Page 33 of A Perfect World
The bed creaked. I peeked through my fingers to see him sitting up and attempting to tame his messy hair. “But I’ll admit, it was hard to say no when you told me I was gorgeous and begged me to stay." He grinned, catching my eye through my failed attempt to hide.
“Destination humiliation station, here I come.”
He laughed- a breathy, surprised sound that had me dropping my hands. Graceful as a panther, he rose from the bed and took my chin.
“I think you could use a greasy breakfast,” he murmured. How could he make something as mundane as eating sound sexy? His thumb brushed my lower lip. In a trance, neither of us moved.
Until my alarm started screaming.
“Shit,” I gasped. “I forgot I signed up for an extra seminar.”
I did it to keep myself busy, which was royally backfiring since Ollie was shirtless in my bedroom tempting me with breakfast.
“In that case,” he said, voice still rough with sleep, “I’ll see you after.”
There was no stopping my smile. “I’d like that.”
My breath caught as he brushed a featherlight kiss to my forehead. “It’s settled then, I’ll make sure to bring enough food to make you sick.”
My stomach grumbled. “I thought you couldn’t read my mind.”
He blessed my ears with that laugh again. “Baby, if I could, life would be so much simpler.”
I shivered.Baby.Damn him and his sweet mouth.
He winked and strode out, leaving me in his sweater with hard nipples and a growling stomach. Twenty minutes later, I was running out of the dorm, scarfing down toast.
Though as I burst into the studio, I wasn’t thinking of the choreography. As I shoved my feet in my pointe shoes, I wasn’t ruminating on my aching ankles. I was lost in murmured conversations, sips from a bottle, stolen kisses and warm arms around me. Impossible truths might’ve been branded in my brain, but they didn’t seem as earth shattering after last night.
“Well, aren’t you a ray of fucking sunshine,” Hannah muttered, shuffling in at the tail end of warm up. Smudges of mascara stained her under-eyes. “God I’m hungover.”
Before she had a chance to continue complaining, Miss Beth signaled the beginning of class. Nothing took me outside of myself like ballet. Once the music entered my veins, I surrendered to the melody. My blood pulsed like violins, feet quick like piano keys. I was in-between dimensions, both in complete control and utterly free. It transformed all my agony into something beautiful.
Inevitably when class ended, I kept practicing, not because it was necessary, but because I hadn’t had enough. Sweat and blisters and tight muscles drifted into background noise until my ragged breath drew me from the depths. I braced myself on the barre while feeling returned to my limbs.
“I’ve always loved watching you dance.”
Dark eyes met mine in the mirror, once so familiar and consistent, now foreign and vengeful. He’d cut his typically floppy hair into a trim, sensible style and dressed like he was auditioning for a Ralph Lauren campaign. I was entirely too hungover to deal with my ex-boyfriend.
“What do you want, Vince?” I sighed, turning to face him as I wiped the sheen of sweat from my forehead.
He tapped his finger against his corduroy clad thigh.
“I need to warn you.”
“Of course, you do,” I muttered, peeling off my pointe shoes and sliding into a pair of slippers. I never talked back to him before. It felt wrong.It feltgood. “About what?”
“Him.”
Crouched by my bag, I focused on unzipping it. “You’ll have to be more specific,” I said, despite knowingexactlywho he referenced. Vince’s nose whistled, his non-existent patience fraying as his tapping finger picked up the pace.
“You don't know what he is.” I caught his reflection again.Tap, tap, tap,went those fingers. “You don’t know what he can do.”
I glared. “Actually, I do, and he doesn’t scare me.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
Vince lunged, grabbing me by the back of the neck and spinning me around to snarl in my face. “Then you’re afool.”
