Two seconds into the bar, that I could only assume was called Leo’s from the neon sign over the bar, I immediately felt out of place. This kind of thing had never really been my scene. It was loud and smelled like alcohol with a mix of perfume and cologne. I almost forgot about my promise to myself to try to have a good time tonight and turned for the door, but Kylie grabbed me by my arm and dragged me further into the dark room past a long bar on the right and toward a stage in the back.
“Hurry, we’re late!” she yelled back at me. I could barely hear her over the noise of the crowded room.
Eventually, we made it to a crowd surrounding the stage, but Kylie didn’t stop there. She grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me past people, mostly women, and right up the middle of the group, bumping into scantily clad bodies left and right.
I didn’t miss the nasty looks we got as she kept pulling me until we were at the very front of the crowd with the edge of the stage right in front of us.
I looked around the room as best I could crowded into the front of the stage while Kylie bounced on her heels beside me.
“Oh, I’m so excited! Isn’t this awesome? I’ve been dying to see this band since the last time I saw them a year ago.”
I didn’t know if I would call this awesome. I wrapped my clutch around my body with a small gold chain that was attached to it. I felt mostly claustrophobic and like someone’s hand was on my ass, so I turned around and shot the guy behind me a look and his hand promptly fell away.
“Jerk,” I grumbled as a man came on the stage and the crowd roared. The man was front and center and had a huge spotlight on him that almost seemed too big for the small stage he was standing on.
I could see the shadows of the band setting up in the back as spotlight man announced. “Let’s give it up for The Quiet.”
The crowd roared and the stage lit up with a rainbow of lights and the band started into a song that everyone around me obviously knew, even Kayce Kylie.
I looked around at the crowd and couldn’t stop the smile that spread over my face. They were loving this band and I couldn’t blame them. From just the two seconds I’d been listening, I could already tell they had a very Dave Matthews Band feel to them.
My eyes dragged across the stage, taking in the band members one at a time. My gaze locked onto the lead singer first. He was a good looking blonde haired man in his late thirties or even early forties. He had the kind of raspy voice that women loved and you could definitely tell by the ladies screaming at him. I couldn’t make out the faces of the rest of the band members as they stood back further on the stage, their faces masked by the shadows of darkness.
Whoever the faceless men were, they were talented as hell. I couldn’t believe how amazing the band was. I couldn’t believe they weren’t playing all over the damn radio. I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of them before. They were that good. And I was having fun. So much fun.
I could feel the crowd’s electronic energy taking me over until I, too, was dancing and screaming like a maniac.
“They’re amazing, right?” Kylie yelled to me over the crowd and I shook my head yes with big eyes. Because she was right. They. Were. Ah-mazing.
The Quiet started another song, this one really bluesy and heavy on the bass guitar and that was when I saw him.
My breath caught as the bass guitarist stepped forward for a solo and was looking dead at me.
Gorgeous, thick, dark hair hanging over one eye.
Deep, flirtatious dimples on full display.
Plump, pink full lips and white teeth dazzling the audience.
But his eyes were on me. Like he was playing just for me.
Damn him.
Whitaker Aldrich, in the flesh. Well, he was mostly in a skintight black t-shirt that showed off his very muscular biceps and a pair of jeans that look painted on him that fed into a pair of black boots that you could clearly see were at least a size twelve.
And you know what they said about a man’s feet.
So, he wasn’t really in the flesh but at that moment in time, I was thinking I wouldn’t mind seeing him wearing just that at all.
I’d stopped dancing and screaming and probably looked shocked as hell, but not Whit. His gaze never wavered from mine as he continued to play the bass as if he was born with it in his hand.
In fact, I was beginning to wonder if he even saw me, knew it was me, or if he was just looking into a dark audience until he shot me a slow wink just like he had that first day in the park. My eyes widened and his dimples deepened and I knew he saw me but more than that, I realized he recognized me.
My heart pounded a million miles a minute in my chest and my face felt hot. I diverted my eyes, desperate to escape his gaze. How the hell had I run into him again? Was he somehow following me? It seemed impossible since I’d shown up with my roommate to see his band.
But really, what were the chances of me running into him? Again. I’d be lying if I said, I hadn’t thought of him over the last several days since our interaction at the coffee truck. He was, after all, the kind of guy women thought about a lot. And, God, had I. Those dimples alone had kept me company too many times to count lately.
I looked at Kylie to avoid looking at the stage, only to find her backed up and grinding her ass all over the same guy’s crotch who had grabbed my behind earlier in the night.
Disgusted at the sight, I looked at the stage again to find Whit still looking at me. Seriously, this time. Almost like a lion watching its prey; like he might jump off that stage and eat me whole any minute.
The heat from my face traveled down my chest and right into my stomach, pooling there. Holy fuck, the man was hot. And I wasn’t one of those girls who used fuck lightly.
Why did he have to look like every bad boy fantasy I ever had? And I’d had plenty.
Of course he was in a band. It fit his bad boy stigma to a T.
I was half tempted to crawl up onto that stage and climb him like a tree.
Instead, I decided that I just wouldn’t look at him the rest of the show. I’d keep my eyes on the singer. That should be easy enough.
But that didn’t stop my body from noticing his eyes on me the entire time. Because my tingly, hard nipples knew and my heated and wet pantiless core did, too.
God, I missed my underwear. I’d picked the wrong night to throw caution to the wind.
When the set was finally over, I was beyond relieved and dashed for the bar for an ice water because I felt like I was burning up and it didn’t have a damn thing to do with the crowded bar. I’d made it!
I ordered my water and was guzzling it down when Kylie saddled up beside me.
“Hey, girl!” she yelled too close to my ear. “I’m going to head out with Roger.”
“What?” I asked, thinking maybe I’d heard her wrong. Because where was she heading, why wasn’t I going, and who the hell was Roger?
She poked out her lip in some kind of fake ass pretense at feeling bad and then said again, “I’m going to head out with Roger.” She motioned to ass grabber behind her.
“Seriously, Kylie? I don’t even know where the hell I am or how I’m going to get home.”
I knew there was a reason I hadn’t taken the time to learn her name. I was positive she was breaking some kind of girl code here, but she didn’t look like she gave a crap about girl code as she wrapped her arm around Roger.