Come, Dance With Me

by Mary Middleton

  Andrei shrugged. ‘I think, with a little more coaching, you will be as good as anyone. I know a very good instructor and his fee is very reasonable.’

  Laughter bubbled up in Sasha’s throat and erupted from her lips. She knew he meant himself and, at the prospect of working with him a while longer, dancing with him, spending everyday in his company and, more importantly, in his arms, her heart soared again.

  ***

  So, early on Christmas morning, while Sasha relived the previous night, when impossible dreams had become reality and happiness had heaped upon happiness, Andrei began to stir. He rolled over, opened his eyes and seeing her already awake, reached out to trace a finger along her cheek.

  ‘Good morning, Sasha, my love. Merry Christmas.’

  ‘Merry Christmas,’ she murmured in reply, snuggling against him. His right hand came to rest naturally upon her breast, her nipple springing to attention as his thumb brushed gently, to and fro, across it. He moved closer, nuzzling her neck, sending waves of deliciousness tingling along her spine, his erection beginning to nudge against her thigh. A long, contented breath escaped her as she moved into his caress, her lips on his salty skin, her fingers making lazy circles on his chest.

  Then, they heard a muffled thump and rapid footsteps across the landing.

  ‘Mummy?’

  Andrei groaned and rolled over onto this front, burying his head beneath his pillow, his anguish making Sasha smile.

  ‘Better get used to this, my love,’ she laughed, pulling herself up onto the pillows to greet her daughter. ‘Merry Christmas, Yana.’

  Yana stood stock still at the door, her wide eyes glued to Andrei as his sleepy face emerged from beneath the blankets.

  ‘Good Morning, Yana.’ He said, testing her reaction, afraid to meet her accusing eye in case she decided he had no right to be there.

  Sasha lifted the sheet. ‘Come here, Sweetheart, I have to tell you something.’

  Yana hurried forward, kicked off her slippers and climbed into the bed to snuggle into the crook of her mother’s arm. After a few moments she sat forward, peered across to the far side of Sasha’s body, where Andrei was propped against a pile of snowy white pillows, the duvet up to his chin.

  ‘Are you two getting married? Is that what you have to tell me?’

  Andrei relaxed and sniggered softly at the child’s forthrightness and, after a few moments hesitation, Sasha laughed too.

  ‘Would you like it if we got married, Yana?’ Andrei asked and, while Yana thought about it, he ruffled his hair and yawned, pretending he was indifferent to her answer but, at last, she made her decision.

  She nodded. ‘I think so.’

  ‘Good,’ he put a proprietary arm about Sasha’s shoulders and squeezed her gently toward him. ‘You can be bridesmaid then. What do you think, Sasha?’

  Sasha flushed and turned bright, astonished eyes on him. ‘Really?’ she mouthed, biting her bottom lip and when he nodded, her tummy turned over in delight.

  ‘Of course,’ he murmured, kissing her shoulder, which was the only part of her within reach that he could get away with kissing right now.

  It wasn’t the marriage proposal Sasha had always dreamed of but, coming from the lips of the man she loved and had always loved, it would do. Her smile was as wide and as sunny as the sky as she turned back to Yana.

  ‘You will be the loveliest bridesmaid in the world but …there is something else, something even more important that we need to tell you first.’

  Yana listened attentively, her eyes growing larger as her mother explained.

  ‘I knew Andrei a long time ago, almost seven years ago, in fact, just before you were born.’

  Yana listened, not comprehending what Sasha was trying to say. Andrei stepped in to save her. He sat up in bed.

  ‘Your mum and I had a silly row, and she didn’t know I was sorry and I didn’t know she was. We were both sorry really but we didn’t know. So, when you were born …’

  ‘Andrei you are mucking the thing up as badly as I was.’ She took Yana’s hand, linked it with her own and swamped it with Andrei’s, joining all three of them together.

  Sasha took one last breath and plunged in. ‘You see, Yana, Andrei is not just my boyfriend, he is your daddy.’

  ‘What my real daddy? I thought he was dead.’

  Yana eyes were huge and round as she looked from Sasha, to Andrei and back again.

