There was a raging dance floor in the middle.
Martin gestured for them to follow, and he led them to one of the alcoves at the very back. Richard sank down into the comfort of a couch, watching the mayhem that hammered and thrashed.
A woman appeared in front of them carrying a tray, dressed in a thong and these little shiny dots covering her nipples. She dropped off a bottle and three shot glasses before she disappeared back into the crush.
Shawn laughed this seedy laugh, cut him a look, and said, “Holy fuck. Told you, man. We’re about to be kings.”
Martin poured three shots. “To tonight.”
Richard tossed it back.
Welcomed the burn and the fire.
The night moved on, and that haze grew, his mind slipping and sliding and shifting the more drinks that he sucked down. The woman returned with another bottle, though this time she also set a little tray with a small pile of white powder onto the coffee table.
Martin sat forward and cut it.
“Tomorrow we make you superstars. Tomorrow you sign and you become part of the Mylton Records family. But tonight…tonight we celebrate. Tonight, you get to see who you’re going to be.” Martin sent Richard a glance. Something that almost looked like a warning.
And fuck.
Richard had the urge to get the fuck up and run out the door, all the way back to Dalton. But this—this was what they’d fought for. Years spent on the road. Half starved. Penniless.
It was one night.
One goddamn night.
What could it hurt to indulge?
Shawn didn’t hesitate to do a line when the tray was passed his way.
Richard did. He felt this shiver of dread that curled down his spine like a slick of ice. And he was wondering just what the fame was gonna cost when he leaned forward and dragged the poison through his nose.
The burn was different this time. A sharp sting that didn’t take all that long to shift into bliss.
A flush of power.
A rush of truth.
Fact that this was where they’d been heading all along.
Lyrics hummed through his mind and the beat of a bass drummed through his soul.
He grinned and sat back on the couch.
Tonight.
Tonight.
Shawn banged an agitated fist on his knee.
“You know who we should call?”
“Yeah?” he asked, lifting his chin.
“Lily. She’s a ton of fun.”
Richard guessed he was too far gone to catch what flashed in Martin Jennings’ eyes when he said, “I agree.”Thirty-TwoVioletI wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so exhausted and alive at the same time. My spirit soaring and my body aching.
Not that I was going to complain about that considering it was wholly due to the number of times Richard and I had reached for each other last night.
The man taking me again and again.
Loving me soft.
Fucking me hard.
Our reconnection taking us through every emotion.
The highs and the lows. The desperation and the savoring. The joy and the sorrow. The adoration and the lust. The laughter and the tears.
I should have slept like a rock.
Instead, I’d been unable to drift. Just wanting to cling to it. To the moment. To the truth. To the promises that we had made.
Finally, at the breaking of dawn, I’d pried myself from his gorgeous, sleeping form, climbed from my bed, and crept downstairs. Needing to clear my head. To figure out what I would tell Daisy. What I was gonna tell my daddy.
Truth was, I was still having a hard time wrapping my own head around it, so I sure as heck didn’t know how my daddy would handle it.
Yesterday, there’d been camaraderie. A sense of coming together for a purpose.
I just wasn’t quite sure what the reaction was going to be to the purpose that went down all through last night.
Blowing out a heavy sigh, I poured myself a cup of coffee while I stood in the warmth of the first rays of daylight streaming in through the window, not even trying to hide the giddy grin plastered to my face even when there wasn’t a soul there to witness it.
But I figured if there was, they’d see what was written all over me. The loved-up happiness that had me awash.
Floatin’.
Flyin’.
That only amplified when I heard the shuffle of feet. The warmth of the rising sun didn’t have a thing on the warmth of the strong arms that wrapped around me from behind. Nothing on the way I felt when Richard pressed his cheek to mine, when he nuzzled my jaw, the man tilting my head so he could press a lingering kiss to the side of my neck.
Chills raced and my heart expanded in the most magnificent way.
“Good mornin’,” he rumbled, his voice this throaty, sleepy growl.
Oh yeah.
That got me going, too.
Apparently, I really had gone without for too long.
“Mornin’. What are you doing up so early?”
“I was gonna ask the same thing about you. You don’t like sleeping next to me? Because believe me, baby, I’m done sleeping without lying next to you.”