Liam hunched over the papers, shuffling them into a disorganized pile. “I don’t know. I wish I could tell you that this will be over next week. That he’ll come to his senses and fuck off back to New York. I wish that would happen, but I doubt it will. Maybe the restraining order will make a difference. Maybe he’ll go on some meds and get over her. Maybe he’ll get hit by a bus. Problem solved.”
“You can make that bus thing happen, can’t you?” he asked his friend hopefully.
“I could, except it would be first-degree murder, which is against the law.” Liam pushed the papers away from him with a sigh. “It would be easier if she could disappear for a while. If she wasn’t so accessible to the public. There’s nothing to stop him coming to watch her perform every night if he wanted to. He could sit in the front row, practically reach out and touch her. He could slip backstage while the lights are low—”
“I’m not quitting ballet because of him,” said Petra.
The two men turned. She and Ashleigh stood in the doorway, still dressed in their pajamas. “You don’t have to stop,” said Ash, putting an arm around her. “You shouldn’t have to rearrange your life because of him.”
“I never said she should stop.” Liam made a helpless gesture. “I just wish you were something a lot less flashy, like a dry cleaner or a pest control technician.”
“A pest control technician?” Ashleigh echoed, giving him a look.
“Petra cannot stop being who she is,” said Mem in his low, clipped voice. “It will be important for Paulsen to discover his arrival does not impact her life at all.”
“Yes,” agreed Liam. “You have to keep dancing, Petra. You have to keep going to the theater as if nothing’s changed.”
“What about staying at my apartment?” Petra asked as she and Ashleigh took seats at the table.
Liam shook his head. “Sorry. That, I can’t let you do. Not alone anyway. I have guys there, if you want to—”
“You have guys in my apartment?” asked Petra at the same time Ruby made a protesting sound.
“She’s not staying there with your ‘guys,’” he huffed.
“My guys are trustworthy,” Liam said. He turned to Petra. “And they’re only there to protect your property. I wouldn’t put it past Paulsen to break in. They can also monitor how often he stops by to knock on the door, and whether he leaves additional notes.”
“Additional notes?”
Liam touched the folded-up missive on top of the papers. “He went straight to your place from the airport last night, which we expected. He snuck upstairs and slid this under the door when you didn’t answer his knock. You don’t need to read it. It says the same stuff all the others say.”
Ashleigh gave Petra a sympathetic look. “Don’t give him the satisfaction of listening to his words. I have no patience with men who do asshole stuff to women. Put me in a room with this guy and I’ll shear off his shriveled nuts with a rusty saw.”
Ruby’s lips twisted into a smile. Ash was so sweet and cute until she lost her temper—then all bets were off. He’d had that temper turned on him more than once in their dancing career.
“Ash, honey.” Liam pulled her into his lap. “It’s too early in the morning for your graphic imagination. But if I remember correctly, Mem, we have a rusty saw down in the garage.”
“Yes,” said the old man. “We do.”
“I have to go in today,” Petra said. “We have rehearsals, and Giselle tonight. I’m also expecting a shipment of shoes. I can go to work, can’t I?”
“Of course you can go to work,” Mem said. “You must continue with your life while we endeavor to fix this problem. Mr. Rubio will be with you,” he added, nodding in his direction.
Mr. Rubio would definitely be with her. Until this crazy man left the country, Rubio wasn’t letting Petra out of his sight.
*** *** ***
Petra swept across the stage, her expression blank and grim. In Act One she danced happy, vibrant Giselle, but in Act Two she danced dead Giselle, drifting aimlessly about the Kingdom of the Wilis. The Wilis were an army of bitter, ethereal bitches, all the heartbroken women who’d been jilted by their true loves. Her mother could have been a Wili. With Rubio in her life now, her mother was on her mind all the time. I’m sorry, mom. I’m sorry Grigolyuk didn’t love you, but you have to be happy for me. Rubio’s a wonderful man.
A week had passed since they’d moved in with Liam and Ashleigh, and like Giselle, Petra’s life had split into two acts. Act One was normal, busy daytime and Act Two was the dark night, dying in Fernando Rubio’s arms. Not literally dying, but something like it.
She glanced over to find him watching her from the wings. It didn’t escape either of them that Rubio, as Albrecht, spent a good part of the second half kneeling at Giselle’s grave. It was creepy for both of them, a constant reminder of the very worst that might happen.
They dealt with the danger in their own ways. Petra funneled her energy into dance, and Rubio hovered constantly, all over her. Since her stalker showed up in London, Rubio literally didn’t let her out of his sight. They woke together, ate together, roamed the halls of City Ballet together, performed together, and left through the stage door to go home together.
All this togetherness translated into very unhelpful tabloid headlines. City Ballet Romance! From Enemies to Lovers! Wedding in the Wings! As a result, Paulsen’s notes became angrier. He started calling her cell phone twenty or thirty times a day, until she turned it over to Liam’s people and got another one. It was a hassle but she wasn’t willing to stay away from Rubio just to keep Paulsen happy. If anything, she wanted to rub her happiness in the man’s face. Her fear had long since turned to fury. She wanted to annoy him in any way she could. She hated Gary Paulsen.
And she was falling in love with Rubio a little more each day.
Later, after the final reverences, after her tutu and black wig were put away and they returned to their room at Liam’s, she trembled naked against him.
“Beautiful girl,” he whispered, stroking between her legs. “My good girl.” He punctuated the “my” with a squeeze of her slick pussy lips. “You’re so wet for me. You’re mine, aren’t you?”
He captured her moan of assent in a kiss. She couldn’t bear the thought of Paulsen wanting to own her, but Rubio...totally different story. When he turned her around to face the wall, she obeyed with a delicious pang of fear. He gave her two sharp slaps on the ass and she hopped onto her toes. He gave an appreciative chuckle and began to grope her again, pinning her to the wall so she couldn’t move. She bucked her hips as he teased her clit, drawing moisture from her pussy up over the aching button.
“Oh, please,” she whined.
“Please? You do what I please,” he taunted her. “It feels good, no?”
She whined again, at an even higher register. He was killing her and they’d just gotten started. “It...yes...it feels good.”
He hummed as his fingers found the opening of her sex and drove inside. She tensed and skittered sideways when he probed her asshole with the pad of his thumb.
“Don’t pull away,” he said. “Let me do it, if it pleases me.”
“I’m embarrassed.”
“Of your asshole? Jesus, girl, I’m going to fuck it some day. Soon. You won’t be embarrassed much longer, not when I’m done with you.”
Now she’d gone from embarrassed to terrified.
Is okay to be scared.
She repeated the words to herself like a mantra, whenever he did scary stuff she’d never experienced before. “Relax,” he said sharply, spanking her ass again. “Don’t be a naughty girl.”
That was easy for him to say as he worked his thumb all the way into her ass. She squirmed at the unfamiliar sensation. It felt uncomfortable. Invasive. There wasn’t a chance in hell of his cock ever fitting in there but if he wanted to threaten her with the possibility, she’d play along. His other fingers still pumped in her pussy. She rode his hand, wishing she had something to rub her clit against. When she tried to grind the wall, he stilled her hips.
“No, not yet. No coming yet.”
“I can’t help when I come.”
“You’ll learn how to help it. I’ll teach you. But not now.”
He drew his fingers out of her body, leaving her feeling empty and horny. “Stay here against this wall,” he said. “Don’t move and don’t dare come. Don’t touch your pussy. You understand?”