Page 40 of Dance All Night
Just as he’d feared, she’d rejected his offer. Laughed it off, like she hadn’t even taken it seriously. Takenhimseriously.
From the very beginning, she’d doubted his sincerity, insisting that this was all a game to him. As if he didn’t know his own feelings. As if he couldn’t tell that he’d never felt this deeply about anyone else.
This was love. Yes, already. The early stages, or so he guessed. He was falling in love with Jess Davenport.
Maybe he should have told her, but again, what was the point? She wouldn’t believe him anyway.
Besides, after so much vulnerability and openness, he was exhausted. He just didn’t have it in him to bare his soul yet again.
So, they’d packed up, speaking only when necessary, and hit the road.
They were almost back when Dimitri called. Nik answered via the car’s Bluetooth.
“Da,” he said, then continued in Russian. “You’re on speakerphone, and she’s in the car with me.”
He cut a look at Jess, who kept her eyes down, fiddling with her phone. It was the height of rudeness to talk about someone in another language when they were right there and you knew they couldn’t understand, but at the moment, he was too tired to figure out how else to handle what was surely coming.
“Mama said you’re bringing your girl home for Christmas.”
Yup, there it was. Nik sighed. “Nyet. And she’s not my girl.”
There was a long pause on Mitya’s end. “Oh. Well. Sorry, I guess.”
“Me too.” He switched lanes as they approached the exit to Jess’s neighborhood. “I’ll be home soon.”
Alone, he wanted to add, but no point heaping his melancholy on Dimitri. Mitya would’ve done it to him, but he was a drama queen. That just wasn’t Nik’s style.
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he followed the navigation to Jess’s West Hollywood apartment, reconsidering. He’d never been in love before. If there were ever a time to give moping a try, this was it.
He pulled up in front of her apartment complex and swung out of the car, heading for the trunk to get her bags. Just because his feelings were hurt wasn’t a reason to drop his manners altogether, and he felt bad about talking about her in Russian with Dimitri while she was still in the car. In hindsight, he could have said he’d call Mitya back. It hadn’t occurred to him at the moment. Lack of sleep, the long drive, and heartache were messing with him. He just wanted to get home—well, to his brother’s house—and climb into bed.
Yeah, moping sounded pretty damn good.
Jess was waiting behind him when he turned with her suitcase. He set it beside her.
“Have fun with your family,” she said, her tone subdued.
“Thanks.” What else could he say?Have fun with your…Netflix?
“What day do you get back?”
“The twenty-eighth.”
She nodded. “Well, text me when you get back to LA. But I don’t think we should be in contact while you’re gone.”
He should’ve expected something like this. Still, it was like a kick to the gut, leaving him winded and…hurt. But what could he do?
He nodded. “Fine.”
* * *
There.She’d said it. The entire ride back, Jess had been trying to think of how to put up some kind of boundary against Nik after he’d so thoroughly demolished her emotional defenses. “No contact” was the best she’d come up with.
“You should focus on your family,” she added, as if that would soften the blow. She hated hurting him this way, but she was desperate for some space. The cabin trip had been too much, too fast, too deep. She needed distance to sort out her feelings, and three-thousand miles ought to do the job.
Besides, she could already feel him withdrawing. And that hurt, too.
Nik turned to get back in the car, then stopped. He spoke with his back to her.
