I couldn’t see Peyton doing anything that didn’t involve dance. She was happiest when she was onstage or in the studio. She was happiest in tights and leotards with her hair in a bun. That was who she was.
“But what will you do if you come back?”
“I don’t know really,” she admitted. “But I’m sure Kathy would hire me to teach at the very least. She could probably bring me in for the professional company on a part-time basis.” She shrugged with her hands up. “I really haven’t gotten that far. I’d have to talk to her, but I think there are options that don’t involve me destroying my knee.”
“Peyton, I’m really prepared to move here if I have to.”
She brought her hand to my cheek. “Just the fact that you would makes me see that this is the right decision. I want to finish out the season with New York City Ballet. I’m supposed to be in a spring production and original choreography series right before summer. So, it would be six months like this, and then…then I’d retire.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Even hearing those words out of her mouth was mind-boggling.
“It wouldn’t be over though,” she assured me. “I’d still do choreography and workshops across the country. I’d be busy. I’d have a job. It would just be a little less performing and more instructing, I think.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I want you in Lubbock. There’s no doubt about that. Aly and I want you in our lives. But I don’t want to sway you.”
“You did but in the best way,” she said and then kissed me.
I drew her into my arms. She tasted like a hint of red wine, and I could just dive into a vat and get drunk off of her.
This was far from what I’d ever imagined her saying. I’d been prepared to plead my case, to show her how much I wanted us to work. But then she’d surprised me by wanting to move back. Even in my wildest dreams, I hadn’t thought she would do that…or ever want that.
Her fingers moved to my shirt, and she deftly unbuttoned it, pushing it over my shoulders. I let it fall to the ground as I reached for her, running my hands under her sweater to the lithe body beneath. She was perfection incarnate…and now, she was mine. She was really mine.
“I love you,” I said against her skin after tugging her sweater over her head.
“I love you, too,” she gasped.
My hands moved under her tank top, cupping her breasts and causing her nipples to peak.
“Isaac,” she breathed. “The…the door.”
Oh, right, we’d left it open. Fuck.
I gently shut it as she shimmied out of her tank and leggings. I shucked my own pants off to the side and then followed her to the bed. She tugged the covers down, and we fell into bed, kissing, touching, feeling. It was every sense all at once. So much at once. And I couldn’t get enough of her body.
The way she squirmed when I trailed her hip bone. Or the huff of breath as I kissed her stomach. The spread of her legs as my hips settled against hers.
I slipped two fingers between her lips, slicking through her wetness before pressing deep into her. She moaned softly, a sound that went straight to my dick. It strained against the fabric of my boxers as I dipped my head to lick at her clit.
“I want you,” she said, reaching for my shoulders to pull me.
She grabbed a condom out of the side table as I removed my boxers. She slid the condom on me. Our eyes met as I leaned over her, positioning myself at her opening.
“I’m glad you surprised me,” she whispered. “That you’re here.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
She drew my lips down to hers, and I slid forward into her. She groaned against my mouth but didn’t pull us apart. Our limbs were entangled and our souls connected. There was nothing between us now. Just this moment.
I picked up a rhythm as we let the last week wash off of us. Things weren’t going to be easy for the next six months. Finding our footing and learning to be together was going to be all new for both of us. But it was going to be worth it to have her back in my life. To have her home.
We came together with a passion. I had to stifle my roar of pleasure