understand why a career as promising as my mother’s came to a screeching halt.”
At the mention of my idol, I hung my head in shame for a second, allowing my hair to fall over my eyes. Did this man really want to know everything? Should I tell him about the ambition of a girl barely out of her teens? The shallowness of one wanting desperately to fit in? How I’d not only dated a man old enough to be my father but all the terrible things I’d done from the moment I’d met the bastard? How he’d cost me my pride and almost my life? Should I mention the sex, the drugs I’d swallowed like candy, or the alcohol chasers I’d downed? I figured it would simply take one look online to reveal it all anyway, so if he really needed to know that badly, he could find out for himself. But at the same time, I did need him to go away, so I decided it more expedient to tell him anything to get his Audi sedan out of my driveway.
“Look,” I said in the firmest tone I was capable of using, “I am not the sort of woman you want representing your theater, I can assure you. I left that world behind a long time ago. And even if I hadn’t, I’m not in a position to dance anyway.”
“Your past—” he began, but I refused to let him get a word in edgewise.
“I need to look after my grandmother. She needs me here.” I shook my head, wanting him to understand this wasn’t going to happen no matter how hard he tried. “I look after her twenty-four seven. I can’t take on any other responsibilities. Not now. So, hop back in your car, and go find yourself another ballerina.”
I turned my back to him and started to walk around the trunk of his car, but he wasn’t about to be deterred. He called out behind me regardless, “If you change your mind, you should come over to dance with the others at the theater in your free time. One free month as my treat. You might actually find Volkov Ballet to be a cool place. Welcoming. And, starting the day after tomorrow, we are holding auditions to fill some holes. I would really like to see what you still have. I have a feeling even though you may be a bit rusty, that dancer is still in you.” That little smirk of his returned. “I could be wrong though. Maybe you are too out of shape to bother. One of the younger women may dance rings around you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? But it’s up to you if you want to prove you are still the prima ballerina you were destined to be before you threw it all away.”
Not wanting to fall for his trap of goading me, I stalked back inside. Resisting the urge to look back and be hypnotized by his mesmerizing good looks, I slammed the door behind me, making my feelings on the subject very clear.
2
Clara
Of course I wanted to get back on stage. I’d been born to dance. That was why I allowed that little tidbit of information to slip into my interview recently. But that didn’t mean it could actually happen. I’d changed too much, and I really did need to take care of the woman who’d raised me after my mother died and my father had no desire to take on the baby of a woman he hadn’t even seen fit to wed. I owed this woman everything. It had been she who’d put the love of ballet into my very soul. The answer was no… but I remained by the door, with my back pressed against it, struggling to breathe without pain until I heard the sound of the engine of Alexei’s car fade as he pulled away.
How dare he come up to my home, blowing my mind by looking like he’d stepped off the cover of a GQ magazine, then offer me a glimpse of a life I once knew? He’d claimed not to be a practical joker, but he’d pulled the cruelest tease ever.
“Clara?” I heard my grandmother call out. “Can you come in here for a moment?”
I sighed deeply and wandered into the kitchen where my grandmother slumped slightly over the table, clearly suffering from a lot of pain. I hated seeing her this way. I had always known her to be a really strong,