This Loving Feeling (A Mirror Lake Novel) Read Free Page B

voice seemed to vibrate clear through to her soul. Her own voice was adequate but didn’t hold a candle to the angelic quality of his. She simply carried the familiar melody as he harmonized and blended their voices together until they sounded . . . beautiful. The anguish she had written about long ago was the anguish he now sang about, carried on his face, and the very intimacy of it shook her deeply.
    At last the music ended. Panic swelled inside her chest. It was only a song . To believe more would be as unrealistic as believing in a child’s fairy tale. She shook her head to dissipate the spell that seemed to envelop her like the cacophony of applause and cheers sounding all around them. When the final whoops and hollers went up at the end, she took her chance and hopped off the stool.
    Out of the spotlight, he grabbed her by the elbow. She spun to face him.
    “I thought you’d want the chance to finally sing that to my face,” he said, his coffee-black eyes flashing.
    “Gee, thanks. I’ve been waiting six years for that. I feel so much better now.”
    He tugged her back under the spotlight and spoke into the microphone, “Hey kids, give your teach a hand. Her voice is so sweet it makes your heart break, doesn’t it?”
    Suddenly he leaned over and she realized with horror that he was going to kiss her. She politely offered her cheek while clenching her teeth but he ignored her civilized gesture. He pushed his guitar aside, wrapped one hand around her neck, then pulled her in and kissed her directly on the mouth.
    His lips were pliant and soft. His kiss was gentle but thorough, bold, and cocksure. He tasted like peppermint and his own unique, seductive flavor that brought unwanted memories hurling back. He pulled away and looked at her with a blank expression, as if he were actually startled by his own brash behavior. Then the wicked sparkle returned, and a wide bad-boy grin spread slowly over his face.
    “You arrogant bastard,” she hissed in his ear, still smiling, above the deafening uproar of the gym.
    She turned to go, but he reached out yet again. For a moment, they were in the shadows. His grip on her arm felt hot and tingly, probably from all the outrage coursing through her body. In the dim light she saw something raw in his eyes. She used to be attracted to precisely this exact kind of danger, this risk. That was before she’d lost a brother seven years ago. She’d learned the hard way that stable and steady was far better than a wild roller coaster ride that gave you an adrenaline rush and a headache.
    “Let me see you later,” he said off mic. On the stage, a handler took away the stools. The gym went black except for a lone spotlight, beckoning him for his next song.
    He had to go, as always. But this time, Sam wasn’t going to be the one he left behind.
    She shrugged out of his warm grasp, shaking her head. Then she took advantage of the darkness and slipped away.

CHAPTER 2
    “Be there in a sec,” Lukas Spikonos said to his bodyguards as he exited the gym and stood beneath an old beech tree. Charles and James—not ever Chuck or Jim —were the most tight-assed guys he knew, and from the looks they were giving him, they were not happy he was standing alone in plain sight and not locked up in his tour bus across the parking lot safe and sound. Sure, it had taken a while to clear away all the kids, but they were just being kids and he’d been happy to spend time with them.
    It wasn’t like midnight in the Mirror Lake High School parking lot was a dangerous place. He snorted, thinking it might be if Samantha ever came out. He tugged a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and flicked his wrist at the guys to at least get them to stop standing ten feet away staring at him while he snuck a smoke. He took a long pull and closed his eyes, trying to conjure the image that he was a normal person standing by himself under a tree. When he opened his eyes, the guys were still there, with their backs