(AUTHORS NOTE: (THANKS TO TERRYGYIMAH and A WILLIAMSON FOR REVIEWING! AND TO THE TWO WHO ARE NOW FOLLOWING MY STORY, TWILIGHTCRAZYASSBITCH and APHASS. I LOVE YOU ALL, HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS.)

(UNABASHED MORGAN SEXINESS/FLIRTING AHEAD. C'MON.. I GOTTA LEAVE THE BEST PARTS OF HIS CHARACTER INTACT, LOL. OH AND DUE TO REQUESTER, ALSO GOING TO FIX HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH DANTE. ;p)

CHAPTER 03

the way she moves

(takes place about 2 weeks after the previous chapter)

He had nothing better to do. College didn't start for at least another week, at least for him, because he'd just registered to start going. He wasn't working yet, because he'd die before he accepted a pity job offer from his family or someone else in this damn town. Every since the night of the wedding reception, it seemed like people's eyes, when they saw him were either full of pity.. Or they were full of anger.

And personally, Morgan had his fill of both. The only person who seemed to even remotely get what he was feeling right now, was surprisingly, his oldest half sibling, Dante. They'd talked a little here and there.. Not often, but they were talking more than he was talking to any of his other family members currently. Right now, he sat in his brother's apartment, watching tv.

"So.. If you left Kiki, Morgan.. Do you need a place to stay?"

He stopped to think a few moments.. He felt fine where he was and he didn't want to wear out his welcome here, either.. Or there. "I might have to stay here, yeah.. I'm kind of..."

"He's staying with that little brunette dance instructor.. The one who teaches Maxie's Zumba class?" Lulu said as she leaned on the counter in their kitchen, eating a stalk of celery after dipping it in peanut butter. "What? You didn't think at least one person would find out?" she asked, snickering a little as she added, "Not that I blame you, of course.. You need space right now."

Dante raised a brow and then asked, "Hey.. Didn't she got to Madison Prep with you?" as he looked at his younger half brother before looking at his wife and asking, "Speaking of Zumba.. Didn't you promise that you were going to leave Daddy with his little girl tonight, and you were going to go WITH Maxie to this Zumba class?"

"Dante... I didn't wanna leave her.." Lulu countered as Dante shook his head and said "You. Go.. Me and Morgan will watch her."

"And turn her into a baseballholic? I think not."

"What? Baseball's a good sport."

"Actually, yeah, she did. She kinda saved my life the night I..." he muttered, finally speaking up, after having listened to the playful banter a HAPPY marriage was supposed to have, and then Dante sighed and said quietly, "Yeah.. I know, buddy, it's probably hard to talk about right now.. You and Michael will patch things up, you always do."

"Dante, it might not happen this time.. Everytime I close my eyes, I see them together.. It hurts a little more every single time I see them together. This is gonna take me a while to get past.. And as far as forgiving my brother.. Not sure if I will yet. For now, though.. I'm fine where I'm at." Morgan admitted, shrugging as he tore a stalk of celery from the rest of the bunch and dipped it into the peanut butter, asked Lulu, "What time does that class end?" as he looked from his brother to his sister in law, pretending to have no alterior motive in asking.

"I think 8..But she teaches a contemporary dance class until 9, Maxie said. Why?"

"No reason.. Just thought about going by, seeing what she does all day... Curiousity mostly."

Dante took a sip of beer and coughing, covered the word "Bullshit." as he gave his brother a slight smirk. Maybe staying with this former classmate was a good thing for the kid, really. He looked at little less worried, ill at ease, as of late.

"Okay, fine, so sue me.." Morgan muttered as he looked at Dante and said casually, "Actually, bro.. There is something you can do for me.. She's got this ex, he's always calling her drunk, late at night."

"What's his name?"

"I think it's Deacon." Morgan said as he thought back, to their conversation the night before, when they talked about all their 'mistakes' in their lives. He'd learned a lot about her, about why she'd told him to stay out of her personal life, really. But the guy was an asshole, the protective male instinct ingrained within him wasn't just gonna sit back and not mention it when his older half brother just happened to be a cop.

"I'll look into the guy." Dante promised as he asked, "So.. How'd it go with Alexis?"

"It went.. I told her I wanted to know how long it'd take to get this marriage annulled. Just ready to get it over with, really. I love her.. I just can't trust her anymore, and if you can't trust someone, really no sense in being with them, right?"

Dante nodded thoughtfully and taking a sip of his beer, he said quietly, "Gonna give you some advice.. It might not have been the real kinda love, kid. You'll know when you finally find it, and it'll be amazing."

"Right."

"What? He speaks the truth." Lulu called out from the bedroom as she changed into workout clothes to meet Maxie at the gym, having finally relented, and given Dante the night with their little girl.

"I'll believe it when it happens, Lulu." Morgan called back as he said "I'm gonna go.. But I'll come back later.. And I just might need that place to crash, Dante.. Thanks.. For everything.. Listening to me bitch and whine, advice.."

"What the hell else is a big brother good for?" Dante called out as Morgan smiled, gave a nod and walked out of the apartment.

In the hallway, he decided.. He'd go watch her teaching her classes.. Couldn't hurt to watch her through the window or something, so as not to seem too stalkerish, right?

He smirked a little to himself as he pushed the down button on the elevator, joined by Lulu just as the lift opened. "So.. You're totally going to watch her, aren't you?"

"Actually, I thought about it.. Don't say anything, please?"

"Nah.. I like her a hell of a lot better than I did Kiki."

Morgan smiled to himself, stepped off the elevator, as he walked down the sidewalk. He almost went into Kelly's Diner, got something to eat, but Kiki and Michael were in there, smiling, laughing and happy. He thought of something his mother firmly believed in.. "The best revenge you can get is to show the person who hurt you that they're not anymore."

