“Can I
get you anything, dollface?”
“Yeah,
how about something stronger than a Coke?”
He
grinned at me and shook his head. We both knew he couldn’t do it even if he wanted
to; the regulations and fines in California weren’t something to be tested. I
pushed my empty glass forward with two fingers towards him for a refill.
Giovanni reached for the soda gun again, but stopped before pressing the button
for Coke.
“Actually,
I’m going on break.” He lifted his eyes to meet mine, making my cheeks flush
with the heat hidden in their honey depths. “Want to join me?”
The
question hung in the air between us, the other, unasked, question practically
visible. My stomach flipped with nerves, still a little on edge from my brief
encounter with Liam. As part of their cache of weapons, vamps were able to
induce arousal and desire in an almost hypnotic way and I worried that Liam had
been trying to do that to me. Was my judgment clouded now because of the vamp?
Did I really care?
“Sure,”
I finally managed to say, glad to hear my voice was light and casual despite
the sudden thundering of my pulse. Luckily, Giovanni couldn’t hear it like Liam
could, so I was spared some dignity.
“Awesome.”
His lips broke into another eager grin as he set the soda gun and my empty
glass back down. Turning away from me, he caught the female bartender by the
waist and spoke close to her ear to be heard over the still pounding music. She
nodded briefly and I watched as she fingered a button on a black cord that
snaked up to her ear and she spoke into a tiny microphone on the cord. In
another minute, Giovanni was ducking under the bar and a different guy in a
simple black t-shirt and jeans took his place.
I turned
away from the bar and slid off of the stool, realizing a little too late that I
should’ve told Jodi or Steven where I was going so they didn’t get worried if
they didn’t see me at the bar. There were far too many people with too many
wild emotions filling the room for me to reach out to them telepathically. I
could see Jodi’s blonde hair bobbing in and out of the crowd and saw Steven and
Anthony, who had finally arrived, dancing with her. I debated going to them and
telling them I’d be right back, but just as I started to take a step towards
the mass of dancers, Giovanni’s warm fingers touched my arm, immediately
drawing my attention away from my friends. The skin under his fingers flamed
with heat.
“Don’t
worry about your friends,” Giovanni spoke into my hair as he leaned his body
close to mine. His breath washed against me smelling like cinnamon and cloves.
It was faint and pleasant, but part of me hoped he didn’t plan on smoking a
clove while I was around; it was too strong a smell for me. I realized I must
be nervous as my mind bounced from one random thought to another.
“I
should tell them where I’ll be.” I started to turn away from him again, but his
fingers gripped my arm a little tighter, stopping me. I turned my head to look
into his face, almost expecting to see something I didn’t want to see, but he
just gave me a sly look, making the butterflies swarm in my stomach.
“We’re
not gonna leave the building, don’t worry,” he assured me, loosening his
fingers almost immediately.
“Don’t
worry, huh?” I quirked an eyebrow at him, shifting my weight to the hip he was
nearly touching and pushing it into his thigh in a burst of confidence. “Famous
last words.”
He
chuckled low in his throat again, making chills break out on my arms. “I
promise, it’ll be okay.” He slipped his fingers down my arm until he caught my
hand and urged me to follow him. My legs moved slowly at first, pulling against
my better judgment as I started to lose sight of my friends, but a second –
more powerful – feeling of excitement and abandonment helped move me to follow
him.
“If I’m
gone too long, they’ll notice,” I insisted, glad to hear a little worry in my
voice, hoping he’d get my meaning.
“My
break’s only ten minutes, doll,” he said lightly as we made our way to a door
in the wall. When it was opened, I saw that it led to a long dim hallway that
ran the length of the theater and I realized it must lead to backstage. That
eased a knot of worry in my chest; if it led to backstage, then a few dozen
people were nearby. But we didn’t walk that way; Giovanni turned right and I
saw a set of winding metal stairs that led up to the balcony section of the
theater.
“I
thought the balcony was closed?”
“To the
public,” Giovanni nodded as we started up the stairs, holding hands all the
while. With every step up, my excitement grew and my worry was pushed to the
back of my mind. Finally, at the top, he pulled out a key ring from his deep
pocket and unlocked the door at the top of the stairs, pushing it open and
holding it for me to walk in first. We were, in fact, in the balcony with about
ten rows of empty seats. I had only been up here once for a concert and knew it
had been at least a decade since the management had bothered with any repairs
or upgrades as most of the chairs squeaked, wobbled, or were just plain broken.
“See,
now you can see your friends.” He had followed me in and came up behind me,
slipping his hands to my hips and pulling me against him in a very familiar
way. I glanced over the edge of the balcony and, sure enough, I could see Jodi,
Steven, and Anthony easier than I could from the bar. It was that simple and
all my worry vanished. I wasn’t physically afraid of anything happening because
I had proven that I could defend against a larger foe and Giovanni didn’t have
any magical abilities with which to attack me. I was just worried about the
possibility that I would have to use magic, but as I let that finger of
awareness I had attached to him blossom, I knew what his intentions were and,
if I was being honest with myself, I had no problem with them.
“Um.” I
wasn’t sure what to say or really what to do; sneaking away with a stranger
into some dark corner with illicit thoughts racing through my mind wasn’t like
me. I turned around, his hands never leaving my hips as I faced him. I felt
them slide around me as I moved, sending pleasant chills up my back. But he
saved me from the embarrassment of speaking intelligently by walking me
backwards until my back hit the closed door. He raised one arm up over my head
and braced his forearm against the wall, making him lean into me. His other
hand remained at my hip, his thumb under the hem of my shirt, stroking my
hipbone slowly.
I
couldn’t hear the music anymore; the world had shrunk down to the two of us in
this dark corner and the beat vibrating through the walls, pulsing at my back.
I swallowed my nerves as he leaned his face closer to mine, moving slowly as if
afraid he’d scare me and I’d run off. I didn’t want him to think of me as some
fragile little girl because that would ruin this for me. I’d never done this
before, sure, but if I was going to do it, I was going to enjoy myself.
