Page 47 of Dear Rockstar (Dear Rockstar 1)

“What?”

“He wants to take me to dinner. The movie doesn’t start for two hours.” She pulled off her t-shirt, standing there in her bra and reaching for the black, off-the-shoulder sweater dress she’d decided on.

“I know, we’re wicked early,” I agreed, watching Aimee wiggle out of her jeans, toeing off her Converse sneakers and standing there in her stocking feet as she shoved her jeans back into the bag. “Dale wasn’t happy.”

Aimee snorted, pulling two boxes out and putting them on the shelf. “Why didn’t he tell you he was playing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Which ones?” Aimee opened both boxes, showing me her choices like I hadn’t been there when she’d picked them out. I pretended to contemplate, but I knew which ones I liked better. So I told her to wear the other ones.

“Are you sure?” She slipped on the short black boots with the skinny, high heel, turning to look at her profile in the mirror. Her curly red hair was like a river of fire down the back of her black dress.

“Positive.” I took the shoes out of the other box. “Can I borrow these?”

She wore a shoe half a size bigger than me, but it was close enough.

“For what?”

“Incentive.” I grinned, pulling my oversize t-shirt off and slipping on the Black Diamond one. It was three sizes too small, making it more of a half-shirt, coming down to just above my navel and hugging my breasts like a second skin. Balancing against the sink, I yanked off my socks and slipped Aimee’s new shoes on. They were higher than anything I was used to wearing—three inches at least—a soft, velvet heel with a black strap around the ankle and a silver buckle on the side. Sexy as hell.

I bent to do the buckles and then stood next to Aimee in the mirror, surveying the landscape, which was quite attractive.

Aimee gave a low whistle. “Your legs go on forever in those things.”

“Sure you don’t mind?” I turned to look at myself from behind, jeans huggingly tight, the shirt revealing a good expanse of my lower back.

Aimee shook her head. “Dale is going to die. He’s going to jump you right there in the middle of the mall.”

“That’s the idea.” I grinned, reaching for my purse and searching through it for my makeup bag. “Let’s make the boys drool.”

Aimee gave me the bag full of clothes so I could stash them in my car—she’d be going home with Matt—and we walked out of the bathroom two very different women than had gone in. Aimee left her long hair down on my suggestion, but I’d gathered mine up, pulling it back in a banana clip, a loose, intentionally messy look that left my neck exposed. Tempting. I hoped.

If I’d had any doubts before I saw Dale turn as we approached, they vanished the minute I caught the look on his face. He and Matt stood talking where the t-shirt table had been, but it was gone now, along with Dale’s father and the band. Matt saw us first, jaw dropping and eyes widening. A few wolf-whistles followed us.

I heard Aimee giggle, felt her nudge me, but Dale glanced in our direction and the moment he did, everything else disappeared.

I thought I’d memorized every possible Dale-look, but this one floored me. I actually stopped in my tracks, feeling the force of it from five feet away. It wasn’t the same voracious gaze I’d almost grown used to from him, the one that followed me through the halls at the academy, leaving me breathless and aching alone in my car when we said goodbye. This was far more dangerous than that.

This look said mine. No one had ever looked at me like that before, utterly possessive in not just gaze but action too. Dale took two strides toward me, pulling me into the circle of his arms and growling into my ear. No words, but a low, sustained growl rumbling through my whole body, his hands on my lower back again, this time touching skin, the shock of it thrilling me beyond words. I dropped Aimee’s shopping bag and my purse onto the floor, putting my arms around him, feeling his body tighten, like a bowstring pulled too taut, an arrow just waiting to be released.

“Hungry?” I whispered, my lips brushing his neck, not a kiss, just a caress. I felt his breath catch and his arms tighten, crushing me, not that I cared. I’d never felt so wanted.

He groaned, pulling back to meet my eyes. “Fucking starving.”

The way he looked at me, I knew he wasn’t talking about food.

Of course, neither was I.

CHAPTER NINE

“Hey, we’re going,” Aimee called. Matt held her hand as they walked by. “We’ll see you at the movie?”

It wasn’t a double-date, but we would end up at the same theater.

“See you,” I said weakly, forcing myself to look away from Dale’s dark gaze and waving as they headed toward the mall exit. Aimee grinned back at me and gave me a goofy thumbs up over her shoulder.

“BEE good, you two!” Dale called, letting me go, at least partially, sliding an arm around my waist so he could turn and wave to them.

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