Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“You’re one lucky bastard,” the guy next to me replied.
“That I am,” Dane said, then arched a brow at me. Dane must be used to hearing that shit all the time, and if he was able to shrug it off, then I needed to take a page from his book. Besides, they weren’t wrong. My guy was definitely hot as hell, and talented too.
As I watched their set, the second beer Dane had placed in front of me helped relax me further until I finally tuned everyone else out. Damn, Jesse and Seth were good together, and seeing Seth really own the stage, standing during one number to bang on the keys in front of him, was mesmerizing.
The guy next to me had gotten up at some point, and I’d lost sight of him until I spotted him closer to the stage, shoving a chunk of dollar bills into their tip jar. He stayed planted near the edge of the piano and seemed a bit unsteady as he swayed to the music. Christ, how many drinks had they had? When I glanced over at his friend, he was involved in a flirty conversation with someone new, which was probably why he was left to his own devices.
When Jesse left the stage to travel around the room, much like he did last time, he flirted a little with the guy near the piano and then playfully pushed him off when he attempted to wrap an arm around his waist.
“No touching,” he drawled into the microphone. “My man doesn’t like that.”
I noticed how Dane tensed briefly as he watched, then nodded in Jesse’s direction and got back to serving drinks. But once he was near me again, he leaned over, as if sensing my discomfort about the customer. “Don’t worry. That dude has been here before. He’s harmless.”
“If you say so,” I replied with a shrug and tried to play it cool, but I didn’t feel it for a minute. People thought my father was harmless too. He could come off as charming to people who didn’t know a thing about him or our family life. Harmless, my ass.
On their break, they both downed some water at my end of the bar, and I got to enjoy Seth’s company for a few minutes. Up close, he was even more striking, and I couldn’t stop staring.
“You like?” he asked, striking a pose.
“More than like. You look amazing.” I leaned closer. “Maybe you shouldn’t change tonight.”
He huffed out a laugh, his eyes lighting up with raw desire, and when I wound my arm around his smooth waist for a kiss, he shivered.
Seth pecked my lips one last time before walking through the crowd to his second set, and this time I enjoyed how some men checked him out, knowing he would be coming home with me.
I chatted with Dane until they got started again, and switched to water with lemon for their final numbers. In all, it was a great night and I was enjoying myself, even if the tipsy guy had planted himself near Seth’s piano again. Christ, get another hobby, dude.
After Jesse sang his last song, he disappeared from the stage while Seth stayed put for one more. By then the crowd had thinned out a bit more. Once Seth left his piano and began heading my way, I stood to stretch my legs. He would probably trail Jesse to the dressing room to grab his things and remove his makeup, so it would be another few minutes before he’d follow me to my place.
The tipsy guy headed him off before he could reach me, and they began having a conversation. Seth smiled at first, no doubt from one compliment or another the guy lobbed at him, but then seemed to quickly lose interest, glancing over the guy’s shoulder more than once. I could tell he was being polite and trying to placate him as the man blabbered on, and suddenly my skin felt too tight for my bones, my muscles turning hard as steel as frustration arose inside me. I was pissed that this guy felt entitled to keep Seth occupied with whatever drivel was coming out of his mouth, and Seth was too kind to tell him to get lost.
And it reminded me all too much of how Mom would appease my father at all costs. Like he was so important, she needed to put up with whatever the hell he wanted from her. She would always lose a piece of herself in the process, until she was only a former shadow of herself. That man had cost her years of her life.
Just as Seth was about to walk away, the guy’s fingers fastened onto Seth’s wrist, and I saw stars.
“Hey, listen,” Seth was saying to the guy as I stepped closer. Seth glanced at me and shook his head, trying to warn me off. That should’ve been my first sign. “I’m going to meet my boyfriend, and you look like you’ve had a bit too much to drink, so you need to—”