“I can’t wait to see your dress,” I tell her.
“I pick it up while you’re are away on tour, but when you come back, I’ll show it to you. I have no idea how I’m going to hide it from Gus.”
“You’ll put it in Cora’s closet. The guys never go in there.”
“Oh!” Naomi chirps with bright eyes. “That’s freaking brilliant. Speaking of the guys, has Keith asked you to be his date for it yet?”
Naomi especially has been all over trying to push me together with Keith. Both of them know about the kiss in the elevator, though I didn’t not tell them what happened in the car. That’s between me and Keith and no one else as far as I’m concerned.
“I won’t be living with him by then and I’ll be able to drive, so there will be no obligation for him to tote me around anymore.”
“That’s clearly not what I meant by date, Maia. Stop deflecting.”
“I’m not. It’s true,” I bark defensively.
Naomi stares dramatically at me like I’m a fool. “You do know he doesn’t drag you around and I can tell you he feels zero obligation when it comes to you. He brings you along, well, for your job yes, but also because he likes having you around. He likes you watching them play in the studio. He likes talking with you every second he can. And when you’re both in the same room, his eyes are always on you. Always. He even told Gus he’s trying to figure things out with you.”
“What does that mean?”
She shrugs up a shoulder. “No idea. But girl, he worships you.”
“Yes,” Vi agrees with a hearty nod of her head. “Yes! And whenever you enter a room, his face lights up. His face never lights up, Maia. Like ever. If he’s not in love with you, which we all know he is, at the very least he’s obsessed. You are his sun and he orbits around you because he can’t stand not feeling your gravitational pull.”
Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes dramatically. “You bitches are crazy. And now I sound like Marco. But still, it’s true. I know it comes off like a good story, but I’ve been living with him for a month now and other than that kiss, that I planted on him, he’s kept a very clear and unmistakable separation between us.”
“Well,” Naomi coos with a devilish grin. “Tonight is suddenly seeming like the perfect night to change all that.” She juts her chin over her shoulder and my head spins so fast I’m like Linda Blair from The Exorcist minus the green vomit.
Keith is lounging on the sofa, Gus on his right as the two of them talk. Keith has a glass in his hand that’s stretched along the back of the couch, but his eyes are roving over every inch of me until they clash with my eyes. They gleam, sparking with such an intense heat my breath quickens. A slow, sexy smile curls up his face and I watch as he says something to Gus and then rises to his feet. He tosses back the last of his drink, his eyes never wavering from mine as he sets it down and then stalks with purposeful strides over to us.
“Holy hell, I think I need a fire extinguisher. I’m about to combust and the man isn’t even making those fuck-me eyes at me.”
“I think we need a drink. Like right now.” Naomi tugs on Viola and the two of them abandon me here on the dance floor like a lost sheep helplessly watching the wolf come in for the slaughter. Real smooth ladies. And I want to roll my eyes or laugh, but I can’t do anything other than stare at Keith the way he’s staring at me.
My heart rate kicks up, matching the tempo of the music as he reaches me, slipping his hand around my waist and tugging me into his hard chest without even uttering a word. His palm rests on my back, his fingers splayed down just above the crest of my ass. His other hand comes up, brushing my long hair that I foolishly wore down over my shoulders and down my back.
“Put your arms around my neck,” he instructs, taking my good hand and doing it for me.
“I feel foolish doing that with my cast.”
“I can’t dance with you the way I want to dance with you with that thing between us.” He gives me an insistent look and I reluctantly set it on his upper chest. The moment it lands there, Keith draws me in closer until our bodies are pressed together as one. “Much better,” he breathes, his breath fanning over my face as I gaze up into his eyes. He starts to dance with me, close and sexy and slow against the fast beat. “You look so beautiful tonight. Did I tell you that earlier?”
I stare silently up at him as words fail me.
“Every man in this club has been staring at you since the second we walked in here.”
I grin at his scowl. “I take it you don’t like that.”
His scowl deepens. “I fucking hate it, Maia. It drives me insane the way every man who looks at you wants you. I hate how Ethan and Naomi dressed you with so much of your creamy skin showing that no one should see—” He stops abruptly, his words cutting off sharply, but I don’t need him to finish to know what he was going to say.
“Why do you suddenly care?”
“I’ve always cared. I’ve just been better at hiding before.”
“What’s changed then? The fact that random men are staring at me? The fact that I’m showing off a little skin? The caveman in you doesn’t want me but doesn’t want anyone else to have me. Is that it?” I spit at him, showing him just how much this pisses me off.
It also confuses me endlessly. For weeks now this thing between us has been bubbling under the surface. But it’s been pretended away. Stealthily ignored. I pushed him and pushed him and all it got me was a couple of kisses, an orgasm, and a tormented heart. I want him. I made that pretty damn clear, and in return, he made it pretty damn clear the feelings are not mutual.
So I dealt with it. I focused on work and forced myself to be his goddamn friend. And I was doing so well with that. I mean, it wasn’t great. It hurt. But I’m used to hurt, so that wasn’t anything new for me.
Now he turns all that around with the flip of a switch and pulls this shit? No. Uh huh.
He doesn’t answer. Instead his face dips, his forehead meeting my shoulder as he breathes harshly in and out. His hand slides to my side, gripping my hip as he struggles.
And Lord, is he struggling.
I can feel the way he’s fighting himself at every turn.
Only I have no desire to be a casualty in his war.
I don’t even see a different outcome for me. At the end of the day, our obstacles are unchanged. It’s why I plan to move out right after we get back from the tour. It’s time and I’ve saved enough to be able to do that. I need to take care of myself. To look out for myself.
Keith Dawson is owning more and more of my heart, but unfortunately, I will never own his.
And I can’t live like that.
Like this.
Suddenly Henry’s threat makes perfect sense.
He saw the way Keith was looking at me tonight. But he also knows him well enough to know that he doesn’t get emotionally involved. With anyone. Keith doesn’t date and he doesn’t do girlfriends. Henry was trying to protect me. I think I love Henry just a bit more in this moment.
I take a small step back and Keith lets me, and I know for certain that what Viola said is wrong. He loves a ghost. Not me. He hates that he wants me, and I hate that I want him. So in that respect, I guess we’re even.