The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1)

by Ursula Sinclair

  He took my hand. “Ivy, there are things about me that I can’t talk about. It’s best that you don’t know. I tried to walk away from you, stay away from you, but I…I can’t. I need you too much, but I’m not good enough for you. You need to tell me to go away and stay the hell away from you.”

  I took a deep breath, my lips trembled. On one level I knew he was right, that we lived in two different worlds. His was one of violence, mine one of music and dance. But for whatever reason fate decided we needed each other. I’d only been going through the motions since he left me. My heart didn’t begin to fully beat again until I saw him waiting for me at the hospital. I had no idea what he was involved in but I knew he’d keep me safe. And yes, while part of me wanted to tell him to go I wanted no part of his world. The other part, stronger part, would not let him go. Could not.

  I said the only thing I could, “You’re perfect for me. Don’t go.”

  He pulled back and shifted. “Put your arms around my neck.”

  I did and then he placed his hand around me and under my legs, picking me up, he took me to my bedroom. He used his foot to close the door. It was late afternoon and my blinds were slanted open bathing the room in light. He placed me on the bedcovers and reached for my waistband. I raised my hips so he could pull my pants down. Luckily I’d worn flared yoga pants so it was easy to get them over my cast. I still had on my leotard and he took that off, too. I had nothing on underneath it so I lay there completely naked but for the stupid cast on my foot.

  He straightened up and just stared down at me. “Jesus, you are so beautiful,” he said.

  I smiled believing him, because to him I was. He quickly took his jacket and t-shirt off, then toed off his boots but he left his jeans on. Then he leaned over and kissed my belly button, his tongue swirling around the indentation causing my stomach muscles to clench.

  “Your clothes,” I managed to gasp out.

  “Sorry babe, no condom.”

  “What you mean you don’t carry them around with you?” Jeeze stupid question much? But I was glad he didn’t, it meant he wasn’t constantly thinking about getting action, it meant since we’d been together maybe he hadn’t been having sex with anyone else. My sense of euphoria didn’t last long because fast on that thought I realized it could also mean something else, like he was irresponsible. I frowned.

  He stopped kissing me but knelt before me. “Actually no. Contrary to what you may think men don’t always have sex on the brain or are just waiting for an opportunity to get some. Mostly. And yes I always use a condom when I have sex, and I wasn’t planning on it anytime soon. But I just need to make you feel good right now, make up for not saying goodbye to you last time when I left.” He paused, “Unless you want me to go get some. On second thought that’s a good idea.” He bent down and picked up his shirt.

  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.”

  Ivy nodded. “Well she’s the understudy and that’s what they’re for so no surprise.”

  Ivy’s hands rested on the table and Dante reached over and grabbed one of her hands. “I’m sorry, hon.”

  HON! The only reason I didn’t explode is because Ivy raised her other hand and patted his, then pulled her hand away, but the look of sadness on her face is what really stopped me. I leaned closer to her and placed my hand on her thigh squeezing it. Letting her know I was there for her. Whatever she faced, I made up my mind to face it with her. I wasn’t walking away from her. Been there done that, didn’t work so well.

  Dante continued talking, “They gave me some paperwork to give you, too. It’s just insurance stuff and compensation. Stuff you have to sign, it’s all in your contract with the company.”

  “Okay, just leave it here. I think…I think I’m a little tired and want to go lie down.”

  Shit! My baby was hurting. I heard it in her voice and I didn’t know how to help her. I didn’t want to ask her the question burning in my head. Were her days as a ballerina over? Double shit. I needed to talk to Dante, maybe he could give me the answers I needed. Even if I didn’t care for the way he was into Ivy, he was my only source of information other than Ivy herself. She was in no shape to answer my questions. I stood and moved over to her chair, I placed my hands around her back and under her butt.

  “What…what are you doing?” she gasped as I picked her up.

  “Putting you to bed. Put your arms around me.” She did and I walked with her in my arms back to the bedroom. I placed her on top of the covers.

  “Do you want me to go?” Please God say no.

  She shook her head. “No. Stay.”

  “Okay, b
abe. Let me go get your crutches and make a phone call to my trainer. He’s been trying to reach me all day. I need to let him know I’ll be there in the morning.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  All of which was true. Tsang had left two messages and I’d gotten a text from Jai. I couldn’t ignore them anymore. But first I wanted to speak to Dante in case he was going out for the night. I found him still in the kitchen cleaning up. Who knew, the dude was domestic and shit. He stopped wiping down the table when he saw me.

  “What?” he said.

  I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. “Look, let’s agree that we don’t like each other, but we do both care about Ivy.”

  “I know one of us cares about Ivy,” Dante said.

  “I care about her, man. I’ve known her for a long time. Longer than you have.”

  He narrowed his eyes and sat down pushing a seat out for me. I swung the seat around so the back was in front of me and I rested my arms on it.

  “Yes, I know. I also know how much she cares about you but you keep leaving without so much as a goodbye.”

  “That’s not happening again,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.

  “We’ll see.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to rein in my temper. I needed information. “Fair enough. What I want to know right now is what does this injury mean for Ivy? Won’t the tendons eventually heal then she’d be able to dance again?”

  Dante sighed. “For most any other discipline of dance yes, but not ballet. The ankle is an integral part of how a ballerina performs on point. We place a lot of stress on our bodies, the ankle especially. A twist is bad enough because it weakens the ankle so it tends to happen more than once, but a torn tendon.” Dante shook his head. “It’s the end.”

  “So it’s like a ballerina’s Achilles heel.”

  Dante shook his head.

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, shit.”

  “So now what? What are her options? Does she have to stop dancing completely, you said this was particular to ballet but I know she does modern, too.”