bigger hits. Everybody started singing along. This started his concert in earnest, as all the dancers hit the stage and the lights came up on the musicians. We couldn’t take our eyes off of Gavin, whose powerful body moved like jungle cat, prowling around the stage. He threw the female dancers like rag dolls, and they all gracefully landed back in his strong arms.
With every song that followed, Auggie would tease about taking his shirt off, taking his time with one button at a time. By the time he reached the last button and the shirt gave way, everyone, including me, was a hot mess. I could remember how that satiny chest felt under my fingers. I practically incinerated on the spot. Fortunately, Fern was too preoccupied with Gavin to notice so I was spared her knowing side-eye.
Auggie sang twenty songs total, three of which he gave as an encore. In between he went through so many costume changes and set changes I could see why he was called The Duke of Mayhem. He was a sexy, dirty rocker, a soulful balladeer, a ringleader of his own freaky circus and a masterful musician, who had a different instrument solo on practically every song. He was sex and love, lust and rage, dominant and submissive all rolled into one. He could dance. He could sing. He could play. He could make twenty thousand people fall in love with him in ninety minutes flat.
And he was the same man who taught my baby brother not to fear horses and helped clear the family dinner table.
Had I not been pregnant, I’d have been whipping my panties at him and crawling over security to get to him, just like any other shameless groupie.
But I was going to be a mom now, and moms didn’t do that sort of thing. I knew I had to behave myself.
Dammit.
That didn’t stop me from getting the jitters every time I thought about the after party and being in his presence again. My entire nervous system went haywire when Auggie drew the concert to a close with a bow, his hand clasped to his bare chest, as he threw that familiar smirk right up to our box seats like he could pick us out of the crowd. I think I gasped a little, which drew Fern’s attention.
“Mmhmm,” she intoned.
“Shut up,” I clipped.
Sean herded Fern and I to the other venue, a waterfront bar that had already opened for our private party. The dancers were the first to arrive, and Gavin made a beeline for Fern. I knew she didn’t want to leave me, but I shooed her away to enjoy a dance or two with her sexy new friend.
I was so nervous waiting for Auggie to arrive that I almost wished I could drink. Every time someone new appeared my heart would lift in anticipation and plummet with disappointment.
Finally, Audra appeared, which felt like the end of the guest list. I couldn’t stop my pout if I wanted to. I stepped away towards the water’s edge, pulled the special phone from my purse and texted: “Aren’t you coming to your party?”
Within a minute he responded. “I had other plans.”
Oh, I texted. I wondered if those two letters properly conveyed the depths of my disappointment. Almost in response, a horn blared twice from a vessel just off the shore. I peered into the darkness, and I could see a man’s silhouette on deck.
The phone buzzed in my hand. “Join me.”
I glanced back where the party raged with everyone flying high after the performance. Even Fern was caught up in the fervor, dancing with Gavin and the rest of the troupe. I walked down the pier as the luxury yacht motored forward to the dock. Auggie stood on the deck with that self-satisfied smirk that I couldn’t hate if my heart depended on it, which I suspected it did.
But there he was, standing on a boat to anywhere.
He held out a hand and helped me board before the yacht moved away from the pier. He kept my hand in his to steady me as we swayed on the open water. He guided me to the railing so we could watch the beautiful skyline drift by.
“Wow,” I breathed.
Auggie turned to a table which held two flutes full of bubbly liquid. “A toast,” he proposed, handing me a glass.
“I can’t,” I shook my head.
“You can,” he assured, placing the flute in my hand. I lifted my glass for a sniff. The fizz tickled