CHAPTER 31
Theo
I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep, but I woke up with a crick in my neck and unfamiliar sheets in my grip. A moan wafted through the air. My heart pounded fiercely at the strange noise. It didn’t come from me. I don’t think it did. Another moan, this one followed by a rustle of sheets. My head snapped toward the sound.
Sometimes after waking, I’d feel suspended between dreaming and reality. Staring at Lex’s matted caramel blond hair draped haphazardly against her delicate, olive skin, I wasn’t sure which state I was currently in. I must have been dreaming. No woman like Alexandra Quinn would dare allow a man like me in her bed.
But she let me stay.
I quickly recapped the events of the day before. There was a lot of anger. Anger at Winter for making huge show decisions without me. Anger at Reggie for going off script with my choreography. And anger at Lex for going to dinner with that scumbag. To make things worse, I’d shown up at Lex’s apartment just as Reggie was pulling away. He hadn’t even waited until she’d made it safely through the doors.
My chest burned. Funny how that worked. How anger could expose true feelings and desires I hadn’t even known were there. Or at least I’d done a good job of stifling them. It was why I had to walk out of that studio yesterday. Every second I stood there, I bled.
Fuck. I rubbed the skin over my heart, tearing my eyes from her sleeping form. That didn’t help. I could still hear her, her breaths even and deep. I could still feel her, her ass pressed into my leg. I groaned when I realized my dick was hard too. It took everything in me not to work up a release right there.
I peeled my back from the bed and planted my feet on the floor.
“Theo?” a groggy voice called.
I stiffened before twisting my body to face her. One of her eyes was already cracked open. “Hey.”
“You don’t have to go.”
The way she said it—with her small, gravelly morning voice—was a subtle plea for me to stay.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said. “About Reggie and the choreography.” Her lids batted down as she spoke.
She was sorry? Was my behavior yesterday even redeemable?
I knew the tables had turned the moment Lex sank into the passenger seat last night, her small limbs already tense, her jaw hard, eyes facing forward, voice silent. It was too much to bear, yet I knew I deserved the silence.
An inferno raged within me, a ball of flames destroying me from the inside out. “Lex,” I said, but I repositioned myself so I was fully facing her. “My issues with Reggie have nothing to do with you.”
“But you were angry with me.”
“I wasn’t.”
Her brows bowed down, and she shook her head. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”
I didn’t think I could feel worse about yesterday. “I’m sorry. I was letting off some steam in the pool, and time got away from me. When I got your message, I went straight to your place.”
The truth was, in the hours after I left Gravity, I distracted myself so I wouldn’t beat the living shit out of Reggie. I unpacked her things in the guest room, then I threw myself in the pool, swam laps, and did nothing but count each stroke.
The moment I pushed out of the pool, she was everywhere. In my head, on my skin, in my fucking heart, and I didn’t know how she got so close to begin with.
“And then you saw Reggie leave my place.”
I nodded.
“Theo, he’s my dance partner.”
“I know.”
“But you hate him.” It wasn’t a question.
I cringed and reached for the back of my neck, squeezing as if it were my last lifeline. How was I to explain any of this? I wasn’t sure I could, not even to myself. “It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it.”
I’d been in this business a long time, and I knew the image Reggie portrayed versus the man he was behind closed doors. He was starting to show his true colors. But how could I explain that to Lex in a way that didn’t make me sound threatened?
“Reggie and I go way back. Back to the foster care system. We ran in different circles but the same neighborhood, so there was a mutual respect at the time. He’s a natural-born hustler. It sounds awful coming out of my mouth. I know firsthand what living in South Central LA can do to a kid, and it’s not pretty. I was one of the lucky ones.”
Perhaps we all played two different roles—one in the eyes of the public and one in private—but Reggie crossed the line when it came to using his assets to get what he wanted. He was a manipulator and a bully and a straight-up creep. I didn’t want him around Lex. And it wasn’t for the reason I’d initially thought. It wasn’t because I thought he was after her. It was because I didn’t want her to be a pawn in whatever game he was playing with Winter and me.
I’d been wrong about a lot of things in my life, but wanting to protect Lex was not one of them.
She tilted her head thoughtfully. “He seems to be doing okay.”
I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. He’s been through a lot, and he’s come out on top, but sometimes his methods are … questionable. I don’t trust the guy, especially when it comes to you.”
“Why?” She was fishing for what she wanted to hear, and that made me want to smile.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, never taking my eyes off hers. “I think you know.”
I could hear the hitch in her voice before she looked away. Then she scanned the room and lifted her arms then dropped them in defeat. “Should I be more worried about my ankle?”
Relief filled me. She was dropping the “us” talk for now. After a deep exhale to calm my racing heart, I ran my hand over the blanket and down her legs until I reached the small of her foot. “Can I?” I gesture toward the edge of the blanket.
“Sure.” She watched my hand as I lifted the blanket and placed it over her other foot. I ran a finger from the bone at the top of her foot around to her ankle. I’d taken some sports medicine classes and knew her foot wasn’t broken or even fractured. “You’re not even swelling. You’re fine. It might be a little stiff and tender today, so light exercises would be good.”
“No dancing?”
“I’d give it twelve hours.”
She smiled, her eyes softening. “Thanks, doc. What do I owe you?”
I scooted back on the bed and turned to my side to face her. “I know what I want. What are you willing to give?”
She blushed, and I thought about taking what I wanted right then—to feel her mouth on mine again. Her kiss from yesterday still made me lightheaded when I thought about it. Whatever came over her in that car, I wanted more of it.
“We should spend the day by the pool,” she suggested. “I’m sure you’re never home long enough to get much use out of it. And swimming should be good for my ankle, right?”
She didn’t have to twist my arm. Not if it meant watching Lex prance around in a bikini.
“Let’s do it.”
Her smile grew wider, and it was so infectious, I could feel my mouth stretching in response.
“Let’s do it.”