Private Dancer Read Online Free Page B

to sleep with him. He is going to blackmail you. Remain strong, Marise, you are no one’s plaything. Marise steeled herself and got ready to tell him to go to hell. Her jaw dropped at his actual proposal. “I want you to dance with me.”
    “What? Dance with you?”
    “Yes, dance with me. I have a small dance studio at my loft. I’m learning to waltz and do classical dances for my family reunion this summer in France. I need a partner. I have not done these dances since boarding school, but my mother expects me to dance them perfectly.”
    “Mr. Montgomery, surely you can find someone else, I don’t know how to do those dances.” Marise shook her head. She’d not waltzed since her physical education class in seventh grade.
    Being the tallest girl in the class had made that moment even more awkward.
    “I will teach you. I have about five months to learn for the reunion in August. I think me teaching you will refresh my memory. I will pay you for your time, five hundred dollars a week.”

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    Nevea Lane
    Private Dancer

    Chapter Six – Lesson One
    Marise arrived promptly at six. One thing Kasen loved about her, she was always prompt.
    Kasen sighed when he caught sight of her dressed in sweatpants and white girl shoes. At least he would not be distracted by her calves tonight. This was purely about helping her, Kasen told himself for the hundredth time that hour.
    “Hi, Mr. Montgomery.” Marise said as she walked in to his condo. Marise gasped as her eyes caught glimpse of the view from his large windows. One could see the Mississippi river and the trees that dotted the banks. It being still early in the year, there were no leaves, and a few flecks of snow still clung to the rocks.
    “Let me take you coat, and stop calling me Mr. Montgomery.” Kasen took her coat and led her into his studio. Actually, he thought, it is more of a corner with a wall length mirror and wood flooring. There was a small stereo in the corner playing soft piano music. The recessed lights were dim and Kasen looked like he was glowing in the soft amber lighting.
    She looked at him and put her hand on her hip, and said nothing. Damn she was a hard cookie to crack.

    * * *
“So where do we begin?” Marise said, looking around her. This corner was bigger than her living room, and Marise liked the homey feeling in Kasen’s condo. It felt lived in, not some model thrown up to attract the young jet-set crowd. His paintings were colorful with hues of rust and yellow. She smiled at the figurines that lined the large window sill, which stood kiddy corner from the mirrored wall. They were all couples, entwined in a state of dancing.
    “Well, we will start with a basic waltz. Everything else is just as easy, just with a few more turns. So come and stand face to face to me.”
    22 | P a g e

    Nevea Lane
    Private Dancer
    Until that moment, when she was asked, Marise hadn’t bothered to look at him fully; not at work, not in passing, not ever. A part of her knew it was because she couldn’t afford herself to view Kasen Montgomery as a man, just someone who signs her checks. Right now, she saw him as just a man. His pectoral muscles showed definition beneath the gray cotton tank top. For the first time, Marise realized how devilishly handsome her boss was. It was his hair that made Marise gape at him. Usually it was styled out of his face, but tonight, it was unruly waves on his head. The shades of brown and blonde swirled together like his paintings. His body was more artistic than the paintings. Even though he wore baggy navy blue sweat pants, they dipped at his waist, a telltale sign the rest of him was as defined. Marise shook her head of her thoughts.
    She’d to focus. This was for her and Darryl, her husband. Sooner or later, Darryl would get enough of running the streets and it will just be them. With no threat of death and debts hanging over their heads, Marise believed that she and Darryl could make things work.
    Marise stood