Take the Lead

by Alexis Daria

  Stone rushed to make introductions before Barry could blow his cover. “Barry and his wife Marnie own the inn. My family has known them a long time, and they’re fans of The Dance Off.”

  “We vote for you two every week,” Barry said again, a note of pride in his voice.

  “Oh, thank you.” Gina gave Barry a one-armed hug. “I’d love to meet your wife when she’s back.”

  “We’ll do that. Bye now.” Barry waved and left.

  Gina gave Stone a curious look. “Why do you look so tense?”

  “Do I?” He stretched his shoulders. He hadn’t even noticed the tension that had settled into his upper back and neck. As much as he loved Alaska, worrying about spilling the beans in front of Gina or the rest of The Dance Off’s crew had him on edge. “Weird to be back.”

  “You must be excited to see your family again.”

  “I am.”

  “Then why are you scowling?” She pressed her fingers between his eyebrows and rubbed the crease.

  “It will be good to see them, of course. It was strange being away.” Shit. He was back to sounding like a robot, like he did every time someone asked about his family.

  “But . . . ?”

  He worked his jaw back and forth. What was it? “It feels different. I don’t know how to explain.”

  “Well, when you figure it out, I’m all ears.” She tugged on her earlobes and gave him a silly, adorable grin. “You’ve listened to me blather on about my family often enough. The least I can do is return the favor.”

  Film crews be damned. The producers in the lounge could wait. He pulled her in for a long kiss. The melding of two worlds—his life in Alaska, and his routine with Gina and their crew—was throwing him off-kilter, but when he kissed Gina, the ground steadied beneath his feet. His heart settled into a comfortable, familiar rhythm, like they were in synch.

  She broke the kiss first, wagging her finger at him like he’d been naughty. “Nowhere we might get caught,” she said, reminding him of one of her rules.

  She had so many rules. He liked that about her, but he also wanted to tempt her to break them.

  She swiped a thumb over his mouth to wipe off her lipstick. “Come on. The crew is waiting.”

  They headed down the hallway, but Gina stopped before they reached the end.

  “Stone?”

  He paused. “Yeah?”

  “Does your family know about us?”

  Her eyebrows were drawn together, and she looked like she’d be pissed if the answer was yes. “No. I haven’t told any of them.”

  “Oh, good.” The relief that infused her features made his chest hurt. The secrets were piling up. Don’t tell Gina and The Dance Off that Living Wild was a fraud. Don’t tell the other dancers or his family that he and Gina were an item. Don’t let the media find out anything, even when people were constantly sticking microphones in his face and asking questions purposely designed to throw him off-guard. It was all getting mixed up in his head and being here, back in the place that could blow it all, was making him jumpy.

  Then Gina smiled, and the tension eased. Sometimes he thought her smile was the only real thing in his life.

  “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go meet them.”

  * * *

  Stone’s anxiety deepened as they approached Nielson HQ. Gina wore hiking boots this time, and they took the clearer path, but he still stayed close.

  “It would suck if you busted an ankle,” he pointed out.

  She gave him a half-smile. “Jordy said the same thing the first time I came here.”

  Jordy stopped them before they entered the clearing.

  “Gina, we’re going to introduce you to the Nielsons in groups. There are too many of them for the cameras to catch everything. Make sure the cameras can get your reactions. Stone, you’ll handle introductions. Act like we aren’t here, and you don’t know your parents are waiting.”

  The cameras panned out, and Jordy gave them the go ahead.

  Stone’s stomach clenched as it finally hit that he was bringing the woman he loved to meet his parents. On camera. God, could his life get any weirder? He forced a smile onto his face and put an arm around Gina, leading her forward.

  A chill raced down his spine as he spotted Jimmy and Pepper standing in front of the big house they’d built in season two. Shit. All this time he’d only thought about hiding the truth about the Nielsons from Gina and The Dance Off’s producers. Keeping his relationship with Gina hidden from their castmates was hard, but hiding it from his mom? The woman read him like an open book. She’d know, and she’d have questions, and then Gina was going to kill him.

