Page 5 of Hard Rock Temptation

I nodded sharply.

“Fine. If you say I’m reading too much into it, then I guess that’s it.”

I pushed my way past him, avoiding the shoulder-check I knew would be immature.

“But you should know, you’re a shit liar,” I threw over my shoulder before turning my back on him.

I couldn’t stand to look at his face anymore.

TWO

MICAH

Fuck.

Fuck.

I tried to calm my racing thoughts, and heartbeat, but Kaylee’s presence had unraveled my entire being.

I exhaled slowly and looked up at the ceiling, letting the harsh lights burn my eyes.

I’m really not the type to go speechless.

Yes, I liked to think carefully before I spoke, but I knew how to express myself. I was never at a loss for words.

Until now.

Until Kaylee had turned nineteen and developed a newfound assertiveness.

I ran a hand over my face roughly.

The assertiveness wasn’t newfound, not really. Kay always had a forceful personality. It was just… this was new. This wasn’t just her being assertive. This was something more.

I rubbed a hand over my jaw and nearly groaned out loud. She didn’t even have todoanything and she grabbed every ounce of my attention. When she put any effort into it, like right now, when she practically pressed her entire body against mine, she was so goddamn… It felt like… it felt so…

Fuck, I wished I had the words to describe how she made me feel, but Kaylee was the wordsmith, not me. The only way I could think to describe it was...

Tempting. That was it. That was the word.

I wished to hell and back that Kaylee wasn’t so tempting. I wished I didn’t feel the way I did. I wished she didn’t feel the wayshedid.

Because nothing good was going to come of all this. Absolutely nothing. In fact, the worst possible things were more likely to happen.

I inhaled deeply and squeezed my eyes shut.

I only had fifteen minutes to get a hold of myself. To calm my rapid heartbeat. To suppress the semi-hardness in my jeans.

This was the closest I’d been to Kaylee in months, and she’d been determined to turn it into a slim distance. It seemed my body had appreciated her efforts more than my head.

I opened my eyes slowly and exhaled.

Only to find Chris staring at me from across the hall.

“Hey man.” His wide, linebacker chest cast a shadow over me. “I just saw Kaylee run by. You two okay?”

If it had been anyone else, if it had been Finn or Zain, I wouldn’t have expected them to notice a thing was wrong. But this was Chris, our rhythm guitarist. His large frame might have made him seem like an intimidating meathead but he’d always been oddly observant.

“We’re good,” I said flatly. “Everything’s good.”