Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“I believe that.” he said, but he was drowned out by loud music as Dale turned the stereo onto the radio.
“Dance with me?” Jack asked, holding out his hand as he stood up, looking at me intently.
“Sure.” I said, setting down my drink. I took his hand and he led me out onto the floor, everyone dancing to normal music.
***
Later that night, instead of going out and celebrating the festival some more, we were all running around getting ready for the competition. All of us girls were getting our hair made up by the stylists while the boys were fighting with their bowties and some were arguing with barbers about not making them look like yuppies.
“Okay kids, we’ve got a few more minutes, so finish up quickly and meet me out in the lobby.” said Amelia, and with a sweet smile, departed for the lobby.
I sat, wearing my Tango dress, and waited as the stylist finished the final touch-ups with my hair. She’d curled my hair and then put it up, securing the curls with bobby pins topped with pearls. I thanked her when she finished and then hurried up the steps to the elevators to get my other dresses.
“Hey Kota, need any help?” asked Jack, running after me. I smiled, waving for him to come over and slid to a stop beside me, a happy grin on his face. I pushed the fourth floor button and we started upward.
“You’re wearing a tux?” I asked, looking him up and down. He looked pretty nice.
“Yeah, just because I’m not dancing doesn’t mean I can’t dress up. I don’t want to embarrass you in front of all those fancy judges.” he said and I smiled. “Chase and Jason have one too.” he added.
“Good. You look really good.” I said.
“Well,” he said, slicking back his hair. “When you got it, you got it you know?” I laughed.
“So, you nervous?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I’ll be better when I’m with Connelly.” I said, knowing Connelly would use his thingy on me.
“So you’re doing two dances, huh? I didn’t know.” he said.
“Yeah, Connelly and I decided only four weeks before we came here.” I said. The elevator dinged, signaling we were at our destination and we hurried to my room, Jack got my dress, I got my black clutch, and we hurried back down and then to the lobby.
“Just in time.” Connelly said, coming towards us with a smooth smile on his face. “I’ll take that. Thanks Jack.” he said as he took my dress from him.
Jack nodded and was about to leave when Connelly added, “Hey, you’re welcome to ride in the limos with us.”
“Thanks man.” he said and smiled at us before running off.
I looked back at him and he smiled, then looked me up and down. “When did you get that?” he asked.
“Oh, you didn’t see this. Louis found it for me. We were helping each other out, him with my dress, and me finding him and Dale tuxes big enough to fit them.” I said.
“Yeah, he’s at least twice the size of Italian men.” Connelly said.
“So do you like it?” I asked, swinging the skirt a little.
“You look beautiful.” he said, smiling at me. Then he grabbed my waist and kissed me.
“Look, it’s even got laces on the sides.” I said, raising my arm.
“Very sexy.” he said, looking from the laces to me. I blushed and he chuckled, kissing me once more before going to put up my dress. I looked after him, telling myself that now was not the time to ask. Maybe I should wait until after the competition. I thought to myself.
“Okay everyone, let’s go!” Amelia called, coming into the lobby. “Where is everyone?” she asked, because there was only me, her children, Jason, Chase, and Sue.
“I’ll get them.” I said.
“Thank you.” she said and led the ones who were there out to the limos.
“Hey, it’s time to go!” I said, running into the salon just as Johanna and Diane were coming out.
“We’re coming.” said Johanna, she and Diane finishing up the small touches to their faces.
“Where’s Dale and Louis?” I asked. Johanna jerked her head to the side, pointing back to the salon and I hurried over there. Dale and Louis were standing face to face, helping each other with their bowties.
“Hey, we’re leaving.” I said, walking over to them.
“Yeah, we know.” said Dale with obvious annoyance.
“It’s just these ties.” said Louis. I giggled a little under my breath and shook my head as I batted Dale’s hands away from Louis.
“Here.” I said, and made his bowtie.
“Are we funny to you?” asked Louis. I nodded, finishing his tie and quickly fixed Dale’s.
“Well, I’m not really the bowtie wearing type.” he said as we left the salon.
“Me either.” Dale agreed.
“I’m not surprised.” I said, glancing at Louis smartly. He smiled and hung his arm around my shoulders.
“Come, come you three.” Amelia said, ushering us into the limos. “We need to hurry.” she said and then quickly slid into the other one.
“Where’s Connelly?” I asked once I was in the first limo, looking around and not seeing him anywhere. I was at the very end of the limo, sitting between Jack and Louis. On the right side of us was Ivan, Sue, Aubrey, and Vincent beside the bar, and on our left was Dale, Johanna, Diane, Mira, Alister, Chase, and Jason.
“There wasn’t enough room, so he had to go in the other one.” Ivan said, on the other side of the limo from me, his arm around Sue. When he looked at me, I got the nagging suspicion that he and his family were keeping Connelly away from me so I couldn’t ask him what was wrong.
“Kota look, do you like my dress?” Aubrey asked, looking at me from around Sue and Ivan. She was wearing a very fancy red dress that was short, with sparkles trailing down and a white rose on the left side of her chest, along with another rose in her hair. It was the classic Salsa dress.
“I love it.” I said, smiling at her. She smiled happily back. I looked over at Mira, wanting to see what Russia had to offer in the shopping category, and was happy with what I saw. She wearing a black Salsa dress, but this was a two piece. She had a half top and then a short skirt, suddenly making me have an urge to go shopping in Russia.
Diane, who was beside her, was wearing a green Tango dress I’d thought about getting. It was really flashy, with sparkles, and faded into deep blue at her hips. She had dark blue eye shadow that made her bright blue eyes pop.
Johanna, who was beside her, was wearing a purple dress coming to her knees, and at the hips it spread out like the trumpet skirts usually used when swing dancing. Altogether, they looked great, and so did the guys. Isn’t it just so amazing how guys can just put on a tux and look hot, but we have to dress up so much? I guess it’s just a guy thing. I mean, girls can’t just walk into the kind of place we were going in jeans and a T-shirt. This type of thing called for a higher dress code.