Sweet Jesus! She smelled so good. Just like I remembered, the subtle scents of her shampoo and lotion. Her skin was warm and soft under my nose as I skimmed it back and forth. I shuddered, not sure if I could survive if it turned out that this was all in my head. I had dreamed of holding her in my arms, had fantasized about what I would do if I were ever graced with the chance. I heard voices, background noise, but nothing registered. I blocked it all out and focused on the only thing that mattered. Lana fit so perfectly against me. The way her full breasts pressed against my chest, delicate woman against hard male.

Her chest vibrated ever so slightly as she said something, and I turned my head to find the network’s bigwig standing behind me with a scowl on his face. “Just who the hell are you?” The man demanded. “You seemed to have caused all of this!”

“She’s none of your fucking business,” I growled at him. “Do you understand?”

Things around us were calming down, and I pulled her back into my arms, not caring about anything else. Cole laughed off the incident, apologizing. I could see the way his eyes were still narrowed. I ignored him and everything else, burying my face in Lana’s hair again. I wished I could bottle up her sweet smell and carry it around with me everywhere.

It was too tempting to resist, and I wasn’t strong enough to even try. My lips brushed across her neck, just under her ear, and I felt her shiver. My cock was rock hard, and I was already thinking of some viable excuse to get us out of there and back to my apartment…

In the next instance she was pulling away. I saw the indecision in her whiskey colored eyes and realized that I had a lot of work to do before she was truly back in my arms again. I was up for the challenge. She was worth it.

She introduced me to one of her roommates, the girl that Axton had been so into earlier. Dallas was gorgeous, with that dimple in her right cheek that peeked at you when she smiled. Her body was long and slender, and on closer inspection, inked up! Her tee shirt hid most of the ink, but some of it flashed me from time to time.

Shane came over and draped his arm around Lana’s shoulders. “Dallas just got out of the modeling business,” he informed me. “She thinks that just because she’s all badassed up with her ink that no one would be interested in her for jobs.”

I tried not to let my brother touching my girl bother me as I turned my attention on the blonde. “I’m sure Emmie could find her something if she were really interested in it.”

Dallas wrinkled her nose. “No thanks. I’d rather slit my wrists than get back into modeling. It would only make my mother happy, and I try not to give her that satisfaction.”

Lana grinned. “But just think, Dallas. What if you were in some hardcore rock video? Your mother would freak out!” Her eyes sparkled. “Oh! Oh! I know! I’ll call Emmie and see if she knows anyone that needs a girl for their video! You can be in some rocker’s bed in nothing but a smile! Your mom is going to have a stroke!”

“Don’t call Emmie!” Axton called from his seat where he was still on his phone. “I’ll hire her for OtherWorld’s new video.”

Dallas had seemed interested up until Axton had offered her the job. “Um, no.” She rolled her eyes then glanced at her watch. “Lana, I have to go. Are you coming?” She glanced from Lana to me then back to Lana. “Or..?”

Lana sighed. “Yeah, I’m coming. I have practice at three.”

My heart turned to lead. I didn’t want her to go. Not yet. Not ever, dammit! She was already hugging Shane goodbye. I knew that I had to get back to work. We were holding up the tryouts, but I didn’t give a fuck. I wanted more time with my angel.

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.