'Good idea, Mom.' he mumbled to himself dryly as he shoved open the door to the dance studio next door, walked in, leaned against a window, out of sight. He could hear everyone getting ready to leave, and he stepped into a darker hallway, out of sight. The previous Zumba class filtered out, and the class Maxie was in filtered past, into the studio.

He wiped imaginary sweat from his brow, he thought for a second that Maxie might have seen him just now. He didn't want that, people would ask questions the 19 year old male couldn't even begin to answer at the current point in time.

He leaned against the window again as the class kicked into gear, watching her. His tongue jutted out, flicking slowly over his lips as he muttered, "Wow." to himself, watching her body, the way she moved, slowly, gracefully.. He must have zoned out, because before he realized what was going on, the Zumba class Maxie AND his sister in law had just taken was over, and it seemed like it'd only just began. He raked his hand over his dark hair as he muttered, "Damn.."

She had a whole hour to kill before her contemporary class began. Normally, Zara didn't leave the studio and tonight, she was going to practice the dance she'd been working on for her contemporary class. Maybe change a few things around, make it a little more sexy, a little more fun. Lately, she'd been in a constant tear between complete and total sexual frustration, (because her former high school crush, who'd grown up into probably the sexiest man she'd ever lain eyes on) and happiness, moodwise.. She wanted to help him see that life didn't end because love walked out.

He was a friend, after all.. Or they'd started to become friends, lately. It seemed like they talked - and argued- for hours at a time. She'd never really opened up that much for anyone, it was new to her, was beginning to scare her a little.. Like that first shaky step when you're about to run into your dance partner's arms and trust them to not drop you on your ass.

She was on shaky ground, everything felt unfamiliar to her.. Adding physical attraction to the mix, lots of unrequited and left over 'teenage lust' on her part at least, and right now, she was an inferno raging with emotions.

She needed to dance out some stress.. She needed to burn some energy so she didn't go home, see him there and cave, let her guard down in a sheerly stupid moment of weakness. It wouldn't do either her nor him any good right now, he was so hurt, confused and bitter..

And she had the bad habit of trusting too easily, falling too hard, too fast, being too naive when it came to matters of the heart.

She stretched, slowly, licking her lips as she shut her eyes, tried to imagine what he might be doing right now, back at her loft. She smiled a little to herself, trying to picture him, probably on the couch, his legs hanging off, shirtless.. The thought again caused her to lick her lips, growl at herself in annoyance. It was more than just things of the physical nature, drawing her to him..

She thought about two nights ago when she'd seen the 'wounded' side of him, they'd been talking about their mistakes, of course.. And he'd just.. She'd seen everything she'd fallen so madly for in high school, all over again, clearly.

She finally stood from the hardwood floor, walked to her docked Ipod, flipped through some songs, settling on one (Trey Songz- Heart Attack), starting to do some basic steps to warm up, get herself in the zone when she saw him step into the room, slide the door shut quietly behind him, flopping down onto the floor.

She bit her lower lip. She'd handled crowds of up to 100, and occasionally more before.. Why was this so hard with just the one person in the room any different? -she reminded herself this mentally, as she started to go into the routine.

Morgan sat on the floor, leaned back slightly, the weight of his body resting on the palms of his hands, stretched out on the floor. He licked his lips as he watched every leap, twist and turn she did in complete and total awe. He could see why she was in the shape she was in, watching her dancing now and he smiled to himself.

She'd always been a 'dance kid' even when they were at Madison Prep. He could remember her coming to biology class, legwarmers, scuffed ballet shoes or an ancient pair of Nikes.. She'd done mostly hip hop stuff then though, her friends and her.. They'd danced a lot, they'd be the last group of people out if there were a school dance.

Watching her now, though.. She was slower, sexier, more methodical.

He'd stood before he realized what he was doing, walked over to her, behind the mirror. "Wanna show me how to do that?"

Her face blushed crimson and she turned, hint of a smile on her face as she shrugged and winking said quietly, "Try and keep up." before switching the slow song to an uptempo salsa song.

"Oh.. So you wanna play that, huh?" Morgan joked as he watched her movements, mirroring them as best as he could, laughing when he'd mess up.

"I said, keep up, Morgan.. Not crush the instructors toes. Eyes up here, yeah?" she muttered as she tilted his chin up. They looked at each other for a few seconds and she pulled him forward by the collar of his t shirt while simultaneously backing away. He laughed, his hand sliding across her lower back, fingers gripping the soft skin beneath the knotted up and too big t shirt she wore, pulling her against him as he said quietly, "This is fun. I can kinda see why you like it so much."

"What, umm.. What made you come by here?"

"Curiousity.. Plus, I heard there was this really, really hot little Brazilian chick teaching." Morgan flirted as he winked at her, mocking her earlier statement, "Try and keep up, babe" as he took the lead in the salsa they were dancing, quickly and easily. "We had to learn this at that stupid boarding school.. Never really thought it'd come in handy?" he admitted sheepishly as she groaned and said "Ahh.. so I've been hustled."

"Basically, yeah."

The door opening had them springing apart, and the students for the next class filtered in, Morgan walked over to a bench, flopping down as he winked, called out casually, "I'll walk ya home.. It's dark and the docks are too close to the place for my liking." as he watched her, all the while wondering if he were just a sucker for tormenting himself mentally and physically now.

Because since he'd been getting to know her, he'd been thinking about her, nonstop, actually.. And he had the feeling that tonight's sleep was going to be anything but peaceful for the most part.. Or he was going to need a very long and very cold shower.