Page 105 of Love is a Dance Step
He leaned against the counter and tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I… I wanted to apologize to you.”
“Apologize?”
“I took advantage of you.”
None of his words made any sense. “How on earth did you take advantage of me?”
“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Oh, this isthatconversation. The one where you act like I don’t have a will of my own. In case you forgot, I showed up at your room that night. And at the ball… I wanted you to kiss me more than anything.”
“Lola.” He sighed.
“No, you listen to me, Drew Stone, you don’t get to decide how I feel about what happened. In case you didn’t realize it, I wanted this. I wanted you.” She slid from the stool and crossed the kitchen to stand in front of him. “I know you have rules, Drew. I know you’re fighting this with everything you have, but I don’t want to fight it. I just want to feel it.”
Pain flashed across his face, and she knew she wouldn’t like his next words. “But you’re Asher’s. You always have been. I just didn’t believe it before.”
First, Asher’s anger. Now, this. Lola backed away from the second Stone brother to hurt her in the span of an hour. “I’m Asher’s? Right. The same Asher who just told me he loved me to keep me from you.” She’d never been surer of anything. Asher wanted to take something from his brother, and he’d been so sure he had that power.
“Lola.” He said her name like a plea.
“I’m done letting the Stone brothers twist me up in knots.” She said the words more for herself than him. “I’m done.” She turned away from him, and he didn’t chase after her as she walked from his penthouse. He didn’t come as she hurried through the building and out onto the busy New York street.
As she hailed a cab and climbed in, she realized she hadn’t expected him to.
She’d spent most of her life wishing for someone she couldn’t have. But only now did it threaten to break her open.
Drew’s kisses still burned in her mind.
His smile had etched itself into her soul.
And his pain… well, that thrummed through her until she couldn’t feel anything else.
31
Drew
After a while, concerts had just become a part of the job for Drew. In the early years of his career, he’d felt lucky to stand on any stage, to hear a crowd chant his name. Back then, he’d have been happy if ten people—who weren’t his mom—showed up.
Back then, he’d loved it.
He didn’t know when he’d lost that. When rock tours became normal for him, less exciting. That wasn’t to say he didn’t appreciate each and every one of his fans. He did.
But he’d performed the same dance steps a thousand times, let the same words flow past his lips so often they were ingrained into his psyche. He never had to think of what came next.
Until Lola took her place beside him.
With Leah, everything was easy, calm. She was Drew’s best friend, his partner, but everything was for show. Their passion, their love story. None of it was real, just another act he hid behind.
There was no hiding when he danced with Lola. Suddenly, the steps became new, more intense, the concerts more meaningful.
And he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
He sat in his dressing room alone, staring down at his phone and wondering if he should text Lola, if they should clear the air before taking the stage together. When it buzzed in his hand, for a moment, he thought it was her.
But that was wishful thinking.
“Hey, Leah.” He smiled, thinking of how good it was to hear from her.
