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The song ended. Fliss said something to her. A smile split her face, and she blushed and responded, happiness radiating off her.
He swallowed as she came toward him, his heart banging harder against his rips. He wanted to haul her off the stage, find the nearest private room and pound all the feelings he didn’t want to name into her. The moment she was within touching distance, he curled his arm around her tiny waist.
Mine, he barely stopped himself from growling.
“Hey, King, you play an instrument?” Spikes shouted from the center of the stage.
Noah shrugged. “I dabbled a little with bass guitars years ago.”
“No shit. Hey, Steve, we have a spare guitar lying about?” he shouted at the drummer.
Steve nodded and murmured to the stagehand. The requested instrument materialized within a minute.
Kendal waved him over. “Join us for a quick turn. Don’t let your little lady here have all the fun. We’ll go for a pure fusion—you know Hancock’s ‘Chameleon’?”
“Sure.”
“Great.”
Noah wasn’t sure whether the offer was genuine or a ploy to keep them there for longer so the asshole could keep ogling Leia. He started to shake his head and paused when a huge smile split her face.
“Omigod, I’d love to see you play!”
That stomach-hollowing feeling rushed back, overpowering every other emotion. Her beauty flattened him, her smile a ray of pure sunshine on his desolate soul.
Add that to what she did to him in the bedroom and he knew he would have a very, very hard time walking away from Leia Michaels.
“Please, Noah?” she whispered in that voice that sparked every primitive atom in his body.
Jesus.
He took his hand off her waist and nodded. “Sure, let’s do it.” He shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders. He placed her on the stool and took a hard, fast kiss. “Remember you’remygroupie. Keep your panties on, your knees together and your eyes on me.”
“Yes, Noah.”
Two words. Two fucking words that tore his insides to shreds, caused the world to tilt beneath his feet.
When he’d told her to vocalize her responses, he’d done it because he didn’t want any misunderstanding between them. He hadn’t anticipated this, hadn’t imagined that each time she said those two words, he’d feel like a king even as he fell to his knees to worship her.
Yes, Noah.
Those two words could be his undoing.
Grabbing the five-string bass, he pulled the strap over his head. He plucked the strings, adjusted the back pick-up a touch and stepped onto the stage.
The drums followed the piano intro. He blended in at the same time as the electric guitar and couldn’t stop his grin as the melody flowed through his fingers.
Halfway through the track, he glanced over at Leia. She was doing exactly as he’d told her, staring straight at him with the fixation of the perfect groupie. He rocked back and forth on hisfeet, his fingers sliding up and down the strings as an old love rekindled inside.
He’d sacrificed so much to Ashley’s toxic mind games. Some things he’d never bothered to reclaim once he left New York, mostly because he’d been furious with himself for losing sight of them in the first place. Furious with himself for turning his life inside out to hold on to something that hadn’t been there in the first place.
Thank God that was all behind him…
“Take it away, King!” Spikes nodded at him to take the penultimate solo. Noah’s fingers flew over the strings.
Leia cupped her hands around her mouth and whooped. He winked at her and smiled when she blushed.
Hell.Perfectwas slowly creeping into his mind. There was no other word to describe her. Everything else seemedlame. Yes, she was broken. But then so was he.