The dancer a forbidden b.., p.1
The Dancer: A Forbidden Billionaire Romance (Broken Slipper Series Book 2), page 1
The Dancer
A Forbidden Billionaire Romance
Vivian Wood
Contents
Author’s Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
About Vivian Wood
Author’s Copyright
Copyright Vivian Wood 2021
May not be replicated or reproduced in any manner without express and written permission from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to author and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
To Patricia, Antje, and Christi — y’all saved my butt. To all my early readers… you all rock!
Want to hear a playlist of songs that inspired The Dancer? Click here to see it on Spotify.
1. Supercut (El-P Remix) — Lorde, Run The Jewels
2. Hallucinate — Dua Lipa
3. Bad At Love — Halsey
4. Mykonos — Fleet Foxes
5. Naked Eye — Luscious Jackson
6. The Scientist — Coldplay
7. Slide — Goo Goo Dolls
8. PILLOWTALK — ZAYN
9. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? — Paula Cole
10. Dance Yrself Clean — LCD Soundsystem
11. break up with your girlfriend — Ariana Grande
12. Summertime — The Sundays
13. Wolf Like Me — TV On The Radio
14. Bleed American — Jimmy Eat World
15. JU$T — Run The Jewels, Pharrell Williams
16. Flagpole Sitta — Harvey Danger
17. I Know The End — Phoebe Bridgers
Enjoy the book!
1
Kaia
Thirty one days.
Today marks precisely one month since Calum broke things off with me. I can still hear him, even now.
We are letting you go, Kaia. I won’t need your services anymore.
My services.
Which meant my body. My excitement. Even my virginity.
He was so cold and callous when he said it, so detached. It was as if I didn’t matter in the least.
Like I hadn’t laid against his chest, both of us fully naked, and listened to his heartbeat galloping frenetically.
Like we didn’t spend countless hours teasing, torturing, and tormenting each other with pleasure.
Like I never surrendered my virginity to him in the first place.
I swallow, tears pricking my eyes as I move through the afternoon heat. If I don’t hurry, I will be late. Even though I know that, I don’t move any faster. My hesitance about meeting up echoes around in my head as I stride onward.
I blow out a breath, turning my head to check my reflection in the mirror-like surface of the sleek downtown Manhattan skyscraper as I walk past. A stranger looks back at me.
Thin, blonde, wearing one of the little black dresses that Calum bought for me and oversized black sunglasses. She walks with grace, I would say.
But even as I toss my hair and look away, I know that I’m lacking. In what exactly, I can’t put my finger on.
Something that made Calum crumple me up and throw me away. I spent a week sobbing inconsolably, trying to parse out what exactly it was that made him end not only our agreement, but to terminate my employment with the New York Ballet. And after all that, all I know are the facts.
I’m not a ballerina anymore.
Not warming anyone’s bed.
Not a virgin, either.
I’m like a ship that has been cut free from its anchor, exploring the sea listlessly, unmanned and unmoored. In the mass of turmoil and uncertainty that have followed my firing, I only have one place to turn.
Acid sloshes around in the pit of my stomach at the thought.
The building that I am hurrying toward looms just ahead. I pull my sunglasses off as I open the doors. A sleek granite wall greets me, with a young woman standing behind an ultra-modern white hostess stand. She glances up, smiling pleasantly.
“Welcome to Feast. Do you have a reservation?”
I tuck my sunglasses in my handbag, nodding. “Walker.”
She bows. “Of course. If you will follow me…”
She leads me through a towering doorway into a very upscale restaurant. White linen tablecloths, luxurious black booths, a fancy bar that runs along the back wall. At this hour, the place is almost empty. But though I can’t yet see him, I can hear my father telling a story at full volume. His booming voice and bombastic style of speech are still very much intact.
I wince, steeling myself. The last time I saw my dad, he was fleeing out the back door of the theater. Running away from Calum, who I thought was actually going to kill him for laying a hand on me.
How long ago that seems now.
Following the hostess around a corner, I’m surprised to see my entire family sitting in a large circular booth. My mother sees me first, making a soft noise of pleasure. She gets up from her seat and opens her arms.
I gladly step into her embrace, hugging her hard. “Hey mom.”
She kisses me on the cheek. “Hello, Chickadee.” She pulls back, looking me up and down. “You look very grown up. And very thin.”
Her lips flatten a bit on the last word. She’s worried about me, as I suppose a mother should be.
I smile shyly, tucking a strand of my hair back. “You look good.”
