Free What Lola Wants (London Dolls Book 1) by JoAnne Kenrick Page B

booty, pop that hip. Snap. Lure me in, make me want you.”
    She poured all she had into getting the moves right.
    “Now, shimmy and walk. Forward and back. Down and up, grind down low. Around in a circle and when you turn, wink behind you as if it’s the audience. Make them want to throw you down and make love to you.”
    She pivoted, doing her best to muster up an alluring gaze. Half closing her eyelids, she focused on following instructions and resisted the urge to rise on her toes and step into first position. Raising her chin, she met Dennis’s wide grin.
    “Where’d you come from?” She tripped over her own feet.
    “Nice moves.” Dennis clapped and cheered.
    Jane burst out a belly laugh.
    Louisa stilled. “You could have told me your brother had sneaked in. Traitor.”
    “Some payback for making my eyes burn at the sight of my brother going at it with my best friend.” Jane cocked a brow.
    “So it was you spying on us yesterday.”
    “Yes, and I wasn’t spying. I couldn’t miss the fact that you were shagging on my sofa. Dirty buggers.”
    “We need to learn to lock doors around here and use the chain.” Heat rose to Louisa’s cheeks.
    “Yes, absolutely, and let’s have a bedroom only rule for sex, okay?”
    He patted his sister on the shoulder. “Whatever you say, Sis. So, you’re helping Lola discover her inner burlesque goddess?”
    “I’m trying to help her see that a dancer doesn’t just quit. It’s in her blood. The limelight needs her.”
    “Perhaps I don’t need the limelight.”
    Jane dismissed her with a wave. “Either way, I’m not going to sit back and let you throw away all your years of training without a fight. You were born to perform. You might even find burlesque therapeutic. You don’t have to be yourself. You can transform yourself into a fantasy for men to desire and women to envy. I see the way you stick to the shadows, how you make yourself down these days so you can hide in the crowd. It’s not you, Louisa. You’re lost, and you need to snap out of it. Performing on your terms could be your savior.”
    “She’s not wrong,” he added.
    “I don’t know.” Louisa jostled her hair out of the ponytail she’d worn for the dance practice and let her hair cascade over her shoulders in hopes Dennis was watching. “I mean, won’t the publicity be a neon arrow for Al to find me?”
    “You can dance as Lola. He’ll never make the connection and find you.” He crossed his arms. “This is a great idea.”
    “Besides,” Jane sang, “there’s something I haven’t told you, Louisa.”
    “Uh-oh.” She inched back.
    Her friend shrugged and said, easy breezy, “You have to take my spot in Friday’s show. Please? I would hate to stand my guy up. It’s been so long.”
    “Why not tell me rather than, pardon the pun, dance around it and trick me into practicing? See, I knew you’d pull this on me.”
    “I figured I’d ease you into the whole burlesque thing. I can see it makes you uncomfortable.”
    “That’s right. It does.”
    “Oh, please say you’ll do it, Lola .” Jane furrowed her brow. “Please? For me,” she continued her begging with a pout and hands in prayer position.
    “You’re not going to let me say no to this, are you?”
    Jane shook her head.
    “I’ll do it this once. My last hurrah.”
    Jane clapped her hands. “Yay. Okay, so your homework for tonight is to come up with an act. Who are you going on stage as? Not Louisa with her control panties and grey sweats. No man wants to see that.”
    “Hey, I’d like to see that. You look hot in whatever you wear,” he said. “Or don’t wear.”
    Focused on not melting and trying to ignore his comment, Louisa inwardly smiled. “I’m still trying to find myself. How am I meant to come up with an entirely new persona?” She sighed. “How did you come up with your act, Jane?”
    “It evolved. It’s who I am, you know, in my fantasy.”
    “You want to hide behind fans?”
    “Nah, I