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I think I like her wit.
“So…” Kaia says, trying to make conversation. “I hear that the company is going to hire a bunch of new dancers. Is that true, Calum?”
“Yes. I tasked the newer members of the board with choosing diverse candidates. I just have to wonder if they did a good job or not…” Calum intones.
Ella looks away and the moment between us passes. I can’t be bothered with the internal politics of the ballet company, so I let the conversation swirl around me. Still, I can’t keep my eyes off Ella, darting glances at her just rarely enough as to not be thought of as a creep. At least, I hope not.
She’s plucky and smart, sexy and from Kaia’s description, very talented. I imagine that she also has some kind of distinct self-discipline, as she is a fucking ballerina at the best company in the world.
But does that make her nanny material? Or does that leave the door open for me to ask her out?
You’re just in town for the weekend. That’s all you could ever have. The reminder is like throwing ice cubes in a fire.
Ella rests her hand on her hip. It catches my attention, then I find myself out and out staring at her legs.
“Keir, do you want to join the conversation with the rest of us?” Kaia says, squeezing my arm.
“Yeah…” A long time passes before I’m able to come up with the perfect question. “Ella, do you have any experience with teaching children?”
“What?” Ella flushes and smiles. “Uh, yes, Keir. I do. I practically raised my little sister Joy. And of course I was responsible for teaching a class of five year olds ballet all through high school. Kaia here was usually assigned to co-pilot those classes.”
“Oh god, don’t remind me,” Kaia laments. “Those kids had the worst moms ever. They complained about like… every single class that we taught. It was horrible.”
“Keir and I haven’t known each other for a million years. But we have had to wrangle his daughter as a toddler. Let me tell you what, Isla had the two of us running around like madmen.”
“Isla? Is that your daughter?” Ella asks.
“It is.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
I squint at her, trying to read into her words. But if there is subtext, I can’t tell.
“Thank you.”
A waiter stumbles and knocks into a tuxedoed man just behind me. The man backs up, stepping on me and slashing his drink on my sleeve. I glare at the man, who is clearly drunk.
“Watch who you’re stepping on,” I say, low and threatening.
The tuxedoed man turns around to face me; I can tell from the red glow in his cheeks that he’s had more than a few.
“I’ll step wherever I want.”
He gestures, sloshing his drink again. This time, it almost hits Ella. In the blink of an eye, I descend on the man, grabbing the tumbler and forcing his wrist back at a painful angle.
“I have no time or patience for your drunken buffoonery, you lout,” I grit out. “Let go of the damn glass.”
He lets go and squeaks as I bend his wrist back further. When I suddenly turn him loose, he wobbles, unsteady.
The red color in his cheeks flourishes and he looks at me, angry. “I’ll sue you!”
“I look forward to it.”
I turn around, holding up his glass for a server to grab. The man grabs at my arm, ripping my tuxedo jacket.
And that’s all it takes for fury to flood my veins. I’m not thinking about the sexy girl I met tonight or the friends that I’m about to potentially frighten.
No, I’m a thousand percent reacting to the man’s drunken antics. My blood feels like fire coursing through my veins.
