If it was easy everyone would do it…
Lucas
She was still out on the couch.
Dead to the world.
And we had to leave in the next hour if we were going to make it to rehearsal on time. An evil part of me wanted to shove her off the couch and yell, “Fire!”
Instead, I tried to channel my inner gentleman and slowly approached like one does an animal in the wild because, truly, it was the only comparison my brain could come up with—I reached out to shake her shoulder when she flipped around and threw her arms up, pulling my body on top of her.
“Grace!” I shoved against her.
How the hell was she so strong?
She wrapped a leg around me, pinning me against the couch as her arms twined around my neck. Her nose was cold, pressed against the spot below my ear.
She moaned.
Fuck.
Talk about a scandal.
If any fan saw this, I’d be blacklisted.
If the guys saw this, I wouldn’t hear the end of it; they’d assume I slept with her on the couch and— No, no, wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Grace…” I hissed her name again, but it only seemed to encourage her to pin me harder against the couch; her legs were like a vise. What the hell? Did she study Jiu-jitsu in another life?
I decided to unwrap her legs first and reached down to pull her right leg off me. My fingers dug into her muscular thigh. For complaining about working out, she sure felt strong.
Not like I was feeling her up.
I inwardly groaned. This was getting worse by the second, and the guys would be out to eat breakfast any minute.
I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved, finally getting her right leg off me and pressing her onto her back.
Her arms were still hooked around my neck, forcing me to face her.
She looked so peaceful, and honestly, a lot prettier when she wasn’t talking twenty-four seven.
Huh, imagine that! Just tape her mouth shut, and she becomes attractive.
I smiled at my own joke.
Her eyelashes were dark like her eyebrows, and her hair was light, but I could tell she needed to dye it again.
It still looked good.
What was I saying?
Nothing about her was good, even if she did save my ass. I wasn’t dumb; I knew that our label was thinking very seriously about not letting me on stage.
It was business, not personal, and the last thing they wanted was for my scandal to affect the group in a negative way—even though I was innocent.
Angry all over again, I forgot about prying her hands away.
A door slammed.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Sleepover?” Sookie asked in Korean.
“Help me!” I hissed. “She won’t let me go. And no, I didn’t sleep over. I was trying to tell her to get up, and she attacked me.”
“In her sleep?” Why did it have to be Sookie and not Jay? At least Jay would help first, ask questions later. Sookie would probably ask if we hugged all night or held hands or who knew.
“Yes,” I snapped. “In her sleep, now help.”
“Fine.” His sheepish grin wasn’t helping as he went to the front of the couch and grabbed her hands, trying to untwist them from around my neck. “She’s so strong!”
“Believe me, I’m aware,” I grumbled. “Just pull her right hand, yeah, then the left…”
“Are we sure she isn’t awake?” he asked.
A very unattractive snore escaped her mouth.
Panicked, I looked up. “What do you think?”
“It’s cute.”
“Say she’s cute one more time…” I threatened.
“Sorry, sorry!” His cheeks flushed pink. “Okay, if you pull up, I’ll pull her left hand out, and you can roll to the floor.”
“Perfect way to start my day,” I complained. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“One, two, three—” He pulled, I pushed. Whatever we did, it worked, and I was free, then falling back onto the floor with a loud thud just as Rae and Kai walked into the living room, their expressions confused.
“What’s going on?” Rae, of course, crossed his arms like he was concerned for my welfare—or maybe it was hers?
What? Like I made a habit of cuddling with random girls, a guy attacked me pretending to be one, and I nearly lost my career.
No. Fucking. Thank you.
Sookie quickly covered for me. “Oh, he was just trying to wake her up, and she must sleepwalk; she’s like a ninja.”
“A sleep ninja,” I added from the floor, looking up at the ceiling in defeat. “Thanks, Sookie. I could have died.”
“I was worried.” Sookie nodded while I rubbed the back of my head.
“Grace…” Rae approached and gently shook her.
Why didn’t she wrap herself around him like an octopus? Did she hate me that much, even in her sleep?
Seriously?
She stretched her arms over her head, drawing my attention to her profile, to her slow sexy smile and curvy body.
I didn’t realize I was staring that hard until Sookie gave me a soft kick then mouthed, “What?”
I groaned and moved to a sitting position while Grace slowly did the same then read the room. “Was I snoring?”
We were all quiet until Jay came barreling into the room. “Oh, the drunken intern awakes. You know, I’ve never seen anyone so drunk from soju in my life, and I”—he took a look around—“Oh, does she not know?”
“No!” Grace cupped her hands over her face. “Oh, no!”
“You also claimed you knew Korean, so if it’s on the news, that’s on you…” Jay laughed. “You were so loud!”
“Noooooooooo.” Grace looked ready to jump off a cliff. Her hands fell. “Wait, I slept here all night? Do I want to even look in a mirror?”
