Midnight Ballerina (20 page)

He spit out the name Bruce with such venom it was evident how much he disliked the man. With his mom, it seemed like there was a little bit of softness to his tone, which surprised me because I didn’t expect this story to end well. I guess almost every guy had a little bit of that mama’s boy trait in them, no matter how bad they had been mistreated.

“Bruce basically became her pimp, getting her involved with customers and adding drugs into the mix, which only led to problems. Eventually, she ended up pregnant with me and told Bruce. He was convinced he wasn’t the father, but she was certain. She always told me how careful she’d been when she was with customers, like that made what she had done so much better or something.” He shook his head and opened up the last container, able to distract me from his story when I realized that it was dessert. Even after eating all of those cookies, the slice of pie and cheesecake looked too good to pass up.

“So, my ma went running home to my grandparents when she realized that she was pregnant and Bruce wanted nothing to do with her. Of course, they were disappointed, but they welcomed her back with open arms. But the reunion didn’t last long. As soon as I was born, she left with me in the middle of the night and went straight to Bruce, who I guess took her back. She didn’t bother telling my grandparents that she was leaving or where we were going. She got back into stripping and all of her old ways, and I had to put up with living with her and Bruce.” The pained expression on his face told me all too well what he had to put up with and my heart hurt for the little boy that had to suffer that kind of life.

“You don’t have to explain that part. I’m sure you don’t really want to talk about
that
.” I told him quietly and he let out a deep breath, nodding his head.

“Yeah, I don’t want to get into that too much, but I guess I can say I do owe him a thanks for one of his wonderful traits that I inherited. His temper. I’ve always had a problem keeping it in check.”

I took a bite of the cheesecake and tilted my head sideways. “I think you do a pretty good job. After I told you about Randy, you didn’t run out of there and beat his ass for being an idiot, so that’s a good thing.”

“Right,” he answered quickly, and I figured he was keeping something from me. He didn’t give me time to ask, so I sat back and listened to the story, trying a bite of the pumpkin pie as he continued. “I don’t remember half of the shit that happened since I was so young, but I do remember when I finally made it back to my grandparents’ house. It was probably the best day of my life. My ma decided she couldn’t handle a kid anymore, so she dropped me off there. She came back every once in a while, making promises about how she was trying to make a better life for us and that she would come back to get me, but she never did. I think the last time I saw her was just after I turned eighteen when I graduated from high school. I was embarrassed to have her there, and it made me feel like an asshole but it was the truth. I knew everyone whispered behind my back, talking about my whore of a mother showing up. But I guess over time, I’ve dealt with it. I’ve forgiven her and let go of all of the anger. And that’s why I opened Pure. I wanted a club that was respectful, well as respectful as a strip club could be. No drugs, no prostitution.” He picked up a fork and took a bite out of my pumpkin pie. “So, that’s my story about my parents. I know you were wondering. Everyone does, but I usually don’t tell it because it’s none of their damn business.”

“I wasn’t trying to be nosey.”

“I know you weren’t. You’re different from everyone else. That’s why I told you.”

“Oh.” And my heart did a backflip in my chest. Twice.

Miller resumed his spot next to me once again, but this time he turned his seat toward mine, spinning me so I was facing him and we were just inches apart. His brown eyes sparkled as he looked at me and then lifted his finger to gently brush across my lips before sticking that finger into his own mouth and pulling it out slowly. “Monroe and pumpkin pie might be the best damn thing I’ve ever tasted.”

I was completely frozen. Going from the messed up subject of his upbringing to sampling pumpkin pie off of my lips completely threw me for a whirlwind. And then his head started dipping forward and he murmured something about there being a little bit more that he needed to take care of, and the tenseness of the conversation we’d just completed flew straight out the window.

His tongue swiped once against my lips, before he gently pried them open—wait, back up a step, there was no prying necessary. I was more than willing for this kiss to happen.

His hands slipped down to my hips, our mouths never breaking the connection, and I felt myself being lifted up. My legs automatically wrapped tightly around his waist as I went along for the ride, and I kept them there when he dropped our bodies onto the couch.

He was doing this thing where he was nipping at my lips and then running his tongue on the inside of my mouth, making me think each time that
this was it
, and then, he went back to work on my lips. The anticipation was killing me, and my whole body shivered in excitement. I felt a teensy bit embarrassed by how worked up I was getting, and he hadn’t fully entered my mouth yet, but then I decided that I really didn’t care. Feeling this way about Miller from something so simple as a little make out session was a good thing. With Carter, it always seemed like we were doing it to pass time or something. With Miller…I could kiss him day and night and I would never get tired of it.

He fully lowered himself down on top of me, and I couldn’t help the small moan that escaped my mouth when his hardness nudged me, and all I could do was grind myself against him.

Miller lifted his head up, smirking at me because he knew exactly what I was doing. “That’s not happening tonight. Don’t be impatient. It’ll just make it that much better when it does.”

