I nod, rendered effectively speechless by the intoxicating combination of his smoldering stare and the needful lilt to his voice.
“Last night wasn’t how it normally is for me. Neither was this morning. In fact, this morning, well, I don’t even have a name for that.”
Lovemaking, I think but don’t say.
Gavin rakes a hand through his hair and continues. “And I care about you more than I have ever cared about any other woman, and it pisses me off that you don’t seem to get that. The reason we never did any of . . . of those things before was because you mean more to me than that.”
“And because of Dallas,” I say, because I know it’s true even if I don’t know why exactly.
He nods. “Yeah. That, too.”
My brain is processing his words at the speed of churning molasses but my heart and lungs seem to grasp them immediately. My chest swells between us, grazing his with the considerable effort it’s taking to breathe normally.
“Bluebird,” he begins, lowering his face to mine so that our noses are almost touching. “Seeing you in this dress is killing me because I know how other men are thinking about you when they see you in it. For instance, that Brian guy was practically salivating.”
“He wasn’t—”
“He was. He still is.” Before I can check over my shoulder, Gavin lowers a hand to my hip and speaks low into my ear. “Give me a break, baby. I know we had our night and that’s that, but you haven’t even showered my scent off you yet. So forgive me for still maintaining an alpha male sense of ownership over your body. You’re going to have to give me a little more time before I can stand idly by and watch another man wish he had what I did last night.”
“And this morning,” I add with a sly grin.
“And this morning.” For a moment we’re just sharing a secret smile, locked in a mutual memory I’m ready to relive as soon as humanly possible.
“Everything okay?” Dallas says, his voice bursting the lust bubble that had formed around Gavin and me.
“Yep,” I say, taking a step backward as Gavin releases me. “Just going over the last-minute details.”
“We straight, Garrison?” he asks Gavin without looking at me.
“As an arrow, Lark. Time to go on?” We look up to see Cold September starting their last number.
“Almost. Let’s head backstage,” Dallas says, casting a wary gaze that lingers over the two of us.
“Lead the way, big brother,” I say, anxious to get this over with.
Sweat rolls down my back and I decide to play without the jacket. Once we’re backstage, I remove it and set it on a chair. Mandy’s eyes meet mine knowingly. She shifts her smug gaze to Gavin and lifts her chin.
Damn it. She knows.
A full-blown panic attack looms on the horizon as Dallas runs through the set list with us one more time.
She’s been paying closer attention than Dallas has and now the one person I don’t trust knows my biggest secret. She sits back like an ominous voyeur as we prepare to set up. I start to wonder how much she’s seen, how long she’s been watching. My stomach twists and turns while it sinks it that she has something on me—on me and Gavin, really.
“In every aspect of life, there are players and moves to be made. There are winners and there are losers.”
I finally understand exactly what she means. She’s the player with the advantage now. That advantage being knowledge of something I never intended for my brother to find out.
Question is, what will she do with it?