But I found him.
My spirit immediately knowing where to go.
My beautiful stranger.
Dark and deadly and dangerous.
An enigma that completed me.
The second before my part, I gripped my acoustic guitar, strummed a chord, and breathed her to life.
I moved up to the mic.
And I sang—I sang with all of me.Twenty-FourRoyceA roar of applause filled the theater, the pounding thunder ascending to the soaring ceilings and flooding across the floors, spilling into the wings.
Emily stood at the microphone as she belted out the last line. The power of her sultry, mesmerizing voice echoed against the walls, filling hearts, the awe of it ricocheting through the audience to make a rebound. She stood in the glow of it, her head tilted back and her chest jutting forward, the girl giving it everything she had.
And God, had she given it everything.
My chest tightened, my spirit racing with the same admiration that blew every person in the place away.
Awestruck.
Carolina George had just become a household name.
A grand slam. Every fucking base loaded, and Emily had just busted that shit into the stratosphere.
She stepped away from the mic.
Blinking.
Stunned.
Like maybe she hadn’t had the first clue what she was capable of until right then.
A stampede of shouts and cheers exploded in the air, and she gave a little wave before the lights went dim and shifted to the other stage so the next award could be presented. Immediately, the stage crew hustled to get the next act ready as Carolina George was quickly led off the stage.
Staggered, her spirit racing out ahead of her, Emily came right for me, wearing that dress and those heels and watching me with those green eyes.
Mind-wrecker.
I no longer knew myself.
The second she made it to the edge of the curtains, she threw herself at me.
“I did it. Oh my god, I did it.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifting her off her feet and holding her close. My voice was a low rumble at her ear. “You did it. Of course you did it. You are unstoppable.”
Joy blew from her like a warm spring breeze. The kind that made you feel like you’d found yourself in paradise. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. I thought . . . I thought I wasn’t gonna make it. I almost froze . . . but I . . . I couldn’t let him hold me back for a second more. Wouldn’t let him steal that moment from me or the band.”
“You were spectacular,” I murmured, voice clogged and overcome.
By the performance.
By her voice.
By this woman I didn’t deserve to be holding in my arms, but who I wasn’t going to let go.
“No one was prepared for you, Emily Ramsey. You are the most breathtaking thing to ever hit that stage. It’s where you belong. You are a star.”
She curled her arms tighter, her confession a gush against my soul. “I don’t want to do it with anyone else, Royce. I want this, and I want it with you.”
Bodies bustled around us, and the only thing that mattered right then was this girl.
I needed her.
Needed her in a way that I had never needed anyone in my life.
Overwhelming.
Stunning.
Devastating.
“Come with me.” Setting her onto her feet, I grabbed her hand, frantic as I started to pull her through the crush of people backstage.
“Where are we going?” she rushed to ask behind me, her voice barely breaching the rumble of voices around us, though I could taste her thrill.
The anticipation that streaked through that gorgeous body.
“Where I can have you in private.”
We made it down one hall, then another. We wound down the packed hall to her dressing room. I didn’t slow to glance around at who was watching.
Didn’t give a fuck.
I needed her.
Right that second.
I opened the door, ushering her inside. I shut it behind us, closing us in.
Energy crackled.
A fire that lit.
I clicked the lock.
It resonated like a gunshot. Added fuel to the crash of need beating the blood through my veins.
Emily stood in the middle of the room facing me, the lights framing the mirror on the wall behind her still glowing bright, the rest of the room dim. That gold dress glinted and shimmered in the glow, her skin just as bright, eyes a vortex that sucked me under.
A supernova.
My insides clutched and pulsed, my dick hard and hungry. I moved right for her, hands gripping her by the face as I took her mouth.
Possessive and rough.
Tongues a tangle of need and fire. Lips greedy and desperate. As greedy and desperate as her little hands that started gripping at me. Ripping at my jacket like if she didn’t have me, she’d go mad right along with me.
Tripping.
Tumbling.
No return.
I was already gone.
Lust boomed in the enclosed space.
Bounding against the walls. Growing in severity with each frenzied beat. She tore the jacket from my shoulders, her breaths hard as she went right back for me.