Steal My Heart (Swoon Series Book 7)

by J. H. Croix

  Ash

  Dragging my sleeve across my face to wipe off the sheen of sweat gathered there, I walked across the stage, the sound of the last chord still reverberating through my body. The small bar was packed, and the sound of the crowd filled the space.

  I was jostled on one side as I walked down the stairs. A piercing whistle elicited an involuntary flinch as I tried to make my way through the crowded area to the side of the stage.

  “Hey, gorgeous! Fucking listen when somebody tells you you’re hot!” The man’s angry voice had an edge to it that made me uncomfortable. I hugged my guitar to the front of my body, but that turned out to be a mistake. It exposed my back, and the next thing I knew, a hand was squeezing my ass.

  “Hey!” I spun around, reflexively swinging my hand in the direction of wherever that hand came from.

  “Get your fucking hands off her.” Mack’s voice, low and authoritative, sliced through the noise around me.

  I felt him before I saw him. His presence was potent and large. The second I felt him approach from behind, a sense of relief rolled through me. I’d been on edge all evening. I told myself the internal tumult from the accident would only feed my songs tonight. That had been true, yet it didn’t help me deal with the annoying side effects of playing music live.

  I loved to play, and it was my personal touchstone no matter what was going on. Any musician who was halfway decent wouldn’t turn their nose up at getting big and famous, yet that absolutely wasn’t what drove me to play. I enjoyed the quaint bars. The connection I had with the audience felt more personal.

  Except I hated this part. Mack’s arm came around my shoulders. “Back off,” he said when another guy made a comment I could barely hear, only catching a part of the man’s next comment at the tail end. “…her sweet ass.”

  “You fucker.” Before I even realized what was happening, Mack’s arm slid off my shoulder, and he had the guy’s shirt bunched in his fist right at the throat as he lifted him off the ground.

  “What the fuck?!” the man snarled although he was pretty helpless at the moment.

  “Back off and don’t talk trash,” Mack said, tossing the guy away as if he were nothing more than a lightweight bag of trash.

  His strong arm wrapped around my shoulders again, and then he guided me through the crowd with ease. People tended to get out of the way for Mack, and I didn’t blame them. He was big, and he had a forbidding edge to him with his broad shoulders and the fact he stood taller than most men at six feet five inches.

  In another moment, Mack was holding the door open to the back hallway. The sounds of the crowd muted behind us just as the act that followed me began their set.

  “You okay?” Mack asked as I turned and sagged against the wall.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” When I looked up into Mack’s eyes, navy and liquid, my heart executed a disorienting flip in my chest. I didn’t know what it was about Mack, but the sense of protectiveness he exuded was intoxicating.

  It also turned me on. Although, of late, all Mack had to do was exist in the same space with me, and I was turned on. Still unsettled from dealing with the accident earlier, I couldn’t seem to think clearly.

  “Let’s go,” I said, pushing away from the wall.

  Just then, the back door swung open again. It hit me in the shoulder, and I stumbled slightly. Mack caught me, his hand landing right on my hip when he steadied me. “Easy there,” he murmured.

  “Oh, sorry,” the woman who’d just come hurrying through chirped. She was one of the waitresses for the bar.

  “No problem,” I said as I reflexively turned into the shelter of Mack’s embrace as his arm curled around my shoulders again. God, he smelled soooo good. I could smell a hint of fresh soap from the shower he took at the hotel before we came out. Underneath was the slight crisp scent he carried no matter what.

  She looked back and forth between us quickly and smiled. “Your girlfriend’s voice is incredible,” she said, addressing Mack.

  “I know.”

  His choice not to correct her perception that I was his girlfriend sent an unexpected shiver chasing over my skin. She gave us a quick wave and hurried down the hallway. Moments later, I had my purse and Mack was carrying my guitar when we stepped out into the parking lot.

  “Hungry?” he asked with a slight lift of his chin, a subtle gesture he did often when he was asking a question.

