“Would I be lame if I said my bed? I’m so tired.”
“You, my dear, could never be lame.” He slid his arm around her shoulders. “Come, we don’t have to stay for Noah’s set. Piper can get us a car back to the hotel.”
“Why have you always been nice to me?” She looked up at him. “From the start, even when it looked like I didn’t belong here, you’ve been my friend.”
He thought for a moment before squeezing her to his side. “Because I believe people deserve the chance to show you who they are before you decide for yourself.”
His words echoed in her mind on the way back to the hotel. They ran on a loop as she showered and crawled into bed. Hadn’t she decided who Drew was before she knew him? She’d pledged to herself not to fall for another Asher, another guy who didn’t care about other people’s feelings. Another too-cute-for-his-own-good Stone.
Drew Stone was a playboy rock star, and a one-time hockey prodigy.
But did any of that tell her who he really was?
How was silence so loud?
Lola turned over in her bed, trying to force her mind to quiet so she could fall asleep. But that was the thing about adrenaline. It didn’t just go away. Energy coursed through her veins.
Brooke’s bed sat empty as it did most nights until she stumbled in late from whatever club or bar she’d visited with her dancer friends. Lola had never felt the absence of another presence more.
Tonight, dreams came true she hadn’t even known she had. She should be out celebrating, not holed up in her room alone.
Yet, those parties held no appeal.
She kicked the blankets off her legs as her eyes sprang open. It was no use. She couldn’t sleep. Glancing at the clock, she sighed when she saw it was past two in the morning. Brooke would be back soon, and Lola wasn’t sure she could handle more scathing looks. Not on the biggest night of her life.
There was only one place she wanted to be, one person she wanted to see. His touch was burned into her skin, and she was tired of pretending it didn’t affect her. Maybe it was just the dancing, or maybe she was still a starstruck fan, but she had to know.
Climbing from the bed, she slipped her feet into her sneakers, not bothering to change out of her princess pajama pants and tank top. Her hair, still damp from the shower, was a frizzy mess on top of her head, so she pulled it back into a bun. Grabbing a room key, she slipped into the hall and shut the door behind her.
In the next hour, this hall would be crowded with people coming in for the night. She’d come to realize each night on tour was the same for them. They performed and partied.
But for Lola, it was all about the dancing. Nothing more.
She walked down the empty hall, peering into the elevator alcove to make sure no one could see her. Her body moved of its own accord, and she couldn’t have stopped her feet if she wanted to.
But here was the thing. She didn’t want to.
Not now.
Every cell in her body ached to see him, to know. What did he want with her?
She stopped outside his door and lifted a hand in hesitation. What if he told her to go?
Part of her knew there was no way he’d say those words, but the other part, the one that had spent years wanting someone she couldn’t have… that part screamed at her to turn back, to pretend she didn’t want this.
And still, her knuckles rapped against solid wood, the sound echoing in her mind.
Nothing happened. No answer. No response.
Her shoulders dropped as she realized Drew might have actually gone out with the dancers for once.
She turned away from the door, the adrenaline leaving her in waves.
Until a click sounded behind her, and she froze.
“Lola?” Drew’s sleep-addled voice asked. “What—”
Before he could finish his question, she whirled around, rose up on her toes, and fit her lips to his.
He let out a grunt of surprise and didn’t respond for a long moment, so she started to pull away.
“Where are you going?” he whispered before pulling her against him and kissing her back.
Every bit of adrenaline she’d felt returned. Every touch during their dancing now had meaning, every breath a purpose.
Kissing Drew Stone felt like coming up for air after weeks trapped in a turbulent sea. A strong hand slid up her back, holding her in place, and she wound her arms around his neck, not wanting to break this connection.
Drew walked them backward into his room, and she kicked the door shut with her foot. They broke apart, and she backed up to stare at him, to remind herself this was real. There was no light in the room, only shadows, and she realized he must have been sleeping.
He stalked toward her, and she pressed her back against the door. His hands caged her in as he dipped his head to meet her eyes. “I’ve wanted to do this since the first time I saw you dance.”
She forced out a breath. “Then, why haven’t you?”
Something in her question forced him back, and he ran a hand through his unruly hair. “Because I have rules, Lola.” He turned away from her, the muscles in his back straining against the thin white t-shirt. A pair of plaid boxers sat low on his hips, revealing toned legs, dancer’s legs.
Lola wanted to reach out and touch him, to feel every part of him, but something in his voice held her back. “I had rules too, Drew.” Don’t fall for another Stone brother. Keep her lips to herself on this tour. And, oh yeah, don’t fall for another freaking Stone brother. She hadn’t broken the rules… yet. There was no falling, only a need. A need to feel his touch, to know why she could connect with him and no one else while dancing.
To kiss him again.
He walked farther into the room and sat on the edge of his bed. Reaching toward the lamp on the table, he switched it on, illuminating the king-sized bed in the center of the suite. The room was three times as large as Lola’s with a sitting area and full mini bar.
