Page 14 of Mine

“I’ve met Tommy,” I said.

He was a nice guy and I knew he was big in the industry. He’d been on me to set up a meeting with his record label, but I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted. That felt like such a large step, and I’d only been playing with my band for a couple months now.

“I gotta go,” Adam sighed as another mic screech split our ears. “They’re having sound problems. I’ll pay you out when the bar closes, you made a shit ton of tips and drink sales for us. It’ll be a good one.”

“Thanks man, have a good night.” I watched as he darted up the steps. Jack, Eric, and Tyler emerged and joined me. “You did great,” I said. “He’ll pay me out once the show is over, and I’ll pay you guys too. You don’t need to hang around if you want to pack up.” I needed them out of my hair so I could find the dream girl.

“Thanks,” Eric said. “That was a solid set.”

“You were a little laggy,” Jack quipped.

Eric glowered. “I couldn’t hear you for a minute there.”

“We all settled into it,” Tyler said, giving me a tired smile. He was a large, bearish man who radiated kindness. “Shoot me a text when you know the next practice time.”

I nodded, and the three of them split to gather their instruments and pack up. I rolled my shoulders and wove through what was basically a storage room—cluttered with chairs, tables, and random equipment.

Once I stepped into the dark hallway, I paused and leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. It was the only semi-quiet spot in Beaumont’s—a kind of purgatory, tucked between the stage and the rest of the bar, where no one usually wandered.

Movement in the corner of my eye had my head snapping up.

It’s her.

My body was moving before my thoughts had time to catch up. Her back was to me, heels giving her a little more height than when I saw her the first time. She stood at the end of the hall, one shoulder leaning against the grungy brick, her attention fixed elsewhere.

I slowed as I came up behind her. My fingertips grazed her arm and she stiffened. I lowered my voice. “Are you stalking me?”

“Iknewit was you,” she said. “I should ask you the same.”

The neon lights glowed midnight blue, casting an iridescent sheen on the silver strands that framed the side of her face. She still continued to look away from me, but I couldn’t help myself. I stepped closer, the tension between us unbearable. From here, I could see the dance floor, but the energy wasn’t the same as it’d been earlier.

What the fuck am I doing?

“Are you going to look at me?” I whispered. I just wanted to see her face up close. “I know you were watching me across the bar. I saw you.”

“Everyone was watching you,” she said. “I recognized your voice. I was listening to you sing, and then you said something that made it click.That’sthe guy from Adagio. It took a minute, but your voice is not an easy one to forget.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment. The way she said it was beyond cold. Clinical, almost.

I closed the distance between us. It was a risk. It was stupid, it was wrong, butsomethingpulled me closer. She was a magnet.

“I should yell for someone,” she said.

“Do it,” I urged. “Or you could scream out my name.”

She cursed under her breath, her head turning slightly. I drank in the curves of her cheeks, her cute nose, the softness of her red lips. Smoky shadow darkened her eyes, her lashes long. “I don’t know your real name.”

I was breaking all the rules. I didn’t just grab people, I didn’t cage women against walls in small bar hallways. It was fucking predatory. It was wrong, and yet?—

“Do you want to know it?” I asked, planting my hand on the wall next to her face.

She pushed back against me with her ass. My eyes shuttered closed and I thought about hiking up her skirt and fucking her right here and now.

Both of us froze.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” she whispered.

“Whatever it is, it’s wrong with me too.”

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