Kate’s touch on my arm directed me to the stage. I blinked at the glare of lights, barely resisting the urge to plug my ears with my fingers at the sound system’s blare.
But I forgot about the unpleasantness of the deafening music when the most incredible-looking male I’d ever seen stared directly at me from the stage. As we locked eyes, a sensation like an electric shock surged through my body. As incredible as Jared had looked on the poster, he was orders of magnitude more impressive live. His magnetism was palpable. His flowing shirt was open to his navel, and his chest and ridged abs glistened with perspiration. His upper body was bent halfway backward, with his free arm behind him, fingers spread, as he held a high note that seemed to continue forever. When it finally faded, his eyes remained fixed on mine while the band churned behind him, his perfect features frozen in mild puzzlement.
Sarah elbowed me, snapping me out of my trance. “Looks like he forgot the lyrics,” she crowed.
I was trying to frame a response when the moment passed, and he tore his eyes from mine and resumed singing, grinning at the audience and offering a good-humored shrug at dropping the line. I watched, mesmerized, as he prowled the stage like a jungle cat, his movements lithe and effortless, graceful as a dancer’s, black leather pants accentuating his physique.
When he finished the song, the crowd went wild. He stood in the center of the stage, soaking in the applause before offering a small bow, as though embarrassed by the intensity of the ovation. When it finally began to diminish, he raised the mic to his perfect face and spoke – and if anything, his speaking voice was more captivating than his singing.
“Whooo! Well, thank you, Portland! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to sing for my hometown, but after touring the world, I can honestly say there’s nothing like you guys. It’s good to be back! Thanks for coming out!”
Cheers rose from the crowd, and then the band launched into the next song as Jared pirouetted and strode to the drum riser – but not before he threw me a sidelong glance, one filled with as much suspicion as curiosity. And something else, although I must have been imagining it; something that almost seemed like it could be…fear.
Chapter 2
Jared dominated the theater’s attention for an hour. The audience sang along with every song. Apparently I was, like, the only one there who didn’t know his catalog by heart. After three encores, the last of which spotlighted Jared on classical piano, the house lights went on and the dream was broken.
“Tell me that wasn’t amazing,” Sarah said to me.
“He’s really something,” I agreed.
“A total babe,” Kate said. “I need to find one of those.”
“I need two or three, but I’d settle for one,” Sarah said. She turned to me. “What was that all about?”
“What?” I asked, blushing.
“He was totally eyeing you.”
“Me?” I stammered. “You sure he wasn’t checking you out?”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so.”
I changed the subject. “He can really sing, can’t he?”
“Doesn’t move too bad, either,” Kate agreed.
Luke, Kurt, and Kevin/Kenneth were scoping out the crowd, murmuring to each other. Luke glanced over at us and grinned. “So what did you think?”
“That was da bomb,” Sarah said. “Thank you so much. You guys rock.”
“You bet we do. Ready to go backstage?”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “For real?”
“Just chill, have a beer, and be cool. Show like this, there will be lots of people there,” Luke assured us. “Besides, pretty girls are always welcome backstage.”
Kurt nodded solemnly, his eyes so red from toking they seemed to glow. “It’s like a rule or something.”
Luke laughed. “Follow me.”
Luke escorted us back to the stage door, where at least a hundred young women were milling around the security cordon, hoping to be invited backstage. His cousin saw Luke and held a velvet rope to the side, and we moved past him and through the door. The passage we’d traversed earlier was now filled with people, many holding sweating bottles of beer. A few eyed us curiously, but Luke walked with authority, this obviously not his first time backstage at the venue.
We turned a corner, and Luke approached one of three oversized metal coolers filled with drinks – beer, champagne, water, sodas. Luke smiled at us. “Free for the asking. What’s your poison?”
“Oooh. Is that champagne?” Sarah asked in a tone so fake it made me cringe.
“Nothing’s too good for you,” Kevin assured her, fishing a bottle from the ice and looking around for glasses. Finding none, he held the bottle to his mouth and took a swig, which went sour on him when a froth of fizz spurted from his nose, ending with a coughing fit. Luke and Kurt laughed till they were red in the face, and Kevin handed Sarah the champagne. Luke reached into the ice, extracted a beer, and handed it to me. I was going to refuse, but Kate caught my arm and whispered to me, “We’re backstage at a concert, Lacey. Just go with it.”
“But it’s against the law,” I protested. I didn’t want to admit I didn’t even want it.
“I don’t see any cops checking ID, do you?”
I felt dumb for my impulse to say no, so I sipped at the beer, which tasted as disgusting as always. Maybe I could leave it on a table later, when no one was watching. Luke was attempting to hold a conversation, but I kept trying to process what had happened during the concert, and wasn’t much company. The way Jared’s eyes seemed to look into my soul had shaken me,