An uncomfortable silence hung between them as they stood on the precipice together. “You kissed me back.” She knew he did. This wasn’t all in her head. She’d felt him surrender to her.
“I have rules, Lola.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head.
“You said that already.” She stepped between his legs and put two fingers under his chin to tilt his head up.
He looked at her through hooded eyes. “Don’t do this.”
One corner of her mouth tilted up. “Then, tell me to leave.” She’d never been so bold, so brazen in her life, but something about tonight, about dancing on that stage gave her the courage, the confidence she’d never had.
He groaned low in his throat as his fingers wrapped around her wrist.
It was all the confirmation she needed before she leaned down, fusing their mouths together in a searing kiss she felt in every nerve ending.
Lola had only experienced a few kisses in her life, but none of them compared to Drew’s. He pulled her down onto the bed, his fingertips running along the skin under the bottom edge of her shirt.
“What are these rules?” she said against his lips.
He sighed and pulled away. “I don’t sleep with people on my tours.”
“I don’t want to be the reason you break any promises to yourself.” She hadn’t come to his room in the middle of the night for sex. This was an experienced rock star, and she was a nineteen-year-old small town virgin. All she’d wanted was to know what his kiss would be like, to feel how it was to give in to the urge they’d both suppressed.
“I don’t want to stop kissing you.” His lips grazed her cheek.
“Then, don’t.”
When his lips met hers once more, she smiled against him, feeling for the first time that she belonged here on this tour.
23
Drew
After a concert, Drew normally slept like the dead. When he’d heard knocking on his door, it took him a while to fully wake enough to answer it.
But now, he
couldn’t imagine falling asleep.
Lola lay on her side, grinning up at him with hair falling out of her bun and color rising in her cheeks. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Also only nineteen.
And his brother’s best friend… and maybe more.
A dancer on his tour.
And a girl who couldn’t possibly know what she did to him.
“You’re staring.” Her eyes narrowed. “Keep your eyes to yourself, mister.” She held the cards fanned out in her hand closer to her chest.
Drew would have been happy kissing her all night, but he also wanted to listen to her speak and to hear her laugh. Now, at two in the morning, they had an epic round of Uno going.
What kind of rock star brought an Uno deck on tour? Him, apparently.
He suppressed a grin as he pulled one of his cards free. “Draw four.” He set it down. “Red.”
A scowl marred her perfect features, and she muttered something in Spanish.
“Why do you do that?” He met her gaze as he stretched out on his side.
“Do what?”
“Whenever you’re annoyed or angry, you switch to Spanish, but I never hear you speaking it at other times.”
Her smile fell. “Well, my mom always wanted me to speak it around the house. She was afraid I’d forget where I came from, but I was born in Florida. I’ve never even been to Mexico. So, I mostly spoke Spanish when I fought with her. The language feels like it has more meaning, more emphasis than English. It’s a language of…”
“Emotion,” he finished for her.
A small smile tilted her lips. “Yeah.”
He leaned forward on the bed, lifting his hand to tuck an errant strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips skimming the soft skin of her cheek.
She closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. “Drew.”
“What made you come here tonight?” He needed to know. Had she come for rock star Drew Stone? Or for him, just him?
“I just really like Uno.” She gave him an impish grin and set her cards aside before picking up the rest of the cards from between them and reaching across him to put them on the bedside table. She didn’t return to her place at the bottom of the bed, instead sitting up to look down at him. “When we dance, Drew, I feel you, every part of you. Does that even make sense? I couldn’t get the dances right with Nolan or Noah, but with you, it’s…”
“Easy.”
She nodded. “It’s like my body responds to yours. And tonight, when I wanted to celebrate my first show as your partner, the only person I wanted to see was you.” She put a hand on his chest. “You make me feel like I can do anything. I can dance in front of thousands or show up at a rock star’s hotel room in the middle of the night.”
He laughed and sat up to face her, holding her hand against his chest. “Lo, you can show up at my room any time, but you don’t need me to give you courage. You have that all on your own.”
“Don’t call me Lo. Please.” She artfully ignored his compliment as she scrunched her nose.
“Why not?” He’d heard Nolan doing it, but something told him he wasn’t going to like her answer.
She dropped her hand and leaned back away from him. “Erm… because your brother does, and that’s kinda weird.”
The mention of Asher was like a bucket of cold water splashing him in the face. A question rose up that Drew hadn’t wanted to consider.
What if she was using him as a replacement for Asher?
One Stone brother for another.
And if she was, he’d let her. Because now that he’d had one taste, he couldn’t imagine not kissing those lips again.
The next morning Drew woke up alone. Disappointment surged through him, but he knew it was for the best. No one could find Lola in his room. They couldn’t know he counted down the seconds until he could see her again.
What if last night had all been a dream? A vacation from their realities that couldn’t last.
The tour had a small break before the next concert, and they’d stay in D.C. for four days, but just because he didn’t have a concert didn’t mean Drew had more free time.
A knock sounded on his door right on schedule. Nine AM. He stumbled from his bed and opened the door to find the two women who would force him into a suit in eight hours.
