Seduction by Song (12 page)

He kisses just like he sings, smooth and fluid and
hot
.

I’m gasping for breath by the time we part. One of his hands has slipped under the hem of my blouse, and I shiver at the touch of his fingers to my skin.

“Wait,” I say.

He growls again, louder this time now that it’s not muffled against my mouth. “
Wait
?”

I swallow thickly and nod even though waiting is the last thing I want to do. The kiss was a promise of so much more, and it was a sort of more that I wanted. But I knew that I couldn’t rush into things right now. I had to think, had to think about whether or not this was really—well,
real
.

Romeo fixes his heated gaze on me for one fierce moment and I almost think he’s going to lean in again, take me into his arms and refuse to wait. I hold my breath, something similar to anticipation coursing through my veins.

He stops, though, and takes a step back as he nods. “Fine. If waiting’s what you need—.”

I nod, too, and smile, still feeling a bit shaky from that kiss that turned my knees to jelly. “Yeah, it’s—I just need some time. I won’t make you wait for long. Just a few days. Let me think?”

“I understand. But please remember – we’ve got a series of concerts coming up, they are right here in Miami but I’ll be in rehearsals all day. Don’t make me wait,” he says in confirmation. “Not for long.”

“I won’t,” I tell him like it’s a promise, and believe it, too.

I leave that night after a few more kisses, each hotter than the one before until I can feel my resolve to wait slipping. I force myself to say goodnight, then, and sit in the back of the town car Romeo calls to take me home in complete silence with a huge grin on my face.

It wasn’t that I forgot about all the ways Romeo felt wrong for me just days before, but he seemed to prove me wrong about everything. He
is
famous, he
is
rich, and he’s probably just as cocky as I thought he was when we first met—but he’s not malicious about any of these things, and that’s becoming less and less surprising and easier and easier to believe.

April takes one look at me when I get inside our apartment and bursts out laughing.

“Oh my
god
, Erin,” she says, grinning as she offers me a cup of the tea she’s just made. “You look positively
ravished
, darling. What’d you get up to tonight?”

I blush, heat rising to my cheeks as I kick off my shoes before joining her on the couch. “You don’t want to know.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, okay. I’m pretty sure you do want to know, but—.”

I struggle to find the right words for a moment before just deciding on the truth. I tell her everything, from the dinner to the talk we had afterwards. I don’t tell her about Romeo’s mother, of course, because that seemed like such a personal thing that I wouldn’t share it with
anyone
.

April’s smiling at the end of it, all fond like my mother would once in a while before she started drinking and sleeping around.

“What?” I ask, smiling, too, but feeling a bit self-conscious nonetheless.

“Just—you,” she says as though that explains anything. “You look happy. It’s not that you used to look sad, but—I’m glad you have someone.”

“Well,
maybe
,” I say, slumping back against the couch. I groan, though I still can’t quite wipe the stupid smile off of my face. “I can’t believe I made him
wait
, after all that. You think he will?”

“I
know
he will,” she says. “He’s obviously into you, and who wouldn’t be? You’re a catch, girl!”

I laugh, grinning at her again as I grab the cup of tea to sip at it. “Thanks. You always know just the right thing to say, you know? Here, I’ve got something for you—.”

I set my mug down again to reach for my purse, pulling out the concert tickets that Romeo slipped into my hands before I left. I wave them in front of April’s face before dropping them into her hands.

She blinks at them a few times before laughing and gathering them up. “Oh my god, seriously? This is
awesome
. The perks of having a rock star boyfriend, huh?”

“Guess so,” I say as I settle back again. “Think the girls will be excited?”

“Are you kidding me? They’re going to
freak
.”

They do, indeed,
freak
. Juliet and Maddie scream for a good five minutes in excitement after April and I present them with the tickets. They hug us both for another five minutes before deciding that we needed to go to our closets right then and there to pick our outfits.

“I can’t believe it’s in two days,” Maddie says as she makes me try on a third dress. “Just two days! And—and
you
! Dating
Romeo
! That is so fucking amazing!”

I laugh, spinning around in the dress that she chose for me. “Well, I don’t know if we’re calling it
dating
just yet. It’s—it’s something, though, isn’t it?”

“It’s
everything
,” Maddie says earnestly. “Isn’t it everything you could have dreamed of?”

I blink at the question, caught off-guard by the suddenness of it. She says it like it’s truly something she believes, and when I think about it, I find that I couldn’t disagree. Romeo was certainly a charmer, and he
did
know how to spoil a girl. Fancy dinners and pretty jewelry weren’t everything to me in a relationship, but they sure didn’t hurt on top of a romantic guy.

I feel my cheeks heating up again as I step out of my dress to try on the next one Maddie laid out. “Maybe it is. I guess we’re about to find out.”

“
Damn
right we are,” Maddie says, clapping her hands together excitedly. “And this time, I’m bringing my good camera. I’m not missing another chance of seeing you up on that stage.”

I laugh and reenter my closet. It would certainly be a moment to remember.

Just like the first time, the stadium is absolutely packed when we get there. The crowd is already screaming by the time we take our seats, excited energy flowing through them. Instead of the annoyance I felt at the stimulants coursing through the crowd the last time we were here, I feel the excitement and anticipation flood into my own body as I join in their cheering.

