Page 25 of Saving the Rockstar

Despite the anxiety buzzing under my skin, I felt a flare of heat at the compliment. The way Asher's eyes dipped to my mouth, just for a second, before darting away.

Emboldened, I let a hint of suggestion color my voice. "There's only one person I'm interested in fighting for."

Asher's breath hitched, barely audible. "Oh? And who might that be?"

I held his gaze, letting the moment stretch taut between us. Trying to convey with a look all the things I couldn't say aloud. "Someone unattainable. At least for now."

A furrow appeared between his brows. "What do you mean?"

I shrugged one shoulder, aiming for nonchalance. "Just that there are barriers. Professional ones. Personal ones. It's complicated."

Understanding dawned in Asher's eyes. I could practically see the gears turning in his head, the pieces slotting into place.

When he spoke again, his voice was carefully neutral. "This lucky woman. Do I know her?"

And there it was. The perfect out. I could laugh it off, make some vague comment about a girl back home. Let the assumption stand and carry on with our lives, our working relationship, as if this conversation had never happened.

It would be the smart thing to do. The safe thing.

But I was so goddamn tired of playing it safe. Of denying, repressing, locking away parts of myself until I felt like a stranger in my own skin.

So I took a deep breath, and I leaped.

"Bold of you to assume it's a woman."

Asher's eyes widened. His lips parted on a soft, startled exhale. "Oh."

The silence that followed was charged, electric. I could feel my pulse thundering in my ears, my palms going clammy with nerves.

But beneath the fear, there was a wild, reckless hope. Because Asher wasn't running. Wasn't recoiling in pity. He was just looking at me. Like he was seeing me, really seeing me, for the first time.

"Have you ever..." Asher swallowed, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. "Have you ever thought about kissing a man, Jared?"

And oh, the way my name sounded in that moment. Rough and a little desperate, like a prayer and a plea all in one.

"I've thought about it," I admitted. "More and more, lately."

He nodded slowly. Licked his lips again, a nervous tell. "Have you ever thought about kissing me?"

My heart stopped. Restarted with a painful lurch. This was it. The moment of truth, the point of no return.

I met Asher's gaze head-on, letting him see every ounce of longing, every scrap of terrified desire. "I haven't been able to think about anything else."

Asher's breath left him in a rush. His eyes were huge, pupils blown wide in the low light.

I didn't hesitate. Didn't let the doubts and fears crowd in. I just moved. Leaned in, closing the distance between us, and pressed my mouth to his.

It was tentative at first. A dry, soft brush of lips. But then Asher made a noise, low in his throat, and surged against me. His hands came up to fist in my shirt, hauling me closer, and the kiss caught fire.

I groaned into his mouth, heat sizzling through my veins like lightning. His lips parted and I licked into him, tasting the sweet-sharp tang of desire. It was clumsy, unpracticed, the clack of teeth and the awkward mash of noses. But god, it was perfect. It was everything.

Asher nipped at my bottom lip, soothing the sting with his tongue. "Jared," he panted against my mouth.

A broken sound punched out of me. I tangled my fingers in his hair, angling his head for a deeper kiss. Trying to pour everything I felt, everything I couldn't say, into the hot slide of our mouths.

I was drowning in him. In the wet, filthy sounds of our kisses, the sinuous roll of his body against mine. The ache inmy chest was expanding, filling me up until I thought I might shatter with it.

And then, like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, there was a harsh buzz of my phone on the nightstand.

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