by Lynn Turner
They were quiet a moment. Then Sophie spoke again. “He has such a presence, Mina. It’s intimidating. I almost apologized for breathing his air.”
Mina laughed. “That’s ridiculous!”
“It’s true. I… don’t be mad…”
“What?”
“I… merde…I may have asked him not to be so hard on you—”
“Sophie!”
“I know! It was stupide and impulsive and completely unprofessional…but you keep so much inside you. It’s not healthy. I just wanted him to see you like I see you, chère.”
Mina groaned. “I can’t believe you! What did he say?”
“Nothing! I didn’t give him a chance. I was so nervous…I told him about that documentary we did years ago, when you first got promoted. Then I ran after you.”
“Now it makes sense.”
“What does?”
“Why he was so nice to me. I sat there and cried in his lap like a toddler!”
“Slow down—”
“And then I kissed him. He tried to stop me, but I kissed him anyway. Bon Dieu…”
“Okay, just…wait,” Sophie said. “Calm down. Did he kiss you back?”
Mina’s body blossomed all over, the answer to Sophie’s question playing in her mind. Like a scene from a favorite movie, she remembered every action, every line. She touched her fingers to her lips. “Yes,” she breathed. “It was so good, Sophie. When he kissed me, I felt it everywhere.”
“Everywhere?” Sophie gasped. “He went down on you?”
Mina’s floor muscles contracted at the thought of Zack’s slow, deep kisses on her neglected core, and a tiny moan escaped her lips.
“Wilhelmina Fiona Allende, you better not be turned on right now, I swear to God!”
“Non.” Mina’s voice was distant, husky. “Above the waist. Everything above the waist.”
“Oh my…neck?”
“Oui.”
“Shoulders?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Boobs?”
“Everything, Sophie.” Mina licked her lips, trying to phrase her next words. “He made me…It was so good, I didn’t control it.”
“You had a boob orgasm? Oh. Mon. Dieu!”
Mina blushed furiously, her fingers and toes tingling, her hands flying to her cheeks. “It’s never happened to me before.”
“Well, merde, me neither. How did it feel? I must know everything. You’re the only one getting any action at the moment, and sleep orgasm guy just made you—”
“Okay, I’ll tell you! Just…stop calling him that.”
“Allez, chère. You’re shy, but you’re not a prude. We learned about sex in primary, watching people paw each other to death along the Seine.”
Relaxing her posture, Mina focused on the pedestrian light changing from ‘Stop’ to ‘Go.’ “It was like…when you’re having sex, and you feel it building and building, but when it happens, it’s…gentil. Not so intense. Your whole body radiates, and it lasts forever.”
“Bordel,” Sophie breathed.
“I know.”
“Then what?”
Mina pushed food around on the plate with her fork.
“Mina?”
“I was so embarrassed. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“You ran.” The silence seemed to answer Sophie’s question. “You have to stop running.”
“I can’t face him.”
“Be a grownup. Go to rehearsal.”
“I’ll call in sick.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! You haven’t done that once your entire life.”
“But—”
“I’m not listening anymore. Congratulations, chère. I’m happy for you.”
“Wait! Sophie—”
“Ciao.”
*
3:55 PM, Five Days Before the Tony Awards
Polishing off his banana and discarding the peel, Zack strolled into the studio. He arrived early each day, using the time for marking, ensuring each step was absorbed in his muscle memory. Keeping his movements light, he rose to his toes wherever there was a jump and motioned with his hands wherever there was a turn, conserving his energy until Mina arrived.
Alex and Harper were there, too, and Carla, the brilliant cellist working with Harper to compose the music for the production. Harper sat at the piano, and Carla in a folding chair beside him, her enormous cello resting against her thigh. They stopped playing whenever Zack needed to work out timing or tempo. Alex took notes from Zack about which points in the routine to watch most critically during rehearsal. It was getting down to the wire, and all the parts needed to move in perfect synchrony for Sunday’s show.
