Many prominent male dancers tell stories about taking their sisters to ballet class and deciding to give it a try—and finding that they love it.

For one thing, ballet, modern dance, hip-hop and many of the performance-oriented forms require athleticism that is every bit as challenging as most sports. An advanced-level dancer can easily measure up, if not surpass other athletes in terms of strength, endurance, and of course flexibility.

While times keep changing and gender roles are expanding, there are still parents, mostly fathers, who do not like the idea of their sons studying dance. Maybe it’s the music? Or the ability to look graceful while doing something hard? Or the fact that they wear tights in ballet? Having spent a good part of my youth in dance studios and my early adult life as a professional dancer, this baffles me.

As a dance teacher I often encountered parents who weren’t too happy to have sons who danced. I remember one teen who was particularly gifted. I helped him develop his skill and later apply for and receive a scholarship to the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. His father called me up and lit into me, saying, “What have you done to my son?”

So how could I not use this subject in one of my romance novels?

In Kiss Me, Dancer the divorced father of a talented boy runs head-on into a determined dance teacher and sparks fly in more ways than one.

Kiss Me, Dancer is on sale for the rest of September. The whole Dance ‘n’ Luv series is now available to read free on Kindle Unlimited.