begin the evening routine of ferrying Nixon’s guitars to the stage. Once they’d all been taken, Nixon held the door for me.
“Thank you,” I said, walking through it.
He followed, putting his hand on my lower back. Right where it belongs.
“I’m still pissed at you,” he whispered in my ear as he waved to a wide-eyed fan with a backstage pass.
I turned my face, bringing us dangerously close for being in public. “But you still want me.”
His jaw ticked.
“Nixon!” a woman shouted behind us, her voice shrill and high.
It was nothing out of the ordinary, but Nixon’s hand tensed on my back.
“Nixon! Please!” the woman shrieked.
We both turned at the same time to see a middle-aged blonde trying to barrel her way past security.
“Look, a show before the show,” Quinn quipped as she stepped from her dressing room and joined us.
Nixon’s eyes hardened in a way I’d never seen before as he stared at the screaming fan.
“Nixon!” she wailed as Chris looped his arm around her stomach, keeping her from charging our direction. Something about her triggered my memories, but I wasn’t sure what. Security kept a list of rabid ones, the fans who crossed the line, so surely, she wasn’t one of them.
“Nix?” Chris questioned, avoiding her flailing fists.
“Not interested,” Nixon responded, his voice as cold as his eyes.
He turned us back around and walked, his muscles so tight I thought he might snap before we made it to the stage.
Jonas walked out of his dressing room, much to the delight of a group of fans corralled off the hallway. Nixon loosened up as the trio stopped to sign a few autographs and snap pictures. I bit my tongue when one woman offered up a part of her body to be signed. My own body rebelled at the thought, flaring uncharacteristically with a jealousy so hot I lifted my fingers to my face to feel if my skin registered the temperature change. It did. I didn’t want his hands on her, or any other woman, for that matter. I wanted him to be mine.
I exhaled a sigh of relief as Nixon chose her arm.
Quinn glanced between Nixon and me, lifting an eyebrow and mouthing tangled before turning to sign another autograph.
She was right, I was tangled. I wanted him for more than a few months. Somewhere between his penthouse in Seattle and the ranch in Colorado, between the private jets, the dressing rooms, and my mom’s kitchen, I’d fallen in love with him. No wonder I was willing to break all the rules.
“So, you won’t be running,” Quinn said softly as she came to my side.
“It’s too late for that,” I whispered.
Her eyes flared, and her shoulders tensed as she glanced again between Nixon and me, as if that charged, crackling space between us was a tangible thing. “God help us all.”
“It will be fine,” I argued, forcing a smile to my face as Nixon and Jonas finished up.
“You have to keep a clear path to the high ground. It’s the only way to survive him,” she warned quickly and quietly as the guys headed our way.
“This is where I leave you,” I said to Nixon, who appeared calm and collected to the average viewer, but I knew better. That little spark of panic in his eyes, the set of his jaw, the flicks of the pick across his knuckles…he was most definitely not fine.
And it was my fault. I should have told him I was leaving, should have broken that rule too. Had I ruined everything before we’d had a chance to try?
He nodded. “See you after the show.”
I caught his hand after Quinn and Jonas had already turned, then looked up into those dark eyes with as much conviction as I could possibly will into mine. “I have wanted you since the first day I met you. I listened to you play long before that. We’ve never been on equal footing. You blew me away through the radio of a pickup truck in the middle of Colorado when I was eighteen years old, Nixon. I wanted you long before you ever laid eyes on me.”
His eyes widened slightly, but I saw that spark in his eyes settle. His jaw loosened. Then he nodded and pressed a hard kiss to my forehead, despite our very public setting.
“Zoe,” he whispered against my skin, like it was the answer to a question I hadn’t asked.
Then he walked off with his bandmates to do whatever it was they did before the show.