Page 14 of After All
I look back and catch Carter’s single nod and feel the weight of his stare at the massive man who polices the area.
“Leo, this is…” Carter trails off because my admirer hasn’t introduced himself, but I know Carter doesn’t care one way or the other from his tone. He simply wants the man to give security his name.
When the interloper doesn’t answer, the massive man asks, “Sir, do you have the appropriate credentials to be in this area?”
“Credentials? Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t really give two fucks who you are if you don’t have a pass.”
The man tries to argue further, but Leo — I use context clues to assume that’s his name since Carter called him that — simply takes the man by the elbow and discreetly walks him towards the velvet rope I had to cross earlier.
“How’d he get in here without a badge? And why do you know the security guy’s name? And why did he call you Mr. Ortiz?”
The vibrations of his laughter buzz through his leg into my thighs resting on it. “I’ve known Leo for a long time. He’s been on the security staff for a while, since before the guys and I started playing here a few years ago.”
“Wait. Playing here? You’re in a band, too? I thought you were a songwriter.”
“I am. I implied earlier that it was just one of my many gigs.”
Our eyes lock, and I take a deep breath. “You did. That’s true.”
“Does that change anything?”
“Change anything? What do you mean?”
Carter shifts in his seat, shifting my body a little closer to his. “I guess I mean does that make you any less attracted to me?”
A laugh sort of erupts from between my lips, and I cover my mouth at the volume and sharpness of it. “You’re awfully presumptuous.”
“Am I, though?” He smirks, and I swear I feel like I need another medical evaluation.
Can a perfectly healthy woman in her late twenties go into a-fib just sitting still?
I pull in another long, deep breath and meet his eyes. “No, I guess you’re not. I can’t figure you out. I can’t figure myself out right now, if I’m being completely honest. I’ve never had this type of reaction to physical touch before. That’s not an exaggeration. I’ve been so averse to it for so long, I don’t remember a time I wasn’t.”
His eyes never leave mine, but I’m keenly aware of his hands and their whereabouts. I sit on his right knee, perpendicular to his body, and my knees brush against the inside of his left thigh. His left hand rests on my knee closest to him, and his right hand ghosts a path between my hip bones along the waistband of my jeans.
The electrical pulses following his fingers are just shy of overwhelming, and I have no good reason for why I never want him to stop. For the first time tonight, it’s starting to overwhelm me — even if it’s not necessarily in a bad way — and I feel like I need a little space.
“I just need to, um— I’ll be right back.”
He just nods, his eyes never leaving mine, and I stand up quickly, grabbing my bag from the chair beside him. I start for the back hall and the bathrooms but decide I need some fresh air instead.
Slipping through the crowd, I notice something as I bump into people again and again just like earlier.
Where Carter’s touch feels like silk, these all feel like sandpaper.
Yep, that settles it. I’ve got to go. This isn’t normal. There has to be something wrong with me… with this.
Chapter 9
Carter
I watch her navigate the crowd towards the hall where the ladies’ room is, but I lose her after she weaves through a handful of people. But I do see her draw in on herself, pulling away from everybody she needs to pass. I stand to follow her, wondering if she’d feel uncomfortable finding me waiting for her outside the door.
Especially after the douchenozzle that somehow got into the VIP section and made her visibly uneasy. I’d rip that fucker’s arms from his body if he tried to touch her again.
A bit of urgency pushes me to find her friend to see if she wants to wait for Amelie instead. I see the bright white of her tissue-thin top as she pivots and makes a break for the front door.