The lights are dimming before long and the girls clutch at my arms, eager for the show to start. The cheers get louder as everyone gets to their feet, clapping and roaring for the band.

The first strains of a now familiar song (I had spent quite a bit of time listening to Romeo’s discography the past few days; it wouldn’t do to be unfamiliar with it
now
, after all) begin to flow through the speakers as the show begins.

As soon as the spotlight floods the stage with Romeo at its center, his eyes move across the front row until they find mine. I smile instantly and feel warmth coil in my stomach as he returns the smile before opening his mouth to start singing.

The energy of the crowd is positively alive tonight as Romeo moves across the stage. His eyes rarely leave mine with him turning away only when he absolutely has to. I stare at him, mesmerized as he performs.

Then, suddenly, he’s standing at the center of the stage and holding a hand out to me.

“You know what time it is, ladies,” he says, speaking loud enough into his mic that the whole crowd hears, but staring at me so heatedly that he’s obviously speaking straight to me. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

My heart pounds in my throat as one of the stagehands, a nice boy I remember from the music video shoot, leads me up the stairs and onto the stage. I shiver in anticipation as I move forward, each step bringing me closer to Romeo. He stands with his hand held out to me and I take it without hesitation.

“Welcome back, beautiful eyes,” he says, smiling warmly at me with his teeth peeking out over his bottom lip seductively. Now that I know what it’s like to kiss that mouth, I can barely resist the urge to lean in and kiss him again right that very instant.

He links our hands together and pulls me in close as the song begins, crooning into the microphone as he swings me around and leads me in a sensual dance across the stage. I move easily with him just as I did that first night, but this time I feel no inhibitions. I throw myself into the music, into Romeo, and relax into him as he wraps an arm around my waist.

He sings the last line with me before pushing his mic aside, curling his free hand at the back of my neck and tilting my head up to press a slow, passionate kiss to my mouth.

And I let him, and the crowd goes
wild
.

I wrap my arms around Romeo’s shoulders, caught up in the moment as I kiss him back. My personal distaste for PDA flies right out the window. Even though there are thousands of people watching me, watching us, I can’t care one bit as Romeo slides his tongue into my mouth again.

It’s over all too quickly. The lights are bright in my eyes and I know my lips are as flushed and slick as Romeo’s are when we separate. He squeezes my hand before letting me go, a smile promising
more
and
later
as I’m led offstage again.

The rest of the show and the encore pass in a blur of excited screams and frenzied energy surging through the crowd. I don’t need to be told to know that Romeo’s look was as good as a verbal invitation backstage, and just as I expected, he sends someone to escort us back there instantly. Instead of lagging behind, trying to think of an excuse to not go or at least not stay too long, I eagerly follow along with the girls.

They each kiss me on the cheek before disappearing with the other backstage pass holders to mingle with the band. Romeo is nowhere in sight and I look around for him for a moment before wandering further backstage to the area where I remember seeing the dressing rooms the last time I was here.

It doesn’t take long to find the door marked with Romeo’s name, and I raise my hand to knock with my heart in my throat and my breath held in deep.

Before my knuckles even hit wood, the door swings back. For a split second, Romeo looks as surprised to see me as I am to see him. Then his eyes darken and his lips curl up into a devious grin.

“
Bonita
,” he says, whispering the word almost reverently.

I remember enough high school Spanish to know that it’s a compliment, but I don’t need to know what it means at all to feel it coil hotly in the pit of my stomach. My knees feel weak again all of a sudden, and I forget all of the doubts that had been plaguing my mind as I approached his door.

When it occurs to me that I’m just standing there, staring dumbly at this god of a man, I open my mouth to speak even though I have no idea what I could possibly say. He saves me from floundering around searching for the right words, curling his palm at the nape of my neck and pulling me forward a half step to meet him.

His lips touch mine in the gentlest press for a second before he draws me in closer, slamming the door shut behind my back. He pressed me up against the door, kissing me deeper and needier as my arms come up to find purchase on his shoulders once more. I feel my toes curling as he twines our tongues together. Even with the added height of my heels, my feet nearly leave the ground when Romeo hitches me up a bit higher against the door until our mouths meet again at the same level.

I feel him half hard already against my inner thigh and I moan into our kisses, rubbing against him to increase that delicious friction.

This is moving way too fast.

I don’t realize I’ve said this out loud until Romeo pulls back, confusion swirling behind the dark lust in his eyes. His voice is gentle, without any bite of anger, when he says, “Too fast?”

My breath stutters on its way out from my lips. His touch lights fires under my skin and his embrace is a prison I want to spend the rest of my life in, but it’s this careful question that hits home more than anything else. He cares,
so much
, for my comfort. He would never force me to go faster or do more than I want. His priority is my pleasure.

I don’t know Romeo Ortiz very well at all (though I have to wonder if
anyone
does), but I know these things. I know, without needing to know
him
, that I trust him with my life.

“No,” I say, shoving away all my insecurities. Maybe things
are
moving faster than they ever have for me. Maybe I
don’t
ever do things like this. But this—this moment, with this man—feels more natural than anything in the world.

I wrap my arms around him and lay a careful kiss on his mouth. “This is just right.”

He grins, instantly, and relaxes his grip on me to let me down onto my feet. I keep my arms around him as he leads me backwards to the bed in the room, trailing a line of hot kisses down to my shoulder from my mouth and then following that trail right back up again.