Flirting with Danger Bk 1

I took a deep breath, sighing and tightening my grip on Connelly and moving closer to him. “Good morning, love. You slept well I guess.” he said and smiled when I opened my eyes.

“Why?” I asked, yawning.

“Because I’ve been trying to wake you up for a few minutes now.” he said, brushing hair out of my face as he kissed me.

“I want to stay like this all day.” I said, smiling and squeezing him again.

“Me too, but unfortunately we have to get ready for the competition.” he said, sitting up.

“Yeah, but at least we have until tonight to be ready.” I said, pulling him back down and smiling as I laid on top of him.

“Not tonight.” he said, but was smiling so I was even more confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Not tonight. In an hour actually.” he said and the smile dropped off my face. I looked at the clock by the bed and gasped when I saw it said six thirty.

“What? Why does it start so early?” I asked as I jumped out of bed and raced to the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

“Because it includes everyone in the country. It’s going to last all day.” I heard him say through the door.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I said.

“I thought you knew! Amelia said it last night!” he had an amused tone in his voice.

“No, she didn’t say it was in the morning. Oh my gosh!” I gasped.

“What?” he asked, his voice close to the door.

I came out of the bathroom and looked at him wide-eyed. “Everyone’s still asleep!” I said, and ran out the door, beating on everyone’s doors and making wakeup calls to the guys.

“What?” asked Louis grumpily and groggily.

“The competition starts in an hour! Get up!” I said.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“It’s six thirty-seven and the competition starts at seven thirty.” I said.

“But Amelia,” he said but I cut him off.

“Amelia forgot to tell us it was in the morning.” I said and we hung up, me dialing Dale.

***

And an hour later we were all stepping off the elevator and into the lobby fully dressed and perfectly ready for the day. The lobby was completely empty and we rushed out the door and to Costa’s where the competition was taking place.

We busted in the doors just in time for a voice on the microphone to say, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s start our competition with the adult Salsa.”

“What? We rushed around for this? Just to have to wait until after the grown-ups?” said a girl, looking down and sighing.

“Well, it’ll give us enough time to warm up.” I said, looking around at everyone as we continued to the higher levels to sit and wait.

“You can all do that, but I’m eating breakfast. I haven’t eaten anything this morning and I’m starving.” said a girl and several others nodded in agreement. I opened my mouth to argue that it would make them puke, but they walked off before I could say anything. I sat back down and ordered a drink.

“So, how long will it take for the adults to be done?” asked a boy, looking over at us from a round booth on our right.

“I don’t know, but I want to watch.” I said, getting up and going back down for a table there, Connelly and my boys following. We found a table big enough for us fairly close to the dance floor and snatched it.

There were at least ten dancing couples out on the dance floor, looking like they were having fun doing the Salsa. One couple in particular caught my attention. The man was wearing a poufy red shirt and black pants, the woman wearing a dress that looked like flames, and they were really good. They moved perfectly to the music, doing elaborate twists and steps.

“How do they judge the competition?” I asked suddenly, looking back at Connelly.

“Well, there’s the adult competition, and there’s the youth competition. Each one has its own trophy.” he said.

“Good, so we’re not even related to them.” said Dale, looking over at the dancers.

“Nope, not at all.” said Connelly, Dale nodding.

We watched as group after group of adults danced and then left the floor when their numbers weren’t called. This took hours, as there were more dance categories for them to do than us, and then it took even longer when they had to do the tiebreakers.

It was an hour or two after we had lunch by the time it was time for the youth to dance. The Salsa was the first to be called, and I must admit that apparently Salsa was popular because there were a very large number of couples dancing to that, but Mira and Alister were still the best of all of them.

Next was the Rumba, the Merengue, Bachata, Bolero, the Swing, the Waltz, and then finally the Tango. Ivan and Sue were great in the Swing, Dale and Cindy too. Aubrey and Vincent did a very touching Waltz, but I was so nervous when it was mine and Connelly’s turn.

He took my hand and led me out onto the floor, Louis and Diane not far away. Then I locked my eyes on Connelly as he brought me to him, saying softly, “Calm down.”

Then a soothing sensation swept through me and I smiled, sighing happily as he made me circle him, and said when I was close to him, “Thank you.”

“Always my pleasure.” he whispered back and then we were quiet, concentrating on our moves. There were a large number of people doing the Tango, and there wasn’t much room to move, but we still managed to do our big moves without any injuries. And when the music stopped we froze, him holding me a few inches from the floor, and everyone clapped, some cheering.

Our number was the only one called in the Tango group and we left the floor, me shaking because I had so much adrenaline running through me. “Alright! You got called too!” Sue said happily when we got to our table. She hugged me tightly before sitting back down beside Ivan.

“Okay, what’re you guys going to do now?” asked Dale, looking at us curiously.

“We’ve already prepared a dance just for a tiebreaker.” said Connelly.

“But there’s no telling if we have to do the dance anyway.” said Mira, looking at Connelly.

“We don’t.” Ivan said and everyone looked at him.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They’ve only called three people from all the categories, you, me and Mira and Alister. They’ve already picked who’ll win first prize.” he said, looking at me and then to the man now holding the microphone.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to select our champions.” The man said and there was applause. He drew an envelope from inside his jacket and opened it.

“For the adult competition, in first place are Andree and Penny Jonson for their wonderful Salsa.” There was a thundering applause as the tall and slender man with blonde hair and a petite woman with long brown hair and the flaming dress stood. They walked to the DJ station where the man was standing and holding their trophy.