Surrendering (Surrender 1)

I hear Ella behind me and it sounds like she says, “I told you so.”

Then Kendall replies, “Well, shitballs.”

When Declan gets to the door, he leads me through and I realize we’re behind The Steamroom stage in a darkened corner. He immediately takes me into his arms and kisses me with force. At first I’m motionless, but then I fall into his embrace and meet him thrust for thrust. Our mouths and tongues move together perfectly. He moves to cradle my head and I whimper against his lips. My hands are holding onto his hips pulling him as close as possible. At one point, someone walks by, but I don’t stop. I’m clinging to him to hold myself up. He pulls away first and I try to catch my breath.

“Imagine this, Raven; I’m sitting back here with Nate and Cooper practicing a song for tonight. I have a perfect view of the door. Then you come through looking like a fucking wet dream with your posse. I see at least ten guys look at y’all and I know I need to get to you before I get into a fucking fight. I promised your brother and Finn I wouldn’t fuck up again and I meant it. So I have to ask Mark to get to you before anyone else has a chance to.”

“Why would you do that?”

“You don’t get it yet, but you will. I consider you mine. That first night, I wanted you. I know I fucked up and we’ll get through it, but I can’t stand the thought of anyone else kissing those lips, touching your skin, or seeing how incredibly sexy you are. If you think I was a dick to bring you back here before you had a chance to prance across the bar, so be it. But I am not sorry.”

I’m staring into his eyes as I listen to his words. They are full of passion and intent and I hope my eyes are saying the same back to him. I’m crazy about him. I want him to want me in every way possible. I lift up on my tiptoes and run feather kisses across his lips. “Okay,” is all I say.

“Shit, Sparkle. I’m hard as stone just thinking about you. You look edible and I’m starving. Please tell me I can see you tonight after the show.”

“I’m sure we can stick around, but it is the last night of our girls’ weekend. I think Kendall wants to sleep in a bed tonight.”

“Pack a bag for tomorrow night. I know I need to explain what happened the day you came by, and you may not like it, but I want to spend the entire night making it up to you.”

Pure desire runs through my whole body. “Okay.”

“Before I let you go, please tell me you know nothing happened with Sami.”

“I know you didn’t sleep with her. I’ve spent days listening to everyone tell me that she set it up. You’ve formed quite a coalition with my friends and family.”

“Not only did I not sleep with her, nothing at all happened.”

“I believe you.”

“I’m going to kiss you now and then we are going back in that room with you on my arm. Shit, I’ll carry you in there if I have to. And tonight on the dance floor, please behave. I don’t want to have to break up a set because some pervert gets the wrong idea.”

“It seems a little barbaric, but tonight I’ll agree with you only if you promise me that we’ll work on your jealousy issues.”

He walks me backwards until I hit the wall and bends down. Right before he kisses me, he says softly against my lips, “Never had jealousy issues until I met you.”

After a few more minutes of making out and adjusting our clothes, we join everyone back in the room. The rest of the band has met my friends and it looks like tequila shots are flowing. There are a few strangers hanging around and I notice a scantily dressed blonde inching her way closer to Declan. Right about the time she arranges herself next to him, I pull him behind me and he has no choice but to wrap his arms around my middle. I think he knows why I did it; he complies and chuckles in my ear. You can tell she’s pissed, but I shrug my shoulders at her.

Because I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation in front of me, I didn’t realize that Ella had said something. Declan grips me tighter to get my attention and asks, “Can you repeat that, Ella?”

“I said that since I’m a gracious winner, I’m dedicating my winnings to our tab tonight.”

“What did you win?”

“The bet.”

“What bet?”

Everyone grows quiet, but I can see smiles on their faces. I, on the other hand, feel like I need to stop this. “It’s nothing but a stupid idea Kendall had.”

“I’d still like to hear about this ‘stupid idea’ because I have a feeling it had to do with me.”

Ella doesn’t seem to notice the tension and decides to let him in on the stupid wager they made. “We made a bet on how many guys would hit on Rave tonight. I took the low number of one because I knew you would take control once you saw her. The others threw in higher numbers because they under-estimated your possessiveness.”

“To my credit, I thought we would at least get to the bar. I was counting on the long walk through for my number,” Kendall shouted out. “Why do you think I spent so much time on that outfit?”

“Just out of curiosity, what was your guess?” Declan directs the question back to her.

“My guess was four, but ten was the highest.”