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I swear I could smell his sweat, feel the heat of his body, the passion when he played and how much he enjoyed this. When I let myself glance over, he was watching me, hair slightly wet and the kind of smile no one had ever sent my direction before. Like I’d made him happy, like I’d given him something he needed and didn’t think he would find. Maybe that didn’t make sense, or I was making up stories in my head, but that was what it felt like.
When the song was over, I almost asked him if we could do another one, but then my enjoyment got twisted up in nerves. Charles’s voice was a little fuzzy in my ears while he thanked everyone and, I was pretty sure, sang my praises. When they all started clapping again, it lit a fire in my belly, another dose of excitement exploding in my veins. That had been… I couldn’t explain what that had been.
I was flying as we left the stage. I gave the guitar back to its owner, heart racing. Charles went to pay, but I told him I already did. “I gotta get out of here,” I said. Concern creased his brow. “No, it’s not bad. I just…I feel too big, like this building is too small for me.”
He gave me another face-splitting grin that made my pulse beat harder and a flutter zip around my gut.
Charles took hold of my wrist, tugging me outside. The second I stepped into the muggy air, I could breathe better even though it should have felt stifling.
“That was…” Again, words seemed to escape me. I was just feeling too much, so I held my free hand up for Charles to see. “I’m shakin’. I swear I’m about to burst outta my skin, but it ain’t a bad thing.”
“You were incredible.”
I was no such thing, and I wasn’t dumb enough to think otherwise. “I tried to fade into the background.”
“You still went up there and played your heart out. It was…Christ, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
I rolled my eyes and started walking toward his SUV. “I don’t know how that can be true. Not with all the things you probably get up to in the city.” He was beside me, and it took me a moment to realize Charles wasn’t holding my wrist anymore, he was holding my hand, and I was letting him. I’d tangled my fingers with his, and I liked the way they felt there, liked the way they curled around me, gripping me tight.
It made me stumble against his vehicle. Charles went along with me, and somehow, we ended up with my back pressed against the side of his Rover, Charles in front of me, body touching mine.
We looked at each other, his breath against my skin in hot puffs that soothed something inside me. He was laughing—at our almost fall, I assumed—the shake of his body vibrating into mine, setting off an earthquake.
“It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” he said again, voice more serious this time. “No arguing.”
“Bossy, ain’t ya?” I replied with a slight tremble. Standing like this, so close to another man, wasn’t something I’d ever done before. I felt every hard edge of his body, felt his muscles and the warmth of his skin. I knew I should tell him to back up, that I should want him to, but it felt good to be close to someone, to be close to him. That flutter in my belly took flight again, the roller coaster my heart was riding picking up speed.
“Thank you…for giving me the strength to get up there. For bringing me tonight.” For everything.
“I might have asked you to go out with me, but you’re the one who got you on that stage. I feel like I should be the one thanking you.” He was breathing hard, and I couldn’t help wondering if it was because of me. I’d never inspired this reaction in someone before, and the way Charles looked at me, the softness around his eyes, was so new and special.
Like it had a mind of its own, my free hand moved to his hip, holding him there. I looked down, saw how I was clutching him in two places—waist and hand—brushed my fingers across his skin just to memorize what it felt like to touch someone and have it make heat race across my flesh.
Those times I’d been with women, times I’d felt them like this, it hadn’t made me crave more. It had been something I’d had to force, just because sometimes a guy needed to feel the heat of another person against their skin. But this…this was more.
“Brian.” Charles said my name gently, quietly, almost like he was testing the sound of it on his tongue, before his arm rose and his palm cupped my face.
