Rohan's eyes flicked to mine for the briefest second, the genuine concern in them causing me to step back. "What about –" he said. Any potential suggestion was drowned out by the demon rallying the rest of the crowd into picking up the "Toccata and Fugue" chant.
As one, Rohan and I turned toward Lily. She beamed, nodding at him. Dancing hearts couldn't have conveyed her feelings any clearer. He smiled at her, the kind of smile bestowed on a woman by a man who is powerless to deny her anything.
I'd seen those smiles. In movies.
I flinched, my gaze clashing with Samson's. A mocking smile on his face, he held up a glass in cheers. I looked away.
Rohan strummed the opening chord, his head bent forward in concentration, cocking a hip to better adjust for the weight of the guitar. Looking down at the instrument through half-lowered lashes, his hair falling forward, he had the tiniest smile on his face.
Barely blinking, barely breathing, I let the song flow over me, forcing myself to remember with every word flaying my soul, that these lyrics were not for me and never had been. Forcing myself to watch the bond between Rohan and Lily, my head bouncing from his face back to hers. The entire audience were voyeurs on an incredibly intimate moment between the two but, for me, there was no titillation in the spectacle.
Standing rooted to the spot as Rohan sang of the girl with lightning in her eyes and the boy with demons in his soul to the actual fucking lightning girl, I learned exactly how deep my masochism ran.
At some point Drio took my arm trying to pull me out of there, but I tugged free.
It was the rawest version of the song I'd ever heard. My stomach twisted with the irony that as much as that song had freaked me out when he'd first sung it, now it broke my heart.
Rohan's bow when he finished the song was more subdued this time. He disappeared off the stage. Further demands for another song were ignored. The show was over.
People wandered back to the bars or stayed on the dance floor as the band brought out the funk. I raced toward the green room. If I was going to have any hope of facing myself in the mirror again, this ended now.
I found him leaning against the wall, eyes closed. His head was tipped back, hair sweaty and sticking up in tiny spikes. One leg was bent, his foot planted on the wall. A mostly empty water bottle dangled from his hand.
His eyes snapped open, pinning me in place. The blazing naked hunger in them stole my breath. He peeled himself off the wall. I stepped forward, powerless to resist his gravitational pull. Rohan inhaled, a harsh shaky sound and –
"That was so good," Lily squealed, bounding into the room and breaking the spell. She leapt on him, kissing him squarely on the lips. Rohan tensed for a second, then his arms came around Lily and he kissed her back. Short and sweetly everything.
I shut down. Eviscerated. There were parts of my heart and my brain that I wouldn't –couldn't –visit right now. I cauterized them just to make sure.
Other people poured into the room and I slipped away.
Drio caught up with me outside the club. He fell into step beside me, telling me some stupid story about Samson's posse. I didn't know when things had shifted between us for him to become my guardian angel, but I was very happy to have him there distracting me.
Back at the hotel, I went straight to the bar. Drio matched me drink for drink. Eventually I'd consumed enough that he had me laughing. I poked his shoulder. "I like you."
"I'm likeable. You're a hot mess."
I curled an errant strand of hair around my finger. "Yeah, but you're trouble and I bet you love hot messes. We don't come with strings."
He cocked an eyebrow in interest. "No strings?"
I licked a drop of vodka off my lip. "None at all."
Drio's nostrils flared.
I ran a hand over his pecs. These Rasha boys had such nice bodies.
Drio grabbed my hand. We practically sprinted over to the elevator. Inside, he pushed me up against the wall, sucking on my neck. I pulled his shirt out of his pants to get closer to his skin. To feel his heat.
To feel something.
The second the elevator door opened, he flash-stepped me down the hall, slamming me up against my door. Giggling, lightheaded from the jaunt, I nipped at the underside of his jaw. "Speedy."
Drio leaned into me, his erection hard between my thighs. "No, bella," he purred, "it's going to be a very long night."
My knees buckled. I wove my hands into the silky strands of his blond hair as he made his way down my body, his mouth hot and sloppy through the fabric of my dress. My head thunked back against the door and I closed my eyes to better lose myself to the tingling along my skin.