Scars and Songs (53 page)

She wriggled out of my arms and stepped away, shaking her head at me. 

“No matter what I say, Grace, you’ll never believe in me. You’ll never know the real me.”  I dropped my hands heavily against my sides and walked away backwards. “Grace, open your fucking eyes and
see who I really am
.  Damn it, Grace.” I was a few feet away from her now, still moving back.  “I
need
you to see me for who I really am…I need you to take me
as is
, accept me, with all my flaws and all my fucking sins.”

I lost myself in the sea of people surrounding the stage and smiled when Vixen4 started playing their first song.  Bliss was up on stage.
Of course, she chose my fucking guitar to play, probably her way of saying fuck you to me. 
Whatever
.  I really could not have cared any less.

Alex swung his arm around me and pulled me to a table with two pretty blonde haired girls impatiently sitting there waiting for him, tapping their long pink dragon claws on the table. 
Gah
. 

“Shane, you have to hear what these two beautiful ladies are saying about us.”  When we returned to the table, Alex’s arm still around my neck, both girls gave us pouty faces and left without a word.  Just walked away, shaking their heads and mumbling about perfect couples.

I gave Alex a questioning look as I sat down, “Want to let me in on the joke?”

He sat down across from me arms folded.  “Dude, I don’t know whether to be angry or awed right now.”  Then the dumb ass stared at the table not saying anything.

“Alex, just tell me what’s going on.  I don’t have time for this.”

Alex nodded his head up and down, still staring at the tabletop. 

I huffed out a huge breath. “Dude, you just got here, you can’t be drunk already.”

He held up his index finger and then lifted his head to look at me.  “Did you see those two hot blondes?”

“Yeah,” I said rolling my eyes.

Alex pursed his lips.  “They just had a conversation with Grace, Lea and that hot waitress Mollie.”  He placed his hands flat on the tabletop.  “It seems that those three lovely ladies told the two blondes that they shouldn’t bother trying to get with you and me tonight because we,” he looked at me seriously and pointed back and forth between us, to make his point clear.  “We, meaning you and I, are in a serious relationship.”  He folded his arms and exhaled loudly.  “Now my question to you is why would this be said of us?”

Leaning in, my heart seemed to freeze.  Grace was chasing off other girls.  “Alex,” I smiled so damn wide it felt like my face would crack in half, I couldn’t help it.  “Alex, they were chasing the girls away.”

“Interesting,” he smirked.  “Why would I be involved in that scenario unless one of them was interested in me?  Hmmm.  Think I got a shot with Grace?” he teased.

I kicked him under the table. “I think you got a better shot in a relationship with me,” I laughed.  “Dude, you have to see how Mollie looks at you, you’d be blind not to.”

“Very interesting,” he chuckled.

Ethan collapsed into the chair next to me and patted my back.  “What’s up, gentleman?”  He turned his eyes to me and leaned forward.  “You need to kiss my big white ass, Shane. I just talked to Grace about you.  Poor thing thought you had left her to go back stage to hook up with Bliss.”  He shook my shoulder with his hand, “Don’t worry, bro, I set her straight.  You know, Shane, she’s fucking crazy about you.  Just saying.  Whatever you do with that information is up to you.  But, you know, if you hurt her, it’s a slow death.”

“Ahhh.  That’s so hot,” Alex murmured looking past us into the crowd.  Grace, Lea and Mollie were dancing with Ryan.  The fuck had his hands on Grace.

“I’m going to kill that bartender,” I said.

“Yeah, let me know if that gets you the girl, douche rocket.  I’m going try it this way.” Alex chuckled as he jumped on top of the table, crawled across it, jumped off it, walked into the dancing crowd and grabbed hold of Mollie’s waist.  Dumbass.

Ethan and I walked past the dancing crowd, ordered two beers at the bar and watched Alex make a fool out of himself with Mollie.  For a guy who was as musically talented as Alex was, he sure as shit couldn’t dance.  He just stood behind Mollie, arms raised out to the side and did the airplane. 
With duck lips
.

