Page 27 of Something Like Sugar (Pine Forest Something #2)

SHANA

A nd pas de bourrée and leap and turn! Great job, ladies!

” I skip to the stereo and flick off the power switch.

“Now,” I spin to look each one of my talented girls in the eyes, because everyone can improve—something I’m learning two-fold lately, “if I look out and see your toes aren’t pointed at competition, I’m going to point them for you, got it? ”

Giggles and tired sighs sound through the studio as I tell them goodbye and sweep the floor for my next class, kinder ballet.

Sometimes it can be a lot, five-year-olds and all, but they appreciate movement at its base level.

They explore ways of turning and leaping that come directly from impulses.

Their curiosity of the world is a vessel for song.

It might be my favorite class, even if it isn’t very technical.

And I might feel a tug at my heartstrings when they run to my side, barely reaching my knees, and show me their triangle shaped first positions like we practiced.

Would my son or daughter dance? Would they be like me and discover the world through rhythms and patterns?

I shake my head, dispelling myself from the odd fantasy. It’s not like I want to be a mother. I’ve never felt like I would be good at being someone’s caretaker.

Even if I am responsible for my grown father and thirty children at a time most days, they aren’t mine in that sense.

In the end, I’m not the one shaping them, bringing them into a world they didn’t ask to be a part of and filling it with people they love, only to feel the marring loss when they’re taken away.

My smile slips, until I close my eyes to dull the thoughts.

Dustin replaces them. His blazing green eyes, his devilishly handsome lips with that sinful silver pierced through them, just how his very essence seems to pierce through my heart.

It pumps into my blood stream until it’s all my body can feel, and with the thought of him, I’m instantly needy.

I want his words. His filthy phrases. His commanding presence. The kinky role he plays for me so I can do things I feel like I shouldn’t. So, the power of that choice is taken from me and instead, I’m given a new choice.

To give him all of me.

We haven’t gone all the way, yet. But as the days have passed, I’ve found myself tangled in more than just his sheets. Each nightfall brings a new lesson in deviance. Kissing, tonguing, fingering, sixty-nine being my favorite so far.

But every time I ask him to…you know. The answer is always the same.

“Cherry goes last.”

I lick my lips at that word—cherry—and desire flashes over me, my body heating, nipples hardening beneath my leo in response to the mere thought of Dustin Campbell’s breath across them.

Jesus, I need to get laid.

“That was a funky look,” Maisy says, propped against the studio door frame.

Annoyance prickles me, but only for a moment. For a dance mom , she sure is here a lot when her kid is not. But she’s the most helpful mom of the entire team, and I’m certain none of the costumes would get sequins without her, so I let it slide, even if she is a gossip queen.

I swipe my hoodie from the floor, wrapping it around myself in armor. “I was just thinking about things.” I move to pass her, but she blocks my path on the threshold.

“Do things have anything to do with Dustin, Hunk of Muscle , Campbell walking around with blueprints of the building and inspecting the crawl space?”

“What? He’s here? Now?!”

“Yeah, he’s in there now, babycakes. If that’s what those eyes are searchin’ for.” She winks, but rolling my eyes at her again won’t help my situation, so I give in and drop the act, since she’s the only mom in the vicinity. I wish I had mine right now.

“Okay, yes, Dustin is the thing! But I’m all sweaty, and I have greasy hair!

And this leo is one size too small, but I wear it anyway on Tuesdays since I only have little kid classes and you do not want to wear an unflattering outfit in front of the middle school girls, trust me, so anyway, do I have a wedgie in this? ”

I turn so she can look at my butt, and then it hits me that I just asked this dance mom to look at my butt.

I’m certainly not the weird one like I worried. Not at all.

I take in her amused grin and promptly swipe my hood up, ceremoniously tugging the strings around my face. “Just ignore me. Never mind. None of that was said.”

“Hah!” Maisy chuckles, tugging me back in the studio and clicking the door shut. “You are adorable, you know that? I think the girls on the team might have more experience than you do some days.”

“They sadly do.”

My teenage students are confident with who they are. Weird how I’m always preaching that to them, yet don’t believe it myself.

“Honey, it’s not rocket science. Just go out there and talk to him.” She fans herself, eyeing the door before shooting me a sly look. “Not gonna lie to you, he looks pretty damn sweaty, too, and that is not a sight you wanna miss if you know what I mean.” She walks away, swaying her backside.

