“Sorry?”

“For the show? Will you watch me dance? I’ll sit with you when I don’t have to prep for my next one.”

A change came over his handsome face.

A gorgeous change.

This before he said softly, “I’d love that.”

I loved that he’d love that.

I’d love it too.

I didn’t have any deep, abiding messages to send to him through any of the numbers I had planned for that night, but I wanted to know his eyes were on me as I was doing what I loved to do.

He slid the hair off the side of my face, my neck, then wound his fingers in it, his eyes watching.

I pressed closer and Axl adjusted his long legs in mine, the scrape of the material of his pants against my skin wildly erotic.

This meant I fitted my hips more closely to his.

His attention went from my hair to my face.

“That was big, wasn’t it?” I asked.

“It was big,” he confirmed.

At his confirmation, feelings overwhelmed me. Feelings so huge, it was good I was lying down, or they would have brought me to my knees.

I dipped my head, pressed my face in his throat and his fingers sifted into my hair.

“You okay?” he asked, his lips in the top of my hair.

“I don’t know what this feeling is, but I do know it’s a whole lot more than okay.”

His arm around me squeezed tight.

“It’s always been big, what’s between us, you know?” he whispered into my hair.

Oh, I knew.

Kiss me like you mean it.

Not once, not a single kiss, not even a lip touch, did he ever kiss me like he didn’t mean it.

I nodded.

“The first time I saw you dance,” he said.

I closed my eyes.

That was when it happened for him.

The first time he saw me dance.

For me?

When he walked into that studio, trying to pretend everything was cool, and I knew he’d seen me lose it, and the expression on his face said he wanted to sweep me away.

Take me someplace safe.

Slay dragons for me.

No one had ever looked at me like that in my life.

So yeah.

That was when it happened for me too.

“Yeah,” I said against his skin.

“You’re remarkable, Hattie.”

I flattened my hand against his back, pressing in.

My voice was husky when I said, “You too.”

“No, listen to me, hear me, baby, you’re remarkable, Hattie.”

I pulled my face out of his throat, tipped my head back, slid my hand up into his hair and drew his mouth down to mine.

I kissed him.

And I meant it.

He then kissed me at the same time he rolled me.

We went slower that time, and he lost the cargos completely.

But in the end, it was just as big.

Chapter Fourteen

Scratched the Surface

Hattie

Hands woke me.

And lips.

I stretched, languorous.