Vixen4’s set ended and the girls ran off the stage screaming to the bartenders for tequila shots. 

Ethan walked away from me as soon as Bliss slithered up next to me with her shot glass in hand.  “Blah,” was all he said as he walked past her shaking his head.

“You still pissed at me, Shane?” she purred as she leaned on the bar next to me.  Holding up her glass to the lights above her, she looked into it and bumped her shoulders against mine.  “Thanks for letting me use your guitar, sweetie.”

I shifted my weight to stand farther away from her, “Whatever, Bliss.  I’m not up for one of your games, so you can go play by yourself.”

She grabbed one of little saltshakers off the bar, yanked my hand towards her and sprinkled salt over the back of it.  It spilled all over the floor, but she didn’t even seem to notice; her eyes bloodshot and unfocused as she looked at me.  “I never thought you’d say no to me, Shane.  I’ve always crushed on you, you know that, right?  I can make you feel so good, sweetie.  Better than that little pop tart that sings for you,” she slurred as she tried desperately to lick the salt off my hands.

“Get your tongue off me. I don’t know where it’s been,” I gave her a warning. I wouldn’t have to think twice about siccing Lea on her ass if that diseased tongue actually touched me. 

Bliss leaned back looking at me as if for the first time.  Then she shook her head slowly and let out a low sigh, “Damn, Shane.  I never thought I would see the day.  You really
like
that pop tart, huh?”  She tilted her head back, drank her shot, squeezed the lemon over her mouth, and licked her fingers.  But I only saw it in my peripheral vision, because I was looking at heaven across the room.

My attention had been suddenly drawn to the hallway doors at the back of bar as Grace sauntered through them, Lea by her side.  Her eyes collided with mine from across the bar and then they glanced quickly at Bliss. 
Damn it, she was going to run!
 
She was going to take me standing next to Bliss all freaking wrong
.  Her head tilted to one side, towards Lea, and words passed between them.  Her silver gaze fixed on me again and then a slow sexy smile spread over her face and she licked her lips.  “Oh,” I croaked out loud to absolutely no one,
like an idiot
.   

Grace strutted,
oh my God
, she freaking strutted across the bar towards me like I was a finish line.  My damn brain went fuzzy and I leaned forward anticipating her lips on me. 
I must have looked like a damn fool. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her
.  All of a sudden, my palms went sweaty.  Perfect.

When she stood in front of me, I nodded at her, holding myself back from grabbing her face in both my hands and kissing her wet lips.  Next to me, still standing there, Bliss crossed her arms.  “Get lost, Grace, Shane and I want to be alone,” she snapped.

I opened my mouth to shout at Bliss, but before I could, Grace cut me right off with her presence.

Grace stepped right up to me, so fucking close that I could almost taste her, so
fucking close that I could feel the heat of her body on mine.  She tilted her head back to look up into my eyes, and raked her tongue slowly across her teeth.  Oh.  My. 
GodI’mgoingtofuckingexplodeinmypants
.

“Well, I was just going to tell you that you’re doing your shots all wrong.”  Grace said darkly, as she leaned her gorgeous-perfect chest against mine and reached her arm past me for one of the lemons on the bar.  Her nipples tightened and hardened as they slid over me. My lungs suddenly forgot how to correctly breathe oxygen in.  My breath faltered, my heart stuttered and it tried desperately to break through my chest.  With her other hand, she reached behind me on the opposite side, sliding her tits across me the other way, and poured some tequila into my shot glass, leaving it on the edge of the bar.  I leaned forward to take her lips.

“Yeah, is that so?  Believe me, little girl, I know how to do shots, and I could probably drink your little ass under the table any night!” Bliss taunted, causing me to stop moving forward.  But I couldn’t stop myself from licking my lips and sliding my hands up Grace’s thighs and hips to pull her tighter against me.

