Jordan, Olivia - Carly's Two-Stepping Temptations [Studio Seductions 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

Studio Seductions 2

OLIVIA JORDAN

Copyright © 2011

Chapter One

“And last but not least, Carly will be dancing with Heath Taylor.”

Carly Dunham shook herself out of her daydream as she heard Taletha Hendricks say her name. She should have been paying attention to the staff meeting, but she’d been focused on the sexy stranger hanging back in a corner. While Taletha had been discussing plans for the studio’s
Dancing with the Stars
-style fundraiser, Carly had been focused on the new guy’s hands and imagining all the ways they might slide and play along her body.

“Carly, are you paying attention?” Taletha’s voice had a hint of irritation.

“I’m dancing with Heath Taylor.”

“And who is he?”

“Someone rich, I’m assuming, if he’s putting up the money to participate in this event.” Carly hoped that sarcasm would conceal her embarrassment at getting caught daydreaming.

Taletha rolled her eyes. “He’s a local tech entrepreneur who turned his startup into a Fortune 500 company in just three years. He’s a big deal in the local business community, and his participation is going to give this event a lot of desperately-needed publicity. He’s also the only local celebrity with any sort of dance experience, and so he already has a bit of an ego. We have to do our best to handle him so he has a great experience.”

“Okay, I get it. I have to work with the spoiled rich dude who already thinks he’s hot shit.”

“Well, Heath wants to dance two-step in the show, and I can’t very well give him a male instructor, now can I? The only other two-step specialist we have right now is our new hire. Speaking of which…” Taletha paused and gestured to the man leaning in the corner. “I’d like to introduce you all to Jared Brooks. He’s filling the position that opened when Emily, um, well, when Emily went to prison. Jared specializes in country-western dancing, and he’ll be taking some of the teaching load off of Carly. Welcome, Jared.”

All of the instructors broke out into a polite round of clapping as Jared nodded and flashed a tiny smile.

“Okay, meeting adjourned. Carly, I’d like to speak with you for a minute.”

Carly kept her eyes focused on Jared’s tight ass as she watched him slip out of the room. She was so distracted that she didn’t hear anything until Taletha said her name for the fourth time.

“Sorry, what?”

“I just wanted to talk to you for a minute about the show. Heath is the kind of person who needs to be handled with care.”

“He’s an inexperienced dancer who’s going to want to look good. I understand.”

“Well, I worry that he’s going to be a little more difficult to manage than that. But I trust you to keep his attitude in check and create a great routine. His support means a lot to us. This fundraiser is going to help us pay off the repair expenses from Emily’s vandalism. We need this to go over well, or I’m afraid I won’t be able to make payroll.”

Now Carly felt even worse for screwing around during the meeting. “I’m really sorry, Taletha. I wasn’t thinking. I promise, I’ll make sure Heath has a great experience and his colleagues give us buckets of money.”

Taletha finally smiled. “That’s all I needed to hear. Which is good, because you have your first lesson with him right now.”

Carly raised her eyebrows. “Right now?”

“Yep!” Taletha hurried out of the staff lounge toward the reception area, and Carly followed. As they approached the front desk, a gorgeous man walked through the glass doors. His dirty-blond hair had been carefully sculpted to make it look perfectly mussed, and his skin glowed with a tan that reflected his high cheekbones.

“Lovely to see you again, Taletha,” he said, placing a dry kiss on her cheek.

“Likewise, Heath. I’m so glad you agreed to participate in our fundraiser.”

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to take my dancing skills to the next level.”

“We can definitely help you do that. Speaking of which, I’d like you to meet your instructor, Carly Dunham.”

Carly held out her hand. “Lovely to meet you.”

Rather than offering the typical handshake, Heath took her hand and lifted it to his lips. “A pleasure, I’m sure.”

Electricity raced through Carly’s body the second his lips touched her skin. Goose bumps rose up along her arms, and she was grateful that she was wearing a cardigan so he wouldn’t see the effect that such a friendly gesture had on her.

“Well, shall we begin?” she asked when her heart returned to normal.

“That sounds great.”

Carly reluctantly pulled her hand away as she walked toward the main studio. “So I hear you have some dance experience.”

“Yeah, I’m a regular at the country bars downtown. Started taking the free lessons there, and I occasionally do the odd contest. I’m not a pro, of course, but I do have a knack for winning those.”

“So you want to learn something in the country genre?”

Heath nodded. “Two-step is my favorite.”

Carly grinned. “Well, you’re in luck. It’s my favorite as well. Do you have a particular song you’d like to use?”

“I hadn’t thought much about it yet.”

“Not a problem. Let’s just go over some of the basics of the dance today. We’ll figure out just how skilled you are, where your weaknesses lie, and that will help me to create a good dance for you.”

Carly walked over to the stereo and put on a two-step, then hurried over to Heath and got into dance position. His touch, however, was just as electric as it had been a few minutes before. Carly struggled to turn her mind away from the heat forming on her skin and concentrate instead on paying attention to the weak frame that passed for good form at bars.
It’s time to be a teacher. He is my student, and I need to critique him, not fuck him
.

