Bear In The Rough: Book 1: Treasure Hunt (BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (17 page)

Chapter  2

Sweat poured down Chloe’s face as the first lesson of the day came to a close. It had been good to stretch out her muscles and feel the rhythm of the fast pounding music. The choreography had been tough, but Chloe managed to keep up really well. She quickly revealed herself as one of the top competitors, and took mental note of who to watch out for.

Chloe walked over to where everyone was gathering their belongings and picked up her own bag. She pulled her water bottle out, guzzling the contents greedily. Chloe was mentally going through the rest of her day when she heard a smooth voice behind her say, “You looked good out there.”

She whipped around quickly to find her partner, Evan, who was watching her with a bemused smile. Chloe hesitated, unsure of what to say, caught off guard by his compliment. “Thanks.”, she mumbled.

“What did you think of my moves?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit egotistical. He swept his hair out of his face, which was covered in sweat. He stepped closer to her and Chloe’s heart began to race, his smell was intoxicating.

Chloe turned her nose up at him, raising her eyebrows she said coolly, “I wasn’t paying attention to you, I was focused on the instructor.”  This was a lie of course, as Chloe had watched Evan out of her peripheral the entire morning, relieved to find that he was a very good dancer, easily one of the best.

“Too bad.” he said with a hearty laugh, walking past her to exit the room. He looked over his shoulder before exiting, and checking Chloe out in a quick glance said, “Don’t worry, I think we’ll make a good fit.”

Chloe was shocked by the boldness of his sentence, and blushed at his obvious innuendo. She let out a deep sigh, feeling conflicted as to whether he had annoyed her or flattered her. Chloe decided it wasn’t worth wasting time on and quickly left the now empty studio. She hurried on to lunch her stomach rumbling fiercely, her body was in desperate need of nourishment.

After lunch the women and men would break off into separate groups. Tonight held the first two competitions of the week, Solo Female and Solo Male. Everyone was told to have a dance prepared, but they were still given a few hours to practice. Chloe was nervous, she knew that winning this would give her an advantage over the rest of the girls. Out of the 15 or so other competitors she knew she would have to really work hard to win this one.

After a long and grueling practice, Chloe headed off to her room to get ready for tonight's competition. She entered her room, and tossed her bag onto the bed. She went into the bathroom, peeling off her sweaty clothes and turning the shower on. The water felt good on her sore muscles, it helped her calm her nerves and clear her head.

It took Chloe almost an hour to get ready, but she felt satisfied by the time she was done. She had pulled her long red hair up, twisting and braiding it into a well-fashioned bun. Chloe had done her best on her make-up, working on concealing all her freckles and playing up her honey brown eyes. She had decided to go bold and donned bright red lipstick on her pouty full lips. Her costume was one she had recycled from one of her previous competitions. It was a short and tight black dress, which completely conformed to every crevice and curve on her body. The bodice was decorated with red and silver gems, swirled in intricate designs.

Chloe realized it was time to head downstairs, so she threw on her high heels and left her room. Her heart was racing with anticipation, she was anxious to get it over with. She headed down to where the competition was being held and she made her way over to a table to get her number. Chloe looked around at all the other girls as she pinned a piece of paper with a large black number 11 on her dress neatly. The other women had gotten very dressed up as well, Chloe noticed.

A heavy knot sat in her stomach as she stood near the edge of the marked dance floor. The lights dimmed and the chatter silenced as the woman running the competition walked out on the stage, giving a small introductory speech before the first dance began. The knot seemed to grow heavier as each dance passed, she breathed in the music, her eyes glued to each performer.

    Finally her name was called, and Chloe felt the same nervous and nauseating feeling she had whenever she performed. As she began to make her way onto the floor, someone touched her arm and she looked up to see Julia, the girl who she sat at with dinner the night before.

“Good luck!” Julia said with a genuine smile, her eyes dancing with excitement.

Chloe let out a relieved breath and quickly replied, “Thank you.”

She took her place in the center of the dance floor and closed her eyes, bowing her head as the spotlight focused on her. The music began to swell and Chloe let it carry her across the floor in sweeping deliberate moves. Slow and beautiful, the song reached her deep in her center, soft passionate waves passing throughout her body. As the song reached its climax it sped up, and so did her limbs, flailing and twisting into a whirlwind of hot and heavy intensity. Her performance was true art, her body screaming words of love and pain, of desire and loss, all at the same time.

As the song ended, she finished her routine and descended back into reality. Chloe opened her eyes and smiled at the cheering crowd. Her chest heaved with ragged breathes as she exited the stage, euphoria flowing freely through her. The other women were supportive as she reached the crowd, giving her compliments before the next dance began. ‘

Chloe watched as the other women preformed their routines. She felt impatient, and she was practically shaking with anticipation as she waited to hear the results of the competition. As the last performer left the stage, they waited for the judges to discuss. Chloe was standing alone nervously. Julia approached her and said, “Incredible performance, Chloe. I hope you win!”

Smiling Chloe replied, “You were amazing too. You deserve to win, seriously.” Chloe wasn’t bluffing either, Julia was incredible.

Julia and Chloe stood together as the judges sat back at their table, handing an envelope to the speaker. The woman smiled at the crowd and said, “In third place for the Solo Female portion of the Traditional Art of Dance Competition, we have Ms. Cecilia Weber!”

The crowd clapped as the girl walked to the center of the floor and was given a small trophy. The crowd quieted as the woman continued to read from the paper held in front of her, “In second place we have Ms. Elizabeth McMann!”

