Page 75 of Between Now and Always

“It’s the only instrument that can take everything I’ve got, all my weight, all my passion, my compulsive playing. And you’re the same…my miracle, and I’m going to make sure you never forget that.”

* * *

“Why are you getting dressed?” Carter snatches my pants from me, and jumps away from my hold when I lunge for them.

“Because, I’m probably going to get fired the minute I walk back out there, and I actually like this job. I can’t believe we did that, everyone heard.”

“Yeah, I bet,” his smile smug and when I reach for my pants again, he wraps an arm around me, ignoring my squeal of protest and kisses me.

“Mmmm, I could kiss you forever,” he murmurs and I decide that if I’m getting fired, I might as well enjoy it. I sling my arm around his neck and kiss him back.

The door flies open. Carter shoves me behind him so fast, I don’t realize I’ve moved until I find myself staring at his bare back.

“D, what the Fuck?” he growls, handing my pants to me behind his back. I take them, my hands shaking as I step into them and step around Carter and see that voice belongs to Dane West, the enigmatic drummer of his band. His gaze flicks over me, narrow eyed, but otherwise, unreadable.

He looks at Carter, and smirks approvingly. “Sorry to bust up your loud ass fucking, but we’ve gotta get out of here. There’s a mob outside. We didn’t give anyone a heads up and now, there aren’t enough cops on duty close by to do this kind of crowd control.”

“Oh, shit,” Carter grabs his shirt off the floor and I stand there too stunned to speak.

“What do you mean, a mob?” My boss is going to kill me if anything disrupts the prep for the event tonight.

“I need to go anyway. My boss must be looking for me.”

He stops me mid turn with a hand wrapped around my arm.

“No. Not yet. You stay here until we leave. If they see you come out of here before me, you’ll need a police escort to take you home. Alright?”

“Sure.” I ignore his bandmate’s blatantly nosy stare and press up on my toes to cup his face and bring his mouth back to mine for another kiss.

He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me off my feet. His lips move over mine, hungry like he hadn’t just finished ravaging them.

“That’s fucking nice and shit. But, dude, we gottago,” Dane drawls.

Carter presses one last hard kiss to my lips before he pulls back.

“Have a good show,” I tell him.

He cocks his head at me in amusement, a smirk pulls up the corners of his mouth. “You’re not coming?”

I shake my head. “Those tickets sold out in less than two minutes, months ago.”

He bites his full bottom lip and gives me a slightly quizzical look and reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a white envelope. My heart leaps in my throat.

“What is it?” I ask, and take it with trembling hands.

“There are four tickets in there. I was hoping you’d want to come. It’s our opening night. Everyone will be there. It’s going to be the best night of the tour.”

I peek inside, but only so he can’t see my eyes.

I don’t understand the acute rush of disappointment I feel, so I shake it off. My lips are stinging and raw from the fierce kisses we just shared. My body is bruised and aching in the best ways from the desperate need we just tried to satiate.

Tomorrow, when he leaves for his next tour stop, I’ll still feel all of that. It’ll be enough to hold me over until he’s back. I silently chastise myself for being so greedy and plaster a wide smile on my face before I look back up at him. “Thank you. Porsha is going to die of happiness.”

He lowers his head and swipes his lips across mine. My eyes flutter closed on their own accord at the touch. It is the gentlest of kisses, just his lips caressing mine, but it sets off a riot of butterflies inside of me.

“Open your eyes Beth,” he murmurs against my mouth.

I do … and find myself staring into his gorgeous green eyes and in them, I see his heart and its devotion to me.

---