All except for my girl.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
The chant of the claim echoed in my mind, and I attempted to beat it back. Contain the assault that blistered through me when I watched the gorgeous girl stand firm in the middle of the pandemonium.
Sable eyes on me. The long locks of her black hair curled in soft waves, bigger than she normally wore it, make up done up thicker. Her lashes full and her lips fuller.
Girl looking like she’d just hit the runway or stepped off a stage herself.
Sexy as fuck.
Striking.
Gorgeous to the extreme.
“Thank you for coming out to see us tonight, Savannah!” Emily shouted into the mic, lifting her hand and waving. “We love you.”
Another round of screams and shouts and stomps of feet.
“Stay awesome, Savannah,” Richard issued into his mic before he pulled the strap of his guitar over his head and set it onto the stand, waving as he strode off the stage.
Rhys twirled his soaking shirt over his head and sent it sailing into the crowd, his tattooed chest and abs gleaming with sweat and causing the entire population of Savannah to drop to their knees.
Every single one of my bandmates commanded the stage.
Their talent overwhelming. But this business didn’t merely require talent. It took charisma. Connecting with souls from on the stage like they were standing right there with you.
A rumble of ferocity burned deep inside.
I wanted it for them. Wanted it badly.
Problem was, I wasn’t sure if I could remain. If I could stay and be a part of it without destroying their chance before they got started.
Everything was becoming blurred.
Distorted.
Everything except for the girl who was waiting at the foot of the stage.
All around her, people laughed and chugged beers and lingered for the coveted chance of getting an invite backstage, but she just stood there, watching me with those eyes that were doing crazy things to me.
I edged that way.
Severity crashed.
A lightning bolt that struck in the middle of us.
Shivers of it racing far and wide.
A crackle in the air.
A smirk ticked up at the corner of her sweet, sweet mouth that was painted in that lust-inducing red when she saw me moving her direction.
About fifty other chicks noticed, too, like they thought I was coming for them.
Not a chance.
I had one destination.
One mind.
I was moving for her when some fucker decided to take note of her, too. Not that you could miss the prettiest girl in the place.
Fact of it didn’t give him a free pass.
Not when he moved in, whispering in her ear, country boy all dimples and charm and Georgia grins.
My heart hammered. Ribs squeezing tight.
Shit.
This was getting bad.
Goals out of sight.
Mia gave him a polite smile and a slight shake of her head, trying to dodge the advances she didn’t want.
Asshole couldn’t take a hint.
He took her by the arm like he had the right to touch on the beauty that was driving me out of my mind.
Without giving it a thought, I slid off the front of the stage. The crowd pulsed around me.
A living ring of bodies that pressed and contended to get closer.
I shoved through them. Needing to get to her. To squelch the derangement that was clouding my mind.
Didn’t even give a shit that they were undoubtedly taking pictures.
Watching this go down.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
Fuck. Wanted to scream. Guilt billowed from the depths. This betrayal that was becoming my greatest sin. But I couldn’t stop the possession that rose like a storm.
Dark and black and foreboding.
Prick tugged at her and tried to bury his face in her hair.
Bad call, motherfucker.
I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
Pussy nothing but a runt.
He started to whirl on me. No doubt, he was getting ready to throw blows.
If only I’d get so lucky.
Maybe it would take off some of the edge.
His punk eyes went wide when he saw he was about to get his ass beat by the guy in the back. “You . . . you’re the drummer? Right?”
Everyone was staring like they’d just witnessed a fifteen-car pileup on the interstate.
Didn’t give a shit.
Only thing I cared about was this girl who was looking at me in shock and surprise.
“Leif,” she murmured in a bid to get my attention.
“That’s right,” I told him, unable to staunch the jealousy that spread through my being. The thought of someone else touching her. Loving her. Couldn’t tolerate the image.
The thought or the assured possibility.
“Think you should probably head out, yeah?” I warned.
My gaze narrowed and my fingers twitched. Wanted to smash in his face for having the audacity to look at her. For even thinking about her.
Which was fucked up on so many levels.
He put both hands up, one with a beer dangling from his fingers. “Whoa, dude. Think we have some kind of misuderstandin’, here. Meant no harm or disrespect. Didn’t know this was your girl.”
He backed away.
I stalked forward, same way as he’d done Mia.
“Yeah, well, I think my girl was making it plenty clear she wasn’t interested, whether if she was with me or not.”
He chuckled an anxious sound, attention darting over his shoulder like he was getting ready to bolt.
A hand landed on my arm.
Soft and sure and right. “I think he was just leaving, weren’t you?” she prodded. Mia’s voice wrapped around me.
A balm and a match.
Consolation and gasoline.
The guy’s attention swung between the two of us. “Sorry. Seriously. We’re cool, man. We’re cool.”
We so were not cool because I was burning the fuck up.
Losing it.
The collected focus I’d possessed for the last three years obliterated in a breath.
Her breath.
Her hand squeezed my arm, and she peered up at me through the drizzle of light that poured through the theater. Worry in her eyes and mischief twitching across those lips.
Something new rippled in the space between us.
Understanding.
Girl getting me on a level that no one else could.
Like maybe she could see through the grief and the pain.
My chest tightened.
No.
Not through it.
Like she was willing to wade through the middle of it with me.
“Hey, there, Drummer Dude,” she said softly, grinning when she uttered the nickname Brendon had given me, all the kids taking suit considering there was no denying he was the alpha of the pack.
I heaved out a strained breath.
She grinned wider. Seduction and sweet. “Nothing like a little overreaction. Don’t tell me you’re jealous?” she teased, the mood a thousand miles from where we’d been yesterday.
A grunt of possession rippled through me, and I angled her way, erasing the space.
Body against hers.
Relief. Relief.
“He touched you,” I grumbled.
A slight, disbelieving giggle rippled free. Laced with a deadly dose of temptation. “And I’d just told him to get lost. That I wasn’t interested.”
She hiked up on her toes and placed that mouth next to my ear. “That I was taken.”
A growl ripped up my throat and my arm was around her back and the fingers of my other hand were diving into the long locks of that black, black hair.