Facing the door, Zack was first to notice when Mina arrived. He stopped moving and stared at her openly, a smile tugging the corners of his mouth. She was so quiet, moving with feline grace to set her gym bag on the floor in a corner. Today, the feline wore a black hoodie that swallowed her whole, the hem stopping beneath her butt, the zipper to her neck, the hood pulled over her head. She peered at him from beneath the hood, but stayed in that corner, the point in the room farthest from him, he noticed with increasing amusement.
It was clear she had no intention of removing the gargantuan sweater, so he hiked his brow and let his grin stretch from ear to ear. Lifting her chin, she glared back, folding her arms. His answering chuckle alerted the others to her presence, and Harper gave her a wide smile.
“That you under there, Little Bird?” he teased. “You’re gonna love what I made for you.”
“Hey, you work for me,” Zack said, but Harper’s expert fingers were already fluttering over the keys.
Carla’s cello joined in like a deep, soulful voice. Zack tilted his head, eager for Mina’s reaction to the mellifluous sound filling the studio. He wasn’t disappointed. Her body rocked side to side through the first strains, then she sighed and closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around herself.
Yes. What she heard made her want to be held, and it made him smile.
Harper hadn’t simply taken Chopin’s score and added a beat to make it contemporary. He’d plumbed its depths, revealing every secret, shortening and lengthening the melodies, twisting them and adding his own, until something completely unique emerged. Magic.
It was “A Song for Camille,” and by the time Harper and Carla finished playing, a simmering energy crackled in the studio. Zack’s heart beat double time, the hairs of his arms and neck standing on end. He saw it in Mina’s eyes when she opened them again. They were ready to dance.
Mina joined Zack and Alex for quick instructions while Harper and Carla reviewed their notes.
“I hope we’re on the same page today.” Alex looked from Mina to Zack. “I know it’s an unsavory part of the business, but sometimes partners have to put their hands in rather…personal…places to guarantee safe execution of the lifts, or for more contemporary pieces, to set a mood.”
He addressed them both, but Mina was keenly aware that his exposition was for her benefit. It was beginner’s fare, partnering un-zéro-un, and the fact that Alex felt compelled to remind her made her cheeks heat painfully. Zack’s eyes burned a hole in the side of her face, but she refused to look at him, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
“Sincerest apologies for what happened, Mina, but I assure you we’re all professionals here. I can say with complete confidence I’ve never seen Zack drop a partner. In his efforts to catch you, his hands might slip and… well, better to be groped than dropped, my dear.”
“I understand.” She wanted to forget the embarrassing debacle ever happened.
Louder, so everyone heard, Alex said, “Right, so it’s Act Two. We’re in the Lady Camille’s boudoir. You’re very much in love, and things are about to…happen.” Turning back to Harper and Carla, he was oblivious to Mina’s mortified groan.
“Take off that ridiculous sweater.”
She jumped. Zack was alarmingly close to her ear. “How do you keep doing that? Sneaking up on me like…like a—”
“Like a lion?” he murmured, lifting his hands to her shoulders, gently massaging. “You’re so tense. Sorry about Alex—he meant well, but I think what he said might qualify as sexual harassment. For the record, I’ll never grope you unless you want me to.”
“Connard!” She meant for the insult to sound much harsher, but it ended on a moan, her traitorous body melting into his hands. “Why did you cover the mirrors?”
“Because you bully yourself.” His warm breath tickled her cheek. “It is July.”
She cast a quick glance behind them at the others. Were they looking, a massage to a ballerina’s tense shoulders wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary. Still. She lifted her shoulders to shrug him off and turned to face him. “I’m cold.”
“Bullshit. It’s seventy degrees in here. Pretty state-of-the-art, these climate-controlled studios…”
She glared at him.
“I have to see your body, petite, watch your muscles moving. You know that.”
“I think you’ve seen enough,” she snapped, then felt the color leave her face. “Merde!”
“So that is what this is about.”
“No.” She looked nervously at the others again.
“Liar. Are we seriously gonna pretend you didn’t come in my lap?”