  ‘Why would you think that?’ Sasha was flooded with guilt, realising before Yana had even begun to explain, that her own selfish refusal to speak about Andrei in the past had led to her daughter drawing conclusions of her own. Conclusions, it turned out, that were very wrong indeed.

  Yana tossed her hair back from her shoulders. ‘My best friend, Anne Marie’s daddy is dead. He was a soldier and died in some war so I thought my daddy must have died too.’

  ‘But I never said that.’ Sasha was horrified that Yana had been forced to deal with so many secret fears.

  Yana turned her big eyes on Andrei and sent him a tentative smile. ‘No, you never told me anything, not about him.’

  As guilt took a further big bite from Sasha’s conscience, she managed to swallow a sudden sob of remorse but was unable to stop tears from springing to her eyes. Andrei seeing her burgeoning emotion, leapt into action.

  He nudged her with his elbow.

  ‘Is it time to give Yana her presents now?’

  Yana leapt up in the bed, turning the mattress into a trampoline.

  ‘Yes, yes!’ She tugged at the blankets compelling Andrei to grab at them quickly to preserve his modesty. Sasha surreptitiously wiped her eyes and, with no such coy qualms, slid from beneath the sheets and walked, in all her glory, across the room. Taking a robe from the back of the door she threw it at Andrei.

  Andrei smiled his thanks and admired Sasha’s naked bottom wiggling toward the en-suite. Later, he told himself, there would be time for that later.

  Yana jumped off the bed.

  ‘I’ll go and wake Nanny and Grandad,’ she cried and ran headlong from the bedroom.

  A few moments later Sasha reappeared, came to the bed and hunted beneath it for her slippers. When she sat up, her face was rosy, her hair falling in tousled disarray to her shoulders.

  ‘Come here,’ Andrei commanded and, as she moved round the bed toward him, they heard Yana’s excited voice from the opposite end of the corridor.

  ‘Merry Christmas, Nanny. Merry Christmas, Grandad. Guess what? Mum is in bed with Andrei but it’s ok because my real daddy isn’t dead, he is Andrei and they are going to get married and I’m going to be bridesmaid.’

  Andrei’s lips touched the top of her head as his arms enfolded Sasha, who was now enveloped in a fluffy pink dressing gown. She covered his hands with hers and lay her head back onto his shoulder. ‘I do love you, Andrei.’

  He lowered his lips to the soft, sensitive place where her silky neck merged into her shoulders and his tongue squirmed on her skin. ‘And I love you.’

  His voice was muffled and when he lifted his face his lips were moist from kissing her. ‘Our first Christmas,’ he observed, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling her closer, ‘the first of a lifetime of them,’ and he kissed her again.

  The End

  Something About Mary

  Mary Middleton has been writing stories since she was a little girl. The youngest of five children, her siblings had grown up and left home by the time she was five or six, leaving Mary with plenty of time to discover her inner self.

  She was a contented child who loved to make tiny books by stitching small pages together before filling them with her stories. She would then sit all her dolls in a circle and read to them. Later, after she married, her sons and daughter became the heroes and heroine of a series of children's adventures.

  These days Mary writes for invisible strangers who live busy lives far from her own Welsh idyll. Mary is a great believer in truth and although her heroes are strong and usually beautiful, they
often have very human flaws. Her heroines, although exquisite to look at are also feisty, independent and level headed. Mary approaches her romances with humour and portrays love gently yet realistically.

  The books are sexy but not crude and although the locations are often exotic, the plot remains grounded in truth, guaranteeing that, when they turn the last page, the reader will be left feeling warm and satisfied.Her work includes:

  For One Night Only - a story of temptation and true love.

  Vittorio's Virgin - a story about learning to trust.

  The Greek Tycoon's Secret Daughter - a story about insecurity, anger and of course, love.

  You can find Mary Middleton on Face Book and Twitter and also visit her webpage and blog for news of upcoming releases and events.

  Mary's webpage: http://www.marymiddletonromancewriter.webs.com/

  Mary's blog: http://www.marymiddletonwritesoflove.blogspot.com/