Her brother? I shifted my gaze between the two of them, searching for a family resemblance. I guessed they shared the same nose and inky hair, but that was about it. Natasha had dark eyes while her brother’s were a crazy electric-blue. Contacts. They had to be contacts.
“Nah, she’ll just take some time to convince is all,” Natasha’s brother said, taking another step closer to me.
“I don’t think so. Charlotte is pretty straight forward about things of that nature,” Sadie chimed in. “I wouldn’t waste your time.”
“Is that so?” he asked, the creepy smirk I was sure made panties drop lightning fast with other girls still clung to his lips.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so.” I sighed. “I don’t get off on any of this.” I gestured to him as a whole.
“Ouch, that’s harsh.” He chuckled.
“You seem like you come on strong and never quit, so I figured I’d nip it in the bud right away,” I told him. “It’s just not going to happen. Sadie is right, don’t waste your time.”
“Damn.” Another in the group laughed. “You are killing me over here. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk to Blaze that way!”
Blaze? Again, what a name.
I smirked, and shrugged my shoulders. My eyes took in the guy talking. He was decent looking. A little on the scrawny side when compared to the other two in the group, but I could still make out the definition in his body. That was enough for me. Combined with his sandy-colored hair and light brown eyes, he definitely was someone who grabbed my attention. I wondered what crazy band name he had been given.
“I think it was about time.” I grinned at Blaze, hoping he wasn’t irritated with me yet. I didn’t want to press my luck, but I couldn’t help getting in one more jab.
“It was. For sure,” the other guy said. My eyes pulled back to him at the sound of his voice. I took in the sweet grin stretched across his face. “I’m Johnny, but the way.”
Johnny, I could handle Johnny. It was a normal name.
“Charlotte.” I returned his smile.
“Yeah, I caught that earlier when your friend was telling us about your crappy weekend.” He licked his bottom lip, drawing my attention to his mouth. I noticed he had a lip ring. It reflected the lights above us. “I hope we can end it on a good note tonight for you.”
Normally, I didn’t go for the bad boy, tattooed, and pierced type. I went for the all-American guys or straight-up country boys. Obviously, none of them had worked out well, because here I was, still single. I caught Johnny skimming his eyes over the length of me while playing with his lip ring, and I wondered if maybe it was time I took a page from Sadie’s dating playbook and branched out to give a different type of guy a try.
BLACK BASH WAS ACTUALLY decent. They weren’t as hardcore as Sadie had made them seem. In fact, they reminded me of one of my favorite rock groups, Three Days Grace. The crowd had seemed menacing when we first walked into Throttle, but once Black Bash had taken the stage, things started to look a little different to me. Half the girls in the bar were here because of the band. The way they were dressed—all black leather pants and cropped off tops with hooker heels—was in the hopes of gaining one of the guy’s attention. They weren’t like Natasha, where it was actually her style. You could tell they were all fake. As for the burly guys, they didn’t seem as hardcore either. Maybe I had let the stories I’d heard about the place form my opinion.
After my second beer, I was loving the place. Blaze had a damn good voice, Thresh was crazy good on the drums, and Johnny could play the hell out of the electric guitar. I soon found myself wondering what else he could do with those magic fingers of his. For the first time all weekend, I was enjoying myself.
“You were right.” I leaned into Sadie, shouting in her ear. “This was exactly what I needed. Thanks for dragging me along.”
“No problem. I knew you’d have fun,” she yelled back.
The current song ended, flowing into another one. I noticed Blaze and Johnny switch places on stage. There was a quiver in my lower stomach from the sight of him standing center stage, the lights illuminating all the sharp features of his face and glinting off his lip ring. I wasn’t the only one having the same reaction. The muffled sounds of girls shouting and calling to him from around me wasn’t something I could ignore. Taking another sip of my beer, I forced my attention back to Johnny, ready to hear him sing for the first time.
The drums kicked in first. Sadie bobbed her head to her guy’s beat. The guitar was next. Blaze strummed cords that cut right though the place, exciting all the woman beneath the roof with his fast fingers and devilish grin. I anticipated the moment when Johnny opened his mouth. When it finally happened, I was mesmerized.
I’d known his voice would be good. You could tell from talking to him he would have a raspy, hypnotic voice when he sang, but I had no idea it would be this good. I listened to the lyrics. He was singing about how he wanted a girl, how he was addicted to her without ever having a taste. My eyes were glued to him. I took in the way he cupped the mic with both hands, how stiff his shoulders seemed, as though he were really an addict for this girl and was truly craving her at this moment. His eyes had closed at some point, and I wondered who he was picturing in his head. The song grew even more erotic and obsessive, becoming the hottest thing I’d ever heard. Just when I thought he couldn’t get any freaking hotter, he opened his eyes and found me.
“I’m going to get that taste. The one I crave. Before the night is through. And girl, you know it’s you,” he sang, his stare never wavering from mine.
My knees grew weak as I watched him step back from the mic, his eyes still trained on me, and lick his bottom lip. Holy hotness, I didn’t think I would be able to deny him a single thing. Johnny had turned me to freaking putty.
Sadie leaned into me. “I think he has the hots for you.”
“The feeling is totally mutual.” I watched him as he sauntered off stage. There was so much confidence in his walk. It wasn’t cocky, but bordering on it. He seemed like a guy who knew what he wanted from the night.
Natasha slipped off her stool beside Sadie, and gestured for us to follow her backstage once more. She didn’t speak a word. I didn’t want to lump her in the category of being a bitch right away, considering how off my assumptions of things had been tonight, so I followed her without scowling. For all I knew, she could suffer from a severe resting bitch face. Sometimes I had one. It sucked.
“Great show, guys!” She surprised me by saying once we made it to where the guys were standing backstage. Yeah, resting bitch face was definitely her problem. “You did awesome!”
“That was amazing!” Sadie gushed to Thresh. The hint of a smile twisted his lips at her words. He was cute, and I could see the two of them together.
“And what did you think?” Johnny was so close to me I could feel his breath sweep across my cheek when he talked. How had he snuck up on me like that?
“Wicked good.” I wasn’t sure where the words had come from. Wicked was not a word I used to describe anything, but I couldn’t think with him so close. My whole right side tingled with life at his nearness. That was what I blamed my lapse in word choice on.
“Wicked. I like that.” He grinned. “People should use that word to describe things more often.” He toyed with his lip ring while staring at me.
I found myself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him with that thing in the way. Would it be cold? What it would feel like slipping across my skin, and dipping to other places?
I wanted him. Parts of the song he’d sang flipped through my mind, and I wanted him even more.
“We were thinking of heading back to our place, and having a few drinks. You interested?” His eyes never left mine. They pinned me in place with their intensity. He felt the attraction, the pull, between us too. I could see his desire swirling through the depths of his eyes. It only intensified the urge I had to kiss him.