The Rocker That Needs Me(43)

Stepping back from Shane, she gave me a small smile. “It was really good seeing you, Drake,” she murmured.

I pulled her into my arms, holding on tight for a moment before reluctantly releasing her. “Can we have dinner?”

She bit her lip and seemed to think about it before nodding. “When?”

“Tonight?” Lana nodded again and I felt some of the weight on my chest ease up. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

She hesitated. “Um…I’ll meet you there. Text me the place.” She didn’t give me time to protest as she grabbed Dallas by the elbow and pulled her toward the door.

I watched her go, frowning at her hasty exit. “I don’t have your number…” She had changed it not long after she had gotten to New York. I knew because I had tried it on more than one occasion.

She paused at the door and glanced back. With a frown she pulled her phone from her hip pocket and messed with a few buttons. Seconds later my phone buzzed. “Now you have it!” she called back.



Lana

I was ten minutes late getting to the gym. I thought for sure Linc was going to blow a gasket. Instead, he just glared at me and rushed me through my stretches. My mind was only half on what I was doing. Thoughts of Drake kept haunting me.

I was anxious about dinner, worried about how I was going to deal with him while we shared a meal. Could I possibly fall back into the old routine that we had once had? I didn’t know if I could. My feelings were too raw, my heart too fragile. Today had only shown me that I was still crazy in love with him, that it wouldn’t take much before I was begging him to love me too…

Before I was begging him to make love to me!

“What is wrong with you?”

I blinked up at Linc, startled by his vehemence. “What? What did I do?” I hadn’t been paying attention. We had been dancing for a while now and I had been on autopilot.

“Get your head out of the clouds, Lana,” he scolded. “We have five weeks before the competition and you are dancing like some marionette with a broken leg!”

I grimaced. “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.” I sighed. “I’m focused now. Let’s go again.”

When I had first gotten to New York I had turned to dance to keep my mind occupied. I had started taking some jazz dance classes and found that I was kind of good at it. Then two months ago my teacher had asked if I wanted to compete since one of the couples in her team had backed out after breaking up. At first I hadn’t wanted to, but after talking about it with my roommates, Linc had talked me into it, promising to be my partner.

For a big, hulky man he could dance like a freaking dream!

He took competing seriously though and made me practice three to four times a week. There were days when I wanted to throw him out the window of the private classroom that he reserved for us at the gym where he worked at.

“From the beginning.” He hit a button on the remote to start the trio of songs that we planned on dancing to and pulled me into his arms.

Michael Bublé’s Sway filled the room, and I let him lead me through the moves. I pushed all thoughts of Drake from my mind for the moment and let the music fill my soul as Linc spun and dipped me. When the song ended, Save The Last Dance For Me began, and I was smiling as the tempo became more upbeat.

By the end of the next hour, I was sweating and breathing hard, having just danced my ass off. I grabbed my stuff, blew Linc a kiss, and hurried home. He still had a few hours to go before his shift was over. He was a personal trainer and made a good bit of his money catering to the spoiled rich older women who came in just to ogle him for half an hour at a time.

If I was going to have dinner with Drake, I needed to plan what I was going to wear…and at least attempt to get a good hold on my emotions before I saw him again!

It was just after six when I finished putting on my makeup and looked down to find Drake’s name flash across my screen followed by his text. I still had his number, had tortured myself by putting it in my new phone when I had gotten it. A few times over the last few months, I had come so close to texting him, but then Vegas would come back to haunt me.

I had forgiven Drake for that night almost immediately, but it wasn’t something that I would ever be able to forget…

Picking up my phone and my clutch, I hurried out of the bathroom I shared with Harper. She was sitting in the living room with her computer on her lap going over the pictures she had taken earlier that day. She waved at me as I headed for the front door. “Be safe. Got your mace?”

I held up my clutch. “Got it!” I blew her a kiss as I ran out the door.

Forty-five minutes later, my taxi pulled up outside of the restaurant that Drake had texted me to meet him at. I was running late and hadn’t even had time to mentally coach myself on how to deal with tonight. As I stepped out of the taxi, I frowned at the ritzy establishment. What was it with the members of Demon’s Wings and wanting to take me to these places?