CHAPTER SEVEN
I NEED YOU TONIGHT
Arabella’s rehearsals were sheer torture and Grady grew grumpier with each passing day. They were two weeks in now, and when he wasn’t working with Arabella, he was thinking about her. She continued to invade his dreams and she messed with his head at the worst possible times. He’d also casually asked if she was sleeping in the master bedroom at the beach house, and imagining her in his bed drove him insane. And while he knew that tights and tank tops were regular fitness clothes that he’d find women wearing at any gym, seeing her in them, especially doing dance moves, distracted him to the point where he screwed up the routines more than Jimmy, which was damned difficult to do. Seriously, she’d had a rockin’ body years ago, but now she had curves that he wanted to explore with his hands and mouth and . . .
Stop looking at her!
“Grady!” Oliver shouted. “You’re supposed to slide right and then spin to the left and then do a simple jazz square. Damn, get your head out of your ass.”
“Shut up, Oliver.” Grady glared at his brother.
“Guys,” Arabella warned.
“This isn’t doing any good,” Jimmy said.
“No, this is getting ridiculous,” Oliver persisted. “You can’t even execute a simple shoulder shuffle. Do you even remember your right from left? I can tie a string on your finger if you need some help.”
“Here’s your finger.” Grady showed him which one.
“Hey!” Arabella said, but Grady ignored her.
“Come closer and do that,” Oliver said.
Grady patted his chest. “Bring it.”
“Oh, now you remember to pat your chest but forget every other damned time you’re supposed to do it in the routine,” Oliver taunted.
Arching an eyebrow, Grady showed him his other finger.
“Okay, I’ve had enough,” Oliver growled, but Jesse stepped between them.
“Maybe we should take a break,” he suggested.
Oliver turned his attention to Jesse. “All you want to do is take breaks.”
“Oh, give me a break,” Jesse said with a grin.
“This isn’t funny!” Oliver shouted. “Your jokes are stupid.”
Jesse’s grin vanished. “No need to get personal. Look, the concert is already sold out. I’ve been telling you from the beginning that we don’t have to be so damned perfect. Chill out, for fuck’s sake.”
Oliver huffed out a short laugh. “There’s no chance in hell of that.”
“You chilling out?” Jesse asked. “Uh . . . yeah.”
“No, us being perfect,” Oliver replied.
Jesse shook his head. “Why do you always have a stick up your ass?”
“I don’t have a stick up my ass.”
“Yeah, you do, and you look like you’re constipated when you dance,” Jesse said, drawing a glare from Oliver.
“Guys!” Arabella yelled this time, and fisted her hands on her hips. “Knock it off,” she added, but then turned to Grady. “What’s wrong? These moves are simplified.” She raised her palms upward. “I don’t get it.”
“You are the weakest link,” Jesse said in a low tone just loud enough for Grady to hear. While Grady realized that Jesse was joking, the comment sent him over the edge.
“Really, Jesse?” Grady shouted. “I don’t think so.” Okay, he knew the comeback was lame, but that was all he had. He pointed to Arabella. “Maybe it’s the teacher’s fault for going too fast,” he said, deciding to throw some shade at the real reason he kept messing up.
“Seriously?” Arabella shook her head. “You’re blaming your mistakes on me?” She tapped a finger on her chest in anger, but her gesture brought his attention to her breasts, which were clearly outlined by the tight material hugging them.
“What if I am?” Grady asked, knowing he sounded like a five-year-old but unable to help himself.
“We’re supposed to be perfectly professional, remember? Your rules. And yet you’ve had it in for me all week long.” Arabella took a step closer, and, to his surprise, jabbed a finger into his sweaty chest. “Back off, buddy.”
“ ‘Buddy’?” Jesse laughed, making Grady even more angry at Arabella. “That’s awesome.”
“Poking me isn’t exactly professional,” Grady said, and his mind went where it shouldn’t.
“Oh, really?” Obviously at the end of her rope, Arabella gave Grady a little added poke and it pissed him off even more. “Oliver’s right. Get your head in the game.”
“I said out of his ass,” Oliver corrected.
Jimmy gave Oliver a little shove. “Dude, stop it,” he pleaded, but his calm request went unheeded.
Things were about to get real.
“Yeah, shut the hell up, Oliver.” Grady was even annoyed at Jimmy for being so damned calm and turned to him. “Why don’t you just lose your shit for once? Always being in control is annoying.”
“Are you serious?” Jimmy shrugged. “What good would that do? Come on, Grady. Get it together.”
Grady stalked over and picked up a bottle of water, squeezing it so hard that the plastic crackled. “You know, I have a helluva lot more on my plate than these stupid dance moves.”
“ ‘Stupid’?” Arabella sputtered, but he ignored her. “These stupid dance moves helped make you famous.” She looked ready to poke him again.
Grady drained the bottle and tossed it in the general direction of the nearby trash bin, missing his target by a mile. He didn’t care. “I’ve had to give the okay for more merchandise, requiring me to look at hats, shirts, posters, pins, and coffee mugs until I’m cross-eyed. I’ve had to do countless interviews and okay several ads, posters, leaflets. The list goes on and on. So if I miss a damned dance spin or forget to pat my chest, it’s nothing compared to what I’ve had to do all week.” Of course, most of what he had said was bullshit, because he had staff doing some of the work, but he couldn’t confess that it was looking at Arabella’s perky ass that had made him turn the wrong way more times than he could count.