  Each step amplified his terror. His parents waited, beaming big smiles. Gina returned their smiles with a wide, toothy grin of her own.

  Stone’s teeth were bared, but he was positive the footage would show more of a grimace than a grin. He caught Jordy’s hand signal. Crap, he was supposed to say his lines. He hated this shit.

  “Mom, Pop, I’d like you to meet my dance partner, Gina. Gina, my mom, Pepper, and my father, Jimmy.”

  His mother spoke first. “Gina, we’re so happy to meet you.”

  “Likewise, Mrs. Nielson.” Gina took Pepper’s hands and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “You’ve raised quite the dancer.”

  Pepper giggled. “Please, call me Pepper. We’ve gone into town every Monday to watch you two dance, and it’s been such a treat.”

  Jimmy reached out to shake Gina’s hand, but she gave him a kiss, too. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Nielson.”

  “Oh, Gina, I know we’re just meeting for the first time, but I hope you’ll call me Jimmy. As you can see, we don’t stand on ceremony around here. Besides, we feel like we know you, thanks to the show and the few times Stone has called home.”

  Stone ducked his head. It was true. He hadn’t called as much as he’d planned. With his family’s filming schedule and his own rehearsal schedule, it was hard to find times to connect when they could all be at computers.

  His mother squeezed his hands, and his father gave him a slap on the back.

  “Real proud of you son,” Jimmy said in a gruff voice. “Never knew you had those moves in you.”

  “Thanks, Pop.” Stone made a show of looking around. “Where are the others?”

  “Oh, they went off in the boat.”

  Off in the boat meant they were hiding off-camera somewhere until they could be brought in for filming.

  Jimmy continued. “They should be back soon. Gina, would you like a tour of Nielson HQ? It ain’t much, but it’s our humble little slice of freedom.”

  “I’d love to.”

  Pepper led Gina toward the main house, which held beds for Pepper, Jimmy, and the girls. Stone followed along with his father. They stayed quiet, so as not to create crosstalk and interfere in the audio recording while Pepper took Gina through each of the rooms, telling her how they’d built it, and some of the setbacks they’d run into. Most of it had been filmed, so it would give the editors opportunities to insert past footage.

  Miguel beckoned Stone and Jimmy outside. They followed him over to the little house Stone shared with Reed, waiting while Miguel organized the cameras.

  Jimmy pulled out a cigarette and lit up. He took a long drag, then tipped his head back and blew a smoke ring. “How’s it really going, son?”

  Stone shrugged. He and his father didn’t talk much. Aside from being “the quiet one,” Stone just didn’t see eye to eye with Jimmy on a lot of things. And being one of seven kids, they hadn’t spent a ton of time together that wasn’t focused on shit like hunting or building. Man stuff.

  Jimmy put on a good show for the cameras, but he wasn’t about talking out his feelings.

  “I didn’t think you’d last so long.” Jimmy dragged on the cig. “Thought you’d be back here within the month.”

  Nice to know his father had confidence in him. “Yeah, who knew?”

  “My son, a dancer.” Jimmy shook his head. “Your sisters are thrilled.
Your brothers are jealous. Reed and Wolf want to go on next season.”

  “Maybe Living Wild and The Dance Off can do a crossover. Hell, all nine of us can fill out the cast on our own.” The joke was out before Stone even thought about it, and strange, because he and his father didn’t have that kind of rapport.

  Jimmy let out a bark of laughter. “Wouldn’t that be something? We could all compete to see who’s the best dancer in the family.”

  Stone gave a half-smile. “It’s me.”

  “Miguel is gonna be pissed he missed this. We should say it all again on camera.”

  Biting back a sigh, Stone nodded. This was his life. Finally have a real moment of connection with his father, then repeat it back like a parrot for the cameras.

  “Let’s get some footage of you two talking about the past couple months,” Miguel said, coming back.

  Stone shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Like what, specifically?”

  “Talk about the challenges,” Miguel suggested.