A universal “no” exploded from each of our mouths as if none of us could stop it, earning another moan from her then a leg kick as she stumbled to her feet, tripped on the blanket, made it as far as halfway, only to trip again and finally slam her door shut.
“I think that went well.” Jay nodded his head then smirked over at me. “So, you were in our room all night?”
“Don’t!” I jabbed a finger in his direction. “I was being nice for once, and look what it got me. A near concussion against our floor, and a drunk girl using my blanket.”
“Didn’t you give it to her?” Sookie asked innocently.
“Breakfast,” I blurted. “We need to eat.”
I needed to be more careful when being nice.
Not that it would be an issue since I was a genuine asshole to her.
Feeling marginally better, I got to my feet and started going into the kitchen only to see a body block me from coffee.
“Rae.” I licked my lips. “Something wrong?”
“Be careful.” He warned, his eyes traveling from me toward her door and back again. “She’s… not… accustomed to anything here yet. Don’t give her any ideas.”
I rolled my eyes and patted him on the shoulder. “She doesn’t need my help to self-destruct.”
“I wasn’t talking about that.” The guy didn’t blink. “She’s only here for a little while.”
Why did the room suddenly feel so small? Why did I feel so panicked? The world wasn’t ending; she didn’t mean anything to me. So why did it matter if she was only here for a little while?
“You’re seeing things,” I finally said. “I want nothing to do with her.” Wait a second; he was being awfully protective. “You, on the other hand…”
He stumbled back a bit. “What about me?”
“You seem a bit protective of someone you barely know.” He flinched like I’d just slapped him. “In fact, you completely ignored three out of the last four interns who were girls. Any reason why you’re so protective of this one?”
“No,” he snapped. “I just feel sorry for her, okay? She’s absolutely the last person in the world I would ever date. You know she’s not my type.”
The lie was so bad that I wanted to laugh.
I didn’t realize he’d switched back to English until I heard a small gasp behind me.
Grace was standing there, face fresh, hair in a small ponytail, wearing jeans, a band shirt, and Nikes, ready for the day.
Her face was bright red.
Shit.
I opened my mouth to say something, but she still didn’t know I understood her and was fluent in English, so it felt like the biggest asshole move I could make in that moment.
“I’ll just—” She quickly walked past us and into the kitchen and grabbed a protein bar, then cleared her throat. “The van leaves in twenty.”
She left the room.
We were all dead silent for probably the first time in years.
“Good job, Rae,” Jay swore. “Now she’s going to hate us even more.”
“I—” Rae started and then glared at me like it was my fault. “She’s right; we leave in twenty.”
And that was it.
In just under twenty minutes, we piled into the van.
Grace drove us—safely—to rehearsal.
And didn’t say a word as we all got out and went into the studio.
She went to her usual spot and most likely stared at our schedule for longer than necessary before trying to busy herself on her phone.
Minutes after we started, she left and came back, bringing all of our coffee orders without us asking.
The worst part was that she was quiet.
So quiet that it was making me mess up the choreography.
I missed her chaos.
Rae must have felt the same way because it was officially our worst rehearsal we’d had since learning the choreography.
Great.
Less than two weeks until the comeback stage and one week away from the drop of our MV, and we sucked.
“Take a break.” Solia was at the door, arms crossed, wearing a black pantsuit with her hair slicked back, looking every inch the executive she one day wanted to be.
Her steely eyes roamed over us and finally landed on Kai, a flicker of emotion was all she allowed before sighing and pressing her fingertips to her forehead. “You guys aren’t focused.”
“We’ll get there.” Rae grabbed a towel and wiped his face. “We’ll take a break and regroup.”
“You have an hour left of practice before you start doing press for the comeback.” Solia just had to remind all of us. “Focus.” Her wrath quickly turned to Grace. “Are you not doing your job? Are they eating? Drinking? Are you making sure they’re in bed on time—”
“She’s been perfect,” Rae interjected. “We’re just under a lot of pressure.”
Solia’s jaw flexed as she clenched her teeth. “Okay, I need you guys in the van ready for Idol Variety in fifty-five minutes.”
“I’ll make sure they are,” Grace said in a confident voice that we’d all been missing this morning. “I promise.”
“Make sure you do.” Solia’s heels clicked against the tile floor, each footstep striking like an invisible knife in my brain. Somehow, I kept from flinching as she glided through the door, and it slammed behind her.
Trainees, as usual, poked their heads around the window, trying to get a glimpse of us.
Annoyed, I wanted to block it.
Grace shared a look with me, then very slowly walked over to the door and stood in front of the window. “Well? Are you guys going to go through Move again?”
“Yes,” Rae answered for us.
Grace’s eyes didn’t leave mine.
Was that concern?
Interest?
Boredom?
I had no idea.
And I told myself it didn’t matter as we went through the choreography for the next fifty-five minutes.
Grace had ordered us more coffee.
And instead of throwing mine away, I made a point to grab it, stare directly at her and drink.
Something had changed.
I just wasn’t sure if that something was her… or me.