The crowd applauded loudly and Chloe realized her name was called. A huge smile formed on her face as she ran up, a man handed her a blue trophy. Excitement rose up in her as she looked out at the others as they cheered her on. Her face flushed and her cheeks hurt from the crazy smile on her face.             

“I would like to congratulate all you incredible dancers on an amazing job tonight.” said the speaker, “With that being said I would like to announce our winner of the Solo Female portion of our competition, Ms. Julia Summers!”

Chloe felt happy for her friend, but as the perky blonde bounced up to grab her trophy she couldn’t help but feel envious. Julia beamed at the crowd, her eyes watery. She walked over to Chloe and they congratulated each other.

Chloe shrugged off any jealousy or self-pity she was feeling, and felt glad to have won second place.
Besides,
she reminded herself,
the competition isn’t over yet.
Chloe took a deep breath, feeling confident and determined. It was her dream to win this competition, and nothing would stop her now.

Chapter 3

It was the third day of the competition, and Chloe couldn’t believe how time had flown by. Today was completely dedicated to working on a routine with your assigned partner. As Chloe got dressed she reminded herself to stay focused, and not to let her obvious attraction to Evan get in the way. She’s always seen her partners as objectively good looking, but Evan was different, he was practically the embodiment of the word handsome.

She had heard from Julia that Evan won first place last night against the other male dancers. With their chances looking so good Chloe smiled to herself as she headed out to the studio she and Evan would be working at, just down the street from the hotel they were staying at. A portion of the day they would be working with famously trained choreographers and instructors, and she was excited to see how well her an Evan would do.

When she arrived at the studio Chloe realized she was the first one to arrive and she began to stretch. It had been a good 15 minutes before anyone else showed up. A petite dark haired woman entered the room, looking a few years older than Chloe. She smiled at Chloe, shaking her hand she introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Anna. I’m your assigned choreographer. Are you excited to get started?”

Chloe nodded and said, “I’m very excited. Thanks so much, I look forward to learning from you.”

After a little more small talk, Anna began to show Chloe some moves as they waited for Evan. Chloe began to get nervous, her eyes constantly flashing from Anna to the door to the studio. Finally he arrived and she let out a sigh of relief.

In an annoyed tone Chloe said, “We were supposed to be here at 8.”

Evan was wearing a pair of tight workout shorts and a loose white shirt. Chloe pretended not to notice how well shaped his body was beneath his clothing. He slipped his head phones out of his ears, oblivious to Chloe’s hostile comment.

He introduced himself to Anna, and figuring there was too much to get done Chloe quickly dropped the subject. Anna began to explain to Evan what she had already showed Chloe. Figuring it best to leave them alone for a bit, Chloe headed over to a corner, practicing what Anna had shown her. Chloe couldn’t help but watch the other two in the large studio mirror. They seemed to get along well, like
really
well.

After two or three hours of Anna instructing them, Chloe and Evan were left alone. Chloe felt the tension of the room change, and the space suddenly seemed smaller than before.

Chloe decided it best to get straight down to business and said, “Okay so we have the final competition Friday. That only leaves us a little time to come up with a routine and music and then perfect the entire thing. What do you think we should work on first? I mean, it’s probably important we at least form some sort of plan as far as a song goes, but then again we still have to pick out a genre of dance. There’s just so much to do!”

Chloe looked up bashfully, realizing that she had been babbling. Evan looked at her with a strange smile on his face. Then in a sudden and sweeping move he grabbed her around her waist and dipped her, their bodies pressed firmly together and their faces just an inch apart.

“I’m really good at the tango, baby.” he said with a chuckle and a devious wink, his arms holding Chloe close to his body.

Chloe was breathless for a moment, her body radiating from the heat his was giving off, hot against her own. She stared into his eyes a moment, caught off guard by his touch. Quickly coming back to her senses, she removed herself from his embrace, doing her best to seem poised and professional.

“Okay then.” Chloe said stiffly, “Do you have any preference as far as what we preform?”

Evan shrugged and leaned against the wall, “What are you best at?”

Chloe considered this for a moment and said, “I’m good at almost anything, but Ballet is my favorite. What about you?”

Evan smiled and walked closer, looking thoughtful he said, “Yeah okay, a contemporary ballet could work well.”

Chloe and Evan began discussing strategies for moves for their routines. Time flew as they talked, discussing music and dance for almost an hour. Chloe found it so easy to talk to Evan. He made her laugh, and she was surprised to find he had a lot of good ideas.

“Okay,” Chloe began, finishing mapping out their dance on a sheet of paper, “So all we need to do is figure out our finishing move and we’ll be done.”

“There is this local competition near where I live, and one year they had this group that did a really amazing lift towards the end of their final performance.” Evan said, his face lighting up as he described the move to Chloe.

“Yeah, I saw something just like it at the Elmwood Dance Festival in Ohio!” Chloe exclaimed excitedly after Evan fully explained the move to her, “It was incredible.”

“Wait are you from Elmwood too?” Evan asked excitedly, his green eyes lighting up with a childlike excitement.

“Well I actually live in the suburbs but wow, what a small world.” Chloe said. She beamed up at him, and their eyes locked, making her feel a bit woozy.

Chloe looked at the clock on the wall and realized what time it was, and said, “Oh my god, we have to get to work!”

She and Evan danced for the rest of the night, working endlessly for hours. Chloe was surprised to find that she adjusted to his body easily, their movements flowing together fluidly. Time flied as they moved together in harmony, their bodies moving to the music like they had been dancing together for years.

After they finished Chloe practically floated back to her room. She was walking on clouds, and Chloe found it hard to explain but she had never felt so in sync with a partner like that. Chloe felt connected to Evan physically and spiritually, her body feeling empty without his moving effortlessly with her own.