  “We just made a great joke about all the Nielsons going on the dancing show,” Jimmy said, dropping his cigarette and stubbing it out with his heel. “We’ll tell it again.”

  Miguel rolled his eyes at the cigarette but gave them the go-ahead.

  Jimmy turned to Stone, immediately “on.” He’d taken to acting better than any of them. Better than Stone had, certainly.

  “Son, I can’t tell you how much you’ve been missed,” Jimmy said, patting Stone’s shoulder. “You are a sight for sore eyes, I’ll tell you that.”

  “I’ve missed this place,” Stone admitted. As he said the words, though, they rang false. He had missed home, but it was less true now than it had been in March. The more time he spent with Gina, the more at home he felt, even though LA was still an odd fit for him. It might have been different if he hadn’t had the show to occupy his time, though.

  Besides, Nielson HQ wasn’t technically “home.”

  “Can’t imagine Los Angeles can hold a candle to what we’ve got here in Alaska.” Jimmy spread his arms wide and took a deep breath. “Smell the free—”

  A racking cough interrupted his catchphrase. Years of smoking had left Jimmy with a smoker’s cough that often ruined takes. When it didn’t appear inclined to subside, Stone thumped his father on the back. Jimmy spat on the ground, Miguel rolled his eyes again, and they continued.

  Jimmy picked right back up where he left off, though he threw his arms out with less vigor than before. “Smell the freedom!”

  Stone’s shoulder muscles tensed in annoyance.

  This. Sucked. If he could just get through the next few hours, he could get back to what now passed for normal in his life: learning to dance.

  Jimmy went off to charm Gina, and Pepper came over to stand at Stone’s side.

  “So, Stone, what’s going on with you and Gina?” his mother asked, crossing her arms.

  Shit. No, his mother had not just said that on camera. Except he turned to see her smiling at him, with no less than three cameras surrounding them.

  Gina was going to flip.

  “We’re dance partners.” His voice came out a low rumble, edging toward a growl.

  Pepper waved a hand at him, dismissing his quick excuse. “Stone, I’m not stupid. I know there’s something between you two. You can tell me.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing to tell.”

  God, he was such a terrible liar.

  Miguel stepped in. “The girls are on their way for the next scene.”

  Stone took the opportunity to get away from his mother, but this exchange was going to end up in the behind-the-scenes package, he just knew it.

  Maybe it wouldn’t, though. Maybe there would be enough other useful footage. Maybe one of his brothers would do something so outrageous and embarrassing, that would be the focus, instead.

  He could hope. And in the meantime, he wasn’t going to tell Gina until he knew it was a problem.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The next morning, Stone woke to a torrential downpour. He still had a couple hours before they were supposed to leave, so he packed his suitcase and went to the inn’s tiny workout room.

  Back in his room, he took a quick shower. As he was toweling off his hair, someone knocked on the door.

  “Who is it?” If it was Jordy, he could come back later.

  “It’s me.”

  Gina.

  He opened the door for her. Her eyes went wide at the sight of him, wearing nothing but a skimpy towel around his hips, and her gaze traveled down the length of his body. Warmth flooded through him at her perusal.

  “Can I help you?” he asked in a low voice.

  She snapped her mouth shut and met his eyes. “Um . . .”

  He raised an eyebrow, amused at her reaction.

  “I came here to tell you something.”

  “Okay.”

  “I can’t remember what it was now—oh!” She snapped her fingers. “We’re stuck here. Too much rain, tiny airplane can’t fly in it, and even if it could, I won’t chance it. So, we’re stuck. Here.” She swallowed hard and glanced down at his hard-on poking through the wet terry cloth.

  “Come in before someone sees you.”

  She hesitated, then nodded.

  The second the door was shut, she ripped away his towel. A chuckle rumbled through him, cut short when she dropped to her knees and took his dick into her mouth.

  Ho-ly shiiiiiit.

  The sight of her pursed lips swallowing his cock sent a shiver down his back. His skin erupted in goosebumps.

