Audition
by Skye Warren
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GENRE: Contemporary Romance
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BLURB:
Blood
and sweat. Bethany Lewis danced her way out of poverty. She’s a world class
athlete… with a debt to pay.
Joshua North always
gets what he wants. And the mercenary wants Bethany in his bed. He wants her
beautiful little body bent to his will.
She doesn’t surrender
to his kiss.
He doesn’t back down
from a challenge.
It’s going to be a
sensual fight… to the death.
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EXCERPT:
Blinding lights. Aching lungs. Thunderous applause. The
final show concludes the same way we rehearsed for months, the same way we
performed for weeks. My muscles know the movements better than they understand
rest. The prospect of after, of what comes next, makes my breath catch. Even as
the primas take their bows, relief echoes around the stage. Vacations are
planned. Relief for strained muscles. Everyone needs a break, even professional
athletes. I’m the only one onstage dreading it.
We bow and curtesy with practiced grace. The curtain
descends to the floor. Almost to the second we break formation—a flock of crows
startled from the woods. The more exuberant among us, the young ones, the new
ones, the ones using steroids, prance and jete toward the dressing rooms. Most
of us limp our way out. One hundred percent of NFL players are injured every
season. Professional dancing is the same. We hurl our bodies through the air,
forcing massive impact through tired joints night after night. I catch my
friend Marlena in my arms. Her face is white with pain.
“Ice,” she says. “Or better yet—tequila.”
I push my shoulder under hers as we exit the stage. “Don’t
sell yourself short. You can have both.”
A delicate snort. “Not likely. We have to smile and flirt
with the old men with big, fat wallets. And for what? I won’t be here next
season. You won’t be, either.”
The reminder clangs inside me like a copper bell. I won’t be
coming to the New York City Ballet after the break. We fall into our creaky
chairs in the dressing room. “Are you going to miss it?”
“Miss it? Of course I’ll miss it.” Marlena turned
twenty-eight last month. It’s comfortably retirement age for a dancer. “When
the little children do their terrible pirouettes, when they sneeze and throw up
and cry all over my leotard, I’ll think fondly of the beautiful art I left
behind. Then I’ll be able to walk home. That won’t happen if I try to dance
another season.”
“You’ll make a wonderful teacher. You know you were mine.”
She didn’t teach me to dance. It was my first love, before I learned to flip
and contort myself. Before I ever leapt from a trapeze bar.
Marlena taught me the ropes of the ballet company when I
joined two years ago. Most of them thought I wouldn’t last a week. Some of them
didn’t want me to. It’s a rigid world, the hierarchy stacked with graduates of
Juilliard or the John Cranko school.
I don’t have a pedigree.
All I have is a body that does what it must, no matter how
much it hurts.
Which means changing out of my sweaty leotard into a fresh
one. We’re contractually obligated to attend the ball. Like Marlena said, we
should smile and flirt with the high society people who attend. Both the male
and female dancers have to do it. It’s what convinces the sponsors to write
checks that will fund the next season. By the time they’re rehearsing The
Nutcracker I’ll be in New Orleans, the place I swore I’d never return.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Skye Warren
is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have
sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving
family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
http://www.skyewarren.com/books/audition/
Buy Link:
Barnes &
Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/audition-skye-warren/1132969928
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