“And what if your conscience is misguided?” he whispered, raising his hand to skate along my jaw. “You could tell it to take a night off.”
He ran a thumb across my lips, and I couldn’t help my hiss. “You’re playing with fire.”
“What if I like getting burned?” He returned to toying with my collar, making like he was about to yank me closer but not actually doing it. “Come on. What are you going to do, Lieutenant?”
“I…” I swallowed hard. His face was mere inches away. He could have closed the gap, tugged me closer and kissed me. And the awful truth was that I would have let him, wouldn’t have shoved him away. But he was waiting on me, giving me a choice I didn’t really want. I needed to tell him to knock it off, to step away and put an end to this madness, but I stayed right there. I unclenched my fist.
Maybe…
“Ezra?” The door rattled behind Ezra, making him lurch forward into me. I quickly righted him and stepped away before Kate pushed the door open. “Quit fucking around. I need you for some more meet-and-greet photos.”
“Coming. Anything for my fans.” Eyes still locked on mine, he used a tone between a promise and a threat. There was a message there for me, but hell if I could decipher it. The only thing I knew for sure was that this wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
Chapter Eight
Ezra
“Are you going to quit?” I cut right to it when I found Duncan in line for the food table, which was set up in an open part of the backstage area that housed random set pieces and lighting equipment. The concert venue had several different food options, but as per our tradition, Kate arranged for some kickass local cuisine for the post-concert meal, in this case, barbeque with all the fixings. The rich smell alone had lured the band out of their dressing rooms and convinced the road crew to take a break from supervising the load out. There was enough of a crowd around that Duncan couldn’t simply walk away from me without people noticing.
“Are you going to ask me to stay?” he countered in a low voice, finishing loading his plate with ribs, corn, potatoes, and green beans. I’d half expected to find him off in some corner with Ilene, plotting new ways to suck all the joy out of performing. But he was here, no Ilene in sight, and didn’t seem on the verge of walking out.
“Maybe. I’d offer to sweeten the deal, but you made it clear earlier that you’re not interested in that.” I kept my voice bland. I wasn’t stupid enough to repeat my come-on in public. Playing it off as something I did all the time was far easier than admitting how much I wanted him to say yes, to close the gap, to let me kiss him like I knew we both wanted. But Lieutenant Lubov had to go and be noble, which I both respected and chafed at.
“Nope. But I’m not above being bribed by dinner.” He leaned against a huge rainbow set piece, shifting his plate so he could take a bite of potatoes. He chewed slowly, rather obviously using the food as an excuse to dodge the topic of what had happened in my dressing room. “Kind of tough to quit when Kate talks me into more carbs than I’ve had in a month.”
“She’s amazing at finding food. Wait until Chicago. The pizza alone is worth sticking with us.” If Duncan could pretend we hadn’t almost kissed, then I could pretend he’d agreed to stay, make his threat into more of a joke. I had my own plate of food and found a spot near him, away from the flow of traffic.
“I have no idea where you manage to hide eating this way all the time.” He laughed lightly, but his gaze was hungry and hot as it roamed over me. He might like to fake indifference, but his eyes didn’t lie. He wanted me, and it hadn’t been a one-off rage boner in my dressing room either.
“I run.” I gave a not-so-subtle flex to play up his appreciation. “I do some core work and lifting too, but mainly I run so I can eat the stuff Kate finds and stay sane. Helps me sleep.”
“You do seem to have an excess of energy.”
“Yup. My mom says I’m irrepressible. And incorrigible.” I couldn’t help but smile whenever I mentioned my mom and her big former-English-teacher vocabulary.
Carl and his new best friends were hanging out near the door to one of the other dressing rooms, and I could already tell it would be a night I’d be grateful for our no surprise guests on the bus policy. See? I didn’t even need Duncan and his long list of rules to run a tight ship. Common sense. That was all we needed, but Duncan wouldn’t agree and was clearly still spoiling for a fight.