  She slid off him with a pop and tilted her head. “You cold?”

  “No.” He sank his fingers into her hair, twisted up in a messy bun. “It’s you. You make me shiver.”

  Her lips, wet and glistening, pulled to the side in a smirk. “Good. You do the same to me.” Then she opened her mouth and drew him in once again.

  Throwing back his head, he gave himself over to the surprise blow job. Sensation streaked through him like lightning, making his toes curl and his pulse pound in this throat. When she cupped his balls with one hand and jerked him off with the other, he locked his knees to keep from falling over.

  His worries melted away, replaced by the hope that Gina’s willingness to set aside her rules for him would soon extend to going public with their relationship. He was tired of hiding, tired of pretending he didn’t feel the way he did. He loved her, and he didn’t want to lie about it anymore.

  She smiled up at him, sweet and sexy and utterly perfect. Stone gritted his teeth, and his body tightened, the orgasm coming out of nowhere. Quick as a wink, Gina clamped her mouth over the tip and swallowed.

  Once she’d milked him dry, his legs finally gave out. Staggering to the bed, he fell heavily onto the edge and sat for a while, catching his breath. Gina sat beside him, brushing his hair away from his face before putting her lips next to his ear.

  “Good morning, Stone.”

  He huffed out a laugh and swung an arm around her. “It sure is.” When she curled up against his side, he kissed the top of her head. “We’re stuck here, huh?”

  She sighed. “Yeah, but we can’t laze around in bed all day, as nice as that would be. This place has a party room. They’re putting down the dance floor so we can practice, but since it’s such a low-budget affair Jordy isn’t even going to bother filming it. He’s giving everyone else the day off.”

  “Practicing without cameras?” Images of dancing naked with Gina flitted through his mind. “That could be fun.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “We still have to work. We have two dances to perfect for the semi-finals.”

  “We will.” He got to his feet and snatched the discarded towel from the floor. “Don’t worry, Gina. I’ll get you into the finals.”

  She smiled, but didn’t answer.

  * * *

  Stone entered the Glacier Valley Inn’s small ballroom to find Gina staring out the big windows, which offered a view of the rain pelting the inlet.
Tall trees swayed in the strong wind and clouds crowded the sky.

  “I do see why you love it here,” Gina said, glancing over her shoulder at him. “It’s beautiful, even like this.”

  “More so when you’re here.” He came up behind her and nuzzled his face in her hair.

  “You’re going to give me a toothache being that sweet.” Smiling, she took his hand and led him to the twenty by twenty dance floor laid out over the ugly ballroom carpet.

  “What did you think of my family?” he asked before she could launch into an explanation of their jazz routine.

  “I liked them,” she said. “I have a big family—even though I only have two siblings, I grew up with lots of cousins. Holidays and birthdays were always a mess of relatives piled into a house too small to fit us all.”

  “Yeah, I know a bit about what that’s like.”

  She squinted at him. “Did all nine of you really live in that one little hut during season one?”

  Shit. A direct question. He was supposed to lie. He was supposed to say, Yes, we did, but the Nielsons stick together, or some nonsense like that.

  Except he was so tired of lying to Gina.

  “Ah, no. Not really.”

  Her eyes widened. “No?”

  He shook his head.

  “Where did you stay?”

  In for a penny, in for a pound. The urge to come clean welled up inside him like a tidal wave. He glanced at the door to make sure they were truly alone.

  “Right here in town,” he said.

  Gina’s hand flew to her mouth. She stared at him.

  This was it. His fears come to pass. She wouldn’t understand, and she’d judge him for it. Gina, who was so aligned with integrity that she wouldn’t fake a relationship with him—despite really having one—even though she wanted, needed, to win.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve wanted to tell you since the beginning.” He was tripping over his words but couldn’t stop them from tumbling out. “I couldn’t, though. There are contracts, and rules. My family—they’re counting on me. I’ve gotta keep this a—”

  She shook her head and he shut up. Her hand dropped from her mouth, and he saw the beginnings of a smile.