He lifts the boxes slightly. “I’ve got to go stow them, but I’ll?—”
“I’ll be taking those,” Rob says, winking at me as he grabs them from Cormac’s arms. “Have fun. Great show, man.”
He drops a kiss on Sophie’s head. She attempts to take a box from him but is refused as quickly as we were.
The crowd hasn’t fully dispersed yet. Plenty of people are still milling around, not ready for the fun to end yet. The venue’s blasting out songs from the speakers, probably hoping people will stick around.
“You were really good,” I tell Cormac, my pulse spiking as we stand facing each other.
“I was better because you were there.”
A smile spreads across my face.
“I could feel it,” he continues. “It’s like you were my?—”
He trails off, but I know what word he was going to use. I used it earlier with José.
Muse.
“Come with me,” I say, my heart thumping hard. Because I’d like to take things too far tonight, with him.
He doesn’t hesitate. As soon as I start walking, I feel him following me. Trusting me. He probably shouldn’t, but I dare to hope that this time he’ll be happy he did.
I head down the snaking hallway, past the bathrooms—the woman’s room has a line, because of course. We turn, and I find a closed door, unlabeled. The sound from the venue is muffled now, distant. I try to open the unmarked door, but it’s locked.
“Do you think you’re supposed to do that?” Cormac asks.
“No.”
But when I step away, continuing down the hall, he follows. We reach another door, this one with a small metal sign that helpfully reads CLOSET.
I glance at him and try the door.
He peers back down the hall, probably concerned someone’s going to send the authorities after us.
But no one’s coming, and the door opens. It’s mostly empty inside, aside from a mop and a few other cleaning supplies that look like they haven’t been brought out for some time.
“This is a closet,” Cormac says.
I found his habit of saying the obvious aggravating a couple of months ago, but now I think it’s cute, dammit.
I reach for him and grip the front of his shirt, tugging him in after me, and shut the door behind us. We’re left in near dark, aside from the glow emanating from the cracks above and below the door. “You should probably put down your guitar,” I say. “You can’t possibly show a girl seven minutes in heaven if you’re carrying that.”
I see a blur of movement as he does as he’s asked.
Then he steps up to me, his image becoming clearer as my eyes adjust to the darkened interior. We could turn on the lights, of course, but they look like fluorescents, and I’ve noticed bright lights bother him. There’s also something deliciously forbidden about touching each other in the dark, hidden away in a space where we could be discovered. It’ll be the experience I wanted all those years ago but never got.
“Are you actually going to fulfill your end of the bargain this time?” I ask, the challenge ringing in my voice. “Or are you going to walk out on me again?”
My back meets the door as his hand finds the hollow beneath my neck and slides up, guiding my face to look at him in the dim near-dark. “I wanted to kiss you that night, Nora.” His fingers run across my jaw, leaving a trail of pure sensation. “Surely you realize that now. I wasdyingto kiss you. But I didn’t want to do it like that, with people laughing outside. Like it meant nothing. It would have been sacrilege.”
His words soothe that old hurt. “And now?”
His answer is to kiss me resolutely, and I moan into his mouth, lit up by the slight pressure of his hand on my neck and his lips consuming me.
“I like this side of you,” I say in a breathy voice as he starts kissing his way down my neck, his other hand hiking up my dress.
“I like every side of you.”
