Page 58 of The Duet

I look at her and everything and everyone else slips out of focus. It might as well just be Cleo and me in this club, on this crowded, makeshift dance floor. I only have eyes for her. She doesn’t smile. She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. She stares at me as though I’ve just said something unfathomable, something that’s taking her a while to process. She stops dancing and stands completely still, her breathing heavy and a little ragged. Then she takes a step closer. She brings her free hand to my cheek and cups it.

“Oh, Lana,” she whispers. “Oh, fuck it.” She leans toward me and kisses me right there and then. I kiss her back with all I have. I push my hand into her hair as I press my body close to hers. I don’t care that we’re in the middle of a busy club. I don’t even care that footage of this kiss will have spread around the world come morning. Why would I care? I’m kissing the most divine woman, and she’s kissing me right back.

Loud whoops and cheers pull me from the moment. A few people around us are clapping.

“Fucking finally,” I hear Logan say.

I still only have eyes for Cleo. I wrap my arms all the way around her, as though wanting to shield her from everyone around us.

I find her ear again. “Do you want to get out of here?”

Her chin bounces against my shoulder.

“Car?” Logan is standing behind me. He’s nothing if not efficient, even on a night out like this.

“Yes, please. Thank you, Logan.”

“On it.” I don’t know how he can go into business mode just like that, but it’s one of the reasons I appreciate him. “We’ll go out through the back. Follow me and that big dude over there.” He nods at the bouncer who’s been guarding the VIP area.

“Do you need to say goodbye to anyone?” I let go of Cleo.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” She stands there grinning, as if she’s just won the biggest lottery prize possible. “I think it’s quite obvious you and I are leaving now.”

Chapter 34

Cleo

In between bouts of kissing, Lana and I sip water in the back of the car like our lives depend on it, but of course we’re still tipsy when we reach the hotel and stumble into her penthouse suite.

She comes for me immediately, but I hold her off for a moment. “Are you sure you’re not going to regret this in the morning?”

“I just kissed you in the middle of New York’s hottest club.” She pulls me close. “The only thing I’m ever going to regret is not kissing you sooner.”

“You must still be very much under the influence, because I believe I kissed you.”

“That’s just a technicality.” Lana brings her lips a hair’s breadth from mine. “How about we kissed each other?”

“You did come for me, though, like a lion lunging at their prey.” I might be making jokes, but my heart is hammering away furiously beneath my ribcage.

“I couldn’t take it anymore.” Lana stills and pulls back a fraction. “I want you to know that this is not happening because I’ve had too much to drink. This is happening because… I’m in love with you.” Her hand rests on my side and she pushes her fingers into my flesh there. “I couldn’t see it because of… well, so many reasons. Good ones and bad ones, but in the end, none of them matter. That much I can see now.”

“I’ve only been in love with you half my life,” I blurt out.

Lana chuckles. “Oh, god.”

“Wrong thing to say?”

She shrugs. “At this point, there are no more right or wrong things to say.” Her hand rides up a little higher. “In fact, maybe we should stop talking altogether now.”

“Definitely one of your better ideas.” I gaze into Lana’s dark eyes. It’s not the first time this is happening, but the fact that it’s happening again is like a small miracle, like the odds conspiring greatly in my favor. Because throughout all the drama with the band and all my inner conflict, I never stopped wanting Lana.

When we lay it all out on stage, that’s what makes it so special. She’s the one and only Lana Lynch and I’m utterly, completely crazy about her—and have been for as long as I can remember. Of course, back in the day, when I first fell in musical love with The Lady Kings and their out of this world singer, I had no idea I would ever get to know Lana. That I would meet her, and my own band would go on tour with hers. That we’d sing a duet that would change everything.

If that duet had never been recorded; if Isabel Adler had never lost her voice; if Lana hadn’t been looking for the perfect comeback song; I wouldn’t be in this room right now. I would just be the singer of The Other Women, the opening act on this tour. But that song brought us together, brought us here, made us feel that there was so much more going on between us than we were willing to admit. Because of that song, what I feel for Lana is infinitely more than what Jess could ever feel for her, so much more than a one-way crush on a rock star.

On stage, Lana and I are equals. On stage, I got my first glimpse of what that was really like. On stage, I felt her respect and admiration for me grow. I’ll deal with my band later. I’m just as certain as Lana that I’ll have zero regrets in the morning, only a massive headache and a thirst for more.

Her hand snakes up higher, hoisting up my top. I lift my arms so we can get rid of at least one piece of fabric. There’s impatience in Lana’s actions. She can’t get my T-shirt off me quickly enough. But when you do what we do, when you get so close together on the stage without being able to find a proper outlet for the emotions we create, this is the only way it can be. Hungry. Frantic. Every cell in our body taken over by desire.

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