needy little sex fiend, desperate for a fix. In that moment, I was unable to think past the carnal need for contact, for the pleasure of his cock. Now that he’d told me he loved me, it was all I could think about. I needed to be connected to him on a most base and primal level.
“Yes, but if I fuck you, Rose, I won’t want to stop. And if I fuck you, I won’t be able to think straight when I have to perform with your scent all over me.”
His sexual, heated words caused wetness to pool between my thighs. “Oh…Damon.”
“Hush. We’ll find time later. Right how I just want to know you’re going to be okay through all this. You can do this with your eyes closed. When you dance, imagine it’s just you and I in the room. Imagine I’m the only one watching and the entire audience will fall completely under your spell. Just like I have.”
I stared into his eyes, and somehow, all my earlier panic evaporated. I couldn’t tell if it was his words or his unexpected declaration of love, but all of a sudden there was a calm inside me that hadn’t been there before.
I nodded bravely. “I think I can do it.”
His gaze flickered over my face, studying me as though to make sure I was telling the truth. I briefly wondered if he was afraid I might run off and abandon ship at the last moment. The stage manager came by then, giving us our ten-minute call. Damon pulled me into his arms, hugging me so tightly I felt entirely surrounded by him.
We stayed like that for a long time, just absorbing one another, but it all went by too quickly. Before we knew it, Damon was called to the stage, and I had to go join the other dancers at the back of the theatre. Jacob had arranged the show in such a way that the big club scene would play out both on stage and in the audience. The dancers would enter from the back, making our way down the aisles before finally finding our way to the stage. It was actually quite clever, because it meant the audience would truly get to feel like they were in the Moulin Rouge.
I took one last glance at my phone to find a message from Julian that made my heart warm.
Julian: Break a leg. I’m sitting in the third row, centre stage. You’re going to rock this daaaarlinnge!! Xxx
Smiling fondly to myself, I slipped my phone to Iggy for safekeeping and watched as Henry took to the stage to sing the opening number: “Nature Boy.” After the first verse, the spotlight shone on Damon as he sat by the prop typewriter to compose his tragic tale of lost love.
The final lyrics of the song hit me like a sledgehammer, seeping into my bones as a startling realisation took hold.
The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
Damon had told me loved me, but I’d never said it back. It seemed almost supernatural that the first words I ever heard him sing were the same ones that would help me see I was in love with him, too. My heart practically pounded out of my chest with the need to tell him, but the show had begun, and I wouldn’t get a chance to be alone with him until it was over.
Somehow I just couldn’t stomach the idea of saying it during a brief stolen moment between scenes. I wanted to make it special. Later, I reminded myself. I’d have all the time in the world later.
Before I knew it, I was taking my first steps out into the lavish auditorium, my first steps in front of an audience who could either love or loathe me…or worse, be indifferent. And though there were a few brief seconds where I thought I might pass out, I got through it. In fact, being on stage was far less scary than the anticipation of it. The more I danced with my fellow cast members, the more my nerves flittered away.
They flittered and flittered until I was no longer nervous at all, but exhilarated. The audience applauded after each big number, and catching sight of Jacob’s overjoyed expression where he stood just behind the stage curtains, I knew the show was going down a storm.
Even Blake was pulling off his part with finesse, and I thought maybe he’d had a