Page 111 of Whatever Lola Wants

She smiled at him, but her eyes were somber, her voice subdued. “Did you just get here?”

He nodded, unable to take his eyes from her face. “Not too long ago.” He cleared his throat. “How are you?”

Her smile turned a little rueful. “I’m fine. And you?”

“Fine.” He stood there, miserably awkward. She was so close, and he couldn’t touch her. “Listen, I wanted to say…”

She held up a hand when he trailed off. “You don’t have to say anything.”

“I do,” he insisted, his voice low and fierce.

She tucked her hands into the pockets of her robe. “Okay.”

He drew a deep breath, searching for the right words, but all he could see was her face, her eyes. It was the first time he’d seen her eyes without any spark in them. “I never meant to hurt you,” he began, then his mind went blank at the sight of her sad smile.

“I know. I know that.” She sucked in a breath. “Simon, I’m not mad at you. Well, I guess I’m mad at you for lying to me, but not for the rest.”

“Anna is,” he put in, and the spark of humor that lit her eyes made his knees weak.

“She is,” she said with such relish he wanted to laugh. “You’ll have to deal with that on your own.” Then she sobered. “But I’m not. Really. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I should’ve been honest with you.”

She nodded. “Me, too.”

He frowned slightly. “You were.”

“No, I wasn’t. I knew you were still thinking about your perfect submissive, and I should’ve asked you about it. I should’ve initiated that conversation, but I was afraid I wouldn’t like the answer.” She shrugged. “So, I didn’t ask.”

He understood that. “I should’ve initiated the conversation, too.”

“We kind of forgot some of the rules, huh?”

He smiled. “I guess so. So, we’re okay?”

Her smile faded slightly. “We will be. It’s just going to take some time.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Well. I should get back upstairs. Anna wanted some help getting dressed.”

“Okay.” He watched her walk to the stairs. “Hey, Lola?”

She turned, one hand on the banister. “Yes?”

“Grant seems to know about Ginger and the stun gun incident. Any idea how that might have happened?”

A sly smile curved over her mouth, lighting her eyes, reminding him painfully of how things used to be. “No idea.”

“Right.” He watched her disappear up the stairs, wishing with everything in him he could follow.

Grant strolled in, checking his stride when he saw Simon. “Hey. You coming for that drink?”

“Yeah.” Simon tore his gaze away from the empty staircase. “Yeah, let’s have a drink.”

He followed Grant into the parlor, wandering to the wide window to look out onto the backyard. A small army of workers were setting up chairs, draping a white arbor with flowers.

“It looks nice.”

---