Unexpected Storms (The Unexpected Series Book 4)

by Stacy Eaton

  I dried my hair and told myself that I needed to focus on getting the dance down without breaking anything, and then I could worry about my future love life.

  At the hotel, I found Victor, who hugged me tightly. “I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised by your dance partners.”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked as I pulled back.

  “Clara told me that they have done fantastic in the last two days. Better than she ever expected.”

  I sighed. “So, I’m the only one that is going to look stupid then, is that what you are saying?”

  He laughed and took hold of my face. “You will look anything but stupid, Ali. You have taken to this routine as if it were designed specifically for you.”

  I stared at him sideways. “Why are you trying to butter me up?”

  He laughed. “I’m not buttering you up. After you do a few run-throughs today, you’ll get to see it on screen, and you will see that you are better than you thought.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

  While I had done almost the whole dance at one time, today was the first time I had gone from start to finish without pausing. It was exhausting, but also a little exhilarating as people worked on the lighting around us. Victor and I did it three times before Holly pulled me over to a bank of computer monitors and let me watch it.

  I was amazed at what I saw. “Holy cow, I actually do look good.”

  Victor threw his arm around me. “I told you. You’re better than you think you are.”

  I had Holly pause it a few times, and we talked over a couple of moves. I could see where I was slightly stilted and where I needed to add a bit more of a flourish to flirt more openly. After we watched it three times, I went back out, and Victor and I danced two more times.

  “How do you feel about it?” Tarin asked on camera.

  “About as good as I can. I know the steps, and now I just have to trust the men that I will be dancing with will know them too and not drop me.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that.” They cut and I was rushed out to make room for my male partner number one. How much I wished I could have peeked into the room to watch him, but I was forced to leave.

  As I took a taxi to the restaurant, I found myself smiling. I couldn’t believe that I looked as good as I did. I was no Clara, that’s for sure, but I appeared to know what I was doing, and I looked smooth and sexy while doing it. Now I only had to do it two more times—and make a decision that could be life-altering. No pressure there.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Harvey

  I couldn’t sit still, so I paced the room. I was in a suite upstairs at the hotel, and I wandered back and forth between the bedroom, bathroom, and the sitting room. Two production staff were seated in the living room area, probably to keep me from jetting out of here.

  How many contestants had tried to do that at the last minute—or would I be the first? A knock sounded on the door, and I wandered back into the bedroom area, assuming it was more production staff when I heard my name called and stuck my head around the doorjamb.

  Greg was grinning over Maggie’s head as they entered, and behind them were Alex and Lexi, Trevor and Davina, Mike, Alice, Wyatt, Joe, and Jake.

  “Damn, the gang’s all here.” I joined the group and collected hugs and back slaps. When I turned, Lexi was studying me carefully.

  I raised a brow toward her as I waited for whatever comment was about to come out of her mouth. “They did a nice job on your eyes.”

  I chuckled. “You think she will like me without all this makeup on?”

  “Oh, please!” Maggie said. “She is going to like you any way you come.”

  There were a few twitters around the group, and Alice and Lexi rolled their eyes. “You guys are such little boys sometimes,” Maggie said, then turned to me. “Are you ready to go out there and knock her dead?”

  “Jesus, Maggie, don’t say that. I might drop her on her head and kill her.”

  She smacked my arm. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

  “It could happen.”

  “You nervous?” Trevor asked.

  “Yep.” I nodded dramatically. “I think I am more nervous about this five-minute dance than I ever was for any combat mission I undertook.”

  “Yeah.” Jake laughed. “That’s because love is worse than war.”

  I peered at Alice—well, most of us glanced her way—but she just stared back at me with no expression on her face. She was kind of amazing like that—I think you called that being unflappable.

  “What would you even know about love?” Trevor asked Jake. “It’s not like you have ever been in love before.”

  “Yes, I have!”

  “Yeah, loving yourself and using your hand is not being in love,” Wyatt said, and everyone cut up laughing.

  “Mr. Melton,” someone said from behind me. “It’s time to head down.”

  “Aww.” Trevor grinned at me. “Our little boy is going off to find love on the dance floor.”

  “Get out of here,” I snapped back at him playfully.

  Everyone wished me well and threw me some taunts about breaking a leg and not paralyzing the poor girl before they said their goodbyes. I asked the production guys to give me a minute and went into the bedroom.

  I sat down on the edge of the bed, closed my eyes, and tried to slow my breathing that had begun to gain momentum the minute they said it was time. Please do not let me drop this woman, and if it’s meant to be, let it be.

  I slapped my thighs as I stood and stared at my reflection. “I got this.”

  Downstairs, a lot was going on. More cameras, more crew, and this time, there was a small audience in a side room, where large television screens were up so bystanders could watch the filming. I heard Alex laughing as I walked by. I peered in and saw about thirty people milling around.

  Holly found me as I entered another room. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  She hugged me tightly. “I know you will do great, Harv.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “Very.”

