Chapter Five

Thunderous applause shook the theater when Katerina stepped forward to take her first bow. Her heartbeat pounded, and a sense of euphoria washed over her. She could have been living in a fantasy, but somehow, this was real. Her dream had come true. She had danced the lead, and those in attendance approved.

She curtsied, rising with a graceful lift of her right hand. Her eyes swept over the crowd, and for the first time, she realized the entire audience was on its feet.

Tears threatened. An usher stepped on stage and presented her with an enormous bouquet of roses. Accepting them, Katerina curtsied one more time and offered another wave.

The applause continued.

One curtain call after another. Minutes stretched out, the scene before her more surreal than any dream she could have conjured. Vitya, the principal male dancer, took her elbow and escorted her from the stage. Another minute passed before the audience finally settled and the applause faded.

Ivan rushed toward them. “Well done.” He embraced Vitya before kissing both of Katerina’s cheeks. “Magnificent. Truly magnificent. I have never seen you dance better.”

“Thank you.” Katerina’s eyes teared at the compliment.

“After the reviews come out, I expect we will have a full house every night of our tour,” Vitya said.

“I agree.” Ivan put one hand on Katerina’s shoulder and the other on Vitya’s. “I hope you are ready to be famous, because here come your new fans.”

Katerina glanced to their left, where a dozen people were being escorted from the audience into the backstage area.

Stas, the translator, approached and introduced the President of Canada’s Council of the Arts, along with his wife. After several minutes of conversing through the translator, they moved on, and another couple took their place.

Katerina shook more hands, similar conversations repeating themselves with each admirer. When the last patron stepped forward, her practiced greeting lodged in her throat. Robert. What was he doing here? His broad shoulders strained against the fabric of his suit jacket, and his tie hung slightly askew, as though he had tried to loosen it throughout the night and hadn’t quite succeeded.

His eyes met hers, and a flush worked its way into her cheeks. Had he known who she was all along? Never had she anticipated that a hockey player would be a ballet enthusiast.

“Katerina Petrova, this is Robert Marcell. He is a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly.” The translator motioned to the couple who had most recently spoken with her.

Katerina extended her hand, keeping her gaze on his face. She experienced the familiar jolt when his calloused palm gripped hers.

“Do you speak French?” he asked, releasing her hand.

Startled both by the fact that he bypassed her translator and that he pretended not to know her, she managed to nod. “Yes.”

“Your performance was amazing, but I’m sure you have heard that a dozen times already.”

Her lips curved slightly. “I have, but I appreciate the compliment regardless.”

The woman with Robert said something in English that Katerina didn’t understand.

Stas responded to her before turning back to Katerina. “She needs me to translate for her.”

“Go ahead. I’m fine.” She waited for Stas to turn his attention to the other couple before she lowered her voice. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“That makes two of us. I didn’t know you were a dancer.”

Concerned they would be overheard, Katerina whispered, “Can we talk later?”

Robert nodded. He raised his voice to a normal level and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you. Best of luck with the rest of your tour.”

“Thank you.”

He fell into step behind his friends. Katerina watched them leave, her heartbeat fluttering when he stole one last look at her before disappearing from sight.

Robert slid into the back of the Studebacker Starliner that had been Miles’s pride and joy since he’d bought it last year.

As soon as Linda took her place in front of him, she asked, “Did talking to Katerina Petrova change your mind about the ballet?”

“Seeing her onstage changed my mind,” Robert admitted. Once he had gotten over the shock of seeing Katerina in costume, he had been swept up in her every movement, watching for her every time she wasn’t on stage.

Miles inched forward through the parking lot, along with dozens of other cars. “If you’re entertaining thoughts about seeing her again, you might as well put them out of your mind right now. The Soviets aren’t going to let you anywhere near her.”

“He’s right,” Linda said. “Katerina Petrova is one of the Kirov Ballet’s rising stars. She’ll be followed wherever she goes.”

Robert didn’t want to consider the challenges his developing infatuation with Katerina could cause, nor could he explain why thoughts of her were always hovering on the edge of his consciousness. He leaned forward and rested his arms on the back of the front seat. “What are the chances you can get me tickets for the other showings?”

Linda twisted around to face him. “Did I hear you right?”

“You did.”

“I might be able to get you tickets, but backstage passes are few and far between. I don’t think there’s any way I’d be able to get you back there again.”

“I’m not worried about that. I know how to find her,” Robert admitted.

“What?” Linda asked. “How?”

“She’s staying in the hotel room next to mine.”

“Barker was in the room next to yours,” Miles said.

“Barker was on one side. Katerina is on the other.”

“Our wing was sealed off. The door leading to the other hall was locked.”

“The door in the hall was locked, but her balcony door wasn’t.”

“Wait.” Miles glanced at Robert in his rearview mirror. “She’s the girl you met after our game on Tuesday night?”

“Actually, I met her on Monday night.”

“I can’t believe she’s staying in our hotel.”

“I can’t believe he wants tickets to tomorrow night’s show,” Linda countered.

“What do you think, Linda? Can you help me out? I’ll take a ticket for any night they’re in town.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks.”

Linda kept her focus on him. “What I don’t understand is why you gave me such a hard time about coming tonight if you knew Katerina was going to be onstage.”

