Saving the Prince

By D.S. Dehel

Clare Hoffman is a ballerina on the rise.

Or she was, until an injury forced her to watch from the wings and stripped her of the coveted role of Snow Queen in the company’s annual production of The Nutcracker. The only advantage to her position as Stage Manager is that she gets to watch Ian Simard dance every night.

And though her foot has mended, she secretly fears she’ll never be able to trust a partner ever again, and ballerinas must partner if they want the best roles.

But an unusual mouse attack allows her to save the company’s Nutcracker Prince, and in the process, she just may save herself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Dec 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781487420789

Book preview

The Nutcracker for the grown up ballerina in all of us.

Clare Hoffman is a ballerina on the rise.

Or she was, until an injury forced her to watch from the wings and stripped her of the coveted role of Snow Queen in the company’s annual production of The Nutcracker. The only advantage to her position as Stage Manager is that she gets to watch Ian Simard dance every night.

And though her foot has mended, she secretly fears she’ll never be able to trust a partner ever again, and ballerinas must partner if they want the best roles.

But an unusual mouse attack allows her to save the company’s Nutcracker Prince, and in the process, she just may save herself.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Saving the Prince

Copyright © 2018 D.S. Dehel

ISBN: 978-1-4874-2078-9

Cover art by Angela Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

Smashwords Edition

Saving the Prince

By

D.S. Dehel

Dedication

For Victor,

Even though you never let me be Snow Queen.

Chapter One

Curtain. Go. Clare watched the heavy red curtain descend, ready to call a halt so it wouldn’t clock Danila Chernov in the head, not that she didn’t deserve it. She absolutely did. It’s just that Clare didn’t want the kids in the audience to cry because the Sugar Plum Fairy got knocked out. At the last second, the Nutcracker Prince pulled her to him, and stepped back. The audience roared their approval. To them, it must have looked like a hug.

She’s such a bitch.

Clare turned to see Tim leaning against the rail, grinning.

She didn’t reply, just shrugged and pulled off her heavy headphones, but the microphone wire snagged in her headpiece. Ugh. Stupid thing. The only way to fix it was to put the headset back on and unpin her floral crown. Damn.

You should have gone and changed like I told you. Tim was busy raising the legs—the narrow curtains that marked the wings—but his voice was clear in her ears. Oh no, you just had to stay and watch Ian Simard. His teasing was good-natured, but Clare could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

Usually, she liked his banter, but tonight had been rough enough. She wrenched off the crown. See you Monday. She pulled off her headset and stacked her cue sheets.

Hey, Clare. Nice job tonight. Tim picked something off the prop table and brought it to her. "Not many Stage Managers could call cues, run out and dance a number, then come back and finish the show. I wish Cato