I shot her a pleading look but it was too late. My gaze shifted over to Ethan and I watched as his eyes darkened the moment they landed on me.
And just like that, the last three days flew out the window. We might as well have beenthere—back in our studio. He might as well still have been holding me in his arms. I was just as breathless, my head just as fuzzy, my heartbeat just as frantic.
Ethan’s brow furrowed as he studied me. He parted his lips but before he could ask whatever he wanted to ask, his gaze shifted to Ryan who was strumming a few chords.
“One, two, three, four!” Ryan’s low voice boomed over the crowd and they were off. Themusic pulsing, pounding—so not at all like the beautiful, soft melodies Ethan played for me in our private sessions.
And the look on Ethan’s face as he played along was nothing like I’d ever seen before. He talked about me and how amazing I was when I danced. But watching Ethan play only solidified what I’d known all along.
He was born to play.
The music was primal and pulsing. It was bass-driven, the throbbing tempo, and thrumming chords filled the entire room. It rocketed through me and I couldn’tnotmove along with the music. It wasn’t even intentional, my muscles were working in time with the beat, the notes and the energy like a live wire in this room, making me and everyone around me dance like puppets.
This was dancing…and it wasn’t. It was everything I loved about the way the music filled you, spoke to you, was transformed by you, and then came back into the world in the form of liquid movement.
My mind went blank. Blissfully blank. I reveled in the feel that was at once totally familiar and utterly unique. It was the same sensation that I got while dancing in the studio but a million times more intense.
My movements felt frantic as my body kept pace with the bass, my arms moving over my head as my eyes—well my eyes never moved.
My body was at the mercy of this music, but my gaze was fixed on Ethan. I’d always loved to watch him play, but this…this was something else entirely.
He was beautiful.
Was that a weird thing to think about a guy? Maybe. But it was true. He was as handsome as ever but there was an intensity about him that few got to see. That few were ever lucky enough to witness.
I felt Olivia’s movements beside me and, yes, even Bianca was swept up in it. I couldn’t see them, but I felt them, and it was the craziest thing that after dancing together for years, this was the very first time I’d ever actually felt like I was dancingwiththem.
I heard Olivia’s laughter followed by awhoop, as she threw her hands up in the air after the first song ended. Even Bianca was clapping on my other side. Ethan grinned and his smile that I loved so much was aimed at me.
Only me.
My heart was lodged somewhere in my throat because there were so many things I wanted to say to him in that moment. So many things that were desperate to come out. I couldn’t hold them in any longer.
Olivia leaned forward. “Uh…is he staring at you?”
I jerked my eyes away from Ethan, oddly flustered that we’d been caught having an intimate moment in the middle of a crowded club. But she wasn’t looking at me, she was talking to Bianca.
Bianca who basically snarledin response. “Don’t be stupid.”
I looked to Olivia who was looking at the stage, where Ryan was, in fact, staring at Bianca.
I looked over at her too but now her chin was tilted high and she was pretending to ignore us.
Interesting.
The music started up again, and I forgot all about Bianca and Ryan and even Olivia, because Ethan was mesmerizing up there. He really was.
Olivia leaned over again. “When’s the last time you had this much fun dancing?” she shouted over the music.
I shook my head. I couldn’t remember.
“Never,” Bianca said on my other side. Her tone brooked no arguments. And maybe she was right. Maybe this was the first time any of us had danced just for fun.
I let the music sweep me away again, my limbs loose and my hips moving in a way that would have made the Juilliard people faint. This time I shut my eyes and I let myself go. I abandoned myself to the beauty of it all—the sweaty, frantic, glorious beauty of it all.
“Get ’em up there!” It was that same drunken moron again, and for a second I was confused when I felt arms around me and suddenly I was flat on my back and airborne. And then it happened so fast. Hands were all over my body as the sea of people carried me to the stage. I shot Olivia a panicked look, but she was just beamingas she cheered on the people who were touching us.
For a girl who always felt too heavy, I was freakin’ weightless in the air. One second, maybe two—to me it feltlike an eternity before my feet were set on the ground and when I stood upright—I was on the stage.
