It was the first time she’d heard a dangerous edge in his tone. A darkness that matched the scarred and tatted look of him. But even with all that, she knew there was no threat in his words. She wanted to call him on it. She wanted more friction, more heat, but the sound of giggling echoed down the hallway.
As quickly as he’d pressed himself against her, he pushed away.
He wiped his mouth like he’d finished a meal, but his gaze stayed locked on hers. Only when the gym doors slammed open and half a dozen young people burst into the room did they break eye contact.
“Oh. My. God.” Rory’s shocked voice pierced the gym.
Vanessa froze for a millisecond, wondering how much the girls had seen, until the squeals of delight ensued, and she realized they’d noticed the stage.
Stepping away with a forced smile, when all she wanted to do was continue dry humping Jordan’s leg, was harder than she thought.
“You can’t be serious!” Tessa hightailed it to the stage. “This is crazy. We’re having a real show.”
Shrieking in unison, the five girls huddled around the base of the stage like it was the front row of a Taylor Swift concert. Before she knew it, Vanessa got caught up in their excitement, remembering how thrilled she’d been when she first started her modeling career.
“You can thank this guy. He stayed up half the nightbuilding it for us.” Vanessa nudged Jordan, as her smile warmed.
Her heart swelled as he gave a small shrug and looked away shyly while a chorus ofthank yousandyou’re the bestserupted around him. Maybe her beast had a soft spot after all.
Deciding to spare him further embarrassment, she clapped her hands. “Okay, models, I hope you all brought your shoes, because the show is in six days, and we have a lot of rehearsal to do if we want to raise enough money for this place.”
After spending hours locked in her apartment, panic scrolling through social media, hunting for any new videos of her in humiliating situations, and fighting the growing paranoia that someone was always watching, the chaos of these rehearsals had become the highlight of her day. Without them, she’d probably have lost all semblance of normalcy…and sanity.
The girls, giddy with excitement as they slipped on their heels, practiced their walks on the runway, their laughter filling the gym. Over the weeks, they’d grown closer, and with each passing day, Vanessa learned more about each of them. Their hopes, their fears, their stories.
Despite the age gap between them, a powerful protective instinct kicked in. As long as their lives were intertwined with her own, she was responsible for them.
She knew what it was to feel worthless, so she gave everything to make sure they saw the worth and potential she saw in them.
“I have good news,” she told them when they were all on stage, practicing their choreography. “All the outfits arrive on Thursday, so we’re having a full dress rehearsal on Friday!”
More excited laughter bounced off the walls, and Vanessa caught a glimpse of Jordan pushing a cart of basketballs toward the equipment room, the faintest smile ghosting his face.
With no practice and the stage done, she hadn’t expected him to stay. Not that she minded. She was getting used to him. His presence settled her, even as it distracted her. He made her feel safe.
But something had shifted today, and she couldn’t deny it. Walking for him had been one of the most intimate things she’d ever done. The way he looked at her…she was still burning from it.
One thought gnawed at her. Would he have kissed her if the girls hadn’t shown up at that exact moment?
And the more dangerous thought—had she wanted him to?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
He wanted to kiss her. He almost had. Jordan shoved the rolling cart filled with balls to the equipment room and took advantage of the moment of privacy to scrub his hands over his face, hoping some fucking self-control would seep back to his brain.
Easier said than done, because every time his eyes closed, the vision of her walking toward him on the catwalk squashed every single one of his remaining brain cells.
Her movements were effortless, elegant. Almost feline. Each step designed to destroy more of his sanity. The way her body moved?—
“Fuuuuck,” he whispered under his breath, running his hands over his face again. He needed a slap—no, a proper fight in the ring. He wished his brother weren’t in England.
Sean was the only one he could truly let loose with, the one he didn’t have to hold back around. Damn, he had so much pent-up…everything, right now, that he could really use a good round. Anything to get a grip on all these fucking emotions.
His feelings for Vanessa were changing at warp speed.This project and her passion for it had woken him up to another side of her. Fine, maybe deep inside he’d always known she was more than a social media obsessed fashionista. Maybe it irritated him because he hated when she treated herself like the bare minimum version of herself.
Then there was everything else. Like seeing her using a fucking power tool yesterday, prepared to spend the rest of the day in the freezing cold building a runway for a bunch of teenage girls. Or knowing that she took the time to get all the girls’ shoe sizes and then went out and bought them each a pair of overpriced designer shoes on her own dime. Or the fact that she spent almost every day at The Link organizing the event, calling potential donors, soliciting local businesses for donations, and working overtime on social media to spread the word.
He didn’t know shit about social media, stayed away from it with zero FOMO. But he knew it was a powerful tool for this kind of thing, and she’d managed to use it to make this one of the biggest events in the community.