Robert didn’t answer.

“Wait.” Understanding dawned on her face. “You didn’t know?”

“It never came up.”

“Robert, for someone to achieve her status, she must have dedicated her whole life to studying ballet.”

“I know.” Robert’s earlier doubts surfaced. He didn’t know much about ballet, but he understood the sacrifices necessary to excel in any athletic endeavor. Why had Katerina neglected to share something that was such an integral part of her life?

“Sounds like you should have spent a bit more time getting to know her.” Miles pulled into their hotel parking lot, and Robert noted a bus in front.

“No time like the present.”

Miles turned off the engine. “Good luck.”

“And be careful,” Linda cautioned. They all climbed out of the car, and Linda added, “I know you don’t want to hear this, but it might be best if you walk away now before things get serious.”

Robert considered Linda’s advice and promptly discarded it. The mere thought of not seeing Katerina again left him hollow inside. Heading into the main lobby, he turned toward the stairs. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Not waiting for a response, he disappeared into the stairwell and started upward. Maybe by the time he reached the sixth floor, Katerina would be in her room. He needed to see her, and he needed answers.

Katerina carried a bouquet of flowers into her room, a reminder of the overwhelming reception she had received tonight. All of her hard work had finally paid off, the results leaving her in a daze. Especially the twist at the end when she’d learned Robert had been in the audience. Her heart warmed at the memory as well as her gratitude that he had shared in her special night.

Pure joy rose within her only to be trampled when Tanya knocked on her door for bed check. Did Tanya have some sixth sense that alerted her when someone experienced too much happiness? And an attraction for a man? Surely the older woman wouldn’t approve even if Robert were Russian.

Not once since Gavril had transferred from the Kirov to the Bolshoi had she experienced any romantic feelings for anyone. Though no one had said the words aloud, everyone knew Gavril’s departure from Leningrad had been the result of his pursuit of Katerina. Her teachers and directors didn’t want her distracted. One forbidden kiss had been all her keepers had needed to put over four hundred kilometers between her and the man she had thought might become part of her future.

She couldn’t begin to imagine what the company would do if they knew she planned to see Robert tonight. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Could she even risk spending time with him? She could close her curtains and stay inside. Tomorrow, Robert would be gone, and she would once again spend her free time alone. A hollowness seeped through her at the thought. Preferring fear over emptiness, she set the flowers on her dresser and continued through her room. She would take advantage of this last chance to see Robert and spend unsupervised time with a Westerner.

She opened the door to her balcony. Robert stood waiting in the moonlight.

Katerina’s stomach somersaulted, and her palms dampened.

She wanted to think of her growing friendship with him as some sort of cultural experience, a chance to learn of the outside world in a way she could never manage on her own, but she knew better. The man intrigued her in every way possible.

Adrenaline pumped through her as it had the moment she’d stepped onto the stage for the first time tonight. Except she hadn’t practiced for this moment.

Robert waited until she closed the door behind her before he spoke.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his expression unreadable. “I had no idea why you were really here.”

“I didn’t mean to keep it from you.” She lifted her hands out to her sides and let them fall. “I enjoyed feeling like a person, someone more than who I am while I have ballet shoes on my feet.”

“You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished. You were amazing tonight.”

No compliment could have touched her more deeply. “Thank you.” She moved closer so only the railing separated them. Though she dreaded the answer, she forced herself to ask, “What happened yesterday? Did your team win?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too, but at least now hockey won’t stand in the way of seeing you.”

Her heartbeat quickened. “I will return to Leningrad in two months.”

“And you have three more weeks here.”

“Yes.”

“Then let me have those three weeks.” Robert climbed over the railing, joining Katerina on her side of their shared space. “I extended my reservation. I’ll be here until you leave Toronto.”

Delight surfaced, followed by a sense of dread. “Then what?”

“I don’t know.” He took both of her hands in his. “I want to enjoy what time we have together, not waste it worrying about what comes next.”

“It’s hard not to worry.”

“I know, but we can try,” Robert said. “We’ll face the future when it comes.”

The future. Katerina’s eyes met his, and suddenly, she couldn’t envision what she wanted the future to look like.

Robert leaned down until his lips were a breath away from hers. His thumb rubbed across the back of her hand, and a jolt of attraction shot through her. Then, as though he had done so a thousand times, he banished the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers.

Her heart squeezed in her chest. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be doing this. Even as those thoughts circled through her mind, her hands lifted to his arms and held on.

His hand cupped the back of her neck and sent a shiver through her. A roller coaster of doubts battled against the sweetness of his kiss. She should step back, but she didn’t.

Forbidden fruit. Robert was every bit that and more. They couldn’t have a future, yet in the here and now, none of that mattered. They created their own island, a body of land surrounded by water that no one could cross.

Her heart took flight as though it had grown wings. Then it fluttered, settled, and fell with barely a thud.

Reality crashed over her, stealing her breath away. Robert was free. She wasn’t. They were from different worlds. They had no future, yet she couldn’t pull away.

She forced aside the doubts and let a new emotion sneak through her defenses. For the first time in as long as she could remember, pure joy took root, and finding nourishment, it bloomed inside her.