The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) (18 page)

I sat up. “What? What are you
doing? Where are you going?”

He pulled his head out of the
top and leaned over to give me a quick kiss. “To the store. Stay right there and
I’ll be right back.”

I grabbed his arm before he
could move. “No. Check Dante’s bathroom. I had to use it once when mine got
backed up and I found an entire box in there. He won’t miss one I’m sure.”

He grinned. “A couple. And
they may or may not be the right size.”

“What?”

He continued to grin and
touched my nose with the tip of his finger. “Be right back.”

I fell back on the bed and
then scooted myself up under the blanket being mindful of the stupid cast on my
leg. I tried not to think about my ankle and what this injury would ultimately
mean for my career until I had to. Maze came back into the room with a big
smile on his face, and I smiled back. He must have found what he needed, I
watched him strip. Fascinated like I had been the first time by him, I felt the
wetness pooling between my legs, my inner muscles pulsing in anticipation. Not
only did he have a beautiful face but a killer body. I wanted to lick him all
over. My gaze travelled back up to his face and I saw answering desire in his
eyes. He tossed some packets on the night table next to the bed, and while
watching me he opened the packet he’d kept in his hand. I guess he grabbed more
than two and they were the right size. He sheathed himself while his cock stood
at attention, before pulling the cover back and off of me exposing me to his
sight. I shivered with expectation.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be your
blanket.” He put his hand on my cast and gently moved it to the side spreading
me for him. “And I’ll be careful of your leg.”

Then he covered me, lying
between my legs pressing my body into the mattress. I raised my foot with the
cast so my heel rested on the bed and I could open a little wider to
accommodate his narrow hips.

He kissed my neck and then my
chin. But his arms were on either side of me keeping most of his weight off me.
“I’d tell you we’d take it slow but baby I just missed you so much and I need
you right now. Are you ready for me?” He lowered one hand between us and rubbed
his thumb over my clit. I felt a rush of liquid pour from my core.

“Oh yeah. Wet,” he purred.

I could have told him I was
ready for him the minute he touched me. He shifted his hand and guided himself
into me. I raised my hips to take him deeper, and we both moaned. Then he began
to move in and out setting an easy rhythm. But I didn’t want easy. “Harder,” I
panted staring at him.

He placed one arm around me
the other he rested by my head and began to rock in and out of me hard, just as
I asked him. I loved the way his eyes turned grayer, lightning ready to strike
within their depths. We both breathed heavily, with each stroke inside of me I
felt the fire building between us. His body bowed with each push into me,
taking himself deeper, joining us, together, making us one. My head pushed back
into the pillow and my eyes drifted shut as the pressure rushed through my body
coating his dick in my essence as my sex muscles clenched around his hardness.
He grunted my name then his body picked up the pace while I still twitched from
my orgasm. He gave one final thrust that seemed to reach my womb, he was
embedded that deeply inside me, and while I couldn’t feel his cum, I felt the
weight and the heat. And again my body responded, I saw stars behind my eyes,
his body continued to move with mine, until finally we were both still. He
kissed my eyes, before rolling off me careful to stay on the side of my good
leg.

“Be right back,” he
whispered.

I couldn’t open my eyes, but
I felt him leave the bed and heard him in the bathroom. Then the caress of a
soft warm towel being wiped between my legs. I loved his thoughtfulness. I
opened my eyes to watch as he got back into bed and situated my leg before
pulling the covers up over us both. I moved closer to him and wrapped my arm
around his waist and he wrapped his under my head and just below my breast. He
kissed my eyes again.

“Sleep. I promise I will be
here when you wake up.”

I smiled at him. Content,
like I hadn’t been since the last time I’d fallen asleep in his arms I closed
my eyes and slept.

Loud knocking on my door had
me getting up. Maze groaned and tightened his arms around me. Dante pushed the
door open before I could say anything, like don’t come in. He had already put
one foot forward when he noticed I wasn’t alone. Thank God at least the
interesting parts were covered, and Maze’s arm blocked anything he might see.
Maze gripped me even tighter as his head turned in Dante’s direction.

“Do you not wait for an
invite before you barge into a room?” Maze gritted out.

I saw the anger in Dante’s
gaze. “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“Well she is, now get the
fuck out.”

I couldn’t stay silent. “No.
It’s all right, Dante. I’m fine.” I pulled the cover more over us. “We’ll be
out in a minute.”

“No worries.”

I shook my head at him. “I
want to know about the meeting.”

“Okay.” He shut the door.

I fell back on the bed and
put my hand over my eyes. Maze moved it and stared at me.

“Are you embarrassed to be
with me?”

I touched his face. “No never
that. But you were kinda brutal to him.”

“You know he’s into you,
right?”

I blinked. He’d said
something like that before, but it wasn’t true. “No, he’s not. He doesn’t see
me that way. We’re best friends. We have a lot in common and we’re partners,
we’ve danced together for the last three years and there’s a special bond that
exist between dance partners. A kind of trust and knowing that person on a
different level that develops, that’s all it is. Dante’s just being protective
of me.”

