Did he mean he expected Abel to eventually join in on our arrangement? Maybe I should be worried about how willing they all seemed to be to share me with each other, but instead, I found it…liberating. They made it seem like I didn’t have to choose between them or between our relationship and the band.
Maybe Ezra was right. What if I could have it all?
“Come, let’s find the rest of the guys,” Silas said and laced his fingers with mine. We moved along the wall of the venue, where it was less packed, while Silas scanned the crowd.
I was about to tell him there was no way we’d be able to spot them when he looked down and grinned. “There they are. Hop on.”
“What? Are you crazy?” I stumbled over my words as he squatted in front of me. “I’m not getting on your shoulders.”
He craned his neck to look at me. “Why not?”
“You’ll drop me!”
“I won’t. Think of this as a trust-building exercise prior to you joining the band.”
I laughed incredulously. “You’re insane.”
“Hey, at least this time you didn’t deny you’d be joining,” he said with a smirk and patted his shoulders. “Get on before they move from the spot I saw them in.”
His insanity must have rubbed off on me, because I lifted my leg and hooked it over his shoulder. His hand immediately tightened on my thigh, and the leverage allowed me to put my other leg on the opposite side.
“Hold on!”
I clutched his traps hard enough that I was sure there would be bruises the next day. On my fingers, not on his rock-hard muscles. From my vantage point, I was able to spot Cole and Ezra easily. When we got close to them, they both cheered and pulled me down from Silas, while I screamed at them not to drop me.
“Oh my God, you two are drenched!” I screeched as the guys pulled me into a sweaty embrace, their laughter filling my ears.
“I think they got one song left!” Cole screamed over the music. “Let’s go into the pit for it!”
Despite going to my share of metal concerts, I’d never been a huge fan of bouncing around between sweaty dudes twice my size, but I couldn’t say no after seeing the excitement in Cole’s eyes.
“We’ll make sure you don’t fall!” Ezra yelled before grabbing my hand and waiting for my consent.
I nodded with a smile. They all seemed a little drunk and way too excited. “Let’s go.”
Mastery announced their final song, which happened to be one of my favorites, and the pit started to swarm like a cloud of buzzing flies.
I turned to Silas, who was hanging behind me. “I’m not sure about—”
“Ezra will catch you on the other side!”
Before I could protest, the guitarist pushed me directly into the pit, where all I could do was charge ahead until I landed safely into Ezra’s arms. He laughed at the expression on my face.
“Told you we’d keep you safe!”
Cole erupted from the mass of bodies right before me, a wild grin on his face. I let him pull me back into the pit, and we ran through, bumping into a bunch of people until we were back with Silas.
The undeniably primal activity turned out to be perfect for helping me take the edge off the adrenaline still surging through my veins. By the time the song wrapped up, I was charging through on my own, not minding the bruises I’d have tomorrow morning.
“Thank you! What a fucking night. We’ll see you again soon, Philadelphia!” Nick shouted into the mic, his face ecstatic as the song came to its end.
I cheered at the top of my lungs, and the guys did the same beside me. This was the most fun I’d had in ages, and as I opened my mouth to say exactly that, Cole leaned in and gave me a deep kiss that took my breath away. When we broke away, I saw Ezra and Silas looking at us with smiles on their faces.
Maybe this could work after all.
* * *
We opened the windows of the SUV as we sped back to River Valley with Leo at the wheel. The cold air quickly made my flesh pucker up with goosebumps.
