“We have one hour!” Casey yelled through the dressing room at the others.  The girls were gathered backstage prepping for opening night of the tour. 

Whitney grabbed her first outfit off the rack, heading off to change.  She was definitely feeling first night jitters, but she was as excited as she was nervous for the performance.  She had only seen Justin at rehearsals and they had not spoken a word to each other since the other night.  Dancing with him made her nervous, but she felt safer knowing there would be such a large audience.  It was being alone with him that she really worried about.

**

She felt her heart beating faster and her nerves sinking in as she waited backstage for her first cue.  Justin performed two songs by himself at the beginning of the show and then the girls came out for this third up-tempo performance.  One of the crewmembers signaled to her and she headed out onto the stage.  She felt the hot spotlights and heard the blare of the music from the sound system and was overwhelmed for a moment.  The screaming of the audience members combined with the sound on-stage was overwhelming and she lost focus for a second.  As she headed to her mark she tried to calm herself.  Get it together.  Get it together.  She started dancing and felt the rush of adrenaline kick in. 

**

Justin trotted backstage during intermission, headed towards his dressing room.  “C, what do you think so far?” Justin asked him as he passed by him. 

J.C. nodded at him, “It’s a great show, lot of energy out there.” 

Justin waved at him as he headed down the corridor.  J.C. turned in the opposite direction and walked back towards the stage area.  He was stopped by one of the journalists covering opening night and answered a few questions about the direction of the album and his role in co-writing and producing some of Justin’s music.  As the reporter finished and left him, his eyes moved to the dancer dressing room door as the girls came back out heading towards the stage for the second half of the show.

** 

Justin walked back with his assistants, getting ready to head towards the stage once again.  His eyes roamed down the hallway, spotting the dancers milling about.  He noticed J.C. leaning against the wall discreetly staring at Whitney and smiled to himself.  As he made his way up to the group of dancers he passed by Whitney, leaned in and whispered, “Damn, girl…” and lightly smacked her on the ass, continuing to walk by without waiting for her reaction.  She hadn’t heard him coming from behind and she felt her knees quake from the surprise of his touch and hearing his voice.  She leaned back against the wall, putting her hand out to support her but missed and lost her balance altogether in her heels, slowly falling backward.  As she slid down the wall, hitting the ground she blushed from embarrassment and put her hand to her forehead. 

“Are you okay, Whitney?” Ashleigh asked, looking over. 

Whitney nodded.  “Just having a clumsy moment, I’m fine.”

She felt the shadow of someone standing over her and looked up to see J.C. offering his hand.  She reached her hand out and felt the force of him as he pulled her back up. 

 “Thank you,” she said, smiling at him as they locked eyes once again. 

He stared at her and gave her a shy smile in response. 

 “Okay, time for us to head back out,” Ashleigh said interrupting with a smile, locking elbows with her and leading her back to the stage.  Whitney turned slowly, keeping her gaze on J.C. for a moment longer before turning and heading back to work. 

**

The girls left the stage after the encore and headed back towards the dressing room area.  One of Justin’s assistants was waiting outside the dressing room door when they arrived.   “Whitney, Justin would like to see you now.” 

“Now?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.  She was exhausted.  All she wanted to do was change out of her costume and shower. 

“Immediately,” the assistant said.  The other girls headed inside the dressing room to change.  Casey shot Whitney a look of jealousy as she walked away. 

Ashleigh was the only one that seemed empathetic.  “Justin usually likes to get to bed early after shows, I’m sure it won’t be much of anything.”

Whitney frowned, but waved as she headed down the short hallway. 

**

He wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel before unbuttoning his shirt and sliding it off.  “Ah, Whitney…” he said, acknowledging her with a quick glance over before turning back to undressing himself in front of the mirror.  She leaned against the wall, her arms still crossed.  Her eyes were drawn to the large cross tattoo on his left shoulder.  She looked away, not wanting him to see her checking him out.  She sighed softly to herself, but he heard her and looked up.  He smiled at her through the mirror, creeping into the smirk she had grown accustomed to.  “Come here…” he motioned, as he sat down on a loveseat in the corner.

She straightened up from the wall and made her way to him.  She stood in front of him and he raised his arms, resting his hands on her hips.  He gripped her tightly as he pulled her down to his lap.  She straddled him, sitting up in his lap and using her hands against the back of the loveseat behind him for support.  He wrapped left arm around her side, resting his palm against her back for support while he used his right hand to pull her chin to his.  He stared at her with curiosity for a moment, while she stared back unsure of what his next move would be.  He leaned in and whispered, “I have a proposition for you.”

She nodded as he slid her hair off of her shoulder and kissed her collarbone, moving his mouth back towards her neck.  He swiftly slid the front of her corset down so that her breasts were exposed and ran his hands over each of them forcefully.  She closed her eyes in a failed attempt to hide her slight arousal.  “Whitney…” he trailed off again.

“Justin…” she taunted back.  She was getting braver with him now, less nervous. 

“I am willing to give you something - anything you want,” he said, as he continued to touch her without making eye contact. 

She raised an eyebrow, “Um…?”

“First, I need you to do something for me,” he said, pulling away from her and pushing her corset back up so that she was covered once again.  He leaned back and put his finger to his mouth, thinking about what to say.

“Well?” she asked, raising her arms up.  He was already using her for sex; it couldn’t be much worse.  Nothing was going to surprise her at this point. 

“I need you to spend the night with J.C.  You do that and I will do one thing for you - anything,” he said.  He searched her face for a response. 

Her eyes widened.  She hadn’t expected him to propose something so outrageous to her.  She crossed her arms once again, “And if I don’t?”

He pressed his lips to hers and uncharacteristically kissed her gently.  “You know better than to turn down an offer from me.”  With that he stood up.  “Someone will take you to your own hotel room so you can clean up and then you can head to his room down the hall.  Now, run along.”

**

She felt her knees shaking as she made her way down the hallway.  She stopped outside his door and started to panic.  She was having trouble breathing and desperately inhaled and exhaled shortly as her eyes focused on the door handle in front of her.  Her eyes shifted back down the hallway, considering what the consequences would be of turning around and leaving.  Justin’s collateral echoed in her mind as she regretfully knocked on the door. 

She swallowed nervously as the door opened and she met the gaze of his blue eyes, once again. 

He stared at her, remaining quiet, until he finally moved to the side so that she could enter the room.  She slowly made her way passed him as he closed the door behind him. 

**