Page 34 of Not Another Love Song

“Hey!” She whirled around, bracing herself on the porcelain.

“I’m just trying to figure out how someone with her whole professional life ahead of her got suckered into being Nathan Andrews’s puppet.”

She blinked at him as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“‘Puppet?’ I’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime—”

“Did they promise you a lifetime?” He stepped toward her. “Is the chair yours in perpetuity? Or is your contract contingent on the press you bring in?”

Mouth gaping, her throat tried to make words as his brow lifted at her. “I’m—I’m not discussing my contract with you.”

“If you don’t prove to be everything they want,” he all but whispered, “they’ll just get rid of you.”

Her blood boiled. “You are not an innocent victim here, Alex or whatever your name is.” His eyes heated. She slammed her glass on the sink so she could cross her arms. “I was there for every temper tantrum this year, every insult to Nathan’s conducting, every quip at your mother,” she said. His eyes narrowed. “I’ve been watching you, Xander Thorne. You’re no angel here.”

His eyes slid over her face, down to her blushing neck. He moved closer, and she had to tilt her head back.

“You’ve been watching me?” he whispered, the hint of a smirk in the corner of his mouth.

She swallowed, and he tracked the movement of her throat while his teeth ran across his bottom lip.

“How interesting, then, that I’d never even heard of you until last month,” he puffed across her forehead.

“Sounds like more of a ‘you’ problem, but—”

“They’ve been keeping you hidden,” he said. “Ordinary. When you’re anything but.”

He lifted his eyes to hers, and Gwen’s vision spotted at the edges until it was only him, closing in. She felt her breath slide between them, thick and humid. The heat of his chest soothed her skin, and the smell of him this close…it was like slipping into a hot bath.

Like music. The way it was supposed to feel.

“I thought I was ‘too stiff.’ I thought I—” She stuttered as he took another step closer to her, until there was no space left. “I thought I held the cello like a subway pole.”

“You do,” he said, lips curving upward. His eyes slipped to her mouth, and he lifted his hand. It hovered near her jaw. “But the second you get out of your head, you’re magnificent.”

Gwen felt her heartbeat in her throat, the second before his fingers pressed softly to it. She tried to understand the words he was saying, why he would want to say them.

His mouth was close. She was breathing the same air as he was.

She reached out to brace herself against his chest, curling her fingers in his shirt and slipping fingertips between the buttons at his sternum. His eyes darkened.

“So, if I shouldn’t be playing weddings…and I shouldn’t be playing for the Pops…” Her voice was soft, shaking, and his eyes were on her lips. She tilted her jaw up to him.

“You shouldn’t,” he said. “You—” A toilet flushed from the far stall before he could finish.

Gwen jumped, backside slamming against the sink. He straightened, taking a small step away and glaring at Mei as she exited the stall.

“Sorry,” she said. “I just…really wanted to get outta there before you guys boned.”

Gwen’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to argue.

“I’ll just…umm…” Mei approached the sink farthest from them, fussing with the taps for a moment before saying, “Ya know what, I have hand sanitizer. Bye.”

She scurried out of the bathroom, and Gwen slid out from the sink and followed her out, leaving Xander-Alex-whoever and his insanely broad shoulders behind.

Once she was out of the bathroom, Mei rounded on her.

“Oh, my god, Gwen. What the fuck is happening—”

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