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“Well, it’s kind of formal, isn’t it?”
I sigh and roll my eyes. I hate playing semantics with him. “What’s the meeting about?”
He glances in Sloane’s direction as he hesitates, but she’s gone back to administering aid and isn’t paying attention to the two of us chatting. At least, I don’t think she is.
“We can talk about it later. I’m sure you guys want some privacy.” He turns to leave. “Nice to meet you, Sloane.”
“You too,” she says without missing a beat, wrapping my hand in gauze.
I bet she was listening the entire time.
“You heard every word, didn’t you?”
She shrugs and continues, still not faltering. “Of course, I was listening. I was being spoken to. I don’t have to stare at you to be able to hear what you’re saying. That’s kind of how ears work. Independent of the eyes.”
“Come back to my place.” The words burst out of me before I can even consider them properly.
But they get her attention, and she stops what she’s doing. Only for a second, but it definitely got through to her. This could go horribly wrong, but for some reason, her showing up tonight makes me think things might be different between us. Maybe she’s seeing past my bad-boy reputation.
Maybe she does see me as I really am.
“And why would I do that?” There’s a smirk dancing on her lips I want to kiss away so badly. I don’t know how I’m restraining myself. Sitting next to her and having her touch me repeatedly drives me to distraction.
“Because I want you to?” I grab her hand to halt her actions, and she meets my gaze, almost in a challenge. “And because I’d like to spend some time getting to know you and acquaint you with the real me.”
That last part scares the shit out of me, but I’m in it now. Time to go all out.
“So, the other day, it was out of the question, but today is different…how?”
“The other day was a surprise. I didn’t know how to react, so I reacted wrong. I’ve had some time to think about it now.”
After an agonizing minute of deliberation, she tilts her head to the side and whispers thoughtfully, “Okay.”
All the air leaves my lungs at once, and I feel like I can finally breathe again after a long suffocation.
I am so fucked.
eighteen
Coast
Sloane
After giving statements to the police about what happened during the show, we slide out the back of the club relatively unnoticed and hire a ride to Cooper and Remy’s house in Van Nuys, which is about forty-five minutes away. On the way, we thread our fingers together, but I’m extra careful since his hands are hurt. It’s not lost on me every time he flinches in pain with the slightest movement. Every insistence he get x-rays to see if there’s real damage is met with profound refusals, so I don’t push him. He wouldn’t be this stubborn about it if it were severe.
At least, I would hope not.
We don’t talk much along the way since we’ve both picked up that our driver may recognize one of us, though I don’t think we figured out who.
“Are you kidding? He was falling face first into groupie mode over you,” Cooper says as we make our way up the front walk to his house, and watch our ride drive away.
“Oh, please. There’s no way he even knew who I was, let alone fawned all over me. You’re the one who starstruck him.” I demand.
“Well, agree to disagree,” he concedes.
“No, agree that you’re wrong.”
He kisses the back of my hand again, and every time he does that, it sends shivers up my arm and straight into my brain, where all logical thought then decides to vacate the premises immediately. I wonder if he knows it does that to me.