Things only got worse as Heath began to move his feet. He shuffled his steps and bounced his knees up and down—more classic hallmarks of dancers who had been trained in bars from instructors who were only marginally qualified and marginally sober. But even as Carly missed his clumsy attempts at leading turns and stumbled when his feet got in her way, she had to fight the sparks shooting across her skin and resist the urge to drag him into one of the small, private studios for a more intimate lesson.

“How was that?” he asked with a grin when the song came to an end. “I’m pretty good, right?”

You’re not much of a dancer, but I’d be interested in learning about your more horizontal talents
.

Carly restrained herself from being crude, but knew that if she was going to get through to Heath, she had to give him the honest truth about his dancing. “You dance like you learned in a bar. We have a lot of work to do if you want to look good at the event.”

* * * *

Heath sputtered and felt his face go red. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “In case you’ve already forgotten, I
was
trained in a bar.”

“And that means there are certain characteristics about your dancing that will not fly with me and will not fly in a performance, even if the audience knows that half of the dancers are not trained professionals.”

“I win competitions all the time.”

“Yeah, at
bars
. Where the winners are pretty much the ones who have had the least to drink and therefore manage to stay upright the longest. Look, you’re not a terrible dancer, and you know more than some of the people who have walked into the studio. But the fact remains that you have a weak frame and generally poor footwork, and it’s going to take a lot of practice and diligence if you want to stand out at the show.”

Jared was no stranger to hard work. A self-made man, he’d worked his way up from humble beginnings, saved money to begin his own company, and turned the startup venture into a moneymaking machine in record time. Work didn’t frighten him. In fact, he relished it.

However, it had been a long time since anybody had criticized him. When he’d been working for other people, he’d taken care to have impeccable job performance, ensuring that nobody could take him to task for mistakes. When he’d finally started his own company, he once again took care to be perfect in every decision and action. Failure was not an option, especially not failure by his own doing.

Now, this dancer was telling him he wasn’t amazing. She wasn’t even remotely impressed with him. She was gorgeous, to be sure, with dark hair that she wore short. It complemented her green eyes and heart-shaped face perfectly. But as pretty as she was, he could not tolerate her criticizing him.

Heath set his teeth in a rigid line. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“Of course I know who you are. That doesn’t change the fact that if you want to dance well in the show, I’m going to have to get critical and nitpicky over your poor technique.”

“I came here to do a fundraiser to keep your studio from going under. I’m here to help you keep your damn job. So you don’t get to me like I’m any guy who walks in off the street looking for dance lessons.”

“You might be a billionaire, and you might be able to retire before you hit forty, but to me, you are just a regular guy who walked in off the street, because that’s the way you dance.”

“Then maybe it was a bad idea for me to sign up for this. Or maybe I should ask Taletha to put me with another instructor.” He turned and began stalking out of the studio.

“You said at the front desk that you wanted to take your dancing to the next level. Was that all a show for Taletha’s benefit? Were you pretending?”

Heath stopped in his tracks. The fact that she called him out made him even angrier. However, she’d just issued him a challenge, and he was not about to back away from it. He turned around slowly.

“I did mean it, yes.”

“If you want to improve, you have to be willing to accept criticism about your weaknesses. I can make you a better dancer. I can make you a great dancer. But not if you’re going to get all upset when I make objective statements about the quality of your technique. Now, do you really want to leave, or do you actually want to learn to dance?”

Heath stared at Carly for a few minutes before giving her an answer. He realized he wasn’t just attracted to her beauty. On some level, he was starting to like the way she talked to him. Even though he was used to getting his way, something about the edge in Carly’s voice as she challenged him made the blood in his body heat up a few degrees. He did want to be a better dancer—but he also wanted a chance to get to know the beautiful woman who wouldn’t put up with his crap.

“I want to learn to dance.”

His cock gave a flutter as she flashed him a perfect smile. “Excellent. Let’s get to work. First, I’m going to teach you a thing or two about proper dance frame.”

Heath struggled to keep his erection at bay as Carly’s touch began to light up his body.

* * * *

Jared lured at the fringes of the main studio, watching Carly as she worked with Heath. Even though she struggled as she danced with her student, Jared could see the talent that had made her a champion. He couldn’t believe that she was still on the market for a new partner six months after the great Jake Cunningham had suffered a career-ending injury. Most people would be clamoring to dance with such a well-decorated champion, and competitors tried not to miss too many events after they’d lost a partner. Visibility was the key to enduring success.

When he decided to take the job at Rhythm and Motion Dance Studio, Jared had entertained a brief hope that perhaps he could become Carly’s new dance partner. He’d competed against her and Jake on the country-western circuit until Jake had gotten injured and they’d both quit the scene. He’d always admired both her technique and her artistry, and every time Carly and Jake had won a competition, Jared knew they deserved it.