Page 50 of Take the Lead

A leksis shows me his salsa plan in the studio the next day and I can see why he thinks it’s a good idea.

It’s a clever mix of snappy spin sequences and light-hearted charm – and it’s not so different from our first routine that I don’t think I can learn it in the little time we’ve got left.

I agree that we should go for it and we work on it until lunchtime before switching back to the tango for the rest of the day.

Sarah rings just before the studio closes to warn us her camera bag has still not made it back to the UK. She’s been told it won’t be here till Friday at the earliest.

‘What’s the problem?’ I ask, feeling my stress levels go up a notch.

‘I wish I knew. I’m guessing there’s an issue with luggage travelling separately from its owner or something like that. They’re not being overly helpful.’

I try to sound less panicky than I feel. ‘Does that mean you might have to fly back out there and collect it?’

‘There isn’t time. With Merle being so particular about his filming, I’m expecting to be completely tied up with him and Emilia now. Olivia has made a suggestion though, which we think might work as a contingency plan. I said I’d run it by you.’

‘Go on,’ I say, praying it doesn’t involve either me or Aleksis flying back to France.

‘We were wondering if we might be able to persuade the airport to release the bag to your sister – then hopefully she could pick it up, download anything that’s still on the camera to my laptop and ping all the files over to me.

We can sort out how to get the actual camera back here later, when it’s not so urgent. Do you think she might do that?’

‘I can’t see why not. It’s only an hour’s drive, so I’m pretty sure she’d be happy to.’

‘Do you want to check, and if she says yes I’ll get Olivia to sort it with the airport?’ Sarah asks.

‘Of course, I’ll do it now.’

And thankfully, Dee agrees straight away – on the proviso that I send her a thank you case of wine.

I give her Olivia’s number, so they can liaise about the arrangements, and tell her she’s a lifesaver.

‘It sounds like we can go home this evening and completely relax now,’ Aleksis says when I’ve ended the call.

‘Don’t you think we should be seen out and about somewhere? We haven’t been in the news all week.’

‘I don’t think I’ve got the energy,’ he admits. ‘Unless you want to see photos of me falling asleep in my dinner.’

‘But that only leaves tomorrow night – the night before the final.’ Even I can hear the worry in my voice. ‘Wouldn’t we be better off relaxing then?’

‘I think we’ll be fine to do something tomorrow evening. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy and by then we’ll have recovered from France a bit more. Tonight all I want to do is have a hot bath, I don’t know about you.’

A long soak does sound appealing – a moment of calm before the storm.

‘Let’s take it easy tonight and I’ll get Sofiya to ask Stella if there’s anywhere she can recommend for us to go tomorrow,’ Aleksis adds.

‘Fingers crossed she comes up with something good.’

Back at the flat, tempting though it is to squeeze into Aleksis’s bath with him, we each run our own, so we can stretch out and let our muscles loosen up. While I’m soaking I text Lucy and tell her I’ve got some big news to share with her.

‘ You’re pregnant??’ she writes back.

‘ Noooo!’ I can’t help laughing at her tendency to jump the gun. ‘I’ll have you know we are keeping the condom companies very much in business! But Aleksis got on really well with my family while we were in France – so he’s invited me to Latvia to meet his parents after the show!’

‘ Ooh, sounds serious … ’

I can feel the butterflies in my stomach as I tell her I think it might be.

‘ Just let me know when to buy my hat! ’ she replies.

And this time I don’t tell her off for getting carried away.

But thinking about life after the show reminds me we’ve only got one day left in our tatty little studio together.

I’ve grown quite fond of it and realise I’m really going to miss it.

I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown since our first rehearsal there.

In less than seventy-two hours, my Fire on the Dance Floor journey will be over – when it feels like we’re only just getting started.

I wonder if Aleksis is brooding about it too, so I wrap myself in a towel and pad down the corridor to his bathroom to find out.

‘Mind if I join you?’ I ask through the door.

‘Not at all. Come on in,’ he calls out.

I walk in to find him up to his neck in foam.

