Jean beamed when Auri stepped off the stage. She had not limped on stage and had not shown her pain. But there was pain in her eyes now. She needed to rest. She opened her mouth to tell the girl to sit but Nicolas was there, scooping the girl up in his arms and taking her to a chair. She snapped her mouth shut.
Auri could feel the heat in her ankle. By the time she did her last turn on the disk, it had not stopped throbbing. She wanted ice. She wanted the pain to stop. She needed to be strong. She needed to keep on going. She needed to focus because she was reeling from the experience of being in Nicolas' arms. He did not look like a man who had just carried her weight. He had all his attention on her ankle and it was not going to shift.
She tensed as he put his hands on her bad ankle and examined it. She let out a hiss of pain as he gently rotated her foot. Had she hurt her ankle more? Nicolas looked up at her with concern and determination in his eyes.
