Chapter Twenty-Eight
Fuck if I know if this is going to work.
My palms are clammy, and my throat is dry. I should’ve had a glass of water before getting up on stage, but I was nervous, anxious to get started. It’s been well over a year since I’ve played on any type of stage, whether it was a park bench or in a venue such as this one. It doesn’t matter. The feeling is just the same, and now as I look out at the crowd, it hasn’t changed.
The people filling my bar start to blend together, their faces becoming anonymous and blank. The tables set out near the front end of the restaurant are full, several of the new servers Colton and I hired serving them. I scan the crowd repeatedly, waiting to spot her in the faceless masses. Vada swore she would find a way to get Sloan here by the time I got up on stage, but I can only hold off for so long before the audience starts to notice.
I’ve been playing the same tune for the past ten minutes like elevator music on repeat, only mine is better than that bullshit they play. I’m still plucking away when Colton emerges from the kitchen. He leans against the wall behind the bar and watches me. A ghost of a smile appears on his face. He’s enjoying this, watching me do the one thing that’s ever made me happy.
I give him a small nod then turn my attention back to the growing crowd. They inch closer to the stage. The lights inside the bar are dimmed, the golden hue casting a warm color over the audience. My chest twists with the thought that Sloan isn’t showing up. Maybe Vada couldn’t convince her to come inside.
I’m about to give up when I finally see Sloan emerge at the front of the crowd. Her tan skin glows with the amber lights, and I’ve never seen her look as gorgeous as she does now.
There’s a prickle down the back of my neck, and now I’m really fucking wishing I’d taken that drink of water. My throat dries and my fingers almost stop playing altogether.
Her long hair is curled around her face, framing the smooth curves of her pink cheeks. Her full lips are painted a bright red. Her dress is a deep shade of blue, the same as her round eyes. It reminds me of my favorite color, the one I told her about the day we went to the furniture store.
The fabric stops at the top of her thighs and cuts down the center of her chest, displaying the top curves of her breasts. My dick twitches at the sight of her, remembering how my mouth has explored her body, devouring her.
I swallow the thick lump forming in my throat and scoot forward on the barstool, bringing my mouth close to the microphone. I don’t take my eyes off Sloan, even when I start speaking to the audience.
“Hello, everyone. First, I want to thank you for coming tonight.” I maintain the steady rhythm of the tune I’ve been carrying the past ten minutes. “My name is Dallas Beckett, and I’m one of the owners of this bar. I recently met a woman who made me rethink all the rules.”
The crowd cheers, clapping and whistling. I still keep my gaze on Sloan, my heart beating and thrashing against my chest.
Sloan’s mouth pops open and tears line her eyes. One single tear spills over as she blinks, and I wish I could step off the stage so I could wipe it away. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking in this moment. Despite the uncertainty, I continue.
“I used to think we are only destined to love one time in our lives, but it’s not true. This woman has changed me, in every way possible.” I clear my throat and take a deep breath, starting the song I came here to play. “Sloan, I couldn’t be more thankful you stumbled into me that day. You not only bent my rules, you also shattered them.” I give her a slight nod and briefly close my eyes. When I open them again, Sloan has her hands clasped in front of her, and her stare hasn’t moved. She’s only focused on me.
I open my mouth and start to sing for the first time in over a year.
I’ve never been the one who had a way with words
But here I am now, laying it all on the line
for the last time
You know it all, even when you fall
Take this love you’ve been given and don’t look back
You can love again, even when your heart is guarded
Don’t worry, this feeling won’t be forever
Always know, I loved you to the end
I loved you to the end
It may have been the end for me
But it isn’t for you
As I’ve said, you know it all
Even when you fall
You’ve known it all along
You can love
You can fall
You can fall in love again
My hands quiver above the strings as I continue strumming. Sloan’s tears are flowing down her face in a way I haven’t seen before. She’s left breathless, her chest still and her face frozen. I lock eyes with her the entire time I play, trying not to fumble the lyrics. After all, I wasn’t the person who wrote them.
The last lyric leaves my lips, and I play a few more chords before finishing on the last note. The crowd is silent, listening to every word and note I’ve played. Blood is pumping through my veins, and I feel a prickle down my spine.
It’s the same feeling I would get when I played before, the rush and the adrenaline of performing for a group of people. It hasn’t gone away. The sensation is still there, just like my ability to love again after losing Hailey.
I thank the crowd then leave my guitar on the stand near the edge of the stage. I can’t wait any longer to talk to Sloan. But when I step down, she’s no longer standing in the same spot. Her back is turned to me, and she’s already started to make her way back to the front of the bar.
The usual country music booms over the speakers scattered across the bar, and the sound drowns out the chatter that has picked up since I stopped playing. Everyone has gone back to their seats or original places, moving away from the stage.
I quickly follow Sloan and elbow my way through to catch up with her. When I make it to the other side, I find her standing outside on the sidewalk. She’s standing in the same spot where we argued the night she called off our agreement, the night she let me go. My stomach sinks, dropping to a new depth. I’m not sure why she’s attempting to leave, and the fear that she’s over me starts to settle in.
