It rose into something that verged on violence, a chaotic disorder that somehow felt like freedom, as if the entire place was riding that sharp edge of beauty that at any moment might slip and shatter.
It became more intense, so intense that I felt myself losing my footing. So wild I couldn’t tell if it was my spirit or my feet that had truly been swept away.
I felt staggered when the set came to an abrupt end.
Vibrations of their last song still rang through the air, knitting with the roar of the crowd.
Austin thrust a fist in the air and exited the stage, and both Lyrik and Ash tossed their picks out into the crowd before they followed him off.
How it was possible that energy grew when Zee climbed down from the risers, I didn’t know.
But I felt it stirring, building fast as he made his way down and came closer to the edge of the stage. He tossed one drumstick out into the crowd, then the other toward the other side. He was so mesmerizing I could’ve sworn I was floating in the remnants of the song.
I thought he’d exit the side of the stage like the rest of the guys. But his gaze scrambled across the faces that cheered and stretched out their hands to get closer to him. The same way I felt desperate to.
Bronze flecks gleamed in his eyes when they finally tangled with mine.
And this boy…this magnetic boy leaned down toward me, hand outstretched.
Oh God.
He’d warned me we had to be careful. That the paps were watching. That we had to keep our distance and play it cool.
Maybe I’d been a fool to agree, to give in. But I was chasing those slivers of time that I could feel winding down, clinging to the moments before they came to an end.
It was what had led me to stand at the base of the stage, my heart going haywire. Erratic beat after erratic beat.
I fought against the bodies that crammed toward him, eager to get closer. He touched a few of the hands lifted in his direction.
The second I touched him, his hand curled around mine. He hauled me up through the demanding crowd, the muscles in his arm bulging as he lifted me onto the stage.
Giddiness swept through my consciousness. Dizzying and sweet. I gasped out in shock when I was suddenly on stage with Zee.
It felt like a statement.
It felt like a promise.
It felt like perfection.
“What are you doing?” I rasped through the surprise when both his hands landed on either side of my neck.
His voice was gruff where he murmured it close to my lips. “I need you.”
“What about people seeing us?”
“I don’t care anymore, Alexis. Can’t go a second more acting like what we have is wrong.”
And that was it. I was gone. There was no longer any question. I belonged to him.
“Come with me,” he demanded.
Didn’t he get I was already there?
Cheers turned to chants that rose from the floor as he hauled me behind him. He led me to the opposite side of the stage than the rest of the band had exited. He pushed aside a thick black drape that hung from the ceiling and pulled me into the well of darkness waiting backstage.
Members of the crew darted around the narrow space, shuffling cords and rushing on stage as they moved equipment around.
The chants grew fainter though more demanding the deeper we went into the depths of the theater.
“This way,” Zee said, keeping a tight hold on my hand as he took a right turn down another hall.
My heart thundered, this thrill shivering through my senses and taking me whole.
Zee turned the knob of a door and ducked us inside. He flipped a switch.
A light flickered on, breaking the wall of darkness and lighting the room in a dusky glow.
If I had to guess, it had once upon a time been a small dressing room, the space currently cluttered with boxes and old equipment.
Zee spun around in the middle of it. For a beat, he stared me down, pinning me with the stunning potency of those eyes. Those eyes that consumed and ravaged and devastated.
“Alexis.” He said my name like praise.
A strike of lust exploded in the air. A frenzy lit.
He pushed me against the wall, big hands on my neck, fingers driving into my hair.
He groaned the deepest groan when he seized my mouth, his tongue hot and his kiss unyielding. He pressed me tighter against the wall, the strength of his body overpowering mine, my knees weak and my spirit bounding.
“Zee,” I mumbled at his mouth. I clutched his shirt and lifted to my toes in a bid to get closer.
His hands moved down my neck and over my shoulders.
Chills spread.
I panted, and he splayed his hands wide, dragging them down my sides until he had hold of the hem of my lacy tank. He edged back and tore it over my head.
My chest heaved, bare, no bra underneath.
“You’ve ruined me, Alexis Kensington. I know all the shit I’m supposed to do, but then I catch a glimpse of you, and it’s all over. Done. Finished.” It was a growl. “No power left in me except what I’m gonna do to you.”
I threw myself at him, locking my arms around his neck and kissing him with everything I had.
With everything I felt.
Did he feel it, too?
Was it possible?
Fall with me.
He ripped open the button of my jeans and yanked down the zipper.
He spun us in the same second he was dragging my jeans and panties down my legs. He kept edging me back, lips still touching mine. “What the hell have you done to me? I’m so lost, baby. So damned lost.”
A thunder vibrated the floors, the heavy beat of music as it thrummed from the other side of the theater, the chants of the fans a throb that pulsed against our ears.
I lifted my face, the man a fortress over me. I flattened my palms beneath his shirt. “And with you is where I’m found.”
His defined abdomen trembled as I drew up his shirt, and he leaned down so I could pull it free.
Needy pants jetted from my mouth. He was so gorgeous in the glow of the light, his body glistening from the exertion of the set.
Muscles solid and tight.
Relentless.
My fingers shook as I trailed them over that mark before I turned and dragged them to his fly. I ripped it down, and it was Zee who shoved his pants to his thighs. His cock sprang free, just as massive as the rest of him.
Begging.
Demanding.
Straining toward me.
I took him in my hand, pumped him twice. Zee groaned, so deep and dark it echoed through the room. Like a chord added to rumble that vibrated the floors and shook the walls.
I gapsed when he grabbed me by the waist and hiked me up, shoving boxes out of the way and setting me on the edge of a table.
I clung to it, barely keeping myself upright when he gripped me by the knees and spread me wide before dropping down in front of me.
Desire flooded.
A river. Liquid. Hot.
“Alexis,” he murmured against my flesh before he drove his tongue in, taking a sharp dive through my center, deep, penetrating, before he angled, sucking and licking at my clit.
Pants rose in the air, my stomach in knots as sensations flew.
He set my thighs on his shoulders, his hands running up and down. Driving me higher with each caress. Higher with each stroke of his tongue.
“Zee…oh…God.”