I sat in the band room on a beat-up couch as the support band did their sound check. The sound was muffled, but their music filtered into the room regardless of the soundproofing.

Leaning forward with my elbows on my knees, I rubbed my tired eyes, glad for the short reprieve from the drama. Ever since the other day after the pool, I’d been strung so tight it was no wonder I’d had such a violent dream. My life was spinning out of control, and I had no idea how to rein it back in.

I still hadn’t confronted Will to apologize. Dee had said that I’d scared the shit out of him, and he was just as strung out as I was. The truth was I just didn’t know how to say what I wanted to. I didn’t know how much I should say. I knew I needed to tell him the entire truth, but I wasn’t ready to hear it myself.

When I heard the door open, my gaze snapped up, and I caught sight of Will closing it behind him, his back pressing firmly against it. My breathing instantly picked up, and my heart thudded painfully inside my chest. His eyes were on me, and they were full of fire and anger, lust…I don’t know.

“Zoe.” His voice was low and husky, and I instantly felt my body respond. Dammit.

I didn’t say anything. I just watched him stare at me with a fierce look that seemed a lot like he was starving.

“What happened?” he asked.

I struggled with what to say. Either I didn’t want to say anything or I was that mesmerized by his presence. I didn’t count on the conversation going the way it was headed.

His brows knitted together into a frown as he crossed the room, slowly and deliberately, to sit on the couch next to me. He was careful not to touch me, though I was aware that he had lowered his lips a mere inch from my ear. My heart thumped so hard in my chest, I was positive he could hear it.

“I meant it,” he murmured, “when I said I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

My breathing hitched as his hot breath tickled my neck.

“I will never do anything to hurt you. Ever.”

Somehow, I managed to speak. “Will…”

“Zoe.” His hand was on my face, making me look up at him. “How do you go up to a beautiful woman and not have her think you’re only in it for the sex? I didn’t want you to think you were like those other women,” he said. “I want to know you. I want to know everything about you. I still don’t know what it was about you that night, but I saw you in the crowd, and you were different. I can’t describe it.”

I closed my eyes for a moment and gave into the feelings. The fact he might feel the same longing I felt for him almost undid me. At first, I thought I might have imagined it, but I felt the back of his fingers trailing down the skin of my cheek, and every place he touched burned. Despite all the things I had gone over in my mind to try to convince myself I wasn’t ready, I wanted him. I wanted him so much it hurt.

“Zoe,” he said again. “I can’t live another day and not know you.”

Opening my eyes, I found his stormy gray ones staring back, and it was a look so intense I couldn’t not do something about it. So for the first time since I’d laid eyes on him, I gave in. I slid my palm up his face, over the stubble that I found so irresistible, and into his hair. His mouth fell open slightly, lips parting. His breathing picked up as he leaned into my touch.

“Zoe?” It was hardly audible.

“Yeah?” I whispered back.

“If you don’t stop touching me, I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you.”

I dragged my nails lightly down the back of his head, through his hair, and down his neck, pulling him toward me. “Then do it,” I murmured against his lips.

This time, his kiss was slow and deliberate. He teased me with the tip of his tongue, lightly grazing it across my bottom lip before claiming me completely. My entire body came alive at the slightest touch, and it felt just as consuming as before.

His hand hooked under my knee, tugging me toward him. Following his lead, I straddled his lap, my hair falling around us like a curtain and shutting out the world. Grinding against him, he let out a deep moan, and I could feel how hard he was already. I felt the effect I had on him echoing deep inside me, and it took all of my strength not to guide his hands under my shirt.

“God,” he said in a deep and rumbly voice against my lips. “What have you done to me?”

I ran my hand along his jaw, delighting in the rasp from the stubble that always coated it, and I knew I was done. That kiss had just blown whatever strangled excuse I had tried to formulate right out of the water. I couldn’t stay away now. If this ended badly, then it would be a billion times worse than the last time, but I didn’t care. It was too late. Will had wormed his way into my heart, through all the walls I had built around it, and I wanted him to stay there. He had done it without me even knowing.

“I’m sorry,” he said, breathing heavily. “For trying to make you jealous. I’m such a jerk.”

“You are.” My lips curved into a small smile, and the ghost of the lopsided grin I’d come to fantasize over tugged at his.

“I like you, Zoe. So much. I didn’t know how to handle it, and I still don’t.”

“Neither do I,” I said truthfully. His hands squeezed my hips gently, making me squirm against him.

“What happened?” he asked again, the concern in his voice tugging at my heart. “Did I do something to hurt you?”

“No,” I whispered, winding my hands in his hair. “When you called me baby, it brought back something I would rather forget.”

“What?”

I hesitated, not wanting to give all the details. I wasn’t sure if I remembered them all, anyway. I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, my gaze downcast.

Will brought a thumb up and caressed it across my lips, making me let go.

“I went through a bad breakup.”

“Does it have something to do with your scar?”

I stiffened at his words, and there was no way he could have missed it. “It had a bad effect on me,” I said, blatantly ignoring him. “I lost all my friends and my home. Dee saved me.”

