Cursed-epub by Ann Mayburn Read Free Book Online Page B

real warmth.
    He remembered my name! The silly teenage girl inside her giggled. Carmella tried to scold herself for getting so worked up over such a simple thing, but the giggly teenager wouldn't stop. He thinks I'm an amazing dancer too! Happiness filled her heart as she locked her gaze with Sean’s. He was smiling at her as if she was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. It had been a long, long time since anyone had looked at her like this, and she bathed in the heat of his gaze.
    The other man looked at Sean and muttered, “Twitterpated,” and seemed to smirk. Must be an Irish word, Carmella thought absently as Sean continued to smile at her with that heart-stopping look in his eyes. They stared at each other, their breaths unconsciously slowing and matching each other until the rise and fall of their chests became one.
    The shaggy man poked Sean in the ribs. “You're a lovely dancer. Monica, our choreographer, should talk to you when she comes to visit tomorrow. I know we’re here for the samba, but you've got some belly dancing moves that she would kill to learn.”
    The darkness inside of her flexed, and images of Sean's choreographers laughing at her filled her mind. She felt the smile wilt off her face, and her gaze fell from Sean to the floor. She couldn't teach a professional choreographer. She was just a seamstress, not even good enough to teach the beginners class at the school. Monica would laugh in her face when she saw her pitiful attempts at dancing and tell Sean how horrible she was.
    Sean's blue eyes darkened, and he took a step toward her. Before he could touch her, she ducked from beneath his hand and backed away from him. “I'm sorry, I can't. If you'll please excuse me, I have to finish Dianta's costume.” For the second time today, she found herself running away from Sean.
     
    ****
     
    The breeze generated by her ancient rotating fan did little to cool Carmella. Back in her cramped studio, the afternoon sun blazed through the windows and turned the room into an oven. While the rest of the individual practice rooms were air-conditioned, her room was in an older part of the building that had never been upgraded. Usually she took her work to one of the unoccupied practice rooms, but with Carnival coming up the samba school was buzzing with activity and she’d been stuck in her cramped and hot workspace.
    Sean and his people were everywhere. Unfamiliar faces and accents filled the hallway outside of her studio with laughter and energy. The darkness that seemed to hang over her had lifted, and everyone seemed happier. Everyone except her.
    Tian had let her know that Sean was looking for her, but she had begged him to cover for her, claiming that she wasn't feeling well. He had given her an odd look, but promised not to tell Sean where she was. And now she sat, sweating and hiding from the man who hadn't left her thoughts since meeting him.
    She wanted so badly to find Sean, to apologize for running away from him. Every time she almost got up the nerve to go find him, she’d look down at hands with her nails bitten off to the quick and chickened out. He’d probably just been being nice to her, feeling sorry for her obvious lack of grace and sophistication. There was no way a man, who had his pick of gorgeous and fascinating women, would ever want anything to do with her.
    She had spied on him this morning, watched him enter the school flanked by amazingly confident and beautiful women. Her heart had ached when she saw the easy way they all talked together, how he had laughed at something they said and given one of the women a quick hug. If the devil had claimed her soul in exchange for taking the place of the woman in Sean's arms, she would have happily given it. That was about the only way she would ever feel his embrace.
    She was so absorbed in feeling sorry for herself that she didn’t respond to the knock on the door. It was only after the person on the other side gave a good pound that