Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

I swallowed hard and glanced away, bringing my beer to my lips like nothing was wrong as I slid slowly off the stool. I wondered if I could make it out the doors without him catching me. Part of me thought that he’d ignore my departure and keep going, but the other part of me knew that, if I took one step away from my bar stool, he’d be calling me out over the damn speaker system.

As Bram strummed the last chord of the song, the crowd burst out in applause, and he smiled wide, glancing around in front of him.

“Damn, you guys have a lot of energy. I’ve been up since four a.m.; I think it’s past my bedtime,” he said jokingly as he scratched at his beard. “You want one more?”

Whistling and cheering came through the room, and I wondered how often he came to this bar to sing. The people seemed to know him, or at least recognize him.

“All right. One more.” He repositioned on his stool. “Pretty sure you’ll know this one. This is ‘First’ by Cold War Kids.”

Bram’s eyes came back to me, and I fumbled with my empty beer glass, setting it on the bartop behind me.

He crooned the chorus into the mike, slowing down the familiar song. Holy shit.

He was going to kill me.

I stood frozen through the entire song, and Bram’s eyes never left me. When he was done, he climbed up from the stool, and I calculated my distance from the front door as I pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of my purse and threw it on the bar.

I took one step toward freedom, my eyes on Bram, when his head slowly shook from side to side, warning me to stay put.

“Your turn to entertain me,” Bram said, leaning down into the microphone. The crowd cheered, but his words were for me.

“We’ll entertain you,” a tall girl called out, her arm wrapped around her much shorter friend as they swayed. The entire bar erupted in laughter, and the girl’s face dropped as her eyes went wide. She was drunk, but apparently not drunk enough to ignore the fact that she’d just made an ass out of herself.

Bram’s eyes went soft as he glanced over, then he leaned back into the mike again and nodded toward me. “Sorry, beautiful, but my girl’s waiting for me at the bar.”

My mouth dropped open and my stomach flipped as he moved toward me, but before he’d made it through half the crowd, I’d snapped it shut again and was crossing my arms over my chest. He better have been talking about some other woman at the bar. If he thought I was playing along with his bullshit announcement, he was sadly mistaken.

“You di—” The words weren’t even out of my mouth before his hand was wrapped lightly around the front of my throat, his fingers and thumb resting at the bottom of my jaw.

“Hey, baby,” he murmured, leaning in without any warning and kissing me gently.

I’d been expecting something different. Something punishing. Hard. Maybe a bite. I think that was why, when he went to move away, my mouth followed his.

It was instinct. Nothing more. But the soft brush of lips hadn’t been enough.

Bram made a surprised noise in his throat when my arms dropped and wrapped around him. Our eyes met for a split second before he groaned and pushed me back against the bar.

Then his mouth was on mine again, and there was nothing soft about it. He pulled gently, wetly, at my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth, my breath hitching as his tongue slid inside. Holy shit, Bram could kiss.

I forgot where we were. I forgot who he was. Hell, I forgot who I was.

Nothing mattered except our points of contact. His hips pressing against my waist, his hard back beneath my palms, one of his hands at my throat and the other setting his guitar on the bar behind me so he could slide his fingers through the short hair at the back of my head.

“I’ll put this in the back room,” the tall guy’s voice said teasingly from behind me, I assumed talking about the guitar.

Bram nodded, still kissing me, and then his hand was on my ass, lifting me as I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist.

Oh God, that was so much better. I ground against him as he stepped away from the bar and pulled his mouth from mine. His hand moved around the back of my head, and he shoved my face into his neck as he moved through the bar.

Shit. What the fuck were we doing? I held on tight, my face burning in embarrassment even though it was hidden, and my pussy rubbing against his dick with every step he took.