  “Course I’m hungry. I’m always hungry after I play.”

  Mack’s responding slow smile had butterflies bursting to life in my belly.

  “Then let’s go get you fed.”

  “I got it,” Mack said when he reached for the check the waitress had placed in the middle of the table.

  Right as I curled my two fingers around the edge of the small slip of paper, his big palm landed on top of mine. My pulse stuttered and then lunged. Apparently, even a simple innocent touch from him made my body spark like a firecracker. That was the effect Mack was having on me day after day after day.

  I looked up into his gaze and cast a glare at him. “I got it,” I said, stubbornly tossing his words right back at him.

  “You’re not really gonna argue with me about this, are you?”

  He didn’t move his hand, and his touch was sending licks of fire over my skin, and my breath was getting shallow. Yanking my hand out from under his, I rolled my eyes, striving to play it cool. When cool was the opposite of how I felt.

  “Not worth the fight.”

  As he pulled his wallet out, I couldn’t help but look at his hands. They were big, like all of him, yet they were almost elegant. His fingers were long and nimble. I could only imagine how his hands would feel on my body.

  Stop it!

  Oh, stop being so prissy. You want Mack, and he wants you. I dare you to do something about it.

  Shut up.

  I wanted to make my critical, ever taunting voice die a quick death inside my brain.

  It doesn’t matter if I want Mack; he’s made it clear it’s not a good call.

  Says who? Mack is nothing like Kyle and Brian.

  Oh, Jesus Christ. Shut the hell up.

  I did not need to be thinking about how I knew Mack would never treat any woman as carelessly as Kyle did, or how he would never cheat on someone the way Brian did for months before our wedding.

  Sometimes, I wondered if other people had so many competing internal opinions taking up space and time in their minds.

  Our waitress took the cash from Mack when he held it up as she hurried by. “Be right back with your change,” she called over her shoulder.

  Mack leaned back in his seat. “We’ve eaten at a lot of diners over the past few weeks. Have a favorite?”

  “Hmm.” I cocked my head to the side, drumming my fingertips on the table. “Let me think about it. We should have a vote.”

  “A vote with just the two of us?” His lips kicked up at one corner, and those unsettled butterflies took flight again, tickling the inside of my belly.

  I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe we’ll agree. Or maybe not. I know my favorite was that place in the Badlands.”

  “Seriously? That’s my favorite. It was damn good.”

  “I love the name too,” I added.

  “I don’t even remember the name. What was it?” Mack countered.

  “Diner. That was it.”

  Mack’s slow grin was like a spur in the flanks of my pulse, and it obediently kicked up to a faster gallop.

  “They kept it simple,” I managed, my voice coming out a little breathy. Dear God. I couldn’t even discuss restaurants with him without getting stupid.

  The waitress dropped off Mack’s change, and he left a generous tip. That was something I liked about him. He wasn’t cheap. Kyle had been so freaking cheap, always nitpicking and leaving shitty tips. Waitressing wasn’t the greatest job. I’d done it for years in college, so I was big on tipping well.

  While Mack put the rest of the change into his wallet, he looked over at me. His gaze was
like a tractor beam. Once I was caught within it, I couldn’t look away. “You doing okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” I said quickly.

  “I know you’re fine, but that accident was kind of intense. How’s your arm feeling?”

  I pushed up the sleeve of my thin cotton blouse and studied the lightweight bandage on my forearm. “It’s fine. The soreness is settling in, though, like you said it would. Are you okay?”

  “Of course.”

  Although neither one of us said another word for a moment, or maybe two, something passed between us, and the air snapped and crackled with energy. This thing with us seemed to have a life of its own.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mack

  Although the hotel where we were staying was maybe only two miles from the diner, the distance felt much longer. I’d been trying to keep a leash on this rampaging need for Ash, and I was definitely losing my grip.