  She laughed. “I don’t think I have ever seen you nervous before. Who knew a date would get you this worked up.”

  “It’s more than a date, Holly. It’s dancing in front of all these people, and not dropping her while trying to make a connection.”

  Holly glanced around and stepped closer, lowering her voice. “Harv, you be yourself out there, and this will be perfect.” She kissed my cheek. “I’m pulling for you.”

  She gave me a nudge toward the side and told me to prepare myself. It wasn’t five minutes later that they were getting me settled just inside the darkened room. In the center of the dance floor, there was one spotlight lit. You could see nothing on the other side, and I tried my hardest, knowing that she was over there. Was she as nervous as I was?

  When the music started, we would walk toward one another and meet in the center of the light before a few other lights came up. My heart threatened to explode from my chest, and I wiped my hands down my pants.

  Oh, shit—shit—shit!

  What the hell was I doing? What if I forgot the dance? What if I dropped her? What if I did all this, and it was for nothing? I put my hand to the collar of my shirt, and even though it wasn’t buttoned at the top, I tugged on it as if I couldn’t breathe. I forced myself to swallow.

  For a second, I froze. What if she didn’t pick me? I wanted her to pick me. I wanted her to choose me. I didn’t like to lose.

  A soft male voice sounded off to my side. “Ready, and three, two, one.” A palm in the center of my back gently pushed me forward just as the music began to play. Five steps later, I reached the dance floor. I could just make her out on the opposite side. We stepped in unison again, and my fears vanished as I began to make out her features. I dropped my chin to my chest, staring at the ground as I took the last few steps as was my part in all this.

 
; A light-purple gauzy dress flowed around her pretty legs, and her feet were bare. Her toes were dainty and painted the same color as her dress. Please don’t let me step on her toes. Her small hand landed on my chest, her fingernails also light purple, and I couldn’t help but smile as I began to lift my face but snapped it to the side as she took my hand and placed her right hand into it. I curled my fingers around her warm skin, and she lifted my chin with the tips of her fingers, her touch sending waves of something warm through my chest. Our eyes made contact for the first time, and I felt electrified.

  For a few beats, we stared at one another. I wanted to pick her up right then and run away with her, but a moment later, she broke eye contact as she spun to the side away from me and began to move through the routine. There were no other thoughts besides taking every step with her, being beside her. When I wasn’t thinking about what came next, I was thinking about how beautiful she was with her dark wavy hair coursing down her back and that sexy dress wrapped around her body. The moves came without effort—almost without thought—as I lifted her with ease and treasured every moment that our bodies were in contact. I spun her around, I lifted her, I held her, and just before she’d move away again, I’d feel a pain in my chest as if I knew what was coming and didn’t want it to.

  At one point, we turned toward one another, meaning to come nose to nose, but we were so close that our lips brushed, and I heard her gasp slightly as she twirled away from me. My lips tingled from the slight touch and continued to do so for another few seconds.

  She was elegant and beautiful, and she entranced me down to my soul. During one point in the song, we were both on the ground, and I pulled her to me. I could instantly imagine having her there in the crook of my arm for years to come, but in another beat of the song, she was up and moving playfully away.

  I loved touching her, loved the feel of her body as it slipped down or slithered around me. I adored the smiles on her face as she peered at me through her lashes, almost shyly, but also seductively as if begging me to be the man she needed—the man she had dreamed of having.

  There was one move that I feared slightly, and it was one of the hardest steps for her. She would lie on the floor, and her legs would wrap around my waist as I began to lift her. Only she would be doing most of the work as she slowly curled herself from a backbend up and around me.

  She made it seem effortless, and she fit so perfectly against me that I never wanted to let her go.

  When we came to the final step, her knee was against my hip, and one hand was curled under her thigh to hold it in place. Her arms were wrapped around my neck, and our faces were only an inch apart. Both of us were breathing hard, but smiling as we stared at one another.

  I didn’t want to let her go, didn’t want to watch her walk away, and I cupped her cheek, pulling her lips to mine. I hadn’t meant to kiss her. I’d never even considered it, but as I started to do it, I knew I needed to. This might be the only time I would get the chance, and I needed her to know what I was feeling just then.

  She kissed me back for a few brief seconds, and then it was over. We snapped out of it and began to pull back, each of us startled that we had just done that. We stared at one another. Was she as shocked as I was to be sucked so deeply into the moment? Had she too forgotten where we were? Had she wanted to kiss me too?

  I let her leg go, and it slowly brushed down mine as she began to step away. One hand caressed my cheek for only a second before it dropped to her side, and she turned and rushed off the floor. I felt so suddenly lost that I didn’t know what to do, and then remembered that I needed to go back the way I had come. Only, my body wanted to follow hers.

  The crew was there to direct me out the door to the hallway. As I stepped out, I turned back to the door, but it was closing. I shifted around to the camera in a daze.

  “That was—that was amazing. I’ve never felt anything like that before.” I wiped my hands down my face, still trying to catch my breath. “She was incredible—beautiful and graceful, and so damn sexy. I’m not sure there will ever be another moment in life like this one.”

