Only The Brave Try Ballet

Chapter One

'Make sure your core is pulled in. It will increase balance and stop you rocking forward.'

'Like this?' He grabbed her hand and placed her palm against his stomach. She could feel the ripple of each muscle through his T-shirt. His sports tights moulded every curve of his muscle, every bulge...

Jasmine gulped, her blood pounding as though she'd run a marathon. Get it together.

'Yes, like that.' She withdrew her hand, the heat of him still burning her fingertips.

She was going to strangle Elise, her soon to be former best friend, for roping her into this disaster waiting to happen. She was going to—

'Earth to Bun-Head.' Grant waved a hand in front of her face, chuckling when she returned her focus to him. 'I don't see how this is helping my hamstring. Shouldn't we be stretching or something? We need to speed up this flexibility thing. I've got an important game coming up.'

He shook his leg and rubbed at the muscle.

'Flexibility is a slow process. You can't turn up to one ballet lesson and expect to be a contortionist. It takes time.'

'I'd settle for being injury-free,' he replied. 'But if you want to show me how you can put your ankles behind your head then be my guest.'

'This is not Cirque du Soleil.' Jasmine bit each word out through gritted teeth.

'It might as well be.' He checked the clock above them. 'Though, shocking as it might seem, I'm not here for the laughs. I want to fix my hamstring and get back to spending my time on real training.'

Jasmine wasn't ready to let him have the last word. Sure, she had her motivations for agreeing to take Grant on as a student, but that didn't give him licence to be rude. 'I'm not exactly here for enjoyment either.'

'If you loosened up you might find some aspects of it enjoyable.'

She sucked in a breath and willed herself not to respond. Glancing at the clock, she held in a sigh of relief as the hand neared eight p.m. Their hour together had hardly been successful. In fact she could chalk it up as her most frustrating lesson ever...and this was only the beginning.

'Is it that time already?'

His amused tone set fire to Jasmine's resolve to play cool, calm and collected. She wanted to slap the mocking look right off his ruggedly-handsome face. He raised an eyebrow, as if to punctuate his question.

This was going to be her life two nights a week for the next six months, and she wasn't looking forward to it one bit! Unfortunately these lessons weren't about the ideal way to spend her free time. No, it all came down to dollars and cents. Once again she was in a position where she needed to play up to some arrogant guy who thought he owned the world to be able to pay her bills.

'I think we can finally call it a night,' she said.

'Don't sound too upset to be rid of me.' He uncrossed his arms and leant forward, his broad shoulders casting a shadow over her.

'The lessons are for one hour, Mr Farley.' Her voice was tight and her lungs were arid and devoid of air. 'If you want more time you'll have to arrange it with the studio owner.'

'One hour is plenty, Ms Bell,' he teased, and raked a hand through his thick blond hair.

Why did he have to be so damn attractive? Her insides flipped as his hair sprang back into place. She headed towards the door to the waiting room and he walked with her, a little too close for comfort. The scent of his aftershave found its way to her nostrils and filled her head with unwanted though not unpleasant images. She shut her eyes for a moment, pushing away the desire which flared like the lighting of a match.