The Spiral Down (The Fall Up #2)(27)

The shadow of his head turned from side to side before he slowly lifted his large hand in an awkward return.

I licked my lips, and a blast of heat flushed my body.

Levee stepped into my line of sight, blocking him. Tugging me into another hug, she warned, “Please be careful. You’ve got that look in your eye.”

Oh. I’d be careful, all right. But I had a feeling that condoms and lube weren’t what she was talking about.

I also had a feeling that I wouldn’t be heeding her advice.

Nodding, I stepped away. “Give it up for, Levee Williams!” I called to the crowd as she took a final bow, waving with both hands as she walked off stage.

I needed to see him—get a read on his face and figure out exactly why he had changed his mind about coming. My imagination often got the best of me, and the last thing I wanted was false hope if he was clearly only there for one of the girls.

While my band resumed their positions at their instruments, I made my way to the edge of the stage, stopping directly in front of him.

Nerves I had never felt in front of a crowd churned in my stomach.

It didn’t matter why he was there. It only mattered that he’d come.

And—no matter what I had to do to make it happen—tonight, we’d both come.

Staggering confidence and overwhelming nerves battled inside me as I stepped around the lights and caught my first real look at him.

Dark jeans hugged his muscular thighs as he lounged casually in his seat. The front row rushed toward me, but Evan didn’t budge. His thick arms were crossed over his chest, and those intense, blue eyes swept over me from toe to head before finally meeting my gaze. His expression was impassive, but it gave me hope, because even as Tabitha and Jessica jumped and cheered, his attention never left mine.

Never.

Not once.

In the middle of the sold-out arena, as cameras projected me onto the huge screens on either side of the stage, the world fell away. With his gaze anchored to mine, the six feet that separated us was inconsequential and the air between us became charged, prickling the hair on the back of my neck.

We were two of nearly twenty thousand people.

But we were alone.

His lips twitched in the way I was learning they always did when he thought he was topping me. Maybe not sexually, yet. But that slight tip of his lips appeared in the rare moments when I would drop my guard enough for him to truly see me.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. But, for reasons lost on me, Evan could strip whatever disguise I attempted to hide behind. Fame, fortune, fear. He saw through them all.

I’d made no secret that I was pursuing him. But, right then, as I was held hostage by nothing more than his gaze, he was no longer in my crosshairs.

I was in his.

The band began playing my intro for the next song, but my mouth had dried and I was already out of breath from simple eye contact. Evan, though, appeared utterly unfazed.

The hand on my mic instinctively lifted to my mouth, but I’d already missed my cue. The band flawlessly looped, repeating the intro.

For the first time ever, I couldn’t sing a single note.

Squirming under his gaze while standing in front of a sold-out crowd just became the most arousing experience of my life.

And I knew he felt it too when a lazy smile played at the corner of his lips before his eyes swept back over me.

Dear God. I didn’t have to f*ck him to get the high.

Evan Roth had just become my favorite drug of all and I hadn’t even tasted him yet.





FROM WHAT I saw of the show, it was good.

But all I’d really seen was Henry. And he was incredible.

I hated to admit the places my mind went as I watched him performing. Part of that was because he was gorgeous up there in the spotlight. His white T-shirt drenched with sweat, clinging to the curve of his pecs, and those black pants that hugged his ass in ways that spoke directly to my cock. His lips against the microphone made my skin heat, but the odd and alluring combination of smooth grit that came from his mouth had me fighting an inferno.

I enjoyed every painful moment, even as I willed time to speed so the show could end and put me out of my misery.

Whatever excuse my head had used for why I’d decided to come tonight was no longer the reason I was still there.

Not after the way I felt when his eyes repeatedly landed on me as if I had been the only one in attendance. Every step he took on that stage was carefully choreographed as part of his performance, but every stolen glance my way was like foreplay. I felt each one in my balls.

He knew what he was doing.

I knew what he was doing.

And, as soon as I got Jessica involved, I knew what we would be doing.

I was f*cking starving, but it wasn’t for dinner.

Henry would absolutely be fed though.

I groaned to myself and closed my eyes, desperately trying to think about anything other than his mouth wrapped around my cock, devouring me from base to tip.

“You okay?” Jessica asked in a gentle voice.

My eyes popped open and I turned my attention her way.

She was cute. Great tits. All of that deep-red hair I could wrap around my fist as I f*cked her. Her toned legs would have looked amazing wrapped around my hips as I drove inside her.

My dick didn’t even twitch.

At least, not until I added Henry into my little fantasy.

His mouth traveling up my neck, to my ear, sucking before his deep, raspy voice whispered my name. His hands teasing up my abs, plucking my nipples, and then making their way into my hair. He’d give it a hard tug, forcing me to cry out in pain right before he’d seal his mouth over mine, swallowing my pleas for more.