Page 28 of Reckless
“Are you here with someone?” one girl asked, leaning in a little too close and purposefully brushing a thigh up against his leg. I clenched my jaw and waited to see how he would handle it.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. And I need to get back to her.” He tactfully moved back toward me, holding our drinks.
“Her?” Mean-girl eyes flashed my way. A second later, I was under group-wide fiery teenage scrutiny. “Oh, she’s pretty, I suppose,” she spat out, lifting her phone and snapping a quick pic of me before I could even blink. “Is she your girlfriend?”
Gage’s eyes met mine, and regret and something else swam in their depths. Fear? “Excuse me.” He lifted the drinks in a salute. “I’ll see you girls later.”
Finally, he broke away and joined me at the table. I picked up the Blue Moon he slid across to me and took a long drink. “Wow, that was pretty intense. And on a small scale, I would assume?”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s still pretty wild though. I actually had to have media training to learn how to avoid and how to please without losing my shirt. Or my pants.”
I laughed. “You’re joking. You’ve had fans tear your clothes from you?”
“I lost a t-shirt to an airline stewardess once. Lucky for me it was after the flight.”
My mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”
“And there was that time the security company screwed up our pickup, and the band got mobbed. A couple of the guys got stripped down to their underwear.”
He told me crazy stories about fans who turned into near nightmares as we enjoyed our drinks and ordered another. Just when I thought I’d worked my way past my lustiness, Gage’s knee knocked against mine under the table. The electricity almost knocked me from the chair.
“I’ve noticed that if I’m polite, they usually leave me alone after a while. As long as I don’t encourage or wind them up, it isn’t something to worry about in a place like this.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry she took your photo.”
I shrugged. “No biggie.”
His mouth opened but nothing came out for a few seconds. “I’m not sure you understand.” He chewed on the inside of his jaw. “Any woman I’m photographed with ends up plastered all over the news. It’s happened…before.”
I couldn’t ask for a rundown of his dating history, I didn’t want to know, but I did remember a string of tabloid shots I’d avoided looking at in the past. A lot of them. It felt like a good time to change the subject completely.
“You know what, I bet you could use a shot.”
* * *
I wasn’tsure how many hours later it was when we left the pub. “The shots may have been a bad idea.” I slapped my hand over my mouth to hold in a giggle. At least I wasn’t fangirling. “Lucky I have the day off tomorrow.”
“I think it was a great idea. We had fun, didn’t we? God knows I needed some fun.”
His fingers linked through mine, and before I could react, he’d yanked me along the side of the building next to the bar and pressed me against the brick wall. Giddy from the drinks and being in Gage’s company, I giggled again, but the laughter rapidly died away when I noticed something new in his gaze.
A glint I hadn’t seen sincebefore.
He stepped closer, filling my personal space, covering me with his warmth. I probably should’ve moved away, but Ireallydidn’t want to, and the alcohol made it easier to give in to my secret desires.
“What are you…?”
Gage’s hands cupped my cheeks, and his lips crashed into mine. With the kiss, he claimed me, making me his, if only for that second. My heart thumped crazily, breath no longer necessary, as his tongue pressed between my lips and caressed, demanded. My hands went up, burrowed into his hair and clung.
After so long apart, he’d walked back into my life. And with barely a fight, I’d caved to the sizzling chemistry we’d always shared. The world melted away until it was only me and him, his lips on mine, my back pressing into a cold brick wall.
His touch was the same, familiar. And it shot me back into the past, flinging me headlong to the last kiss we shared. My chest turned cold, like someone had poured ice water down my throat, and I pulled away, pushed past him.
“I need to go home.”