She’s probably right. I should just go out there and talk to him. Say something normal people say…like…

“Hi,” a gravelly voice says from behind me.

My eyes lift to the mirror, and his reflection stares back at me.

My breath catches in my chest when our eyes meet, and the thoughts and feelings and stressors of the moment before vanish in his presence.

Until his eyes dip, and I watch them through the mirror, landing square on my ass, likely noting the too-small scrap of spandex lodged between both cheeks.

He catches me watching and smirks, wrapping his arms around me and toying with my nipples through the fabric.

“You look sexy in this.” He kisses the crook of my neck and hums. “Even your sweat tastes sweet. Wanna take you in front of this mirror so bad.”

All the things I was self-conscious about are the very things he makes me feel good about. I swear, when Dustin’s close to me like this, when he is all I can see and I am all he feels, the world around us just stops.

We are thieves in love and time is ours to steal.

“Yoohoo!” Maisy knocks, sticking her head through the door opening. “The kinder babies have started to arrive.” Her eyes sweep to Dustin, his large, unconcealable cock proudly erect beneath his skintight jeans, and she clears her throat. “Should I…um…let them in?”

I pull away from Dustin’s embrace, feeling very naked in public like this. Where everyone can see that I’m…I don’t know…happy. In love?

When Dad is dying.

He knits his brow, no doubt noticing my shift in energy.

“My class ends in an hour. Do you…do you need something?” I ask him formally. It feels weird when my pussy was just shoved against his beard last night. Like we should be past formalities and stolen glances in public, yet we aren’t.

Or maybe it’s just me that feels this way.

Shameful in love.

“Yes, actually, I need the keys to this closet.” He tongues his cheek.

“Why?”

“Did you fix the leak?”

My lips press to a thin line. “No, I did not.”

“Well,” he shrugs, whipping out his tape measure, “I’m fixing it, like the lawnmower in your backyard. It’s working now, just needed to flush the carburetor.”

“You did that?” My heart is a giant melty mush.

He nods like it’s nothing. “Gonna fix this, too. Today, hopefully. You can’t let it go on and on forever, Shay, you’ll get a mold infestation.” He scratches his beard and frowns, “I’m concerned you might already have one.”

“Mold?” I ask, knitting my brow. “It could be that serious? It couldn’t close the building down, could it?”

He looks skeptical, and I don’t like that.

“Dustin, this studio is my everything .” I grab his shirt collar and tug his tall frame down to my level. “Tell me this won’t shut my studio down.”

“Look, I can’t say what it is until I check on what it is, okay?

I just know that it looked bad the other day when you were trying to hide it from me.

” He gives me a chastising glare. “Which I’m still pissed about because you know I do this kinda stuff on the side.

I could have helped before it got this bad if you’d walked across the courtyard and asked. ”

Lemon’s words ring in my ear.

“You don’t tell anyone anything. You let things fester inside of you until there’s nothing left but huge balls of emotion hurling through your atmosphere ready to crash.”

“Guess my balls are crashing, huh?”

“What?” Dustin laughs. “You are funny, Shana Holiday.”

“So you’ve said.” I step closer, despite the nerves that build within me when I’m in his presence, and I back him up against the closet, lifting in relevé to kiss him. “Thanks for loving the funny girl.”

His eyes scan mine and he laughs, incredulity draping his features.

“Did you just thank me for loving you?”

“Yes?”

“It’s not a choice for me. Just as much as dancing isn’t a choice for you. We are the way we are because we feel something tugging so strongly we have no other option but to explore what comes from giving in.”

My heart does just as he says and tugs at his words.

“That’s where I’ve been wrong all these years,” he continues. “It’s not about controlling your emotions. It’s about living through them and finding out what’s on the other side. Giving in to who you are and what you want.”

“What if I don’t know who I am?” I ask.

“Then I’ll remind you,” he says softly. He kisses my hand and moves me to the mirror, his body warm and supportive behind me.

“You are the funny girl because you make people laugh. You’re the weird girl because you don’t play on trends.

And you are the good girl because you care so deeply for those you love.

I’ve watched your whole life, Shay, and you might be all those girls at some point or another, but you know which one I care about most? ”

“Who?”

“ My girl. And I like her exactly how she is.”