“Whatever. But I wanted to
make sure he understands, you’re my girl now.”

I smiled. “Am I?”

“Damn straight,” he grinned.
“And I’m your guy.”

I couldn’t seem to stop
smiling. “So we’re like a couple?”

“Yes.”

And then he kissed me, he’d
just rolled over me and I made room for him when there was another knock on the
door.

“What!” we both barked.

“I’m ordering pizza, if you
guys want some.”

Maze rested his head on mine.
“This guy isn’t going to give me a break.”

My stomach chose that moment
to growl and I laughed. I was hungry. “Yes, please. Pepperoni, extra cheese,
all right with you?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“We’ll be right out,” I
called out.

“No we won’t,” Maze yelled.
“Let us know when the pizza’s here.”

Then he covered my mouth with
his again, and we didn’t come back up for air until Dante banged on the door
again.

Chapter Nineteen

Maze

Sinking into Ivy felt like
coming home to me, the home I didn’t even know I’d been looking for. We’d
already make love twice for the day and we were just getting dressed to go see
what Dante had to say. The fucker needed to learn to stay the hell out of Ivy’s
room though, until he got her permission to enter. I wanted to bust his face
for the second time today. Once in the car when he’d put his finger on Ivy’s
lips and again earlier when he’d walked into the goddamn room like he owned the
place. Even if he did, but shit, Ivy paid rent, she’d told me so.

I finished dressing first
before she did and lay back on the bed checking out her room. She had a nice
room, not too girly with its neutral-colored walls, but with a dark-colored bed
and furniture in there I could be comfortable in. Not a lot of visible clutter.
A pair of glittered dance shoes hung on the wall in the middle of her windows,
and she had a picture of a theatre poster of her and Dante framed on the wall
near the closet. My gaze moved in her direction and I watched her get dressed.
The woman had a body I just loved getting lost in. She’d pulled a shirt and
underwear on but seemed to have a hard time finding pants. The cast was
probably going to be a problem. She walked out of her closet and went over to
her dresser. Opening up one of the drawers she began to lift clothes out until
she pulled out a gray pair of sweats. She sat on the bed next to me to put them
on, but I got up and took the sweats away from her.

“Let me help you with that.”
I gently eased the pants over first one foot then the other. She stood up,
placed her hands on my shoulders for balance and I shimmied the sweats up and
over her slender hips. I grinned. “That’s the first time I’ve ever dressed a
woman.”

She laughed. “Don’t make it a
habit.”

“Oh I plan to, as long as
it’s you.” I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and pulled her flush against
me, brushing my lips against hers. “Hmmm…you sure we need to eat?”

“Yes, I need my strength.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped
back to grab her crutches which I’d gotten for her earlier. I handed them to
her then moved over to the door. “Well we better leave now or we’re not leaving
this room till morning.” Then I opened the door and waited for her to hobble
through before walking behind her. Dante was already seated in the kitchen, the
pizza sat on the table and he’d already started eating. He’d put two other
plates out.

“Help yourselves,” Dante said
between bites.

“Thanks, man. What do I owe
you?” I could do magnanimous. Ivy thought of him as a friend, as long as he
understood she was with me now and backed the fuck off there would not be a
problem.

“I got it.”

I nodded and pulled a chair
out for Ivy and helped her sit down and angle her leg so it wasn’t under the
table, then I took her crutches and rested them against the wall before taking
my own seat.

Dante jumped up and opened
the refrigerator. “Ivy, what do you want to drink? Sparkling water?”

“Yeah, thanks, that would be
great.”

“Maze, how about you? We’ve
got beer if you want?”

“Sparkling water is fine.” I
didn’t drink when training and especially not days before a fight. I forced the
thought of that fight out of my head. Instead I reached for a slice of pizza
and placed it on Ivy’s plate, then reached for a slice of my own. Dante put the
cold bottles of water in front of Ivy and me. I opened both.

“Mmm…this hits the spot,” Ivy
said, as she pulled a piece of melted cheese off the pizza and into her mouth.

The way she stuck her tongue
out to lick the sauce off her lips had me pausing mid-chew. Damn, why couldn’t
we be alone, that was so frigging sexy. I shook my head. I must be going nuts
if I thought watching a girl eating pizza was sexy. But this wasn’t just any
girl; this was Ivy. My girl. She’d always been mine, always held my heart. I
knew she’d seen the tattoo I wore on my chest. That first night she’d licked it
with her tongue. The memory of which had me getting hard again. I glanced at
Dante wishing he’d hurry up and leave or go back to his room or something. I wanted
inside of Ivy. Bad.

I made it through dinner,
barely, with my sanity intact, when all I really wanted to do was clear the
table and take her right then and there. But when the pizza box was empty,
Dante closed it and stood up, picking up the box, he then placed it on the
counter before returning to his seat.

Ivy took a swig of her water.
“So what happened at the meeting? It was about me wasn’t it and my part?”

Dante took a deep breath; his
gaze rested on the table before he raised his head and looked at Ivy. “Yeah it
was. I start rehearsal with Christy tomorrow morning. She’s going to dance your
part.”