Lead and Follow(77)
He thunked her fists against his skull. “You want in here? Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With a curious blink, he straightened and looked at her with a slight frown. Total confusion. “You love me?”
“Very much.”
“Lizzie, not just friends. I can’t.”
“Best friends. The rest too. All of it,” she added, licking his salty shoulder and biting into the meat of his hard muscle. “Like I said that night. With us alone. You’re my rock and my calm. I know I didn’t say it right and you didn’t hear it right, but I was trying to tell you how much you mean to me. All those pieces and facets. Are you hearing me, Dima mine?”
“My little one,” he rasped.
Big hands cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth up for another kiss, this one long and indulgent. The pulse of urgency shone through at the edges as they rode the waves of a solid post-performance high. At least they started sweet.
It was exactly that. A new start.
Hip to hip, he revealed his excitement and his need. Lizzie tipped her head back to the wall…reveling. Dima was hers to hold.
“Love you,” he whispered against her neck. “Ja ljublju tebja, my Lizzie. My little one. Can I tell you that now? Will you deny me?”
“Never again.”
“I’m done too. I need you too much.”
The words were a balm across so many hurts, the least of which was her tender knee. She dragged him closer. Maybe if they tried hard enough, they could melt skin to skin. Distance would never be a problem again. Inside one another was the only answer.
Tongues first, followed by his fingers sliding between her thighs. What a choice. Hear more of Dima’s sweet words, hoping for them like wringing water from a stone…or keep touching.
“I dream,” he said on a groan as her fingers found his prick. Maybe they could do both.
“Tell me?”
“I dream so big and so often that they scare me.”
“Scare you? Dima, why?”
“Most of them are bigger than me. I’m not…” He shook his head. “I’m afraid of not being man enough to see them come true. The planning, Lizzie? All of my plans? It’s the only way I know to keep the doubts at bay.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dima had his hands on the prize. He didn’t need anything but Lizzie. Pressed up against the wall, halfway down the corridor to his dressing room, anyone could come along and see them. He barely cared. He took her mouth again, not ready to hear her talk. Not yet. Too much more he needed to say.
“I’ve never told you because it’s easier that way. If I’m the only one who knows the plan, I’m also the only one disappointed.”
Her hand framed his cheek. “Do you really believe that?”
“I don’t want to let anyone down.” His mouth found the line of her throat. He licked since he’d been unleashed and he couldn’t keep from touching her. “My parents depended on me, not that I managed to save them from themselves. You did too. Better not to disappoint you, of all people.”
Her fingers gripped his cock, stroked through the material of his pants. “I still knew when you were upset. That you never talked to me about it… Dima, it hurt. I just want you. I want to know it all.”
He couldn’t do this in the hallway anymore. Grabbing Lizzie by the wrist, he pulled her along until they reached his dressing room. Right before he snapped the door shut behind him, he caught sight of Paul at the end of the hallway. For the moment, this was his and Lizzie’s business. He snapped the lock shut.
Lizzie stepped backwards. On her lips she wore a hint of the grin he loved so much. Her chest jerked on harsh breaths, as if they were still dancing.
He supposed they were. There would always be dance with him and Lizzie.
Warm and frightening at the same time, the word “always” unfurled in his chest.
She lifted her hands out to the side and wiggled her fingers in a tiny challenge. “Come on, Dmitri,” she goaded in Russian. “Give me your biggest dream. The one you’ve never even said out loud to yourself, much less anyone else.”
“Marriage.” The word snapped out of him, burning his tongue, teeth, lips with its daring. He held down the shakes that threatened to follow in its wake. Instead he filled his hands with his wonder, cupped Lizzie’s hips and lifted her to the counter. “Marriage to you. Be my Lizzie, forever.”
Her eyes softened and her mouth went slack. “Oh.”
He closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to her temple. The entirety of his body curled around her, shielding. Because even if she said no, he still needed to say it. “Marriage. Babies. A place of our own someday. Maybe a dance studio. Maybe a club like this. Who knows. But on the way, we’d stop by Hollywood and work there.”