Pointe of Breaking (6 page)

Priority number one: Get my purse. Number two? Convince Ms. Higgins, Joffrey’s Board of Directors, or whoever needed convincing, that I was worth the trouble. Until now, I’d been an exemplary apprentice. Besides, Joffrey’s dancers made mistakes all the time. Granted, theirs weren’t typically advertised in smut publications. Nevertheless, whatever happened I had to ensure that Ivan wouldn’t go down with me. His natural talent and continual strive to be better never failed to impress.

Wrapped in a towel, I applied my
Urban Decay
war paint. Ivan kept busy as he rummaged through my closet and tossed clothes onto my futon that were reserved for clubbing. He threw me a white skirt and a hot pink top crop top that I’d worn once, and only because of a dare.

“I’m pretty sure Higgins is straight.” I chucked the clothes back at him.

“So am I.” He snatched the skirt out of the air before it messed with his black eyeliner.

Ivan was the epitome of a punk, rather than a danseur. He was practically a billboard for Hot Topic. Not all guys could get away with wearing skinny jeans, but he was one of them.

With a full blown smirk on his face, he walked up to me and spun me around so quickly that I yelped. He clutched my waist to keep me still in front of my ten-dollar full-length mirror, then positioned the skirt in front of my hips.

“She’s straight. I’m straight. So are a million other men in the City. Strut your stuff, Addy girl!”

“I’ll become a ballerina whore! What are you then? My pimp?”

“If paparazzi is following you, then you might as well take advantage of it, should Joffrey lose their damn mind and do something rash like not to take you back.”

“Parading around like a stripper isn’t going to help matters,” I said, eyeing the hot pink top.

He shrugged his shoulders, walked over to my bed and flopped down. “Badmouth your clothes all you want. You bought them for a reason. Don’t try to deny it.”

I walked over to the trashcan where
Rotten Apples
belonged and dug it out. Shoving it in his face, I tapped on the picture of my ass. “This
isn’t
how I want to get recruited into prestigious ballet companies.”

“Fine,” he contested, pulling the paper down and smoothing it out like the trash was the last place in the world for a publication of its esteem. “Besides, who knows if Blake reads, but there is a good chance he’d take one look at this piece of gold and know he fucked up bad.”

That gave me pause. “If I wear them, will you shut up?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

I slipped the skirt on but paired it with a light blue t-shirt, not the hot pink top. After shrugging on a jean jacket, Ivan walked up behind me and slipped a pair of sunglasses over my eyes.

“From what I hear, the limelight can be bright.”

With that, I was ready to face the world. Ivan offered me his arm and escorted me down the four flights of stairs. We barely got outside the door when the shrill pitch of two girls’ screams and a man arguing dulled the noise of the City. I recognized one of the blondes as Blake’s wife. Slammed by guilt, I lost my footing. Ivan caught me before I skinned my knees on the cement steps that lead to the street.

“Are you okay?” Ivan held me upright. “You look like you’re going to blow chunks.”

As much as I wanted to make sure I was welcome back at Joffrey’s, I needed to deal with this before it blew up into a bigger deal. “Ivan, would it be horrible if you picked up my purse for me and then give it to me when we meet up for practice?”

“And leave a perfectly good bitch-fest with two hot babes?”

Blake’s curvy wife was ranting about dating etiquette. I wondered if she knew her husband and I had slept together last night. Oh God. A part of me hoped not. As much as I’d
never
want her to know…she deserved to know the truth about Blake.

Next to her was a girl with breasts so perky they
had
to have been purchased. Her flawless skin and shimmering blond hair screamed money. She pointed her well-manicured finger against Leo’s chest—wait! What was
he
doing here?

I knew it wasn’t the time or the place, but when a guy like Leo showed up to my doorstep in stone-washed jeans, military grade boots, and dressed in a black leather jacket while posing in front of a motorcycle, I damn near tripped and fell again. He hung his sunglasses on his shirt collar, giving me a peek at the sexiness that was Mr. Fucking Richards.

Leo stood next to his motorcycle that was on its side—flat on the asphalt—in the parking space. From his clenched fists and choice words, I got the distinct impression that it had not been an accident his bike was knocked over and scratched all to hell.

“Well if you would have just let me on, it wouldn’t have fallen over!” the blonde yelled.

She was talking too dang fast for me to keep up with the why or how Leo’s bike was wrecked because she’d moved on to complaining about a library and him ditching her for homework.

Oh God! Was she his girlfriend? Please tell me he didn’t have a girlfriend!
That had to be a record: screwing a married man and then picking up a taken guy at the bar.

“Is that
the
Leonardo Richards?” Ivan asked.

“Ivan, just go. Get my purse so I can take care of this drama before it blows up.” I pushed him down the front steps. He started to argue, but I stopped him short. “If you stick around, I’ll never dance with you again.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” I countered. “The only reason I can afford Joffrey is because of the R&B scholarship. I put every cent into my tuition. I pick up as many shifts at work as humanly possible. It would be so much easier to quit right here, right now. And that isn’t even taking into consideration my recent debut in today’s paper!”

Ivan’s face went blank. A defense mechanism taught to the best performing arts majors. He was not happy about my threat, but didn’t want me to know what he was thinking. “I’ll be back later today for practice. I won’t be content to read about what happened in the papers like I had to this morning.”

“Fine.” I would have agreed to about anything. “Stop by my place later today, and I’ll tell you
everything
.”

With Ivan taken care of, I turned my attention back to the screaming match. I knew how Leo had found my place; nonetheless I hadn’t expected him to show up after I blew chunks all over his suit. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn. Gross. Gross. Gross.