“Zoe…” I could see the pity in his eyes, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want it.

“Don’t.”

“I would never hurt you,” he said fiercely, his hands leaving my hips and winding through my hair.

“I know.”

He pressed his lips against mine again, and after everything we’d just confided in each other, it was the most intense kiss I’d ever had. Will’s entire body shuddered beneath mine, and he only had to shift his pelvis, and I would have come then and there.

“While we’re on the confession thing,” I said carefully, “I do remember you that night. You know, at that gig.”

“But you said you didn’t.”

I shrugged.

“Zo,” he scolded me with a chuckle.

“You raised your eyebrows at me,” I said. “Very hot.”

“You think I’m hot,” he declared, and the intensity of a moment ago shifted into something lighter.

“Does that work on all the girls?”

“Eventually.” The smile fell from his face, and he let his gaze rake over my features, to my lips, and back into my eyes. “You’re beautiful, Zoe Granger. You know that?”

He said it with such determination and raw hunger that I believed him. For a long time, I didn’t think I was remotely pretty or worth knowing, but now? “I’m beginning to believe it when you say it like that.”

“I’m going to tell you every day.” He captured my mouth again, sucking on my bottom lip, dragging his teeth against the skin. Gasping, I clutched the back of his head and pulled him closer. The feeling of his tongue against mine was consuming as our kiss deepened. My skin began to prickle in excitement as his hands brushed over my back, creeping underneath my shirt, and his fingers hovered just below the waistband of my jeans.

I had to move then, grinding myself forward over his erection and pushing against my clit. We both let out a tortured moan, breathing hard. It felt so overwhelming, and we were both still fully clothed.

“Don’t move,” he murmured against my lips.

I didn’t have to ask why.

“Not here,” he whispered, kissing the corner of my jaw, right underneath my ear.

“Later,” I said, and it came out as a gasp as I felt his tongue tease against my neck.

“We’ll see.”

I went to move off him, but he grabbed my hips and held me in place.

“Are you trying to drive me mad?” I asked with a small smile.

“I don’t want to let you go.” He kissed my forehead. “We’ve got a minute. Give me this minute.”

We sat together for a moment, and previously, it would have been awkward as hell, but now it was the most natural thing in the world. We fit together. I knew it, and so did he. Why the hell had I been so determined to fight it when it felt like this?

This was getting dangerously close to something else, and I was suddenly aware of where we were, but I didn’t care one bit. Will’s hands were back in my hair, holding my mouth firmly to his.

We both jumped as the door banged open, and Dee walked in. When his gaze landed on us and our position, he stifled a surprised laugh.

“Oh, shit,” he exclaimed. “Didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay, Dee,” I said, reluctantly getting up. I really needed to cool off.

“We need to sound check.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a sec.”

He looked at us with a sly smile and closed the door behind him.

“I get it now,” Will said, pulling my back flush with his chest. “You and Dee.”

“He means well.”

“He loves you.” When I tensed, he said, “Not like that. He’s your family. They all are. I mean, I know. I have my own.”

“What did he say to you?”

“When?”

“After…what did he tell you?”

Will was quiet for a moment, and I wasn’t sure if the churning in my stomach was dread. “Nothing. He told me it wasn’t his place.”

“And it’s not.” It came out a little harsher than I’d intended.

“I would do anything for you, Zo.” His hands settled on my hips, and I pressed my backside against his hard-on and couldn’t help but smile when he let out a low moan. “Shit.”

“You better stay in here a while,” I said, hoping he really meant every word. “You need to calm down.”

As I walked out of the room, I looked back and gave him a sly smile. The tension that had weighed heavily on my shoulders had all but disappeared. If one kiss from Will could do that, then what else could he do? Just thinking about it made that place between my legs throb.

“You’re wicked, Zoe Granger.” He grimaced as I closed the door behind me.

Out on stage, Chris was helping Frank set up the drum kit, and Dee was fiddling with the leads that ran into his effects pedals. When his eye caught mine, I steeled myself for one of his trademark witty comments.

As I plugged the lead into my guitar, Dee asked, “You guys good?”

“Yeah,” I replied, thankful he was serious for once.

“So are you, like, together now?”

I shrugged.

“Sure looked like it.”

“I guess.”

He knelt down and began tuning his Gibson, his E string all out of whack. “Did you tell him what you told me?”

“The short version.”

He eyed me with suspicion. “How short?”

“Bare minimum.”

“Zoe, things like this have a tendency to rear their ugly heads when you least expect it. Keeping secrets isn’t a good thing.”

I scowled. “That’s all I can manage for now. The rest will come later.”

His gaze searched mine for a moment, and then he sighed and went back to tuning his E string. “As long as you’re okay.”

“We’ll see how it goes.”

Will and I were at the start of a long road. We hardly knew that much about each other outside of music other than we had an attraction that burned with a fire I never thought was possible outside of a romance novel. The fact that he wanted to stick around after the shit I’d pulled warmed my heart and rekindled my hope. The hope that said I could fall in love again.

“So is he a good kisser?” Dee asked wiggling his eyebrows.

“Dee!”