Grace leaned her face closer to mine and gently brought her hands to the waist of my jeans, unbuttoned them and pulled the zipper all the way down.  She slid a lemon slice in the waistband of my boxers, laying it against the head of my cock.  A low moan tore past my lips and my body vibrated, waiting for her next move, desperate for her touch.  She slowly slid her hands up my chest, lifting the bottom of my shirt all the way up to my neck.  She grabbed my shirt in one of her hands against my neck and whispered, “You want me to show her, Shane?”

“Hell yes, Gray,” I croaked.

With her free hand, she dipped a finger slowly into her mouth to get it wet, then skimmed the moisture all along my skin, from my neck, over my chest and down the tensed muscles of my stomach.  Small tremors continued to vibrate my body under her hands. 
Fuck, I could only imagine how my body would react to being inside her
.  Sprinkling the salt along the wet trail, she leaned down and licked all the salt away, starting on my stomach, lightly pressing her tongue along the salty trail and slowly working her way up. The second her tongue touched my skin, I was struggling for air.  When she reached my neck, she grabbed the shot glass, slammed it back, and bent down to take the lemon wedge from the inside of my boxers, sliding her hands up the front of my thighs and rubbing them against each side of my painfully throbbing cock.  She slammed the glass down and stood up with the lemon between her lips.  Her eyes locked on mine, and she gently placed the lemon in between my wide-open mouth and pressed her lips hard against mine.  I raked my hands up her side, over her breasts and around her neck, as I kissed her hard with the damn sour lemon between us.

Her lips smiled against mine and she stepped away.  Both of us were breathing rough and shallow, and I had a lemon smashed tight between my teeth, lemon juice dripping past the corners of my mouth.

I grabbed the shot glass from the bar and spit out the lemon.  I grabbed her hips, pulling her body back against mine, and in between breaths, I whispered, “Let’s get out of here.”

Grabbing our coats, we ran out of the bar into the pouring rain.

Stumbling out of the crowded bar, we ran with our hands locked, and the cold rain and wind whipping through our bodies. Within seconds, we were drenched while the echoes of thunder rumbled through the skies.  By the time we reached the corner, we could hear Ethan, Alex and the rest of the gang calling to catch up with us.  The plan was originally for us to all go to the after show party for Vixen4 in my building,
but fuck if I didn’t want to change those plans now
.

Grace and I turned back and watched our friends, all of them, a half a city block behind us, covering themselves with giant black umbrellas.  Alex was jumping in a huge puddle and Lea was screeching and cursing at him.

“Craptastic,” Grace murmured, shoulders slumping forward.

I felt the rumble build up in my chest before it escaped as a loud growl past my lips.  Grace locked eyes on me and heat just tore through my body, burning my skin.
All I could think about was her lips on mine and her legs wrapped tightly around me.   I threw myself on her, pressing her backwards and pushing her against the wet brick wall of the apartment building.  I took a deep breath in, her scent filling me. Leaning hard against her, I slammed my lips on her, digging my fingers into her wet hair and pinning her body against the wall.  With my dick throbbing against her body and huge droplets of rain dripping down our faces, she gripped my hair with both hands roughly, and rocked against me. Pressing her body hard against me, I raked my lips along her wet jaw and trailed my tongue along her neck, licking at the cold raindrops that streamed down it. We groaned into each other’s mouth until we could hear the voices of our friends catching up to us.

We broke apart panting, grasping at each other’s clothes.

Jumping out of the shadows, just a few feet in front of them, we dashed across the avenue against the light, as they yelled at us from the corner.  It made no difference how fast we ran, though, because they all caught up with us in the lobby of my building.  Grace let out a low whimper and leaned against the wall, her clothes soaked and caked against her body.  Taking a deep breath, she sighed loudly and looked in my eyes, “Can I borrow some dry clothes?”

What?
  No damn way.  I stalked toward her, still breathing heavily from our kiss.  My hands found her waist and I brushed my fingertips against her warm wet skin.  I clenched my fingers tightly and pressed my body into hers.  Her breath caught and my eyes frantically searched her face.  “Is that what you want right now, Grace?  Dry clothes?”