  Something about today had set everything in motion inside me. The latch on the gate had been knocked loose. Not only had it swung open but it’d also been blown off the hinges. I was accustomed to the rush of adrenaline that carried me through an emergency. It was my job to remain steady when everything else was out of control. Today’s emergency wasn’t even that big of a deal, all things considered.

  That wasn’t to say it hadn’t been terrifying for the people directly affected. For me, only one slice in time kept replaying—the sound of Ash’s cry.

  She was fine. Hell, she was so fine she went on to play tonight after we checked in at the hotel. She’d shrugged it off when I asked her if she felt up to it. She pointed out it was her left arm, and she was right handed. She changed her clothes and insisted on keeping the gig. It didn’t matter to me that she appeared fine on the surface. That tiny event triggered something inside me.

  A distant corner of my mind knew precisely what it was. Only one other event had involved someone who mattered to me like that. I only had one sister left now because my other sister was dead.

  No matter what became of this chemistry brewing between us, Ash had been my friend for years and was closely tied to so many people I cared about. Even if I tried to tell myself she wasn’t that important, it was a bald-faced lie.

  It had been over fourteen years since Krista died, yet every single detail about that event was carved in stone in my mind. It wasn’t my fault. I knew this. Another thing I knew was that the heart didn’t listen very well to logic and reason. I still felt guilty. I’d been there. I’d replayed that afternoon so many times, trying to figure out what I could’ve changed in the series of events that ended in her death, but I always came up with the same answer. Nothing.

  My mind shied away from going down that well-worn path, immediately colliding with my inconvenient desire when Ash spoke.

  “You just missed the hotel,” she said, a low, husky laugh following.

  Hitting the brakes and my blinker, I turned quickly into a gas station parking lot to go back. “Sorry, totally spaced out.”

  I slid my eyes sideways to run right into Ash’s gaze. Eyes. In all of the years I’d known her, I hadn’t thought much about her eyes. I sure as hell hadn’t thought they were fuck-me eyes.

  They totally were. That blue darkened every time we looked at each other. She had thick brown eyelashes that framed her eyes, illuminating the blue. She didn’t wear makeup, never had that I could recall, and she certainly had no need for it. Her gorgeous eyes tilted up at the corners, and her cheekbones angled down to her kissable lips.

  I almost missed the turn. Again. This time, I wasn’t lost in my thoughts, but in her gaze instead. My heart felt like it had been jump-started, rusty from years of inaction. Honestly, I couldn’t say I’d ever let any woman matter to me in a romantic sense. I wasn’t an asshole; I just wasn’t interested in frilly things like romance. A few hours between the sheets and a friendly parting were more than enough. Or so I had convinced myself.

  Ash broke the stare down between us, her breath escaping in a puff when she turned away to look out the window. During the next minute or two, the small space in my truck was tense. It felt as if lightning might strike between us. We definitely needed to run for cover, but there was nowhere to go.

  I parked, and we walked in silence through the lobby. The ride up in the elevator was quiet. My pulse kept racing along. Something had to give. This trip couldn’t end soon enough.

  When we got to the room, every sound grated on me. It was like all my nerves were exposed to the air, and only one thing could soothe them.

  “I just need to go to the bathroom, then you can have the shower,” Ash said as she dropped her purse on the dresser and practically ran into the bathroom.

  Even though I had showered this afternoon after our rescue event, going to the bars usually left me reeking of smoke and beer and sweat from the crowd. Ash told me every single night she played that I didn’t have to go to the shows. But I couldn’t not go. Listening to her sing and strum her guitar was like peering into her soul. One thing I’d figured out since our worlds had collided was that Ash was far more guarded than she used to be. She used to be more open and easygoing. Now, when she played, a thin layer of protection shimmered around her.

  I craved hearing her sing on an almost elemental level. Leaning back on the bed, I let out a sigh.

  After she came out, I took a quick shower and refused to give in to finding my own release. It didn’t feel right now, and she was just outside the door and wide-awake. When I stepped through the door while I was toweling my hair to find her in the middle of changing, I forgot every single reason we shouldn’t act on this crazy mad lust between us.

