At a nondescript corner, he said, “Mind if we make a slight detour?”
I wouldn’t have known if he’d lured me completely off course. I shook my head, and we turned onto an even darker street.
He sighed. “I’m going to prove I have no game here, but I have to apologize about Noah.”
“Why?”
“I was serious before when I said I wanted to remove the competition. That was a douchey thing to do to you.”
“To me?”
“Look. Girls always chase Noah. When he’s around, I don’t even rate. Normally, that’s fine because I don’t want a shallow night with a super fan after a show anyway.”
His confession took me by surprise, and I felt a little bad that he needed to make it, a bit hurt too at the unintended slight at who I was.
“Shane.”
He kept his eyes fastened to the sidewalk before us. “I could tell there was something about you, and I didn’t want to take the chance that Noah would get there first. I’m sorry both for taking that choice away from you, but mainly for assuming that you’d make that choice in the first place.”
I squeezed his hand. “Honestly, I’m not remotely interested in Noah. I swear. He lost me when he teased you.”
“He did?”
“I mean, Noah’s a pretty guy,” I confessed and laughed at his sudden intake of breath. “But you’re more interesting. By far.”
He cut his eyes at me for the first time since he’d started his little speech. “Yeah?”
We stopped short of the next cross street beside a brick building with a paint-chipped green door.
“Hell yeah.” With my free hand I gestured up at him. “Not to mention, you’ve got much prettier hair.”
That brought a full grin. “You oughta know.” He lifted his finger, and I swore he was going to muss my hair like he might a little sister, but as soon as his palm lay against the side of my head, he froze.
The moon shone bright, but his eyes remained dark as the deepest ocean. He blinked twice and ran his thumb down my cheek to my chin. I confess that I’d had some illicit fantasies about the guys in the band, but I’d never felt the one-two punch to the gut that I got when his hand slid around the back of my neck and he pulled me forward to press his lips against mine.
He drew back, slowly enough that his lips continued to touch mine for a lingering moment, and I opened my eyes before he did. He looked like he’d tasted ice cream for the first time and wanted to savor it. My mind reeled with questions, and I had this crazy thought that I wished he were more famous so I’d have read something about him on the Internet before, so I’d know who he was and what I might be getting myself into.
If he were like Adam, I’d know to grab hold of him and never let go. If he were like Noah, I wouldn’t want to give him the time of day.
But those lips.
A tiny smile lit his face. “Should I apologize again?”
With that, I threw caution to the wind and twisted both hands into his T-shirt. He laughed when I pulled him back into a less hesitant kiss, but his laughter stopped when my tongue brushed his, and he spun us around so he could press me up against the metal door behind us.
It had been a long time since I’d been physical with a man. Way too long.
Shane’s lips teased mine, and I felt like I’d lived in a desert my whole life, never knowing that water existed. Suddenly I’d fallen into a deep pool. It might turn out to be an oasis, or I might drown, and I didn’t care. My fingers traced his cheek, then brushed his neck, and his body responded in shivers. He lifted the edge of my shirt and explored my lower back, creeping up my spine until he reached my bra.
I’d lost track of where we were. Everything was him. His mouth on mine. His hands on me. His skin. His . . . I gasped. He pressed harder into me, and I ground back, need flaring inside me.
He took the first step away. “Layla.” The fact that his voice came out ragged and breathless only made me want to tear his shirt off and spend the next ten hours licking every inch of him while he said my name.
“Shane.” My own shaky voice gave away my physical discomfort.