Mayhem

“I’m going to be Adam’s girlfriend,” I say, laughing to myself.

Dee squeals and lifts me to my feet, pulling me into a group hug that makes the night feel even more perfect.

I don’t go backstage until after the band does their final “last song.” The guys all shoot smiles at me as they exit the stage, but the person I’m waiting for is last in line. Everyone else gives us our privacy, and Adam walks up to me looking a thousand times more nervous than he did in front of throngs of screaming fans.

“I broke your heart?” I ask, and he gives me a sad smile.

“I thought I pushed you too far. I was worried you wouldn’t come back.”

A chuckle escapes me, and at the look he gives me, I rush to explain, “I thought you wouldn’t want me to come back.”

“Why wouldn’t I want you to come back?”

“Because I wanted to be your girlfriend,” I murmur, the confession making my heart race even though Adam just told me in front of hundreds of people that he wants that too.

He smiles and curls his hands around either side of my waist. “Do you still want that?”

I stare up into the gray-green eyes that stole my breath before I even knew his name. Before he was a real person who comforted a stranger on a stoop, invited a classmate on a road trip, held a friend in his arms, and asked a girl he cares about to be his girlfriend. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I’m more sure of what I don’t want,” he says, the sincerity in his eyes pulling at my heart. “And that’s to ever lose you.”

My hands slide over his sleeves until my arms are wrapped around his neck, and then I rise onto my tiptoes, aching to kiss the beautiful mouth that just told me everything I wanted to hear. Adam drops his lips to mine, and the world falls away. That empty spot in my heart where I’ve wanted to keep him fills until it bursts, and then my fingers are threading into the back of his hair and Adam is lifting me off of my feet. I want him to carry me somewhere, anywhere private where I can kiss him for as long as I want to, but then a chorus of high-pitched whistles and cheers sounds behind us, and I laugh against his mouth.

He sets me back on my toes and gives me a smile that warms me from the inside out. “So is that a yes?”

“Oh,” I say, giggling when I realize I never answered him. My fingers twirl in the soft hair at the nape of his neck, and I smile at him with all the love I’ve kept hidden deep in my heart. “Yeah, Adam. Of course it’s a yes.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

WHEN WE EMERGE back onto the main floor of Mayhem, I’m swallowed by the chaos. Everyone wants to know if I’m the infamous Peach and if I’m Adam’s new girlfriend. Each time I confirm that I am, Adam lights up the room with his smile and squeezes me tighter against his side. He poses for pictures with fans but refuses to take his eyes off me while I play the role of photographer; he always smiles at me instead of the camera and makes my butterflies wild.

At the bar, I sit on a stool surrounded by all of my favorite people. Dee is busy arguing with Mike over his lack of fashion sense, Joel is egging them on, Leti is laughing at the three of them, Shawn is nursing a drink while he watches the show they’re all putting on, and Adam is pressed behind me with his fingertips brushing discreetly under my top and over my bare sides. I grip my glass with both hands, knowing that he knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

His whisper in my ear sends shivers down my spine. “It’s killing me not to kiss you right now.”

“Why don’t you?” I whisper back, already feeling the phantom of his lips on mine.

“Because I wouldn’t stop at kissing.”

His fingers slide higher until his thumbs are tracing the underwire of my bra and my toes are curling in my sparkly flats. I desperately need to get his hands out of my shirt or I’m seriously going to lose my virginity on the bar or on the floor or right here on this freaking stool.

I gently push his hands down, and he groans against my ear, but I don’t leave him hanging. Feeling reckless, I turn my head toward him and say, “Shots?”

His eyes spark with anticipation. “What kind of shots?”

I flag the bartender and order a round of tequila shots for everyone. When they arrive, I lift a lime wedge off the tray that accompanies them and spin around to face Adam. He spent the entire road trip trying to convince me to do a body shot with him, and now, I’m finally going to. “Open.”

I resist the urge to bite my lip between my teeth when his gorgeous lips part at my command, his eyes filled with a storm that promises to consume us both. I can feel other eyes on me too, but I ignore them and place the lime wedge between his teeth.

Adam closes his lips around my fingertips, the warm wetness on my fingers creating warm wetness between my thighs. I flick my tongue over the hollow of his neck before I lose my nerve, sprinkling salt onto his skin and dipping my tongue slowly, slowly into it. His fingers tighten around my sides when I suck the last of the salt off of his neck, and I quickly swallow the tequila shot. The fiery liquid blazes down my throat and into my belly as I lean forward to bite the lime wedge from his teeth.

Adam lets it fall from his mouth before I can. His lips crush against mine and his fingers scrape against the back of my scalp to lock me in place. My hands fist in his shirt, and he steps tight between my knees, tugging me forward on the stool until he’s fitted against my heat. I whimper against his mouth, and he breaks his lips from mine to press his lips against my ear.