Actually, there are shadows under her eyes that say she hasn’t slept well recently. But she’s still my beautiful mother. She gives me another hug and my heart squeezes against my chest.
“Serena!” my father bellows. “Christ, sit down, will you?”
She instantly moves away from me, obeying as she has for twenty years.
My sister Hazel and my dad are seated next to my mother. Hazel smirks at me, giving me a once over. She’s wearing a bright pink dress and looking like the cat that ate the canary.
My dad is dressed in his usual khakis and white polo, sprawled out in the booth with no regard for anyone else’s comfort.
“Dad. Hazel,” I greet them.
My dad looks at me, smiling coldly. “Kaia. Have a seat.”
He flicks his fingers toward the empty seat in the booth. I duck my head, swallowing as I do as he says. My mom sits down across from me, reaching across the table to take my hand.
“It’s so good to see you.”
Hazel rolls her eyes. “God, mom. You act like she’s your perfect little angel. You have blinders on where Kaia is concerned.”
Mom looks at her, her smile strained. “I think we’ve heard enough of your opinion, Hazel. Why don’t you go back to scrolling through your phone?”
Hazel shoots her a glare. Only a second later though, she does exactly that.
Dad adjusts himself against the black leather booth. “Did you bring me a check, Kaia?”
I flush. Of course that’s the first thing he’s interested in. Digging in my handbag, I pull out an envelope and slide it across the table to him.
He squints at me as he rips the envelope open. His eyes travel down to the dollar amount. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A jaw dropping amount of money, every penny that he asked for. He arches his brow and folds the check in half, putting it in his wallet.
I keep waiting for some kind of acknowledgement. Maybe even a thank you? After all, most daughters couldn’t come up with that kind of money.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to either. But then Calum dumped me. And suddenly, I had nothing else to do with the money sitting in my bank account.
Dad looks at me skeptically for a half a minute. I squirm under his gaze.
“We should talk about you working out a payment plan,” he says at last.
My eyebrows fly up. “Excuse me?”
Hazel looks up from her phone, grinning at me. Dad ignores the sudden tension crackling from me, looking around the restaurant.
“Yeah, I’ve recalculated the costs of just what you owe me recently. You know, what with interest and balances accruing. I don’t want to fall into a trap where you disappear for a while and only come around when you can scrape together a little cash. I think it would be better to do something more frequent. Sunday dinners, you come over wi
My jaw drops. “Dad, you said that you owed three hundred thousand to the mob. I managed to get most of that money together at very great personal cost…” I pause, gulping. “I can’t believe you have the nerve to demand more!”
My sister raises her phone, snapping a picture of me. She giggles. “My friends are going to think it’s funny, watching you lose your shit.”
“Hazel, the adults are talking,” my mother sternly corrects her. “Another word and I’ll make you go wait in the car.”
Hazel sticks her tongue out at my mom. I’m too floored to pay attention to their bickering. All my focus is on my dad, who seems uninterested in the conversation. He’s busy trying to get some service.
He cups his hands to his face. “Waiter!”
“Dad!” I say, my voice rising in pitch. “I just handed you a check for a quarter of a million dollars. And your only response is to tell me it’s not enough?”
My dad completely ignores me. A waitress comes rushing around to our table, flushed. “What can I get you?”
Dad narrows his eyes at her. “Top shelf bourbon, two fingers worth. And food menus.”
“Of course.”
He slides his gaze to me, a sneer appearing on his lips. “Only three menus. One of us is not staying to eat. She probably has some preparations before she goes out, walking the streets, hanging out on the corners like a fucking whore.”
My face immediately goes red. The waitress licks her lips, her eyebrows jumping up. She backs away slowly.
“Uh, yes sir,” she says, looking to me. As if I have answers. As if I can help control the situation.
I press my lips into a thin line and drop my gaze. Inside, I’m practically screaming at myself.
Why did I come here? Why did I just give my dad basically all of my money? What did I hope to accomplish?
Acid rises in my stomach.
“It really is wonderful to see you,” my mom says softly. She’s trying to make things better by pretending like everything is normal.
I raise my eyes to meet hers, my eyes tightening. “Mom, I just paid dad two hundred and fifty thousand dollars because he owes it to the mob. I was afraid that the mob would hurt you and Hazel if I didn’t find the funds. Kill you, even. Things aren’t normal, no matter how much you pretend they are.”
