He attacked me whenever I walked in the room, devouring me with kisses, thrusting inside of me like he couldn’t go any longer without feeling me squeezing his cock. I’d become addicted to the sounds he made when he pushed me into the ground—the groans as he bit at my tits, the heavy breaths hemade as he choked me into oblivion, the way he whispered my name like it was a prayer.
Eva… Oh, my Eva.
Things had changed between us, that was for sure. Alek was more vicious whenever he first saw me, his hands tearing at my clothes, running all over my body like he couldn’t get to it fast enough.
But after, when his cum was drying inside of me, Alek would lie on top of me and be so tender that it made my heart ache. He’d stroke my cheek with his fingers and kiss each one of my freckles, whispering all the things he liked about me.
“My pretty girl,” he’d murmur, kissing my nose. “My solnyshka.”
So, despite his occasional brutality in sex, despite the anger that turned his eyes a cold shade of midnight blue whenever I had to leave, I couldn’t help but feel like Alek and I were growing closer and closer, like our bond wasn’t something that could be broken by distance or time apart.
It wasn’t the relationship I’d imagined when I was younger. But it wasours, and I’d never been happier.
We lived in the shadows of sin and secrets, unable to communicate with each other beyond the stage. While Jules had finally given me my phone back, he took it each night, probably searching for signs that I added and unblocked Alek’s number.
I was too afraid of what my brother would do if he discovered we’d seen each other again, so I resisted the urge to contact him, instead texting Mia occasionally. Our conversations avoided all mentions of him. She was now aware of our secret trysts along with Madame Germaine, who Alek had admitted to roping into his plans by using his position as primary investor in the ballet. Though he’d recently taken to joining our rehearsals, going over the blueprints for the theater’s renovations while I danced.
“You deserve the most beautiful stage, solnyshka,” he would say before kissing me gently. “I want you to have the best of everything.”
But I felt like he already was giving me the best. He’d taken the time and effort to plan little dates for us after my rehearsals, learning my favorite foods and cooking them himself. He prepared an elaborate candlelit dinner for our first Valentine’s Day, complete with one of the orchestra’s violinists, and made gentle love to me atop the rose petals.
One time, his mom even sent pasta ’ncasciata for me to try, which Alek said was her way of bribing me to come over sometime. Apparently, all of the Drakovs were willing to set aside the war between families for their son’s sake, caring more for his happiness than for revenge.
It was my brother who was the issue.
My feet burned as I practiced the quick steps of Juliet, bounding and leaping across the stage. We were rarely in the practice studio anymore, all of us needing the space the theater provided far more than the mirrors. It made everything feel more real.
I was the lead in the Company’s production. Everything was riding onme.
Well, me and Raphael.
A bead of sweat trickled down my spine as I moved quickly. We were rehearsing the first act, which meant that I had to show Juliet’s youthfulness through quick steps and turns, leaping and leaping and leaping andleaping.It was one of the more exhausting dances I’d ever done, though it was also one of the more fun ones, especially now that Mia had been made to be the nurse dancing with me.
She grinned as I jumped onto her lap and feigned a conversation with her, telling a story with my body like I’d done my whole life. That was the fun thing about dancing. I couldcommunicate with words that never came to me. I could be strong, I could be assertive, I could be everything I wasn’t in my reality.
Sometimes, when Raphael and I danced together, I pretended that it was actually Alek and me. And that made me breathe a little easier.
“Do you see what I see?” Mia hissed through a smile as I curled into her.
I shook my head, not willing to risk Madame Germaine’s ire. Though the woman reassured me almost every day that I was her Juliet, that my weeks off hadn’t ruined my chances, I still couldn’t get it into my head. My imposter syndrome was too strong.
Though lately, it had been getting better. Every time that voice in my head tried to insist I wasn’t perfect, I could picture Alek murmuring against my neck, “Evangeline. You are so fucking perfect.”
And for a moment, I would forget all of the reasons I was not, and my heart would fill with so much love I didn’t know what to do with it.
“Out there. Back row,” my best friend whispered. “Look when you get a second.”
“Mia Renford, you better not be talking on my stage!” Madame Germaine snapped, grabbing her cane. Every other dancer flinched, though Mia didn’t seem to care. Maybe she wasn’t subjected to the same fear that we all were when we were younger—our teachers bringing out a stick to use whenever our turns were not on relevé.
Or maybe Mia was truly fearless.
As Madame Germaine stopped the dance to chew my best friend out—snapping her cane on the floor to punctuate each word—my eyes went to the audience, where a shadowed silhouette sat, watching me. I gulped as his dark eyes glistened.I could practically feel his hunger radiating, a burning need that only made mine stronger.
“Alek,” I whispered under my breath, my hand reaching out of its own accord as if to pull him to the stage.
“What was that, Eva?” a voice from behind me asked.
I turned to find Elsie looking at me with concern. Ever since my shoulder healed, she’d stopped staying with us, though she still kept an eye on me during practice. I wasn’t sure if it was because my brother had asked her to report back to him or if it was out of her own concern.