  Ash stood there beside the dresser in a tank top and her panties. Hot pink panties. Maybe ten feet separated us where I stood just beyond the bathroom door. It felt as if an electrical current flickered in the air between us.

  The paisley cotton blouse she’d been wearing earlier over the tank top slipped from her fingertips to the floor, landing in a rumple at her feet. Her brown hair fell in a tousle around her shoulders, doing nothing to mask her tight nipples pressing against her thin cotton tank top.

  My breath came out in a hiss between my teeth as the towel dropped from my hand. In several strides, I was standing in front of her.

  Ash looked up at me, her mouth parting and her tongue darting out to moisten her plump bottom lip. “That was fast,” she whispered.

  Inanely, I asked, “What was fast?”

  Her throat worked in a swallow. “Your shower.”

  I nodded. I didn’t know what I meant to do, but I couldn’t bring myself to move away from her, and my hands literally itched to touch her. I searched her eyes, almost as if I could find the answer of what to do there.

  “What do you want, Mack?” Ash whispered.

  “You.”

  That one syllable, forming a single word, encapsulated everything I’d been trying to avoid ever since my path intersected with hers weeks ago. My entire body felt as if it were about to burst at the seams. The need I’d been trying to contain was burgeoning and growing, its force and intensity well beyond my control and discipline.

  Ash’s breath caught in her throat, and I could see the rapid flutter of her pulse along the side of her neck.

  “I thought you said that was a problem.” Her words came out slow and raspy.

  “Sugar, it is, but I’m tired of trying to fight it.” It was a relief to speak the truth.

  Ash’s eyes widened slightly, and then she bit her lip. Jesus. I was jealous of her teeth.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  I might be crazy and stupid to act on this, but it was imperative that I knew Ash wanted it too. Because if she didn’t, that was all I would need to get a grip.

  Her eyes searched mine, darkening as we stared at each other. The air was heavy, loaded with the charge bouncing between us. My heart pounded hard and fast as I waited for her answer. For the first time ever, at least when it came to a woman, I experienced a flic
ker of uncertainty. Perhaps I’d misread Ash. I mentally shied away from the emotional implications of that.

  “You,” she replied, mirroring my answer.

  That was all I needed. I let the reins slip through my fingers as I finally, fucking finally, closed the distance between us. I stepped to within an inch of her. I could feel the heat emanating from her, and her scent wrapped itself around me. Having shared up close and personal space with her for weeks now, her scent was maddening. She smelled subtly sweet, and I wanted to eat her up.

  My hand was almost shaking as I lifted it to catch one of the loose curls that hung down alongside her breast. My knuckle brushed that sweet curve, and the sensation sent electricity zipping through me, almost burning me.

  Ash’s breasts pressed against my chest when she took a deep breath. I could see the trepidation I felt reflected in her eyes. Maybe this was crazy, maybe it was a terrible idea, but this desire wasn’t going anywhere. The pressure of it was building and building and building, and there was only one release valve.

  “Are you sure about this?” I heard myself asking.

  She looked back at me quietly. “Not really. But I can’t stop wanting you. It’s just getting worse.”

  Her honesty nearly undid me. “Exactly,” I rasped.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mack

  Just before I dipped my head and claimed her mouth, Ash placed her hand on my bare chest, right over my heart. It leaped toward her touch, almost as if it recognized the source of my muddled uncertainty, confusion, and absolute desire and need.

  She dipped her head and leaned forward, her lips landing at the juncture between my collarbones, pressing a warm and soft kiss in the divot there. That subtle touch was like a brand, sizzling through my skin, the heat of it spiraling into the lust drumming through my body.

  And then my hand was sliding into her hair and tangling in the silky strands. I cupped her nape, angled her head to the side, and fit my mouth over hers. She let out a soft moan the moment our lips collided, her mouth opening to invite my tongue inside. The relief of finally kissing her again was acute.