  I had to wait a few moments, and when Tarin joined me, I still hadn't collected myself. “How do you feel after that?”

  “I don’t know how to feel, Tarin. It’s like I just danced with an angel, and she stole a piece of my soul.”

  “An angel?”

  “Yes. She didn’t just dance, she floated. She was so elegant, so beautiful; she took my breath away.”

  “I have to ask you, Harvey. Did you plan on kissing her when the dance started?”

  I shook my head. “No, not at all. Earlier on in the routine, our lips brushed, and mine tingled for a while, but that was an accident. I’ve never had anyone do that to me before. In the end, when we finished, it wasn’t a conscious choice; it was just something that I needed to do. It was like the final move to the most perfect moment of my life.”

  “It was perfect—even the kiss was perfect, Harvey. It was straight out of a movie. I think every woman here swooned slightly.”

  I chuckled.

  “Alright, we need to move you along, so she can get ready to do her second dance. How do you feel about that?”

  “I can’t imagine them having the kind of connection that we did.”

  “I guess we will see.”

  As I stepped away, Holly rushed me and threw her arms around my neck. “That was amazing, Harvey. You two looked so beautiful out there. So perfect together, almost professional. How do you feel?”

  “To be honest, I feel a little overwhelmed.” I laughed slightly. “I’m not sure how to feel.”

  “Well, if she doesn’t pick you, she’s crazy!” she said softly. “Now, you need to go because they are bringing the other guy down.”

  “Can I watch?”

  “No!” she said quickly. “You need to go back upstairs, and then you can meet up with everyone after. They can tell you how the second dance went, and you will get to see some clips of the dance from the center point.”

  “You are no fun.” I kissed her cheek and headed back to the elevator. I was just getting on when the elevator across from us opened, and a man with another camera crew stepped out. Our eyes locked, and there was no doubt he knew who I was. He nodded once, and then my door closed.

  He was tall and muscular. He was also very blond with his hair longer than mine and parted on the side, and I noticed immediately how blue his eyes were. He was kind of like a Nordic God, so opposite of my athletic body, dark hair, and trim beard.

  I hope he drops her, I thought to myself and then winced. I didn’t want the woman to get hurt. As we got inside the hotel room, I went right to the bar and poured myself a whiskey, tossing it back and then refilling the glass as a couple of the guys behind me chuckled. I didn’t regularly drink hard liquor, but tonight I was making an exception.

  The next hour was probably the longest hour of my life. By the time my gang came up to me, I was well on my way to being drunk.

  “Harvey, if I knew you could dance that well, I would have never gotten involved with Alex,” Lexi said as she kissed my cheek. “You were so smooth, so perfect!”

  Everyone had something to say about my dance, but no one said anything about the second dance. Waiters showed up with food, and everyone began to mill about and enjoy it before I finally lost my patience and yelled to get everyone’s attention.

  “Come on! Someone tell me how the other dance went? Was their dance better?”

  Jake laughed. “Well, I don’t know. He didn’t try to have sex with her in the middle of the floor.”

  “I didn’t try to have sex with her,” I stated, confused. “Are you saying that they didn’t dance as well together?”

  Alice sighed and stepped forward. “No one here is going to tell you the truth, but they did look good together. They danced just as well as you two did.”

  “Did it look like she liked him more?”

  Trevor cracked up. “Dude, they were dancing. Who knows which
one of you she might like better.”

  “I don’t get how you are supposed to like someone by just dancing with them,” Joe said.

  Wyatt shrugged. “Me either.”

  I ignored the guys and turned back to Alice. “Did he kiss her?”

  “No,” Maggie said as she stepped forward and put her hand on my arm. “He didn’t, and they didn’t stand there looking at one another as long as you two did. I think you have a good chance of being picked.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah, you got a fifty-fifty chance,” Trevor joked and stepped around me to get more food.

  “You are no help.”

  “When do you find out?” Maggie asked.

  “Sunday,” I replied.

  “Well, Trevor is right,” Alice said. “You have a fifty percent chance that she will pick you. Unless you scared her away with the kiss.”

  Would that count against me? It wasn’t like it had been planned. It had come out of nowhere because it had been a natural reaction. We were dancing, and it just seemed like the perfect time to share that first kiss with her. What if I screwed up my chances by following my heart on that one?

  Shit! I stepped to the side and sank into a chair. I probably did. I most likely ruined my chances by doing that. She probably thinks I’m some sex-starved maniac who kisses strangers all the time.

  “Hey, stop beating yourself up. Personally, if that had been me, I would pick the hot guy who laid a scorching hot kiss on me over the guy who just grinned,” Alice said. “Let’s just hope you swept her off her feet.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ali

  I touched my lips as I rounded the corner and stared at the camera. “Did that just happen?”

  There was some laughter around me, and I turned and looked back at the closed door. “Did that really just happen? Did I just kiss him?”

  Tarin stepped up to me. “Well, you tell me. What do you think just happened?”