Mina gasped, her arms going limp at her sides. She stared at his smug, infuriatingly handsome face as he unzipped her hoodie, watching his eyes move slowly over her body in her leotard and wrap skirt. Then, to her abject horror, she moaned.
“Ssshhh, don’t wanna go telling the whole world now, do we?” With a wink, he tossed her hoodie into the corner with her bag.
“We’ll start from the second phrase,” Alex’s voice cut in, and Mina nearly leapt from her skin.
Moving to her mark, she lowered her voice so only Zack could hear. “That can’t happen again.”
“Can’t?” His tone matched hers. “It wasn’t hard, petite.” Getting into position, he took her by the waist and looked square into her eyes. “And now, I’m intrigued.”
“Enfin, don’t be.”
“Aaannnd…” Alex motioned to Harper and Carla for their cue.
“I can’t help it.” Zack moved his hands higher, to her true ribs, flexing his fingers there. “You intrigue me.”
The piano started up. What she saw in his eyes made her lashes flutter furiously. He grinned, the connard.
“…Begin!”
Launching herself into Zack’s arms, her stomach pulled into the delicious knots of life at the feel of his fingers digging into her waist, his strong torso hugged between her thighs.
“Wonderful elevation, Mina.”
Alex’s voice reached out to them from a distance, like a foghorn through heavy haze. Her subconscious picked it up, but she was fixated on Zack. Judging by his severe expression, he was fixated on her, too.
“Your movements are still too tight. They need to be bigger. Much bigger. Don’t be afraid of really finishing off, to the ends of your fingers, so the gestures really show.”
They positioned themselves again, and Mina jumped from the midlife of the beat, her arms engaged a second earlier, stretching the movement to her fingertips. When Zack caught her this time, her arms came around his shoulders in an exaggerated motion, and she turned her face into his neck. “I’ve only just begun to intrigue you?”
“Sharp head!”
She lifted her chin a bit.
“Sharper head.”
Adjusting obediently, she sucked in a breath, jumping to assist Zack as he hoisted her up to sit on his shoulders, his face pressed to her abdomen. Her cheek touched the top of his head, her face trained to show utter bliss.
“Wonderful!”
“No.” Zack turned his face up with sensual drama, touching his forehead to hers. “Since Paris.”
Paris?
“Watch your expression, Mina.”
She braced herself on Zack’s shoulders, letting her legs fall gracefully beneath her. He gave her a quick toss, catching her waist again and setting her slowly to her feet.
“Yes! Great improvisation there, Zack! Nice playful element in such a serious piece. Note that for next time so you don’t look quite so startled, dear.”
Spinning her around, Zack bent her over, her feet and fingertips flat on the floor. Her heart pounded like war drum, flooding her face with heat. He smoothed the palm of his other hand up her back, and she started to come up slowly.
“Not so straight, Mina. Use your whole body, so it’s more sensual. It’s got to come from that foot, dear. Push off…Good.”
Mina leaned into Zack’s body, letting her head fall back onto his chest, her face turned up to his. “I don’t understand.” She controlled her breathing. “What you said to me that night—”
She couldn’t finish her thought, because he’d drawn her arm up, rubbing his stubbled chin along her sensitive skin.
“Show the inside of your arm, Mina. It’s very soft, very sensual. Everything should be exaggerated.”
She adjusted her arm.
“I said you were performing. The curtains closed, and you were still pretending.” Zack touched his lips to her arm in the choreographed places, kissing his way up to her elbow.
She stopped breathing.
“Excellent tension there, dear.”
Taking two stylistic steps back, Zack stretched out his arm. Only his hand touched her, supporting her neck in his palm.
“Jesus, stay with her, Zack.”
Mina engaged every muscle to keep her body straight, and fell back, her feet sliding slowly along the floor. Zack went down with her, lowering her to the floor by her neck until she lay on her back, then kneeled beside her.
“So then, why…?” She tried not to frown, conscious that she was supposed to be acting, and made sure her chest heaved convincingly.
