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“It would not hurt you to talk to me. Do you want to talk about what happened at Sneak Peek?”
As her brothers would say, oh, hell no. “Talking won’t win us any trophies. From the top.”
Using the remote control, she started the music again and got into position. Sighing, Kristoff assumed his pose and they danced for another grueling half hour.
Until the door to the studio swung open unexpectedly.
Alejandro strolled in looking dark and yummy and like a man with an agenda—one that started with getting her out of her clothes.
Shanna sucked in a breath. “What are you doing here?”
“I assume your phone is broken, since you have not returned my calls.” He arched a brow. “So I decided to find you.”
“We’re practicing.”
The protest was automatic. His presence here, so unexpected, raised her defenses. Thank god. She needed those barriers against him. If she spent another hour with the man, feeling as weak as she had while he touched her, she’d collapse against him and… Shanna shivered. She’d be vulnerable to him, probably admit that she cared.
Not acceptable.
“You will win because we will uncover who has been blackmailing you,” Alejandro vowed.
“The security tapes turned up nothing, you said.”
“That is true. And I assume the blackmailer has not contacted you, or you would have let me know.”
“Yes, I would have.” And she would, no matter how much talking to him would have tempted her to do more—the way she wanted to right now. “But I haven’t received anything so far. So we have nothing else to say.”
Alejandro’s expression told he her could see right through her bluster and wasn’t put off in the least. Damn him! Why couldn’t he cringe, like most people?
“How did you find out when and where we were practicing?” she demanded.
With a sweep of his hand, Alejandro outted Kristoff as the culprit.
She whirled on her partner angrily. “This is practice time, not social hour. What the hell were you thinking?”
“That if I did not tell him how to find you, he would end my privileges at Sneak Peek.”
Shanna gritted her teeth. Fabulous. Yet another example of a man thinking with his penis. Apparently, it had never occurred to him—or he didn’t care—that she hadn’t wanted Alejandro to find her.
“I have been thinking,” Kristoff said. “Since your first effort to draw the blackmailer did not solve the problem that you should try again.”
“Are you serious?” Her jaw dropped.
Kristoff nodded. “Stage another public scene. The word about it is out now. People in the community are buzzing about you two. If you give advance warning, I believe the person responsible will come.”
Shanna considered Kristoff’s words with dread—and excitement. More of Alejandro’s touches, his wild sort of lovemaking… So very tempting. She hadn’t just liked what they’d done together; she had basked in it. And had been aching for more since.
Not a good idea. More Alejandro would only addict her further to the man. And while she didn’t know him well, she doubted he would settle for a woman whose schedule was as demanding as hers, especially since she spent nearly every day dancing in very suggestive ways with another man. Besides, she’d bet Alejandro would expect a great deal emotionally from the woman he called his—certainly more than she was comfortable giving. He had to see her limitations.
So why was he still pursuing her?
As much as she’d like to give into her fears and dismiss Alejandro, what Kristoff said made sense. Maybe the blackmailer had not acted last time because he hadn’t known about the scene. Or been able to be there that night. She and Alejandro had done little to spread the word beforehand. The audience who had witnessed her coming apart in Ali’s arms had largely been there by chance.
“I agree,” Alejandro said. “I want to catch this bastard. But the choice is Shanna’s.”
She bit her lip. With the competition in three days, her options were running thin. Throwing away almost twenty years of training, sweating, and suffering to avoid having sex with Alejandro seemed beyond stupid, even if fear screamed that she should run like hell.
Reluctantly, Shanna nodded. “I’ll be there tonight.”
Alejandro shook his head. “Tomorrow night. Give me time to suggest that there may be a repeat performance, just in case the scum does not have his ear to the ground, so to speak.”
Shanna released the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. She wanted desperately to be with him. At the same time, she didn’t. It was so unlike her to be indecisive and conflicted. She had to regain balance, get a grip on her control.
“Fine,” she announced. “I will be there at eight. We’ll commence at eight-thirty. I need to be home by ten.”
Turning away with a dismissive whirl, she reached for the remote control, intent on starting the music, resuming practice…and ignoring Alejandro before he noticed her trembling and made her completely insane with those hungry stares of his.
