The Right Kind of Love(52)

I felt my face flush. That was the nicest thing I’d heard. How sweet of him to feel that way about me. And to hear he liked Zeus melted my heart a little more.

“He’s a good guy,” Destiny said with a smile.

“Yes, he’s been good to me and Zeus.” And really, he had been. I thought back to all of the countless selfless things he had done for me and my belly whooshed.

A deep whoosh.

How sweet.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the signature fog coming off the stage. “Show time!” I clapped my hands, got up from my chair, pulled Shaina and Destiny with me, and headed toward the dance floor.

The lights went on, and they started strumming the first notes of Sweet Home Alabama by Leonard Skynyrd. It was one of my all-time favorites. I started dancing my ass off and the girls joined right along with me. The dance floor was packed, but we had pushed ourselves up to the front. They rolled right into Paralyzer by Finger Eleven.

I leaned over in Shaina’s ear. “I love this song!”

“Me, too, girlfriend.”

Looking up at the stage, I saw Damien’s eyes trained on me. And only me.

My belly whooshed again. My heart sped up and my mouth watered. He was so flippin’ sexy and he was singing to me. And only me. At that moment, I felt like we were the only two people in the bar.

And I melted just a little. Maybe even more than a little.

I smiled at him, and he gave me a panty-dropping smile back.

Damn, he looked good tonight. He had on a pair of black jeans, combat boots, and he was shirtless. His tattoos were showing and his hair was a tousled mess. I could actually see a light sheen of sweat forming on his chest, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t want to ravish his lean body.

I didn’t know where these feelings were coming from. It was like my body craved his. It was strange, and I didn’t exactly know what to do with these emotions, but I knew I could never act on them. We were roommates and friends. We couldn’t get involved, and besides, I didn’t want to be the next notch on his bedpost. I had more pride in myself than to be someone’s one night stand. Although the walk of shame would just be across the hall or maybe I wouldn’t even half to do the walk of shame if he came to my bed. Sydney, what the hell are you thinking? You’re not getting involved with Damien.

The song ended and Damien took over the mic. “Hey, how’s everyone out there doing tonight?”

The crowd went wild cheering and hollering. I heard several girls yell, “We love you, Damien.” I just rolled my eyes.

“We want to thank everyone for coming out tonight to see The Fade. We have a special treat for you.” He grinned at the crowd and then shook his head, his hair flying everywhere. The crowd went nuts and my belly whooshed again.

“Sydney Summers, get your ass up here and sing with us.” He trained his eyes on me and the rest of the crowd looked my way.

I shook my head no clearly telling him that I wasn’t going up on the stage. He came down the front of the stage and the girls swarmed him. He walked right over to me and whispered in my ear. “Come on, baby, you can do this. We’ve been practicing for a couple of weeks now, you got this.” The way his lips caressed the word baby made my heart skip a beat. It was a term of endearment he used often, but tonight it felt like it was so much more personal.

Destiny came up to us. “Come on, girl. Show us what you got.”

Yes, I guess I could show them what I had. I was no louse in the singing department. I put on a face of confidence, gave Destiny a huge smile, and then looked up at Damien and winked. This was going to be amazing. I could feel it down to my bones.

The rest of the crowd cheered as I walked up on stage. Damien came over to me. “We’re gonna do Jackson.”

The band started playing and we eased right into the song singing our hearts out like we were meant to be on stage together. He was standing center stage with me as we shared one microphone doing our duet.

The song ended and the crowd erupted with cheering and whistles. We had blown that song wide open and had completely nailed it.

“So what did you all think?” Damien looked at me and then at the crowd. They went nuts. “She’s got some talent, doesn’t she?” Again, the whistles and cheers exploded.

I couldn’t believe how good it felt to be up on stage again. I wasn’t nervous in the slightest. In fact, I felt pretty damn good and proud of myself.

“All right, you want more?”

The crowd screamed yes.

Damien leaned over to me. “We’re going to do Wild Horses.” And then he said to the crowd, “This is a slow one, but it’s fucking awesome. So grab yourself a partner.”