Melanie and Piper breezed past him into the room.
Piper pressed a coffee cup into his hand.
Drew rubbed his face. “I thought you didn’t do coffee runs, Pipes.”
She shrugged. “It was either that or a caffeine drip, and I figured that would be hard to procure. You have a busy day.”
He dropped into a leather chair and sipped his coffee. “Just once I’d like a day off to actually be a day off.”
“Sorry, Charlie.” Melanie sat on the small couch across from him and set her coffee cup on the table between them. “You’re Drew Stone, and with that power comes great responsibility.”
He laughed at her Spiderman quote.
Piper perched on the arm of the couch. “You guys are weird, but whatever Superman comic that was from is right.”
Melanie laughed.
Drew chuckled into his cup. “Seriously, Piper?”
A knock interrupted the imminent comic education, and Melanie rose to answer the door and allow Noah and Jo to join them.
“This meeting better be quick.” Jo threw herself onto the couch. “Unless you all want me to hurl on you.”
Drew looked to Noah. “I thought morning sickness was supposed to be over.” Jo had gotten through her first trimester relatively unscathed.
Jo shot him a scowl. “And how would you know? You don’t know anything.”
“Whoa there.” He put up a hand in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Noah patted Jo’s arm as he took a seat. “She just doesn’t know about those baby books you have hidden away, Drew.”
Drew’s entire body froze. He hadn’t told anyone about his late night reading. He bought his first baby book in Gulf City the day after Jo told the group she was having a baby. It was their baby, a Rockstars Anonymous baby. They’d raise the kid together, God help them all. He relaxed back into his seat. “You’re just worried I’ll be a better dad than you.”
Jo groaned. “How many times do I have to tell you guys? This baby is not yours.”
Noah looped an arm around her. “Whatever you say, Joey.”
“Mel.” Jo looked to their publicist. “Help me.”
Melanie’s lips tipped up, and she stepped in front of Noah. “Leave her alone, or I’ll make sure you have to play shows in Texas while Jo is off having her baby.”
A laugh burst out of Drew. To normal people, that wouldn’t be much of a threat, but Noah had an irrational hatred for Texas. None of them really understood it. It was something about his accent and theirs, some kind of accent rivalry, but Drew never paid attention to Noah’s ridiculousness.
Noah sighed and released Jo. “You’re cold, Mel.”
She wedged herself between them on the couch. “My job is to keep you fools in line by any means necessary.”
Drew recognized the signs of an oncoming bickering match between the British rocker and their publicist, so he reached for Melanie’s coffee on the table and handed it to Noah. “She brought this for you.”
Melanie started to protest but stopped herself with a sigh.
Piper watched them like they were the most entertaining show she’d seen. “All right, we should get started.”
“You have to bang on the table.” Drew pierced her with a stern look. “To start any meeting, there has to be gavel banging.”
“I’m not going to bang on the table.”
Noah crossed his arms, hugging them over his coffee cup. “Ben would do it.”
“Well, my idiot boyfriend isn’t here, and this isn’t one of your weird rock star support group meetings.”
“Anonymous,” Drew coughed. “Rockstars Anonymous. If you’re going to mention it,
you should at least get it right.”
Noah sent him a nod of approval.
“Listen up.” Melanie stood and turned so she towered over them. “It’s time to get serious now. You two are thirty-year-old professionals.”
“You take that back,” Noah shouted.
“Who you calling thirty?” Drew scowled.
Melanie mumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like “men.”
Jo’s entire body shook with laughter, but she didn’t make a sound.
Piper slid off the arm of the couch to stand next to Melanie. “Okay, none of you are thirty for another few months. Melanie is sorry. Now, can we get down to business? Please? It’s nine in the morning, and I only have so much time I can spend in the presence of both tweedle dee and tweedle dum.”
Jo covered a laugh with a cough. “That’s you two, in case you didn’t know.”
Noah reached out and shoved her.
“Hey,” she squealed. “I’m preggers. Don’t mess with me.”
Melanie lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “Why do I spend my time dealing with rock stars?”
Drew shrugged. “Because daddy owns a record label.”
“Because you love us.” Noah drew out the word love.
“Because your life would have no purpose without us?”
“Enough.” She covered her face with her hands. “You guys are going to be the death of me.”
An idea popped into Drew’s head. “Anyone want to FaceTime Ben and Dax?” It always made him feel better when the entire gang was together.
Noah slipped his phone out of his pocket. “Yes, they should be with us.”
Melanie snatched the phone from him. “As much as the love fest between some of the world’s biggest stars is amusing—and completely my doing—this meeting is about you three. This tour. You’re all going to the ball tonight.”
“What?” Noah straightened.
“In your dreams,” Jo chuckled.
Drew only sighed. He’d known about this for days, ever since the senator organizing the evening needed a replacement performer and found out Drew would be in town. Now, he’d have to sing a handful of songs. But it was a fundraiser for the children’s health foundation. He couldn’t say no, especially when the California senator he’d met a few times personally asked him.
Love is a Dance Step (Rockstars Anonymous) Page 17