I raised my chin and approached the very loud talking individuals. I was about ten feet away before Blake’s wife nudged the screaming blonde and nodded at me.

Leo followed their gaze to my direction. Twice. Was anything more complimentary than a double-take? His eyes crawled hungrily up my body, toe to head. It wasn’t like I was dressed to the nines, just a little makeup and hairspray. Perhaps he was just surprised to see me. His smoldering glower was lethal enough, but then he was dressed to kill on top of it!

“
You
!” the blonde snapped at me, like the three letter
you
word carried more weight than an actual curse word.

Along came her shaking finger. Who was I? A child to be punished? Holy crap was she melodramatic!

“
You’re
the reason the Richards family name is being dragged through the dirt right now!” She marched toward me, getting her face in mine.

Leo grabbed her arm, protecting me from jabs by her accusatory finger. “I’m the one you’re mad at Sasha, not Adeline!”

“Get off of me!” Sasha yelled and pushed Leo.

He didn’t back off. He kept his cool even though Sasha was testing his restraint. His chest swelled, in a rather distracting and not the right time and place sort of way.

“
You’re
the reason why Leonardo and his family are being forced into your public stupor,” she screamed. “They have legal reason to sue the tabloid for defamation.
You’re
the reason why everything went to hell!”

I didn’t deny it. It was the truth. If I hadn’t made that one horrible bad decision with Blake off stage, none of this would have happened. I couldn’t look at Blake’s wife, although I did glance at the ring on her finger. Rather, how could I not notice her ring? It was freaking enormous. She gave it a flick in the air so that it really sparkled and paired it with a vicious smile.

I wondered if Blake would have given her the much smaller ring he’d given me. The one he
claimed
to be his grandmother’s. If it’d been an heirloom, wouldn’t he have fought for it when he called off our engagement?

“That’s right, slut. Give it a good look because it’s the closest diamond you’ll see north of five carats outside a jewelry store,” Blake’s wife said.

“Felicia, shut up!” Leo growled and then turned his attention to the blonde barricaded in his arms. He grabbed her shoulders. “And you, for the last time, nothing happened between us, Sasha! Adeline just had too many drinks and needed a lift home.”

“Ha!” Felicia scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “If nothing happened then why did you lie about needing to study?”

“That’s none of your damn business,” Leo yelled.

“It is mine,” Sasha retorted. “You’re
my
boyfriend
.”

I wanted to die. Death by mortification, that’s how I’d go.
Of course Leo was taken—why wouldn’t he be? In one night, I slept with my
married
ex and managed to crush
on someone else’s beau!

“We both know that we haven’t been serious for a while, Sasha. I let you drag me to the ballet, but I never said I wanted to go fucking steady.”

Oh thank goodness!
They
weren’t
an item! Well, not a serious one. Even so, I was the last person to point out proper dating etiquette.

With that settled, everyone needed to chill out. If I had to speak in a soft voice so they could take a second to realize how juvenile they were being, I’d freaking whisper. So in a calm voice I spoke, “Sasha, Felicia, how did you find out where I live?”

“How do you think we did?” Felicia snapped back. “We have means of locating
anyone
needing to be found, even skanks like you. My husband is the heir to NetMapping. Ever heard of it? It’s only the most effective GPS in the world.”

I clenched my teeth to keep from calling her a liar. Blake had an older brother that was as power hungry as he. To say that Blake was going to be the sole proprietor of the company was a stretch. Nevertheless, I kept my mouth shut. What Blake told his wife wasn’t my concern. It begged the question: how long had Blake, or his family, been keeping tabs on me? Had he ever stopped?

“And so we were just going to tell you that Leo had a girlfriend and that you should
back off
when we caught him pacing in front of your apartment door!”

“We. Aren’t. Dating.” Leo’s cheeks turned red.

I took a deep breath and ignored everything I couldn’t deal with at this point. I’d just slept with a married man. Now I was getting the fifth degree from a ticked off ex-girlfriend, or friends-with-benefits, or whoever.

“My point was that if you two girls found out where I live, don’t you think that a paparazzi
might
have managed to locate me as well? One of their reporters stalked me last night. I wouldn’t put it past them to follow me home.” I glanced at the tipped over bike. “I might have put on the performance of a lifetime last night, but today it’s you making the show.”

Sasha exchanged a look with Felicia. I doubted their precious families would be pleased if they turned up in tomorrow’s smut paper. When Sasha took a deep breath, Leo let go of her. She straightened herself out and then turned her death glare at me.

“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” Sasha jeered, flipping her bleached blonde hair over her shoulder. “The Richards are powerful people. They will ruin you for tainting their son’s image. So don’t try to pull anything with Leo, because he’ll get sick of you and come running back to me like he
always
does.”

“That is his prerogative,” I said.

With her nose high in the air, she rolled her eyes. I was merely an obstacle who was getting in the way of her happiness. I bet it pained her that little, ‘ol me was disrupting her platinum lifestyle. I could practically see the contempt seeping from her caked-on makeup. From her artificial breasts, to her tattooed lip liner, to her fake oversized eyelashes, to her acrylic nails—
everything
about her was as fake as her high-and-mighty smile.

“You don’t belong in this world,” she sneered.

I held her gaze. “Thank God.”

“Bitch!”

She looped arms with Felicia and stomped off. They didn’t get too far before Sasha turned around and held her phone up in my direction, taking a photo of us on the sidewalk together. For what? I didn’t have the energy to care. All I could think about was how I just needed to apologize for…ugh! Everything a lightweight drunk could have managed in one night. The
Rotten Apple’s
bang-up article on us, ruining his good suit jacket with vomit, and we couldn’t forget screwing his friend, Blake.