Page 7 of Tattoos and Heartbreak
Maybe she was actually the sun, I thought, too drunk to realize how stupid that sounded. Or maybe she was a star. Equally bright, equally warm, and focused on me with something that made me want to take her inside me and hold her there.
When we finished the bottle, I wasn’t ready to stop hearing her stories. I certainly wasn’t ready to leave the glowing warmth of her presence. I didn’t want to go back to the emptiness of my own room and sit there by myself thinking about how the world had hurt me and how I wasn’t doing anyone any good with the way I’d chosen to face it.
Anna, on the other hand, seemed to have had enough. “Well, I guess we should probably get to bed,” she said, eying the empty bottle. “I think we’ve drunk enough for the night.”
“I’m not tired,” Lila disagreed. “I don’t want to go to bed.”
“Me either,” I admitted. “I don’t think I could sleep yet.”
Anna didn’t answer, and I could practically feel the disapproval radiating off her. She didn’t think I should stay. Hell, she hadn’t thought I should come over in the first place.
My gaze met Lila’s and I could see that she was thinking the same thing. Anna didn’t want us to keep hanging out, and though Lila might usually take that into consideration, she was second-guessing her friend right now.
I lifted one eyebrow and her lips twitched in response.
Oh yeah, we were thinking the exact same thing.
“If Anna wants to go to bed, you could always come to my room and have another drink.”
Her eyebrows lifted to match mine and she tried to get serious. “But what if you kidnap me?”
I leaned toward her and breathed in her sunshine and floral scent. “I swear I’m not going to kidnap you.”
She tipped forward toward me, and for one crazy moment I thought she was going to kiss me. She stopped just sort of it though, glanced down at my lips, and then said, “In that case, Rivers Shine, you’ve got a deal.”
LILA
This. Was. Insane.
I was walking out of my room in a hotel in Bardstown incredibly drunk and barely able to stand up on my own, leaving my best friend glowering behind me. It had to be past midnight and this was our first night following Olivia Johns and Connor Wheating on tour. We were here to try to win a contract of our very own.
And instead I was following a guy back to his room.
My hand was caught in the much larger fingers of Rivers Shine.
I couldn’t stop singing that new song about being love drunk in my head.
Like I said, insane. Completely, utterly crazy.
And yet…
I wasn’t exactly turning around and running back to my room, where I was sure Anna was up and waiting for me.
I stifled a smile at the thought and looked up just in time to see Rivers turning to me, the corner of his mouth caught up in a shy smile as he looked from me to the door I’d just closed behind me.
“I don’t think your friend’s very happy with me.”
I half-glanced back at the door as well, then shrugged. “She doesn’t not like you. She’s just spent her whole life trying to take care of me and keep me out of trouble. She doesn’t like it when she fails.”
When I turned back around he was a whole lot closer. Close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him. Smell the deep, musky scent that must have meant he wore some sort of cologne. Funny, I hadn’t noticed that before, but now it was all I could smell. I felt it engulfing me, his warmth surrounding me like some sort of blanket, and when I looked up to meet his eyes…
God, this wasn’t just an insane idea, it was a bad idea with a capital B. A Very Bad Idea. Worse than insane.
I must have lost my fucking mind.
I was standing in a dimly lit hotel hallway in the middle of Kentucky with Rivers Shine and he was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me. Or dip me in chocolate and eat me.
Fuck, maybe hewasgoing to kidnap me.
