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He was right…and wrong. Being a champion was everything to her.
“This is why I don’t date.” She stood and glared down at him. “I don’t expect you to understand. No one does.”
He stood and met her glare. “You have ended more than one dance partnership to pursue winning over friendship. What has that gotten you except a bad reputation? Those partners invested in you, cared about you. You cast them aside.”
“I had to! One was so injured, it was clear he was never coming back.”
“Might he have tried harder to recover if you had given him both a reason and a partner to return to?”
Guilt sliced through her. Maybe. Likely not…but maybe. Curt had been a hard worker and possessed a drive to win. Last she heard, he was selling insurance.
“Martin dropped me in competition. I could not risk it happening again. I’d lost faith in his ability, and a couple without trust does not function well.”
“The drop must have been painful, and I understand why you would not want to partner with someone ill equipped for the job. But as you say, trust is essential. After nearly two years together, you never gave him a chance to rebuild it between you.”
She rolled her eyes. “What are you, my dance pimp? And before you start in on Jonathan, that decision was mutual. He wanted to get married more than he wanted to dance.”
Surprise flashed across his dark face. “Really? My mother will be happy to hear that. She hates you because you ran off her favorite.”
Shanna sat again. “Ugh! Everyone thinks that. We…just knew it was time to move on, both of us.”
Speculation crossed Ali’s face, but he didn’t ask if she’d slept with Jonathan. For that, she was eternally grateful. “And now, you have issues with Kristoff. What will you do if we cannot find our blackmailer in time?”
Good question. She’d been putting that decision off. This was her year to win; she couldn’t imagine forfeiting. But… “If we don’t succeed in fishing this blackmailer out, I won’t have a choice. I like Kristoff. He’s so talented. He’s got great work ethic—”
“But you have no problem leaving him behind?”
“It’s business.”
“And you will not let anything or anyone stand in your way, will you?”
His soft question nearly crushed her with guilt. She shoved the feeling aside. Giving up over half her life and the chance to finally reach her dreams? “I can’t.
7
Alejandro paced in the security room, watching the cameras positioned over Sneak Peek’s front door. He checked his watch. Eight-forty five. People were beginning to stream in, in greater numbers than usual for this time of night on a Thursday.
The word about his scene with Shanna was out. He and Del had seen to it personally, not using names, of course…but socializing everywhere that it would be special.
The stage was set—if Shanna showed up. Now he worried she wouldn’t. After all, the woman who prided herself on punctuality was fifteen minutes late. Was she trying to make a statement or yank his chain? Or was there some other reason she refused to come here tonight? What could possibly be more important to her than losing? Not embarrassment or modesty. She’d already survived her first public scene, which was always the most nerve-wracking. But one thing he had noticed? Every time he tried to get close to Shanna, she seemed increasingly anxious and tense.
Was it possible she feared being close to him more than she feared losing?
“You’re wearing out the carpet,” Del teased.
Ali shot him a dark glare. “She’s not coming.”
“She’ll be here. You said yourself the woman is prickly and contrary for the purpose of being such. You admitted that she likes to control her situation, so it can’t have been easy on her when you told her when to show up, what to wear…and nothing about what she could expect.”
All of that was true, yet he’d had a larger purpose than being a controlling jackass. “I want Shanna to lean on me. I want her to know that she can trust me.”
He wanted her to see what it felt like for someone to stand by her, even if she wasn’t winning.
“You can’t force her to figure that out.”
“Normally, I would not try, but with Shanna…” He sighed and stared at the video cameras that showed no sign of her arrival. “If I cannot find some way now to encourage her to latch on to me, she will slip through my fingers.”
Del shrugged. “Why does it matter? I mean, I agree she will be helpful in finding whoever has violated the club’s rules, but we can flush out the asshole with or without her.”
“She is not business to me; she’s personal.”
“How personal?”
Interpretation: how deep were his feelings? That question had been plaguing him all day. Shanna was more to him than catching a scumbag blackmailer, more than an amazing lay, more than an intriguing woman. Analyzing how it had happened and why was pointless. It was what it was, and Alejandro always trusted his gut.
