Page 94 of My Last Dance

My shoulders loosened. I guess he was right. I slowly turned back around, only to gasp. “I have not seen that before!” I pointed at his thigh.

“Oh, really?” His eyebrows popped up. “I thought you had.”

My brain practically short-circuited as I stood stock-still, blinking at his thigh.

“You like it?” His lips did a funny dance, like he was trying hard to stop grinning.

He had a thigh tattoo.

Of a snake wrapped around his upper leg.

“Why do you have a snake tattoo?” I whispered.

“It’s not a snake. It’s a viper.” He cocked his head to the side inthought. “Well, I guess a viperisa snake, but you know what I mean.”

The world seemed to stop spinning for me, but he casually stepped into some joggers and jumped a little to pull them up. He strolled toward me with command, right into my personal space, making my breath seize up in my chest.

Over the past few weeks, we’d been close to each other hundreds of times. We touched, we caressed, we stared into each other’s eyes.

But only when instructed.

He reached out and smoothed my cheeks with both hands, and it felt like he was breaking some kind of invisible barrier between us.

My heart hammered so hard in my chest that I was convinced he could hear it as he stared down at me with intent amusement.

“Piper, I—”

His phone rang, cutting him off. His eyes fell closed and his nose flared with a frustrated breath. Rolling his shoulders, he stepped away, and I wanted to cry out. I desperately wanted to know what he was going to say, what he was going to do.

I felt more cheated at that moment than I did at the Grand Prix.

“I’m never here anyway.” He gestured to his studio as he answered his phone. “And I like saving money.”

That was a lame thing to say and we both knew it. He wasnotgoing to talk about the apartment whilecaressing my head. I knew deep in my bones that he was going to say something else, something important, and I wanted those words.

“Yeah,” he spoke into his phone while his brown gaze seared into me. He grinned. “Yeah, we’ll be right there.”

He rustled around in his drawer for a minute before pulling out another hoodie. “If you wanna be more comfortable.” He tossed me the hoodie. “And I wouldn’t mind you changing in front of me.” He winked before turning his attention back to his phone.

I stared at him for a beat.

Because I just watched him change from Richard to Kappy mode.

But this time, it wasn’t for the others.

He put a mask on withme.

A mixture of longing and hurt settled deep in my chest.

And I couldn’t deny it any longer.

I missedmyRichard.

And I wanted him back.

“Thanks,” I forced out as I threw on his hoodie, secretly cherishing the bonfire scent that wrapped around me like a warm blanket of nostalgia.

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