The music faded to softer strains. “Go ahead for the kiss.”
Zack was over her in a flash, supporting all two meters of his muscular body on just his arms, like a pushup with his feet off the floor. “Because through it all, I still saw you.”
She gasped, then his mouth was on hers. In a whisper of time, mere seconds, a million things happened: Her eyes drifted shut, and her other senses exploded. His lips were soft, insistent, the heat from his body making her back arch, her chest seeking contact with his. Her nostrils filled with the musky scent of him, and his hair tickled her brow. His tongue flicked her bottom lip and her stomach clenched, her lips parting to taste his breath. But he kept it from her, sucking it in quickly and shoving off, pulling her up from the floor by both of her trembling hands.
“Holy shit!”
“Yes, thank you, Harper,” said Alex. “Well…you don’t need to practice that part, do you?” Clearing his throat, his gaze flickered over them. “Splendid! Let’s take it from the next phrase, then we’ll start from the top.”
They went through it again. And again…and again, until Zack was satisfied that Mina no longer hesitated before a jump, and her face stopped giving it away when she was about to be thrown into the air or whipped around with her head inches from the floor.
Something else was happening too, and it thrilled him more than he cared to admit. She shivered when he touched her—usually her waist, her neck, that hidden gem along her spine that made her jerk from the lightest brush of his fingers there—but she’d finally stopped flinching. It was…nice. Snapping from his reverie, he braced to catch her again.
“Run to him, Mina…sharp pirouette. Look at him all the way down, you’ve got plenty of time…Great.”
Maintaining the all-important eye contact the entire time, he kissed up her hand and her inner arm, laying his head against her breast for their close embrace.
“And hold it…really try and fix that position, just for a moment.”
Her heart beat out the time against his face, filling his nose, his mouth, with the musky scent of vanilla and sweat…
“Steady her with your right hand, then snake that left one
after the lift. That’s good. That’s fine…Real passion within the moment, you two…a bit of music when you draw her back in… Take your time, now. That’s a real stroke of her breast there…”
Fuck.
She shivered again, and his fingertips throbbed where they met her skin. He was soaked in sweat, worse than any rehearsal he could remember. His limbs tingled with the effort not to break character, drown out Alex’s commands about how to touch her, and follow his own instincts…the way he’d done last night. He squeezed his eyes shut against the stinging sweat.
“Grab her wrists…”
He did.
“Mina, let the music take you down.”
She did, right in front of him, her wrists captive in his hands. Her head tilted back, far enough for her eyes to meet his, and her legs parted into a split.
“Come in, Zack, right on top of her. Don’t be shy.”
Laying her down again, he collapsed on top of her. “Sweet, merciful, baby Jesus,” he breathed into her chest.
A breathless giggle escaped her, and her eyes were dark and shiny, half covered by her long lashes.
“Well, much better today. Not perfect, but better.”
High praise from Alex Verenich.
“Ho-leeee shit!”
Higher praise from Harper.
Zack helped peel Mina from the floor, then bid the others farewell. Alex left with Carla.
“I am so in love with the music, Harper,” Mina gushed. “I was lost in it, truly.”
He preened like a peacock—almost looked like one too, in his colorful designer duds. “Just wait.” He collected his sheet music and satchel. “For the real deal, we’ll have four cellos, another piano, a synthesizer, smoke and mirrors, a pony—it’s gonna be this, times a thousand.”
Kissing his cheek, Mina smiled. “I can’t wait.”
“Alright, Little Bird.” He turned to Zack. “I’d polish that ending a little though, looks a little sloppy.”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe next time.” Harper grinned, then left with a tip of his imaginary cap.
Probably a trilby.
Shaking his head, Zack turned, expecting to find Mina scurrying to the corner to snatch up her bag and the hoodie she’d obviously lifted from a sumo wrestler on the train. Instead, he collided with her petite body, catching her with an arm around her waist to keep her from flying, her arms clutching his sweaty shirt at the same time.