Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,45

be no wonder if he didn’t believe her—and she meant it. It wasn’t his fault. “We’ll just….” She sighed. “First thing tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah.” Nicholas grimaced, but he agreed immediately. “First thing tomorrow morning. Do you want to walk through the rest of it again?”

“She wants,” an unfamiliar voice cut in, “to perform the entire dance, start to finish.” Androv strode into the practice room, his expression resolute.

“I wish I could,” Nicholas said immediately. With anyone else, he might have tried to dissemble; but this was Androv. To Androv, students did not issue excuses, or babble, or offer any words that were not part of an essential explanation. They told him what he needed to know, and then they listened while he instructed them.

“I am well aware of the continuing status of your injury, Nicholas.” Androv looked him over, shaking his head. “And all it takes is one look at you to realize that you’ve worked too hard today. What is this, the fourth time you’ve done the dance? The fifth?”

“Third,” he muttered. “But Allie cornered me earlier.”

Danni spun on him immediately. “Nick! Why didn’t you say something?” she demanded.

Her use of his preferred nickname never failed to get a smile, but on this particular afternoon, it fell a little flat. “Because you wouldn’t have let me do that last run-through, and you needed it!” he informed her.

“Ah. Here is where you’re making the mistake,” Androv said simply. “She needs that run-through. You do not.” He gestured to the floor at the side of the room. “Sit. If you are an intelligent man, you will ice that shoulder while you watch.”

Nick grumbled; but he obeyed, leaving the room just long enough to grab an ice pack from the freezer on the floor, kept well-stocked for just this reason.

“Now.” Androv pressed the play button. “Danielle?”

She came to stand alongside him, sensing instinctively what he meant to do.

Nick just gaped. He had never, never seen Androv work with a student before. He was good—they all knew that. In fact, he was one of the best. Dancers came from all over just to have a chance at dancing in one of his ballets; and rumor had it that he had once been an even better dancer than he was choreographer. It was one of the reasons the Academy was so popular, the reason why the competition to get in was so fierce.

But he didn’t work with the students. None of them had ever seen him dance. The rumors persisted no matter what was done to stamp them out; but not a single student Nicholas had ever met had actually seen Androv dance.

He was about to see it. His throat was dry, his eyes wide. He was actually going to see Androv dance!

The man bowed delicately to Danni; she curtseyed in return…and then the strains of the dance began to fill the room. There was a deliberate pause on the CD before the music began, to give them time to get into place—that was the time Androv had used.

Then the dance began.

Nick felt as though his heart was in his throat the entire time. This was what he dreamed of—the way he had always wanted to dance. Danni was perfect—an absolute vision. Never mind that she was exhausted from the constant practices and the demands she was making of herself. Never mind that she had danced most of this piece a dozen times already today, and by this point, she should have been just about tired of it. She put her entire heart and soul into her dancing.

And Androv matched her move for move, step for step, never once missing so much as a single cue.

Nick had no way of knowing it; but Androv had been watching him for quite some time, and the older man was well aware that their dancing styles were much the same. Androv might have been a touch more conservative—the injuries that had put an end to his dancing career demanded it—but overall, they could have been twins of one another, especially since that was precisely what he made the effort to be.

Every time Nick had changed a step in his original choreography, he retained it. Every time he had shifted, he kept it. The goal, this time, was not to show the young man how it was done. The goal was to teach Danni the dance once and for all, and to make her so comfortable with it that there was no fear that she would not recognize all