“He’s a really good kisser.”
My jaw drops in a gasp, and Leti’s cheeks burn red as he chuckles and I enter freak-out territory. “YOU KISSED HIM? HERE? JUST NOW?”
When Leti shakes his head, that grin still plastered all over his face, I furrow my brows in confusion until he explains.
“He kissed me!”
My eyes open saucer-wide, and he laughs again before spinning me some more. I have a million more questions I want to ask—questions I need to ask before I explode—but the music between us blares loud and Leti spins me and twirls me and dances me like a marionette until I’m light-headed and loving it. My arms become weightless, my legs become lighter than air, and I float behind Leti all the way back to the sunken bar. I grin at my brother as I glide down the stairs, delighting in the way he blushes when he tunes in to our twin frequency and realizes I know what he did. I know he kissed Leti.
“Where’d everyone go?” Leti asks our group, sidling up to Kale while still keeping an ambiguous distance.
“Out for a smoke break,” Shawn answers as he takes in my sweat-tipped hair, my damp top, my pink skin. I’m sure I look like a hot mess, but there’s no point in trying to fix it. “Adam kept getting hit on.”
“Did he take the necklace off?” I ask, and Shawn makes me laugh when he shakes his head.
He hands me a full raspberrita he must have ordered while I was away, and I can’t help the shy smile that dimples my cheek as I lift it to my lips.
“Shawn,” Leti asks, “want to dance?”
Shawn coughs out a laugh that does nothing to dim Leti’s smile.
“Oh, come on. You haven’t danced at all!” Leti complains. “If you’re not going to dance with me, you should at least dance with Kit.”
I find myself shaking my head as everyone watches—because I remember all too well what happened the last time I danced with Shawn. I made a damn fool of myself and then nearly barfed in his mouth.
“I’m actually getting tired,” I say, turning my not-at-all-tired gaze on Shawn. “Think the guys would be cool with heading back to the bus yet?”
“Nooo,” Leti whines. “You can’t leave.”
I flash him a secret smile. “Kale can stay with you! We’ll catch a cab back.”
Even though Leti pouts about me leaving early and putting the kibosh on his evil plan to hook me up with Shawn, he lets us go. Kale hugs me tight before I do, warning in my ear, “I don’t like him, Kit. I came up here because I was worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” I say back, kissing his cheek. He frowns at me as I back away. “And you have better things to do than worry about me!” I wink at him and yell at Leti to make sure my brother gets home safe, and then I turn around and walk out to the sidewalk with Shawn to join our three missing rock stars. We hail a cab driver, tip him in advance for letting the five of us break the law by cramming into his taxi, and pile inside.
On the way to the club, Kale had driven and we’d all squished in tight, with me on Leti’s lap. This time, Adam calls shotgun; Shawn, Joel, and Mike claim the backseat; and I end up on Shawn’s lap with my legs tangled with his. The night is dark, with the city lights flashing in and out of the car, and this time, when Shawn’s fingers find my hip, there’s no music pounding in my ears, no lasers filling the room. It’s just us in the dark, my skintight leggings heavy on his lap and his fingers slipping under my loose tank top to caress my goose-bumped skin.
In the dim glow of the cab, while the other guys are talking, I gaze down at him. My arm is curled behind his neck, and those impossibly green eyes are all mine, staring up at me from under black lashes that look soft enough to kiss. The streetlights flash across his face over and over and over again, highlighting the emerald specks in his eyes, the perfect shape of his nose, the shadow on his jaw. Each span of darkness makes me want to kiss him, and each flash of light reminds me that I can’t.
When the cab drops us back off at the bus, I stumble out of the backseat first, not waiting for the rest of the guys before I climb on board our gray-and-silver sleeper. I immediately grab my bag from a cabinet and head for the shower, taking it cold. The water rains over my face, washing away makeup and dancing and the heat on my skin. The cold makes Shawn feel like a dream, even though the ghost of his fingertips clings like an invisible print on my sides—one I can feel, one that’s impossible to wash away.
I take a deep breath and run my hands over my face, standing under the ice water until both my body and my memories are numb, until the entire night seems like yesterday. When I step out of the bathroom in fresh pajamas, with a fresh-washed face, it’s a new day, one I can face. One that doesn’t make my heart hurt.