If anything, that just made my need grow even more, but I tried to ignore it and enjoy the mind-blowing kiss that he gave me. It was different than the demanding kiss last night, but just as powerful. I couldn’t believe I had been missing out on something like this. Maybe it was just because it was happening with Miller. I couldn’t get enough of his taste as our tongues finally entwined and his hand fisted into my hair, pulling slightly as he kept diving deeper into my mouth. My nails were digging into his back as he continued his assault, and I wanted him to push against me harder, to relieve the throbbing between my legs.

He was torturing me, and I could tell that he knew and liked the fact. Miller all too soon removed his tongue from my mouth, pulling my bottom lip between his teeth, before sliding his nose into the crook of my neck and lightly running it down the length. He stopped at my collarbone and licked a trail that made my eyes roll into the back of my head every time he flicked his tongue.

And then he stopped.

I felt his body weight lift off of me and I peeled my eyes open, not wanting to believe that it was over already. I’m sure the dreamy look on his face matched mine, and I was glad that I had put it there, even before any clothing was removed.

“Why’d you stop?” I asked breathlessly.

Miller leaned down to cup my chin in between his fingers. “Because I told you, I want to take things slow. And if I went much further, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”

“O-kay.” I tried to keep the disappointment from my voice but it was impossible, and judging by the upturn of Miller’s lips, he definitely heard it.

“Can I ask you a question?” He sat down on the couch next to me and pulled my legs over his lap, gently massaging them with the tips of his fingers. Could this man really do anything wrong?

“Of course.”

“Have you ever….” He pursed his lips, looking like he didn’t want to say the word. I’m sure it probably felt a little odd to ask a girl something like that. It wasn’t like we were talking about the weather or something.

“Had sex?” I finished the question for him. “Miller, I’m a twenty-one-year-old girl. Of course I have. It’s not like I was waiting for marriage or something.” Okay, well doing it just once did count but to say I had a ton of experience would be pushing it, but that wasn’t his question.

“Monroe, I’m not—”

I cut him off quickly. “Not that I’m saying I’ve been slutting around town or anything. I had a semi-serious boyfriend during high school, well he was my best friend too and we
did
things, but not that. But my cherry has officially been popped. But it’s been a
long
time. I mean, not a super long time, but a while. I’m always so busy. I don’t really have time for relationships. And I learned from my mistake the first time, I’d rather be in a relationship than just some random hookup at a party where you don’t even remember the guy’s name in the morning. I swear, it only happened that one time.” I finally stopped my over-sharing to look over at Miller whose hands had stilled and his head was turned sideways. I could see his shoulders shaking and I nudged him in the stomach with my foot. “Are you seriously laughing at me?”

“I’m sorry.” He finally let out the loud laugh that he tried to contain the whole time I was blabbing. “I’m….” And then he started laughing again. He held up one finger to me and took a deep breath. I crossed my arms over my chest tightly and he got up, removing my feet from his lap. I thought for a second he was going to leave. I’m pretty sure I would’ve been okay with that so I could suffer alone, but he crouched down on the floor in front of me, leaning forward to simply kiss my forehead, which eased some of the embarrassment right away.

“I didn’t mean to laugh at you. I was just going to ask if you’ve ever gone horseback riding before. I thought tomorrow, maybe we could spend the day together, but I didn’t know if it was too soon or if you really want things to go further between us. I know you’re going to be working for me at the office now, but I’m not against dating my employees. Well, not you.”

“I haven’t, but I would love to.” I really needed to let people finish their sentences before I just assumed I knew what they were going to ask. Talk about shoving my foot in my mouth. Oh well, at least I gave him a good laugh and he now knew my sexual history. Great.

“Good.” He stood up, kissing my forehead once more, and I was fairly certain even after that hot and heavy make out session, that simple kiss right there was my favorite of them all. There was just something so tender about it. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning around eight if you want. The office is closed but I do have to go in to Pure tomorrow night since Randy’s gone.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Night.” He muttered something afterward and when I questioned him, he only smiled and waved before shutting the door behind himself. It sure sounded like he called me his midnight ballerina but I couldn’t be certain.

But just the idea of him having a little nickname for me made me collapse back onto the couch and obsessively dream about him for the rest of the night. How was I going to manage spending the whole day with him tomorrow?

AS SOON AS I left Monroe’s apartment, I turned around, wanting to go back in. But I hesitated. And then I walked toward her door again, my fist raised to knock on the door. But I stopped myself.

I didn’t want to rush things with Monroe. Sure, I had plenty of girlfriends or small flings in the past, but whatever was going on with Monroe was different and I didn’t want to mess things up by going too quickly.

And judging by her history that she all too willingly shared with me, I knew that she probably wasn’t ready. It wasn’t like she had
virgin
flashing across her forehead or something, not that I really cared either way in the first place, but I’ll admit, I had been curious. It wasn’t really any of my business to ask. Even though the thought of her being with other guys made me want to hunt down each one of them and beat their ass. But I was going to keep my temper in check. If that was possible.

I drove back home, thinking of exactly what Monroe and I were going to do tomorrow. I could tell she was a city girl, and when I mentioned something about horses, those green eyes lit up so brightly, I knew how excited she was about the idea. I didn’t plan dates, so I had no idea what to do other than that. A date for me consisted of going out to dinner, and that was pretty much it. It was all I had time for.