Read Off Balance (Ballet Theatre Chronicles Book 1) for Free Online Page B

her, so lyrical and clean, yet so powerful. At the end of the combination, however, another dancer stepped the wrong way and crashed into Lana, shattering her concentration. It was surely an accident, but Alice saw a few of the watching females exchange catty grins.
    A bolt of recognition shot through her as one of the smirking dancers turned her head and spotted Alice. It was the pretty dark-haired girl who’d been gossiping in the administrative level restroom. For an instant their eyes locked. Alice saw uncertainty come over the girl, once again caught in the act of mocking the new soloist. Then coolness flooded her features. She straightened, raised her brows in a lofty manner and turned her back on Alice.
    The message came across loud and clear.
    You are a nobody here, on my turf. Only dancers, talented ones, belong here.
    The barb hit its mark far better than the girl could have imagined. Alice’s hands balled into fists. What the hell was she doing there? Satisfying some whim of Gil’s only to be mocked as some stuffed-shirt administrator, a moose among gazelles?
    She wished, not for the first time, she were anywhere but there. An instant later, she decided she was done being there. She turned and left, taking long impatient strides down the hall. She’d make her report to Gil and tell him to leave her the hell out of this loop. She had real work to do.
     
    On her way home from work that evening, she stopped at her favorite mostly-outside-her-budget wine store to buy a premium bottle of wine. Tonight she wanted to celebrate: five months since she and Niles had begun dating. Things were going so well with him, it frightened her. She told herself she’d play it cool around him, not draw attention to the five-month business so much as celebrate the fact that one year ago this week the two of them had met, introduced by their friends, Montserrat and Carter. Theirs had been a cozy, friendly foursome that met regularly for dinners, lively affairs abounding with good food, wine and conversation, which they all enjoyed. Between her and Niles had been simply the warmth of a growing friendship. No sparks, no problem. She’d always succeeded best with friendships like these; serious relationships for her were tricky, messy and ultimately short-lived. And yet, in the end, getting romantically involved with Niles had become one of the best things to happen to her, right there alongside Gil plucking her out of administrative obscurity three years earlier to make her his associate.
    Even as friends, she’d loved the way Niles would ponder her thoughtfully, his brown hair, pulled back into a ponytail, lending a rebel air to his otherwise serious, businessman’s demeanor. Very Silicon Valley. His blue-grey eyes, fringed by a smudge of thick lashes, would study her for a long moment before replying. He did this now, as a form of seduction, and it never failed to make the back of her knees grow weak.
    She couldn’t get enough of him. Miraculously, he seemed to feel the same, reaching for her the minute they were together behind closed doors. The last time he’d come over to her place, they hadn’t even made it to the bedroom. They’d clung to each other in the entryway, clothing items falling by the wayside until they were naked, supine on the carpeted stairs, limbs intertwined, straining against one another while Odette, her cat, circled warily before coming to rest on a stray article of clothing.
    A delicious shiver passed through her. She couldn’t wait to see him tonight. He was coming up for the evening even though his work pressures were heating up, with an important project checkpoint approaching. She told him fine, they’d get right down to business in that case. She visualized greeting him, slipping her hands under his shirt to feel the hot silkiness of his skin, pressing herself along the length of him, her mouth working a trail up his neck.
    “Well, hello, Alice Willoughby, whose great-great-grandfather was a