My mom’s cheeks color slightly. She runs her hands down her beige dress, clucking her tongue. “I’m sure that your father is only asking for what’s fair. Isn’t that right, Robert?”
Of course. My mom is supportive of me, but only so far. When forced to choose between me or my dad, my mom will always choose his side. No matter how outlandish my father’s demands get, it seems.
My lips twist. I feel sick.
“I notice that no one seems to want to investigate where I got the money from.”
My dad pins me with a look, arching his brows. “You only have one thing worth selling. I assume that you sold your body. Am I wrong?”
My face burns. “You are a piece of work.”
Hazel snickers, looking up at me and dad. “You were right about Kaia selling herself like a prostitute.”
The waitress appears with a stack of menus, handing them out. She slides one in front of me, smiling nervously. “Just in case you decide to stay for lunch.”
I bob my head. “Thanks.”
She vanishes. My dad reaches over and grabs the menu from in front of me, his expression petulant.
“I’ll expect to see you this Sunday afternoon. Maybe you can take the weekend to reflect on how you should be more thankful and show gratitude to me.” He smirks. “And try to bring cash next time. Checks are so cumbersome.”
I grit my teeth. “So that’s it? No pat on the back. No good job. No words of thanks for saving your ass. No mention of the fact that you showed up at my school and lost your damn mind. Just the expectation of me paying you again and again?”
My dad gives me a look, opening his menu. “You’re being irrational. When you break down the numbers, really consider what you owe me—“
I stand up, shaking my head. “I can’t believe that I came here. If I were smart, I would go straight to the bank and tell them to issue a stop payment on that check.”
My dad’s expression goes black. “I wouldn’t even say that out loud if I were you. Wouldn’t even think about it. Because you are worthless to me unless you can pay me back. You might as well be dead.”
I blanch, though I know that he’ll say pretty much anything to rattle me at this point. He’s still my father, still the person that I used to depend on for everything. Hearing him call me worthless is a knife to the gut.
“Coming here was a mistake.” I grab my handbag, pulling it onto my shoulder. I step out of the booth, looking at my mom.
She’s crying, but she’s also looking pointedly away from me. A lost cause, not a port in the storm that is my family dynamic.
“Bye, Mom,” I say.
Her lip quivers and she darts a glance at me but doesn’t say a word. My father leans close to the table, spreading his fingers out on it.
“I didn’t say you were dismissed.”
My breath leaves me in an audible huff. “You won’t see me again.”
His face reddens. “I’d better. I have several men to introduce you to. It’s time that you settled down—“
I turn, unable to listen to any more. He is legitimately crazy. I knew that before I even stepped foot inside this restaurant…
But forgiving and forgetting has always been a huge part of my life.
As I start to walk away, I hear my father’s shout.
“Don’t make me come find you, Kaia! Kaia! Come back—“
I start to run, tears blurring my vision.
2
Calum
I stride through my high end Manhattan apartment, wearing a scowl that has become a permanent fixture on my face lately. I’m dressed in light gray sweatpants and a loose, dark tank top. Ready for the gym.
Ready to sweat out all my anger and angst and disgust with myself.
I push open the swinging door that leads into a vast echoing space that is my home gym. Lucas is already inside. He’s dressed in black shorts and a white t-shirt, his dark hair long enough that he wears a headband to keep it out of his face during our workout.
He’s chatting with a tall, incredibly built black man in tiny gray shorts and a gray tank top. His name is Otto, he’s Austrian, and he happens to be the best Crossfit trainer in New York City.
Lucas says something that makes Otto grin. I walk up to them, casually stretching my arm behind my head.
“There you are,” Otto says, his voice booming. He consults his watch. “Are you two ready to have your asses kicked?”
Lucas groans a little. “This is Calum’s thing. Go easy on me. I am still sore from seeing you two days ago.”
Otto grins, walking toward the middle of the gym’s floor. “We will all work hard enough to get punished. Then I will whip up protein smoothies as a reward.”
Lucas gives him a disgruntled face. I jog in place, ready to start.
“Let’s go!” I insist. “What do we start with today? Jump rope? Jumping jacks?”
“That’s the attitude that warms my heart. Today we start with one hundred lunges!”
Lucas shakes his head, putting his hands on his hips. “You don’t have to sound so fucking gleeful about the fact that you’re about to murder us, Otto.”
I’m impatient. “Let’s go.”
Blowing out a breath, my brother moves about five feet away from me and then faces me. We start doing deep lunges, which are absolute killers on my hamstrings. No pain no gain though, I suppose.
