Page 71 of Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit
But she was right there. I stopped moving and stared, the world around us growing still as I watched her. She was handing out stuffed animals to little kids on their way out the door, laughing with them and touching their noses with the stuffies before she handed them over. And when the last one stepped out and the door shut behind him, she stood for a moment watching the door like she was trying to process what had just happened. The only light in the area was right above her, highlighting her like she was on stage.
Like someone up above us wanted to make sure I could see her.
When she turned, her heart was in her eyes and her lips were parted, and I didn’t have to wonder what she was thinking. She’d been just as affected by the day as I had, and the memory wasn’t going to leave her anytime soon. She’d also been waiting for me to be alone. I didn’t know how I knew it, but it was right there in front of me, a thought just waiting for me to grab it, andI reached for it, tucked it into my pocket, and started strolling toward her.
“You gave them quite a day,” she said when I drew even with where she was.
I shrugged and looked at the door that had just closed. “They deserve more. I’ve set up a trust fund to make sure they get to come back once a month. And have plenty of food.”
I watched her out of the corner of my eye, seeing quite clearly the smile that bloomed over her face. “The Rivers Shine Good Deed Fund.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” I warned her, mock serious. “People will start to see through me.”
She threaded her fingers through mine and squeezed. “Probably not. But I think I’m starting to.”
I turned to her then to find her face tipped up to me, her eyes considering. She wasn’t shining. She didn’t look like she was about to beg me to take her home, like she had that first night when I met her. Instead, she looked like she wasactuallytrying to see through me. Like she was starting to realize that something she’d suspected all along was truer than she’d realized.
“Better be careful. I think the lady that runs the place is halfway in love with you already,” she murmured.
I snorted at that. “No, she’s not. They all look that way when you give money to their organizations. It’s not what they’re used to.”
Lila tipped her head back and forth, considering. Then a corner of her mouth turned up. “She might not be, then. Other people, though...”
My body both froze and caught on fire at the same time. I felt like a live wire that was being doused in water. Ice that had somehow burst into flame. “Other people like who?”
“Well, those kids, for starters. You’re going to be their idol for the rest of their lives. And the people who work with them. The people who work here, I bet.”
“And what about you?”
I couldn’t help it. I had to know. I knew I’d said I was no good for her and that she would be better off without me. I’d already started the paperwork to get myself out of the band and off this tour specifically so she could take my place. I didn’t doubt any of that. I knew it was the right thing.
But she was also standing right there in front of me, glowing up at me like a tiny sun, and it was impossible not to want her. I could tell myself until I was blue in the face that I was no good for her, but the part of me that wanted her to want me, that needed the sunshine and happiness she brought with her, refused to give up.
Fucking God, I wanted her to be halfway in love with me, and not only because of what I’d done for these kids today. I wanted Lila Potter to think of me in that way. I didn’t know how to turn that wish off...and I didn’t know if I wanted to.
She brushed my cheek softly with her fingertips, her skin as warm as honey against my own. “I think there’s a lot more to you than anyone ever realized. And I think you deserve to be seen.”
That was all I needed.
I claimed her mouth with mine and dove into her, every inch of me on fire with need for this girl. I tipped her chin up to give me better access, and she moaned, opening her mouth to me and taking me in.
And that right there slowed me down. Yesterday in my room had been hot and very fast, nothing more than the instinct of needing her. But this right here...
I wanted to take my time. I wanted to leave the world behind and pretend that we were the only people in the city. The only people in the universe.
Stooping down, I slid my arm under her knees and lifted her up, making my way slowly toward one of the booths in the restaurant. She wrapped her arms around my neck and continued kissing me like she was drowning, her mouth hot and her breath coming faster and faster. Our tongues danced in a slow, methodical waltz, and we breathed each other in and out, too entranced in the kiss to stop.
God, I’d been wrong about her being only the sun. She was the earth and moon and stars, all wrapped into one. She was the best sort of heat and the only sort of warmth I needed.
I got to the booth and sat with her in my lap, and a moment later she’d managed to move herself around so she was straddling me. She pressed down against my cock, so hard now that I could barely feel anything else, and I gasped at the sudden contact. When she reared back and gave me a sly, almost shy smile, I pulled her back toward me.
“What are you doing?” I whispered against her mouth.
“Rivers Shine, I thought you were some sort of Casanova,” she whispered back. “I would think it was obvious.”
And with that, the time for going slowly was finished. I stood and pushed her down onto her back on the table, my hand stopping to cup her cheek as I started working at the button and zipper of my jeans. Her eyes darkened and grew wide, then darted around the room.
“What are you doing?”
