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Umph.I fall, my foot twisting just at the right time and angle.
“Sir, you can’t go on the stage,” someone yells.
I look up, and a shadowed figure in a jacket over a white T-shirt storms up to me. Adam backs off as I spring up, my foot aching. “Lachlan! What are you doing?”
“Why is this guy touching you?”
“It’s a dance.” I press on his chest, my fingers tightening on his jacket.
His jacket. He’s armed, which is why he’s wearing it.
“All this time, you’ve been coming here with a guy touching you?”
“No.” I exhale. “Let’s go talk.”
“Katya, are you ready for your routine?” Fern, the assistant choreographer, cautiously comes up to me.
“What are you talking about? She just danced.” Lachlan winds his arm around my waist.
“No. I was standing in for Adam’s partner. She’s got Covid. He asked me to do the run through with him.”
Lachlan breathes heavily, sweat beading on his forehead. “That’s why you were dancing early?”
“Yes.” My eyes slip closed. “They’ve been rehearsing for weeks. I watched their routine and knew I could substitute. I didn’t want Adam to miss rehearsal time.”
Lachlan stares over my head, glaring at Adam, who looks shaken. “But he’s competing against you.”
“No, he’s not. He and Charli are trying to get into the world competition.”
“Oh.” Lachlan holds my chin. “Fuck, you fell. He dropped you.”
“I’m fine,” spills from my lips because I’m programmed to say that, but one step pain shoots up my leg. “Ow!”
“Come with me.” Lachlan scoops me up. “Where’s your dressing room?”
“There are girls in there, sir.” Fern bravely sidles up to us.
“Get them out of there,” Lachlan sneers. “I need to make sure my wife is okay.”
Fern shakes her head. “Use my office. It has a couch.”
“Thank you, Fern.” I call out, tucked into Lachlan’s arms. “Can I do my routine last?”
“Sure.” She nods at me over her shoulder as we follow her.
“Will this hurt you? What I did?” Lachlan lowers me onto the sofa in Fern’s utilitarian office.
“No, the instructors are here to help us. Judges from the conservatory only come for the auditions.”
He strokes my face. “Are you hurt badly?”
“I’m a little shaken from being dropped from so high up.” I rotate my ankle, grateful my foot was just turned the wrong way for a moment.
Lachlan pulls me onto his lap. “I don’t like that a man was touching you.”
“I can’t guarantee I’ll never dance with a man again. In fact, I probably will. We’re professionals. There’s nothing…sexual about it.”
“It looked sexual.”
