Charlotte's fingers were still hooked into Caleb's shirt collar, and the echo of her question still hung heavy in the small room."Would your heart skip a beat?"
In Caleb's eyes, normally an unreadable mask, a storm was brewing: a flicker of flustered vulnerability at being seen through, and a trace of genuine possessiveness.
BANG!
The door flew open, crashing against the wall.
Jax stood in the doorway, his blonde hair disheveled from his frantic sprint. He was breathing heavily, He looked absolutely livid, like he was one second away from snapping.
He took in the intimate scene instantly.
"Let go of her!"
Charlotte could feel that Jax spat the words through gritted teeth.
[Ding! Jealousy War Alert: Level 1.]
Charlotte's eyes narrowed slightly. She took her sweet time standing up, making a point of smoothing the wrinkles in Caleb's shirt before even looking at Jax.
"Jax? Is something wrong?" she asked, her eyes wide and innocent, as if the heavy tension from a second ago had been nothing but a hallucination.
"Something wrong?" Jax scoffed, incensed. He stormed in and grabbed her wrist, his grip surprisingly forceful. "You're hiding in here goofing off! Do you have any idea how close the performance is?!"
It was a convenient excuse.
"Ow—" Charlotte winced slightly.
"Let her go."
It was Caleb who spoke.
He straightened up with slow deliberation and re-fastened his top button, returning to his usual poised, lethal self.
He looked at Jax, his voice calm but carrying an undeniable weight of authority. "Jax, you're hurting her. That's hardly the way a gentleman behaves."
"She's my student!" Jax growled, his eyes bloodshot, like a cornered animal guarding his territory. "She hasn't finished her dance drills!"
"Correction. She's my student now." Caleb replied, his tone steady and unyielding. A mocking smirk played on his lips. "I'm teaching her 'acting.' It's an advanced lesson—one I don't think you're ready for."
"Advanced course?" Jax sneered. He caught the lingering, slightly dazed look in Charlotte's eyes. "Looks to me like you're just trying to get her into bed!"
Jax snapped, recoiling as if he'd been burned.
Caleb's gaze turned instantly lethal.
Jax realized he'd overstepped. He tried to backtrack, "I—"
"Jax," Charlotte interrupted.
She didn't pull her hand away. Instead, she pouted slightly and frowned. "The second performance is an acting test. Does that even involve dancing? Or..."
Her aura shifted instantly from an innocent lamb to a seductive fox. She stepped closer, rising on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, "Are you the one who actually wants to sleep with me?"
"No! Don't be ridiculous!" Jax recoiled as if he'd been burned. He flared up instantly, but the flush creeping up his neck gave him away.
"I just... I'm pissed that you're throwing yourself away!" He grabbed her and started hauling her toward the door. "Who says you don't need to practice just because there's no dancing?!"
"Your goal is the championship! You're doing extra drills! All night!"
In his own clumsy way, he "kidnapped" her back from the other man.
Charlotte let him haul her out of the room. At the doorway, she glanced back at Caleb.
Caleb stood his ground, not giving chase. He just watched her silently, his eyes dark and unreadable behind his glasses—like a hunter watching a prey that had only temporarily escaped.
[Ding! Caleb's Affection +13%, Capture Progress 68%!] [Jax's jealousy has hit the tipping point! Affection +10%, Capture Progress 65%!]
BANG!
The door to the S03 room was thrown open, and Charlotte was practically tossed inside.
"Dance! The sequence I taught you! One mistake and you do it ten more times!" Jax had flipped the switch to "Demon Mentor" mode.
Charlotte knew he was just throwing a tantrum. She didn't argue; she simply turned around and began repeating the high-difficulty choreography over and over.
Back in the monitoring room, Leo sat in a silence that was almost deafening.
The display was split into four quadrants.
In the top left, the S02 room: Caleb was looking down at his collar where Charlotte had touched it, a thoughtful, lingering smile on his face.
In the bottom left, the public room: Emily was struggling to hide her rage, brushing off the other trainees as she stormed out with a dark face.
In the bottom right, Evan's office: The photography director was staring blankly at the "Battle-worn Goddess" shot of Charlotte on his computer.
But on the main center screen was the S03 room. Jax was aggressively berating Charlotte, correcting her form by hand, their bodies inevitably pressed close together.
Leo's fingers tapped on the console, his expression cold as ice.
The woman he'd gone to such lengths to protect had become the prize everyone was fighting over.
Caleb was teaching her to act, Jax was teaching her to dance, and Evan was obsessing over her image.
And all he could do was sit in his office and watch her being coveted by one man after another...
"Fine," Leo whispered, picking up the intercom.
In the practice room, Jax was in the middle of a shout. "Charlotte! Your waist! Get lower! Stop being so stiff!"
Suddenly—
Static—
Leo's stern, freezing voice echoed through the entire building.
"Charlotte."
"My office. Now."
Jax cut off mid-shout, his head whipping up to glare at the speaker.
Charlotte stopped, wiped her sweat, and let a small smile curl her lips.
Couldn't take it anymore, huh?
She walked out of the room, ignoring Jax's furious "don't you dare go" look.
The Head Director's Office
The door was unlocked.
She was met with a wall of suffocating silence. Leo wasn't sitting behind his desk; he was standing by the massive floor-to-ceiling window, his back to her.
"Leo? You wanted to see me?"
Leo turned around, his deep gaze pinning her as he took a step forward. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Enjoying what?" Charlotte asked calmly, sensing his suppressed rage.
"Enjoying being fought over like a trophy." He closed the gap further, the cold scent of cedarwood enveloping her completely.
Charlotte felt the small of her back hit the edge of the mahogany desk.
"Charlotte," he said, bracing his hands on the desk on either side of her, trapping her between himself and the furniture. He looked down at her. "Have you forgotten? You're mine."
"We're just business partners," she corrected, trying to duck under his arm.
Snap.
He pinned her shoulder with one hand and hooked his fingers under her chin with the other.
"Partner?" he scoffed. "Throwing yourself at an A-list actor? A partner who feels the need to dance chest-to-chest all night with that moron?"
"You're spying on me," Charlotte said, her eyes narrowing, her tone turning cold.
"I'm keeping an eye on what's mine." Leo's thumb rubbed firmly across her lower lip, his gaze predatory. "Stay away from them. Don't make me repeat myself."
"You don't have the right to—"
Before she could finish, Leo leaned down and kissed her—hard.
Charlotte's pupils shrank. She jerked her head to the side!
The kiss grazed the corner of her mouth and landed heavily on her earlobe, ending in a sharp, punishing nip.
"Leo!" she hissed, shoving at his chest.
Leo didn't budge. His breath fanned across her sensitive ear, his voice low and husky with a command she couldn't ignore.
"Remember this feeling, Charlotte."
"The next time I see you smiling at another man, I won't be so aiming for the side."
[Ding! Leo's Affection +15%, Capture Progress 60%!] [WARNING: Host's heart rate is off the charts!]