Victoria sighed as Ethan kissed down her neck. He knew this was a bad idea—scratch that, last night after the party was a bad idea. But carrying it on was monumentally stupid.

He hadn’t gone home to change after staying at Victoria’s place, so he wanted to grab something from his dressing room before rehearsal started. Unfortunately, Victoria followed him in and now they were half naked and making out again.

It was purely physical, but he was so damn horny! What they were doing would only lead to trouble, but at that moment, he wasn’t thinking with his brain—his normally rational brain.

Shit, they were going to be late; he hated being late. Damn it, he couldn’t stop himself, though. After a taste of her last night, he wanted more. He needed to scratch that itch, and Victoria was doing a great job of scratching it as she pushed him onto his back and unbuttoned his jeans.

She was just about to dig for gold when someone knocked on his dressing room door.

“Shit, who the hell is that?” Ethan grumbled, not at all happy to be interrupted.

“Ethan? Are you in there? It’s Rose. You’re late for rehearsal, so they sent me to find you.”

“Why the hell did it have to be her? Why is she even here?” Victoria groaned. 

Ethan just shrugged. He didn’t know; it was just meant to be the actors and dancers rehearsing today. They would be shooting the Netherfield ball scene next week, and so far Rose had never been at any of the rehearsals. She knocked again and Ethan pushed Victoria off his lap; she fell with a loud thud to the floor.

“Fuck, Ethan!”

“Victoria? Are you in there too? They sent me to find you as well.”

“We’ll be out in a minute,” Ethan shouted as he glared at Victoria. He didn’t want anyone knowing about them.

She just shrugged and held her hands up for him to pull her up off the floor. As much as he wanted to leave her there, he had been taught to be a gentleman from an early age. He didn’t always put it into practice as he’d gotten older, but he wasn’t about to be a prick, either.

Once they were semi-presentable, Ethan opened the door and came face to face with Rose. She stood there wide eyed, looking at them both. She didn’t move—again. Memories of their first meeting came back to mind.

“Shall we?” He said, annoyed. Man, that woman got on his nerves!

“Oh, yeah, sorry. We’re all waiting for you two before we start.”

“We?” Victoria asked. She glared at Rose as her hands went to her hips.

“Oh, yeah. I… I’m taking over from the dancer that hurt herself yesterday.”

“Oh, yippee,” Victoria said, rolling her eyes. 

There was an extremely uncomfortable silence as they walked together to the rehearsal space. Once there, Ethan grabbed Rose by the arm and pulled her to the side of the room. 

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention that Victoria was in my dressing room. I’d prefer not to have people gossiping about us.”

Rose held up her hands. “Hey, whatever you two get up to in privacy is your own business.”

He wasn’t sure why her response annoyed him so much. Everything she did annoyed him. When she brushed him off at the party after he called her sexy, he’d decided trying to be nice was a waste of time.

“There’s nothing going on and I don’t want people thinking there is,” he said through gritted teeth. 

“Okay, okay,” she replied.

“Okay, everyone. Now that we’re all here, let’s get started,” the choreographer announced. 

Ethan tried to avoid Rose for the rest of the afternoon. That didn’t stop him from glancing in her direction now and then, though. And to his annoyance, she was a natural dancer and had picked up the steps easily. It took him and Victoria ages to get it right. Victoria still struggled a little—moving elegantly, instead of sexily, seemed to be a challenge for her. She kept trying to shake her hips, which just looked terrible. 

Then, at that moment, she messed up a step again, and one of the other female dancers laughed. She tried to hide it behind a cough, But Victoria had already noticed. A few seconds later and the dancer—Alisha, was on the polished wooden floor, clutching her foot.

Everything stopped. The music, the dancing, and everyone crowded around her, all wanting to know if she was okay. Rose pushed through and asked them to stand back. She gently lifted Alisha’s foot to examine it.

“Shouldn’t someone take her to the hospital to have an actual professional look at it?” Victoria said with narrowed eyes.

Rose looked up at her, annoyance plastered all over her face. “I am a professional. I’m a qualified nurse and until a few months ago this was my job.”

Everyone stood there in silence as she went back to examining the foot. Ethan couldn’t help but admire the way she stood up to Victoria and shut her up. He watched as she poked and prodded, gently moving it from side to side, determining it was a light sprain and with a bit of rest and an ice pack, she’d be fine for filming next week.

They finished up for the day after that, and while everybody was gathering up their belongings, Ethan glanced over at Rose. She was giggling away with her dance partner and Murray McKenzie, who was playing Mr Bingley. He didn’t know Murray very well—preferring to keep to himself while not onset, but he knew he was dating the dancer. He saw them cuddling every opportunity they got.

Before Ethan gave himself time to think and over analyse the situation, his feet were taking him in their direction.

“I know what ye thinking—Scottish, ginger, an actor and gay. And the answer is: aye, high school was hell on earth. But once I started drama school, I found ma people an have na looked back,” Murray said to Rose, and they all had a giggle. 

When they noticed Ethan approaching, they all fell silent and not-so-subtlety, raised their brows and looked at each other. Ethan cringed internally. Another terrible idea on his part. Now he had to say something. 

“That was really cool… um… what you did for Alisha back there, Rose.”

Rose looked at him like he’d just burst into spontaneous flames before a slow smile spread across her face and she thanked him. He watched her eyes sparkle as Murray and his partner Kenny agreed. She really had lovely eyes.

“Hey, so a bunch of us are going ten-pin bowling now if you guys want to come?” Kenny asked.

“That sounds like so much fun. Can I bring my friend Tilly?”

“The more, the merrier,” Murray said in his thick Scottish accent. 

“Ethan?” They all looked at him expectantly. 

Ten-pin bowling was normally the last thing he’d want to do with a bunch of people he hardly knew. But for some inexplicable reason, he wanted to say yes. Then, before he could utter the words, Victoria answered for him.

“Sorry losers. We have plans. Maybe another time—or not.”

He wanted to tell her to piss off, but he knew she’d make a scene and he couldn’t be bothered dealing with that, so he let her drag him away by the arm as the others went back to chatting and laughing. 

Before exiting the room, he took one last look in their direction. Rose’s face lit up with the biggest smile and at the last minute, before he walked through the door, she looked straight at him. Their eyes met for a brief second and his heart started beating faster. He spent the rest of that night confused as hell!