In perfect harmony with the guitar that strummed at her side.
Clearly, it was the jaw-dropping man playing that guitar that had brought a herd of women squealing to the foot of the elevated stage.
I could feel Kale’s playful smile when he saw me gawking. “Now, don’t go getting any ideas. Rick seems to be a little popular with the ladies. Don’t understand what they see in him, actually, when they could be looking at me.”
There it was. That cocky arrogance the man wore so well, the words nothing but a tease that oozed from his mouth, which was still close to my ear.
Inching back a fraction, I stared up at his face. Because while I understood Rick’s appeal, Kale was the only one I wanted to be looking at. “You don’t have a thing to worry about. I’m a one-man kind of girl.”
I tried to make it come out light.
Playful.
But those blue eyes saw straight through me, glinting and sparking in the hazy glow of the bulbs that hung from the rafters. Searching me for the answer he so clearly wanted to reach in and pluck out of me.
He set one of those big hands on the side of my face, cupping my jaw, making me shake. “You think I don’t know that? That I can’t see it shining out of you? What do you say we grab a drink, and you tell me a little about that?”
He said it as if he’d gone right ahead and sifted around inside me and found his answer anyway.
I gave him the smallest nod. “Okay.”
He ran his thumb across my lips, and my tongue darted out without my permission, grabbing the tiniest taste of his flesh.
Oh God. How easily could I get wrapped up in this man?
I swore I could hear Kale’s body hum with a tremor of desire. Swore I could feel every inch of him grow hard.
Ripples of lust vibrated.
They struck in the space between us, shockwaves of heat that blasted across my skin.
I jerked when a man was suddenly there, clapping him on the back.
A man who was shockingly good-looking in an intimidating, almost frightening way.
Where Kale was tall with lean, packed muscle, this guy was a monster. Nothing but hulking muscle covered in tattoos, a mess of designs running down across his arms and hands and fingers.
But his eyes. They were soft with some kind of unknown affection when they landed on Kale.
“Well, well, well, look who’s here. Texted your ass fifteen times to try to convince you to show tonight, and each time you hit me back with some kind of lame excuse about being busy. And here you are. Not busy.”
Kale cocked his head, halfway toward me, his voice a little hard. “Do I look not busy to you?”
Burly guy laughed, drummed his fingers across his lips. “Honestly not sure what you look like tonight.”
There was some kind of conversation that transpired between the two of them, the giant of a man giving Kale a look as if he’d caught him stealing from the till and was going to offer him a prize for doing it.
Gaze traveling to me, the man’s eyes lit in recognition. A victorious grin pulled to his bearded mouth.
He’d seen me before.
That night.
That was right.
I’d seen him, too.
Maybe I’d been too busy stealing peeks at the splendor of the man who right then was slipping his arm around my waist and tugging me tight against his body. But it dawned on me that this guy had been there, in Kale’s group that had been huddled around a back table.
Kale roughed his free hand through his hair. “Hey, just be thankful I’m gracing you with my presence tonight. I did have better things to do than seeing your ugly face, but then I thought I’d introduce Hope here to one of the best bands in the South.”
“Pssh. Ugly? You only wish you could look as good as me.”
“Keep dreaming, man.”
The guy stretched out his tattooed arms. “I am a dream.”
I bit back a laugh, and Kale glanced down at me with a wide smile, gesturing to his friend.
“Hope, this is one of my best friends, Oliver, but everyone calls him Ollie. Ollie here is the owner of this fine establishment. Also, as you can see, a royal pain in my ass.”
Ollie’s brow lifted. “Pain in your ass? Says the guy who thinks he holds the answer to every last one of the world’s problems in the palm of his hands.”
Amusement danced across Ollie’s face when he turned his attention my way and hooked a thumb in Kale’s direction. “This asshole thinks he knows what’s best for everyone. Always tossing out advice like we actually wanna hear it. Singlehandedly going to save the world.”
Kale chuckled under his breath at the razzing and scratched nervously behind his ear.