouth.
That performance wasn’t horrible, but it was far from moving me at all.
Bas’s lips twitch. “She needs music.”
He pulls out his phone and plays around with the room’s stereo system. I look at her with a frown.
“How did that feel for you?”
Kaia looks down, her cheeks flushing. “Not great.”
“Hmm,” I say, vaguely agreeing.
Lively classical music starts to play and Bas takes a deep breath. “From the top. You can turn around do the same combination going that way.” He flicks his wrist to the opposite corner.
Kaia hastens to take her position. Again, I can see she’s overthinking it.”
“Kaia,” I bark. She looks at me and I pull my hand closed in the air over my face. “Effortlessly graceful.”
She nods, looking ahead and shuttering her expression. She waits for five breaths, then raises her arms and begins to step into the first turn.
This time, it’s better. Her timing has improved. She clearly has a knack for pirouettes, executing them well. But the two small leaps and the grand jeté at the end fall flat.
She looks up to find me tapping my foot. “I don’t understand how you made it this far through school and yet this eludes you.”
Kaia shoots me a hard look. “It’s only my second attempt, Calum.”
Bas interrupts. “Let me see you do a turn and then step into a leap. That really needs work.”
She does it again, and it looks every bit as awkward. I shake my head, moving away from the mirrored wall behind me.
“Watch,” I say.
I wait a second, pulling in a breath through my nose. Then I move, turning and stepping neatly into a leap. The move requires a great deal of precision and control on my part but I execute it almost casually.
I stop short of doing another leap, turning back toward Kaia. “See?”
Her brows draw down. “I think so. I’m missing a step between my pirouette and my leap. It’s just so fast that I almost missed it.”
I smirk. “Indeed.”
Irritation flashes across her face for a moment before she turns and walks to the corner. She takes fifth position and begins again.
This time, her turns are close to perfect, she nails the leaps, and she manages a particularly grand jeté. She kicks her leg back behind her, balancing en pointe and raising her arms above her head.
“Hold it!” I cry. “Hold it… hold it…”
She breaks, her leg coming down. She glares at me, shaking her arms and legs out.
“Come here,” I beckon. “Let’s practice that arabesque.”
Her gaze slides between me and Bas, who seems to be preoccupied with texting. She hurries over to stand before me, taking fifth position. Then she sweeps her leg back and up and lifts her arms.
I move closer, adjusting her posture ever so slightly with a hand on her waist. My other hand comes up to touch her inner thigh, lifting her leg ever so slightly higher.
Her eyes widen as I touch her. Her breath falters, only noticeable to me because I’m standing so close.
It is very tempting to slide my hand down to tease her pussy and up to nudge her breast. But I don’t.
Even if I were to give in, Bas is standing right behind us. He’s waiting for just that kind of move from me.
So I stay put. I can feel Kaia’s muscles start to tremble under my fingers.
In this moment, she is graceful and beautiful.
“One more…” I whisper.
She holds it for another half breath before slowly releasing. I step back, putting my hands behind my back.
“That was good,” I say.
Kaia looks at me, her wide hazel eyes taking me in. Her cheeks turn pink and she tucks a stray lock of her hair that has escaped her ribbon back behind her ear.
“Don’t think so much,” I murmur. “The pose is not easy, but it should be calming for you. After so much motion it is your reward. Just being still for a few moments.”
Bas smiles lightly, looking at his phone. “I should go. Good work today though, Kaia.”
Kaia blushes and ducks her head. “Have a good night.”
Bas purses his lips and arches a brow at me while he walks out of the studio. I’m not sure what that was exactly, but I’m sure that he wouldn’t leave me here with Kaia if he knew what kind of thoughts I’ve had about her in the last twenty four hours.
As he leaves, I heave a sigh. “Do you want to run it again? Repetition builds muscle memory.”
She puffs out her cheeks and puts her hands on her hips, nodding as she walks across the room. “Yeah.”
We drill the same combination about ten more times. “Good. Again.”
As I walk over and check my phone, I see twenty missed calls, from Lucas and from another number that I don’t recognize. As I’m scrolling through my texts from Lucas, I see this.
Anita had a bad fall. They are taking her to Memorial Hospital with a suspected fractured hip and a possible concussion. Call me.
And then, where the fuck are you, Calum?
“Fuck,” I say, glowering at my phone.
“What?” Kaia calls.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it. I have to go,” I say, not even looking at her.
I have to take control of this situation or Anita is going to have Lucas eating out of the palm of her hand soon enough. Not even glancing back, I grab my water bottle and start calling my limousine driver.