I held complete and utter control.
But Lyrik West single-handedly made me feel as if I was losing that control. I could feel it unraveling. Pieces splintering. Ripping and snapping.
He lifted himself from the bike and straightened to standing.
So tall and menacing and beautiful.
Alarm flashed.
“You left,” he said, voice hard.
“And you followed,” I whispered back.
Every promise I’d ever made myself rolled through me on a vicious cycle. The ones I’d made to myself when I was just a little girl. When I was bold, excited, and brave, and had wanted to experience everything in life at least once.
They clashed with the ones I’d made when I was twenty. When I’d turned my back on the girl of my youth and became this hard girl who needed absolutely nothing in her life but herself.
Lyrik slowly mounted the steps.
Relentless.
He stopped at the top. His dark eyes swallowed me whole.
In the distance, thunder rolled. I looked that direction.
“A storm’s coming,” I murmured quietly. I could feel it, gathering in the air. I kept my attention trained on the furor gaining speed, not sure I could continue looking at Lyrik without completely succumbing.
He said nothing as he came closer.
I finally looked toward him as he moved to back me against the door. His hands went to either side of my head.
And again, this dangerous man caged me in.
And I felt vulnerable and small and brave.
Those little girl promises swirled.
I didn’t want to be scared anymore.
Didn’t want to be alone.
“Give me one night. Show me who you are. Show me that anger. Show me why. Fight it out with me with that hot little body.” His words were harsh and desperate. “Or tell me no, Red, tell me no. Say it, and I’ll walk away.”
Fear blasted across my skin, mixing with the fire Lyrik had set.
Together, the two were combustible.
My breath heaved from my lungs.
“I can’t.”
I INCHED FORWARD AND pressed her closer to the wall. She looked up at me with wild blue eyes. They roiled like a tormented sky. I brushed my nose along her temple and inhaled. She smelled so damned good. A touch of cinnamon and a whole lot of spice.
This girl made me lose my head. Fuck. She made me lose my head.
If I were in my right mind, I would walk. I would turn right around and walk away and never look back. Just like I’d promised her I would. I knew it deep. Knew it like the setting of the sun that led me into the darkness night after night.
This was gonna end bad. Just the fact I was chasing her was evidence enough.
But right then? I didn’t care because I wasn’t close to feeling sane.
It seemed no matter how hard the two of us kept trying to fight it, pushing each other off when the other got too close, the next time we just got closer.
Closer and closer and closer until there was no going back.
I couldn’t.
Not anymore.
Sitting up on that stage and playing that song while watching the ripping expressions tear across her features had proven that.
For one night, I wanted it. I wanted her secrets. I wanted to sink my fingers in and take for myself. She was the exact kind of contradiction I craved.
The push and pull.
But this time the pull was too great to ignore.
I traced my thumbs along the delicate slope of her neck. Dragged them across the soft? soft skin. Her pulse was racing with a violent beat. I forced her to look at me while my entire body ran hot.
“Tell me what you want, Red.” It slipped out in a rough murmur.
In the distance, thunder rolled. Those blue eyes flashed. Flashed with courage and fear.
Something about it made me shake.
Almost defiantly, she lifted her chin, and she reached up with her small hands and grasped me around the wrists.
“I want you to kiss me.”
Motherfucker.
Leave it to Red to ask for the thing I didn’t want to give. Memories cut a path of panic through my consciousness. Reminding me of what I’d done. Of why I could never get too close.
Of where my loyalty truly lay.
Clenching my jaw, I gripped her tighter. My heart was giving its all to reject this. Screaming at me to wise up and to do it fast. To turn my back and walk away. No doubt, my feet had officially crossed into the forbidden zone. Out of bounds.
Red was trying to take me places I didn’t want to go.
On the inside, I struggled like a goddamned madman. Torn between lashing out like I’d done the last time she’d been tempting me with the need to sink inside her, to discover the countless secrets she had lying underneath, and gathering her up and letting her in on all of mine.
I was at an all-out war with my instincts. The fucked-up thing was I didn’t even know what those were anymore.
Not when it came to her.
Wavering, I rocked forward in indecision then rocked back. Getting closer to those full red lips with each pass.