Page 84 of Forever Always

“Fucking Christ, Ri. You need to cut your nails.”

He grinned and pushed himself off the floor. “I like them like this. C’mon. You can’t distract me, baby. We’ll shower together, and then we gotta go. I don’t want to be late.

“You seriously won’t tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope,” he replied, popping the P.

There was no point arguing, not when Riley had his mind set like this. So I stood up, put the glass back on the table, and stalked to the shower as Riley followed me.

Once we were in the bathroom and naked, Ri reached up, his fingers grazed the scratches he’d made.

He kissed them then turned on the water and hopped into the shower before even waiting for it to warm up.

We stopped in front of a gray brick building with a bright pink door. A security guard in a skintight, black T-shirt leaned against the wall and looked kind of ridiculous next to the color scheme.

It felt weird being out in public like this. I sorta felt exposed. Mr. Chase had been watching us all this time. Maybe he still was. It made me want to wrap Riley up and lock him in our apartment. Though, he was watching us there too, so maybe it didn’t fuckin’ matter. I tried to shake off the violated feeling and focused on Ri and the present.

“Where are we, butterfly?”

He rolled up on the balls of his feet, thrilled with himself. He looked good. He had on fitted, faded black jeans with tears going up his thighs. His ass looked bitable in them. He had an old band T-shirt on that was a size too small, showing off a bit of skin below his belly button. His thrift store leather jacket was fake but still looked great on him. His high-top Chuck Taylors had seen better days, but it really fit this punk-rock thing he had going on.

“We’re seeing Rebel Revolutions.” He bounced on his feet again as he said it.

I raised an eyebrow, not really following. Rebel Revolutions was my favorite, but how the fuck did he get tickets for them? They weren’t big by modern pop standards, but they were classics in the alt/indie world, and even at a place like this, the tickets weren’t cheap.

“How?”

“Liam. He works at the restaurant with me, also bartends here. The band gave some tickets to the staff and he had two extra so he gave them to me.”

Holy fuck, I was overwhelmed. I’d never been to a concert before, and maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal to most people, but to me, it was huge.

“Riley, I-I don’t know what to say.”

“Say thanks, butterfly. I got everything covered. You don’t gotta worry about anything. Just have fun.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed my hands on my man. I gripped the back of his neck, and brought him close enough that we were touching. He tipped his head up to look at me, and I immediately covered his lips with mine. Fuck, he tasted sweet. Had he been eating candy before we came here? I held him tighter as, for once, Riley let me control the kiss.

When a throat cleared, I pulled away from Ri, prepared to tear the guard a new one until I saw he was laughing. “Might wanna wait till you’re inside to finish that. This neighborhood ain’t as welcoming as the club.”

Riley flushed and straightened out his jacket. “Right. Sorry. Um, here, I got tickets for us.” Riley pulled them out and handed them to the guard.

“IDs?”

I went to fish mine out of the wallet, not surprised when Ri pulled out his fake. I couldn’t wait till he was 21 so we could be done with this shit, but it was easier this way.

If the guard thought it wasn’t real, he didn’t question it and just handed everything back to us.

“Thanks, man,” I told him as I wrapped an arm around Riley’s back and headed inside.

There were people everywhere. This place was wall to wall bodies, and there was no fuckin’ way this wasn’t somekind of fire code violation. Not that anyone seemed to give a fuck. Riley slipped from my arms, but before I could freak, he grabbed my hand and started weaving us through the crowd.

I squeezed his hand tightly as I tried to relax, but it was hard with so many people slamming into me from every direction. By the time Ri got us to the bar, I was sweating and struggling to get air in.

“Don’t worry, baby. Liam got us hooked up for the upstairs area. You gotta be VIP for that shit, so you won’t be mobbed. I just need to find him first.”

I breathed a little easier. I should’ve known Ri would take care of me and knew I wouldn’t be able to handle this area.

“What can I get you?” a female bartender asked.

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