Maybe I’m too late. Maybe it isn’t enough. Maybe she doesn’t love me the way I thought she did.
I push through the large glass door and meet her off to the side of the building. She’s wrapped her arms around herself, and when she sees me walking toward her, she releases an audible gasp.
The neon light of the sign above us reflects off her skin, giving it a light pink hue. Her tears have subsided only slightly.
“Hey.” I wish I was more cavalier in this moment. Of all the words I’ve imagined saying to Sloan in the past two weeks, Hey was certainly not one of them.
“That song…” Her voice quivers and she nods toward the bar. “It was beautiful. Did my mom write that one, too?”
I tentatively take a step toward her. She doesn’t move, so I take another one. “No.” I subtly shake my head. “She didn’t.”
“Oh,” she says, swiping at her wet cheek. Her eyes search my face as she tries to understand why I decided to play tonight.
“Hailey wrote it.” I let my confession hang between us.
Her bottom lip pops out and she searches my face. “She did?”
“Yeah.” I grin. It’s the first time I’ve been able to feel this way when I talk about Hailey. “I found it underneath my guitar when I took it out of my case last week. In a way, I think she knew I would need it one day.”
“I thought you said you wouldn’t play on stage again,” she whispers.
“Yeah.” I take another step closer, bringing myself within touching distance of her. “Sometimes we can change our mind. And sometimes we can break our own rules.”
“Dallas.” There’s a warning in her voice. She breathes in as another tear slides down her cheek, and I catch it with the pad of my thumb. She leans into my hand before she shakes her head. “We never should have made
those rules. I never should have had my rules to begin with.”
“I agree.” I wrap my hand around her waist and push her back toward the wall of my bar. She lands softly against the brick exterior and rests her head back. She tilts her chin up so I get a perfect view of her dark blue eyes. I was right—her dress is the same shade.
I slide my hand from her cheek to the back of her head, threading my fingers through her long soft waves. “You can’t place rules on heartbreak, Sloan. I think both you and I know that.”
She lets out a quiet sob. At first, I think she might start crying again, but instead, she lets out a small laugh. “I think you might be right.”
“I am?” I smirk, quirking an eyebrow.
“Maybe.” She twists her mouth in thought then frowns. “But I don’t know if we can do this. I think we both need to figure out what exactly it is that we want.”
“I know exactly what I want.”
“Maybe we were too naïve to think it could work before.” She shrugs. “How do we know it can work again?”
My eyes search her face, my heart thrashing inside my chest then sinking into my stomach. I inhale a sharp breath. “Because this time I know I’m in love with you.”
“What?” Her round eyes widen at my confession, and it feels as if I’ve destroyed the wall I’ve built around myself for the past year.
“I am,” I tell her. “I’m fucking in love with you, Sloan. I was just too blinded before to notice. But I know now that you can’t put rules on heartbreak, and you can’t put them on love. When Hailey died, I thought that was it, thought there was no possible way I could ever love someone as much as I did her, but you changed that for me. You literally came stumbling into my life, Sloan. You buried yourself into every aspect of my life, and I did the same to you without even realizing it. I fell for you, and I fell hard. It was fast and messy, but you were more than I ever could have imagined. You pieced me back together.”
Tears start to fall once again, one after another. She reaches up and places her hand around my arm. She takes in a heavy breath and closes her eyes. I rub my fingers back and forth across the flesh of her back and her head. I feel sick again, unsure how Sloan will react. She looks relieved to hear my words, and from the way she hasn’t pushed me away, I think she might feel the same way. But there’s always the chance she won’t, and I’m very aware of the possibility.
She opens her eyes again and places her other hand on my face, mirroring the way I’m holding her. She stares into my eyes. “I love you, too, Dallas.”
“You do?” I’m both shocked and relieved hearing those words.
She nods, a smile spreading across her pretty mouth. “I do. I have this whole time.”
“Fuck. I love you. Come here.” I breathe out a sigh, still in disbelief. Closing the space between us, I pull her to me without another second of hesitation. Before my mouth meets hers, she gasps, and it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Loving Dallas hasn’t come easy, but now that I’m here, it’s as easy as breathing. It’s a feeling woven into every fiber of my body and soul.
After I tell Dallas I love him out on the sidewalk in front of his bar, he wastes no time in wanting to take us back to his place. He doesn’t care about the crowd holding on to hope that he’ll jump back up on stage. He doesn’t care that he is leaving Colton behind to deal with the rush they are going through.
His sights are set only on me.
Dallas walks me over to where his truck is parked on the side of the building. It’s in a less lit portion of the parking lot, definitely a place I wouldn’t normally be if I were by myself, but I’m with Dallas, and I don’t want to waste another second.
He opens the passenger door for me then jogs around to the driver’s side and hops into his seat. He moves to slide the key in the ignition, but I quickly stop him and place my hand over his.
“No,” I tell him. “I can’t wait that long. I can’t wait until we get home.”