‘Want to jump in?’ he asks, pulling his legs towards him to make room.

I step into the water and it creeps dangerously close to the top. He releases the plug until there’s room for me to sit down – facing away from him so I can lean back against him with his legs round my sides.

‘This is nice,’ he says, wrapping his arms around me. ‘I could stay here for hours.’

‘You’d shrivel up,’ I laugh.

‘Oi.’

‘I don’t mean down there. Although we could take extra steps to make sure that doesn’t happen.’

‘What do you have in mind?’ I can tell he’s smiling as he says this.

I move his hands to my breasts, no longer interested in a conversation about the fast-approaching Fire on the Dance Floor finishing line. ‘We can start here.’

He caresses them and kisses my neck. ‘I think I can manage that.’

But when he tries to slide his hand further down, he discovers he can’t reach in this position. ‘Hm, what do we do now?’

‘What about if I do this?’ I shuffle around to face him, lean back against the other end of bath and put my feet up on either side of the tub. His eyes widen and his lips curl into a grin. ‘That could work.’

He slides one foot towards me and strokes me with his toes. Then he splashes onto his knees and says, ‘I want to go down on you.’

‘You’ll drown,’ I gasp as he plunges his face into the water.

When he comes up for air, he admits it wasn’t one of his better ideas.

‘Maybe we should just do this after the bath?’ I suggest.

He pulls the plug immediately and fires me a wicked grin. ‘I think we’re clean.’

He cocoons us in a towel while we’re drying off and I can smell the soap on his skin as he presses his body into mine and kisses me, pushing his tongue into my mouth and biting gently on my bottom lip.

I can feel him swelling against me as I run my hands up and down his back, down to his hips and onto his buttocks, and my nipples tingle in response.

My skin is still damp as he leads me through to the bedroom, leaving the towel where it’s fallen on the floor.

On the mattress, he pushes my arms above my head and kisses me everywhere.

He nibbles my ears, brushes his lips against my cheeks, runs his tongue down my neck and takes my nipples in his mouth.

Then he moves lower and finds that sweet, sweet spot between my legs that makes all my other thoughts melt away.

‘God, I love that,’ I murmur, propping myself up on my elbows to watch. If someone found a way to bottle this feeling they’d be a billionaire.

Before he makes me come, I reach down and lift his chin up till his eyes meet mine.

For a second he looks worried – if I’m enjoying it, why would I want him to stop?

But he relaxes when I beckon him back up the bed, licking my finger and sucking it flirtatiously before rubbing it across my nipples and beckoning again.

He climbs up on top of me and I wrap my legs round his back, reaching down to guide him inside. When he crushes his mouth against mine as he grinds himself against me, I can taste myself on his tongue.

I cling on to him tighter, consumed by the feeling of his body on mine, his hands in my hair, the tingling inside me. I’m vaguely aware of my nails digging into his bum when a particularly strong thrust tips me over the edge and makes me cry out as I climax, but I can’t loosen my grasp.

‘Oh fuck,’ he mutters as his own orgasm tears through him.

Then we both burst out laughing from the sheer release of it as he drops his head down onto my shoulder and lets his body relax against mine. We lie there, breathing heavily, neither of us wanting to move.

‘We might need another bath,’ he says eventually, rolling aside and idly trailing a finger through the light sheen of sweat that’s settled on my chest.

‘I think we’d end up right back here again,’ I laugh. ‘Not that I’d mind.’

‘You’re probably right.’

But we stay where we are, lying with our legs intertwined and satisfied smiles on our faces.

A twinge of uncertainty creeps in behind my smile though, when my thoughts drift back to Fire on the Dance Floor and how little time we have left on the show.

There’s just one more day in the studio, then the final, then everything’s going to change – just when I’ve got so used to being with Aleksis round the clock that it’s hard to picture things any other way.

It seems incredible that our stilted introduction in Shane’s office was less than four weeks ago, given how I feel about him now.

But no sooner than I’ve admitted to myself that I could happily spend every waking moment with him, I’m going to have to readjust to normal life again – and I can’t even imagine what that’s going to look like.