Lick (Stage Dive, #1)(9)
“I’ll walk you in, Ms Thomas.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I didn’t move. After a moment Sam got the message. He forged ahead and I followed. A couple of girls were making out just inside the door, mouths all over each other. They were both slender and beyond gorgeous, dressed in tiny, sparkly dresses that barely hit their thighs. More people milled about drinking and dancing. A chandelier hung overhead and a grand staircase wound around an interior wall. The place was a Hollywood palace.
Thankfully, no one seemed to notice me. I could gawk to my heart’s content.
Sam stopped to talk to a young man slouched against a wall, a bottle of beer to his lips. Long, blond hair stuck out every which way and his nose was pierced with a silver ring. Lots of tattoos. In ripped black jeans and a faded T-shirt he had the same uber-cool air as David. Maybe rock stars brought their clothes artfully aged. People with money were a pack apart.
The man gave me an obvious looking-over. I steadfastly resisted the urge to shrink back. Not happening. When he met my eyes his gaze seemed curious but not unfriendly. The tension inside me eased.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.” I braved a smile.
“It’s all good,” he said to Sam. Then he tipped his chin at me. “Come on. He’s out this way. I’m Mal.”
“Hi,” I said again stupidly. “I’m Ev.”
“Are you alright, Ms Thomas?” asked Sam in a low voice.
“Yes, Sam. Thank you very much.”
He gave me a polite nod and headed back the way we’d come. His broad shoulders and bald head soon disappeared among the crowd. Running after him and asking to be taken home wouldn’t help, but my feet itched to do so. No, enough with the pity party. Time to pull up my big girl panties and get on with things.
Hundreds of people had been packed into the place. The only thing in my experience that came close was my senior prom and it paled significantly. None of the dresses here tonight compared. I could almost smell the money. Lauren was the dedicated celeb-watcher but even I recognized a few of the faces. One of last year’s Oscar winners and a lingerie model I’d seen on billboards back home. A teen pop queen who shouldn’t have been swilling from a bottle of vodka, let alone sitting on the lap of a silver-haired member of … damn, what was that band’s name?
Anyway.
I shut my mouth before someone noticed I had stars in my eyes. Lauren would have loved all this. It was amazing.
When a woman who most closely resembled a half dressed Amazonian goddess side-swiped me, Mal stopped and frowned after her. “Some people, no manners. Come on.”
The sluggish beat of the music moved through me, reawakening the dregs of my headache and putting a taint on the glitter. We weaved our way through a big room filled with plush velvet lounges and the people draped over them. Next came a space cluttered with guitars, amps and other rock ’n’ roll paraphernalia. Inside the house the air was smoky and humid, despite all the open windows and doors. My top clung beneath my arms. We moved outside onto the balcony where a light breeze was blowing. I raised my face to it gratefully.
And there he was, leaning against a decorative iron railing. The strong lines of his face were in profile. Holy shit, how could I have forgotten? There was no explaining the full effect of David in real life. He fit in with the beautiful people just fine. He was one of them. I, on the other hand, belonged in the kitchen with the waitstaff.
My husband was busy talking to the leggy, enhanced-breasted brunette beside him. Perhaps he was a tit man and that’s how we’d wound up wed. It was as good a guess as any. Dressed in only a teeny white bikini, the girl clung to him like she’d been surgically attached. Her hair was artfully messed in a way that suggested a minimum of two hours at a top-notch salon. She was beautiful and I hated her just a little. A trickle of sweat ran down my spine.
“Hey, Dave,” Mal called out. “Company.”
David turned, then saw me and frowned. In this light his eyes looked dark and distinctly unhappy. “Ev.”
“Hi.”
Mal started to laugh. “That’s about the only word I’ve been able to get out of her. Seriously, man, does your wife even speak?”
“She speaks.” His tone of voice made it obvious he wished I wouldn’t, ever again. Or at least, not within his hearing.
I didn’t know what to say. Generally, I wasn’t after universal love and acceptance. Open hostility, however, was still kind of new to me.
The brunette tittered and rubbed her bountiful boobs against David’s arm as if she was marking him. Sadly for her, he didn’t seem to notice. She gave me a foul look, red mouth puckered. Charming. Though the fact that she saw me as competition was a huge boost to my ego. I stood taller and looked my husband in the eye.
Big mistake.
David’s dark hair had been tied back in a little ponytail with strands falling around his face. What should have reeked of scummy drug dealer worked on him. Of course it did. He could probably make a dirty back alleyway seem like the honeymoon suite. A gray T-shirt molded to his thick shoulders and faded blue jeans covered his long legs. His black army-style boots were crossed at the ankles, easy as you please, because he belonged here. I didn’t.
“You mind finding her a room?” David asked his friend.
Mal snorted. “Do I look like your f*cking butler? You’ll show your own wife to a room. Don’t be an *.”