His eyebrows dip and his ice blue eyes spark with my words. He lowers his hand and turns his body halfway to me, giving me access between him and the steering wheel. I slide across the bench seat and straddle him, placing one leg on each side of his. He puts his hands on my hips and pulls me closer to him then moves them to my shoulders. He pulls my dress off them, exposing the top part of my chest, my breasts popping out from the top hem. His eyes dance across my body. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”
I place my hand on his cheek, the stubble on his jaw grating against my palm. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
He gives me a small laugh, and the way his smile lifts the corners of his mouth is enough to make me melt.
The bottom of my dress has already slid up my thighs, and once Dallas notices, his hands are on them. His large palms stretch across them, and his fingers grip my flesh.
His hardened cock springs to life underneath me and I moan, feeling it press against me. My chest is in line with his face, and his hands start moving along my body the same way his eyes do. He can’t focus on one part of me. He’s everywhere all at once.
“Shit, Sloan.” He moves his hands farther up my thighs until his thumbs graze the front of my thong. I’m already soaked and ready for him. He slides his thumb under the fabric and finds my clit. He starts to circle his finger around it, and I lean forward, wrapping my arms around his neck. I lean down and kiss him, placing my lips on his.
I moan against his mouth, my body already starting to heat at his touch. He gently bites down on my lip then pulls away, laying his head back against the headrest.
“Give me your hand.” He removes his thumb from my clit and wraps his fingers around my wrist. He moves my arm in between us then guides my fingers through the top of my thong. “Touch yourself here. I want to watch you.”
With his hand wrapped around mine, I slide my fingers between my slit, finding my warm center. My fingers are immediately wet as I start to circle my clit. All the air leaves my lungs when I start rocking my hips along with our joined hands. Dallas’ hard cock is pressed against me, and I can’t help moving against it, feeling his length move in between my legs. He watches me in amazement.
I close my eyes and tilt my head back. Dallas’ mouth lands on my chest. He kisses the top of my breast then pulls on the flesh, gently biting down. I hiss as every nerve in my body shivers with tiny explosions bursting along my skin.
“Dallas…I want you inside me.”
He removes his hand from mine and slides it underneath me to unzip his jeans. I continue with my hand as he frees himself from the constraints of his pants. He centers himself then places his hands on my hips, lifting me slightly.
“Shit.” I groan, knowing if he doesn’t slide himself inside me, I’m going to cum before he’s even had a chance.
Sensing I’m close to the edge, he wraps his hand around mine and pulls me away. He lifts my fingers to his mouth and presses his lips against them. It reminds me of when he first touched me at the club that night on Sixth Street.
“I love you, Sloan.” He breathes out. I can tell he’s growing impatient. His dick twitches, and I gasp at the sensation it gives me. At the same time, I know he’s trying to savor this moment like I am.
Him telling me he loves me causes my heart to flutter in my chest. I reach down below me, grabbing his length. I lift my hips and center him under me before I start to lower myself back down. “I love you, too.”
With my other hand, I grip the back of his seat and slide down. He groans, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. He lifts his hips up from the seat slightly, helping to slide himself in all the way. I groan against him and dip my head, watching as I move up and down. Resting his hand on my cheek, he pulls my gaze back up to his. I lean into him and bite down on my bottom lip, pulling it between my teeth.
“I promise,” he says, “to love you and only you, Sloan. No more rules. No more heartbreak. Just you and me.”
Dallas grips my
hips tighter and moves me over him faster. He doesn’t waste any more time as he lifts off the seat, pushing harder every time our bodies meet.
“You have me, Dallas Beckett. All of me.” I move my hips up and down above Dallas when my orgasm comes. It’s intense and amplified by his promise. My body quivers above his, and I press my hand against his chest as I come down from my high. I keep moving over Dallas, watching as he slides in and out of me.
“Fuck, Sloan. You feel so good, I can’t…” His legs tense beneath me as he wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me closer. He orgasms inside of me, and it’s an entirely different feeling than before.
When he’s finished, I don’t immediately climb off him. I stay above him, with him inside, and stare at the man I love. I truly do love him more than I’ve loved anyone before.
He plants kisses along my neck, his lips lingering across my damp skin. He kisses me on the lips and pushes my hair away from my face.
I give him a smile then glance through the driver’s side window, toward the bar. The windows are too foggy for us to be seen or to see through. All I can see are the faint, blurred neon lights from the street. Some of the light peeks through the window, casting a glow on Dallas’ skin. I swing my gaze back to him. We’re both still taking a moment to catch our breath. I run my thumb across his bottom lip and smirk.
“Do you want to go back in there? Maybe play another song?”
Although I hope Dallas might not want to go back inside, I still haven’t stopped thinking about the song he played inside, and the fact that Hailey wrote it for him. Like my mother’s recording to me, Hailey knew Dallas would need that song one day, knew it would lead him to love again.
He frowns in thought, three creases forming across his forehead. He swipes his tongue across his lips and takes in a deep breath.
“No, I don’t think so. There’s plenty of time for that.”
His arm is still wrapped around my waist. He tugs me forward, and I yelp when his dick hardens inside me. He hasn’t pulled himself out yet. I clench my thighs around him as it grows inside me.
The Rules of Heartbreak: An Enemies-to-Lovers/Next-Door Neighbor Romance (The Heartbreak Series Book 1) Page 26