Someone called out over the music. “It’s fine. Let her in.”
The security guard looked over his shoulder, nodded, and moved aside. “Go ahead.”
I stepped past him, moving deeper into the room as my gaze searched for whoever had come to my rescue. Through the haze of the smoke, I spotted someone sitting in the corner opposite of Jamie—a man with a woman on each side. As I floated in his direction, the song changed to one I knew, “Hell Is Round the Corner”.
The man’s features came into focus frame by frame. Long, booted legs crossed at the ankles. Elegant hands resting on black jean-covered thighs. Narrow waist, wide shoulders, and a tattooed neck. My gaze landed on his face, and I froze in place.
He was the most heartbreakingly handsome man I’d ever seen.
I could barely breathe as I took in his blond hair, light brows, and aristocratic features that the boys of my dreams couldn’t hold a candle to. When he tipped his head back to laugh at something the blonde on his right said, my gaze licked along the sharp edge of his jaw as if it were a lollipop, and I’d never tasted sugar before.
Suddenly, he glanced at me and our eyes met. We were still at least ten feet apart, but it was as if the distance between us folded in on itself and shrank to nothing.
I’d never believed in love at first sight. That was something reserved for fairytales and romcoms, not real life. But as I looked at this man, everything inside of me seized in a way I’d never felt before. It was as if my body was telling me everything I’d believed up until now had been a lie.
There was only one truth in this world. And that washim.
The arrogant smile on his face melted away to make room for a tantalizing smirk. Inch by inch, his gaze moved from my face to my collarbones, across my chest, and all the way down to my shoes. When his eyes sprung back up, I prayed that by some act of God, he was as affected as I was.
Dismissing the two girls with a flick of his hand, he placed his elbows on his knees and beckoned me closer with his fingers. My steps moved with the music, each one impossibly loud in my ears, as if counting down moments until nothing would be the same ever again.
3
Time stopped.But not in the sense that nothing was happening. Instead, the moment stretched, like bubble gum, encompassing more and more until I was hyper aware of everything. The gritty smoke in my nostrils, the buzzing in my gut, the way the man was soaking me in with his gaze. I wanted him to keep looking. When he was focused on me, I didn’t feel like the awkward seventeen-year-old who was completely out of her depth. When he was looking at me, I felt special. I feltbeautiful.
It was a heady combination, one that had the potential to become addicting.
My knees bumped against the small coffee table by his feet, and I stopped. He watched me intently, silently beckoning me closer with emerald eyes that seemed to glow in the dim-pink light of the lounge.
I inched around the table and lowered down by his side. The leather sofa was still warm from the blonde who’d just left.
“Hello.” His voice was thick honey.
I swallowed and gave him a shaky smile. “Hi.”
“Who are you?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
For some reason, my memory flashed to Jamie’s question to me yesterday. He had asked for my name. This man was asking me who I was.
I’m yours,my mind screamed.
“I’m Ivy,” I said.
The man’s smirk grew into a crooked smile. “I’m Oliver.”
Oliver. I knew that name.
This was the guitarist of Ritual Disruption. Unlike Jamie, who looked better in pictures, Oliver’s magnetism only manifested in real life. In the photos I saw of him with the band, or alone with his guitar, he was just a man.
In person, he was agod.
He moved his arm up onto the backrest and angled his body toward me. “Where did you come from, Ivy?” he asked, leaning toward me so that his breath washed over the side of my neck.
I swallowed. “I’m here with Bleeding Moonlight. My brother, Cole, is the bassist. I’m on tour with you for two weeks.”
His tongue snaked over a piercing in his bottom lip and my entire body shivered in response.
“When did you arrive?”