Oliver snorted. “If you weren’t such a control freak, you’d let us do some of that stuff.”
“Until we have the funds to hire someone, I run the foundation,” Grady reminded them. “I’m in charge of publicity. I make the final decisions.”
Jimmy finally stepped forward. “Look, being at one another’s throats won’t solve anything. Grady, slow your roll. You’re coming unhinged.”
Grady knew Jimmy was right, but he was suddenly at his boiling point. And Arabella was the main cause, so he turned on her. “You are going too fast,” he accused again. “I think you’re doing it just to get under my skin,” he said, and then immediately wished he had phrased it differently. He wanted her under his skin, over his skin, and anywhere his skin could touch her skin.
“Wow.” Arabella narrowed her eyes at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“No, that’s me. I can’t be serious,” Jesse said, but his joke failed to ease the tension crackling in the room.
“Why would I try to make you slip up? What would I have to gain?”
“Getting back at me,” Grady stated flatly. For something he didn’t do.
“Right, that makes perfect sense. You’re out of your mind.” She looked up at the ceiling and then at him but he wouldn’t back down.
“So, do you deny it?”
“Wow. I won’t dignify that with an answer.”
“Cop-out,” Grady said quietly, but still just loud enough for her to hear.
“You know, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. No, I take that back. This was never a good idea.”
“Really? Running away again?” Grady demanded, knowing he was adding fuel to the fire but unable to stop himself. “Try something new. The running shit is getting old.” Years of being pissed at her for not trusting him, for not giving him a chance to explain his innocence, rushed into his head and came out of his mouth. And he knew the reason. Despite what she’d done, he couldn’t get her out of his head long enough to think straight, and it wasn’t only when he was dancing. Yesterday, he’d nearly run a red light. Twice. This morning he’d burned scrambled eggs while staring right at them in the skillet, setting off the ear-piercing smoke alarm. Orange juice had ended up in his coffee instead of creamer. The list went on and on, and that was just in the last couple of days. “Don’t forget, you’re under a ‘binding contract,’ ” he added with an edge of sarcasm. He did air quotes and then felt silly.
“Uh, not according to you,” Arabella responded tartly. When she leaned forward, he could see a hint of cleavage that he tried unsuccessfully to ignore, inflaming his anger even more and making him forget the retort he had on the edge of his tongue, mostly because he could think of much better uses for his tongue. “Thank you for pointing that out.”
Grady knew he was being unreasonable but couldn’t help himself. He turned around, hoping for some sort of backup from his brothers, or at least hoping one of them could duct-tape his stupid mouth shut. But they were gone. “What the hell?” Grady glanced around, but they’d somehow vanished. “Where did they go?”
“I just watched them walk out the door, and I don’t blame them!” Arabella raised her palms skyward, making her tank top hug her breasts. “I guess they’ve had enough of your whining.” Fisting her hands, she made a crying gesture over her eyes.
“I don’t whine,” Grady said in a voice that sounded a lot like a whine. The whole thing was becoming close to humorous, but he didn’t want Arabella to see the crack in his armor, and so he kept the frown firmly in place. “Jesse is the whiner.”
“So what do we do now that you’ve chased them away?” she asked with an accusatory tilt of her head. “Huh? The day is being wasted.”
“I’d like to get wasted.”
“Right, mature thoughts. But actually, though: What should we do?”
“I guess we go find them,” Grady replied, then stomped over to the door.
“The whole stomping thing is super silly. Don’t ever do that again.”
Grady flicked an irritated glance her way and then tried to push the door open. It wouldn’t budge. “No way!”
“What?”
“You’re not going to believe it. They’ve locked us in.”
“How can they do that from the outside?”
“A rake or something is wedged against the door. I don’t know what they did, but it won’t open.”
“Seriously?” Arabella asked in a tone an octave lower than her normal voice. Grady somehow found that sexy. “Wow.”
“It won’t budge an inch.” Grady pushed the door to demonstrate.
“What are they trying to accomplish?” she asked, walking closer to him.
“Well . . .” Grady looked at her. “I guess they want us to work things out.”
“Impossible. This situation is tolerable at best.”
“It isn’t tolerable, and we both know it,” Grady said.
“Why? Come on, we’re both adults.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, one of us is.”
Grady blew out a sigh. “That’s not it,” he said, and stomped away.
“Would you quit with the stomping already?” she shouted.
Grady gave her a look and then lowered one shoulder toward the door.
“Grady!” Arabella’s eyes widened. “What are you going to do?”
“Take a running leap at the damned door and break it down.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Yes!”
“You could hurt yourself!” she sputtered. “No, I won’t let you do something so incredibly stupid!”
“Try to stop me.” Grady took his first step forward, and she came flying at him, so he couldn’t do anything else but catch her. Holy shit, she was little, but she packed quite a punch, making him stagger backward and end up against the wall. He immediately felt the sensual impact of having her arms around his neck, her breasts crushed against his chest, and her cute ass cupped in his hands.
And suddenly Grady had Arabella York just where he wanted her.