Ohh, yes. He trailed his lips down the side of her face. She closed her eyes and trembled in his embrace. His mouth slid lower, to her throat, and the fingers of one hand danced over the strip of bare flesh at her midriff. The other hand pulled her so close her bottom dug into his groin, where he was hot and hard and straining for her.

He still wanted her. “Want” didn’t even begin to cover what she felt for him. Answering moisture pooled between her legs, and her thighs quaked. She was desperate, aching, oblivious to any and everything else but the need to take him inside her. To give herself to him completely, no more holding back. No more running away.

She cast a quick glance around at the crowd cramming them together—everyone still transfixed by what was happening on the stage—and coaxed his hand higher, letting it slide under her shirt. Even in this tumult of sound, she heard him groan, felt the breath of it against her neck. Once his fingers met the expanse of damp flesh under her shirt, she didn’t have to push him anymore. Both hands crept upward until her br**sts were fully encased in his big palms, and she tilted her face upward to the sky, only for a cool, solitary rain drop to sting her cheek.

It felt so good, so good, and she almost didn’t even care if anyone was watching them. His fingers kneaded gently, soothing the arousal making her br**sts feel heavy, and her ni**les pebbled against his hands. It amazed her how every part of her responded to him in some way. Her br**sts. Between her legs. Her mouth flooding with the taste of desire. Her hands shaking, her knees becoming liquid. Was there any part of her he wasn’t master over?

He nudged her head around for a kiss, his lips hot and damp against hers, as bigger raindrops began to sprinkle over them. She couldn’t get close enough this way, and it nearly broke something inside her. The rain landed in cold pinpricks on her feverish skin. She needed more of it, or more of him, to douse these flames before they could incinerate her.

Their lips separated, but lingered between light, brushing kisses, the two of them breathing each other’s breath. She looked at him, watched the lights from the stage flicker over his expression, in the dark depths of his eyes. There was a whole other world in there, she thought, and it was hers to explore forever if she would stop being so afraid. She was going to try to do that. Starting tonight.

Chapter Fifteen

Candace could feel the cool solidity of Brian’s truck fender beneath her ass as he pressed her against it. The sweet, tender burn of his lips across hers, the familiar taste of his mouth…but voices—namely Ghost’s—kept cutting through the haze of pleasure enwrapping her.

“Hey, you did realize that Korn actually got onstage tonight, right? And they kicked ass? Did you actually f**k out in the audience? That’s pretty hot, I guess.”

Brian laughed, letting go of her lips but not moving any farther away or looking anywhere else but at her. “Shut up, man.” Candace admired him for his ability to still speak. Or even breathe. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists against his chest to keep from running her hands all over him. His skin was warm and still dewy from the rain.

“Leave them alone,” Kara scolded, sounding tired. Candace glanced over to see her and Marco in each other’s arms as well. Kara’s hair was plastered to her face, and Candace could only imagine what her own looked like. “Brian, you guys can have one of the guestrooms to yourselves, you know.”

Her heart plunged to the pit of her stomach at those teasing words.

“I ain’t sleeping on no floor,” Ghost proclaimed loudly. “One of the beds is mine, f**kers.”

“You’ll sleep where I tell you to sleep.” That was Marco, and from the sounds that ensued, the two guys engaged in a friendly scuffle.

It all seemed to be such good fun, but all she could focus on was Brian as he kissed her again. His hands. His lips. His tongue in her mouth. His knee between her legs, pressed hard against her crotch. It was the only thing keeping her from climbing him right here. She was aching so hard it was all she could do not to start thrusting her hips against him.

“Let’s figure something out before these two combust,” Kara declared, reeling her man back into her arms. “Are we going clubbing or what?” A chorus of yeses went up, but Candace noticed none of them were hers or Brian’s. “Bri? I’ll give you the keys if you want to head back to the house. It sounds like we’re going out.”

“Let’s go back to your place anyway,” Starla said. “I’m gross. I need to change.”

Only then did Brian pull away and look at the others, which left his neck exposed for Candace to nibble on. “I think we need to crash somewhere else, actually. Sorry for the change of plans.”

“Hey, no problem, totally understandable,” Kara said amidst the whooping that followed his statement.

Brian turned back and slid his lips against Candace’s ear, whispering, “Is that okay?”

She nodded weakly, feeling how ragged her pulse had grown. Alone with him for the night… Her blood felt thick in her veins, pooling heavily in all the places that were pressed tight against him. Brian’s lips slid around her earlobe and tugged gently. Every muscle in her body went rigid. She flattened out her palms and smoothed them over his chest, circling one of his nipple rings with the tip of her middle finger. She knew it would make him groan in her ear, and she wasn’t disappointed.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” he growled.

“Yes, please.”

Soon after, they were caught in the never-ending line exiting the stadium parking lot, the windows completely fogged. They were alone, the others having been merciful enough to ride with Kara or Tay.

Candace groaned and clutched at him as his lips claimed a patch of skin at the base of her throat and sucked it mercilessly. A moment ago, he’d slammed the truck in Park with a curse and attacked, holding her captive to him in an embrace that had her sprawled across his front seat, one leg thrown over his lap.

She threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. The tickling ache of his suction on her skin was driving her wild, and she tilted her hips desperately, trying to grind against him. He rewarded her by sliding his hand up the leg of her shorts. She nearly died.

His mouth released her, but continued to slide over her damp flesh. “I shouldn’t touch you,” he said, sounding gruff and unbelievably sexy. “I should leave you so hot that you’ll come the second my tongue touches that sweet pu**y.” Despite his words, he slid his fingers under her panties, the outside edge of his index finger grazing her throbbing clit.

“Oh, God!”

“Fuck, you’re soaked.” Drawing devastatingly slow circles, he spread the wetness he found through her folds. Outside, rain began pattering against the windows again. She arched against him, so aroused she hurt.

“Please, Brian, faster.”

“You don’t want to wait?” he whispered, keeping up the same torturous rhythm. “Until we’re safe and warm and alone in bed with the whole night ahead? Until I can make you come over and over…”

“Just once, make me come just once, right now.”

“Hmm, I’m not convinced…”

She plunged her hand down over his. “If you don’t, I’ll do it by myself.”