The kiss sinks me. It’s as deep and obsessive as every other kiss has been. And when he slows down enough to release my mouth, I’m left dumbfounded and staring at him.
“What…” I can hardly breathe, let alone speak. “Maddox, your mask—”
“Maybe I can do nothing,” he whispers. “And maybe ‘nothing’ means I don’t have to fear this.”
A few people in the crowd are whistling at us, obvious they can’t tell who we are. The strobe lights continue to flicker. The opening act is standing in the shadows waiting for their beat drop.
He presses his forehead to mine, eyes closing. “My terms,” he says. “With you.”
My heart swells ten times its normal size.
Maddox kisses me again, and this time, I don’t hesitate. I don’t hold back any part of me that the previous embrace had snagged on. I know he can feel the smile on my lips, though I wonder if he knows just how fast my pulse is racing right now.
His forehead braces against mine for another moment when we part. I see his smile, hear his soft, nervous chuckle, and I laugh in the same way as emotion burns behind my nose.
He’s out front. No mask.
His choice.
Maddox kisses my forehead and hands me the Bane mask to put on him for the show. I wish I could stop grinning, yet I can’t.
When he bends down, I carefully place it over his head and face. That same sensation I’d felt in the pool house floods me. Warm pools over my neck and chest, spreading down to my center.
His hood falls back, and some of the people around us gasp.
“Oh, shit—Was that—”
“FuckingMads!”
“Mads Tourning!”
I can see the smile in Maddox’s eyes. He takes the jacket that was just over him and places it around me, pulling the hood up because he knows I’m going to need it after that display.
The opening act is coming onto the stage, and Maddox brushes his thumb against my cheek one more time.
“See you after,” he says.
My heart does a giddy dance as I watch him turn toward the crowd, flash the horns with his arms in the air to the sound of the fans around us going insane, and then jump onto the stage at the corner where James is waiting to haul him up—and probably scold him. James gives me a tired expression. However, there’s nothing I could have done.
Once Maddox is out of sight, I clasp my chest and exhale an audible breath as the adrenaline of what just happened seizes me.
I can’t keep the ridiculous smile off of my face the entire set. I have to escape into the curtains between bands because of the people trying to talk to me. I don’t see Maddox again, not until he’s seen making his rounds back and forth on the other side of the stage.
Fans shout when they see him again and again. I chuckle. I know he’s doing it to settle his nerves, but he’s such a tease about it.
Smoke billows over the drum platform when the lights go down. I see the rest of my family watching from the side, Tina jumping up and down as the band gets their entrance going. Strobes set off. Tonight, they have horror film laughter tracks bouncing from corner to corner, some rising in crescendos until they take over the entire room.
The noise sends goosebumps rolling down my spine.
Bonnie appears behind her drum set. Her first few beats send the crowd into a frenzy. The Poison Ivy makeup, hair, and costume looks as though it were made for her. She’s embodying the villain tonight, no question.
Zeb and Maddox step onstage to a staggering whirl of screams, and as sexy as they are, I know the screams are just getting started. I know the moment Reed steps out looking like the Joker, people will lose their shit.
Or their minds. Whichever comes first.
Reed takes tonight to sing the first verse of one of their more popular songs off stage, and I laugh. He’s always been dramatic.
The band, the shows… it takes his love for theatrics to new levels.
