Can't Stand the Heat - Louisa Edwards [78]
The crowd right in front of the stage, which was made up mostly of Adam’s crew, sent up a huge cheer.
Miranda blinked up at Adam and started to smile.
“You?”
He cringed playfully. “Yeah. Not real seriously or anything, but yeah.” He raised his voice to be heard over the catcalling brigade. “Not tonight, guys.”
A chorus of jeers and taunts rang out as Miranda turned under Adam’s arm.
“Why on earth not tonight? I’d pay good money to see you up on that stage.”
“That sounds like another dare. What, you think I’ll suck? I’ll have you know, lady, that I played Curly in Stuyvesant High’s production of Oklahoma!, with full-on guitar during that square-dance scene.”
Miranda giggled before she could stop herself. “Oh, I can so picture you in overalls and a cowboy hat, with maybe a piece of straw sticking out of your mouth. You’re the citiest city boy who ever lived.”
“Don’t knock the overalls, lady,” Adam mock-growled before becoming marginally more serious. He actually ducked his head a bit and it suddenly made him look so vulnerable that Miranda’s smile faded.
“So you want to hear me sing? I promise not to pull an Ozzy and bite the head off a bat or anything,” he said.
Something about the way he was so obviously uncertain but trying to brazen his way through it made Miranda melt.
“Come on, Curly,” she said, reaching up to run her fingers once through his wavy dark hair. “Play me something nice.”
His smile down at her was just-finished-the-Sunday-Times-crossword big. She got lost in it for a moment, the nearness of him, the weight of his arm still holding her close, and the room did that thing where it faded away, leaving just the two of them. So when he dipped his head to take her mouth, Miranda wasn’t thinking about the other people in the bar, the kitchen crew, her brother, or anyone else who might be watching.
All she could think was, Yes. Now. More.
The kiss was hard and fast, slanting pressure of lips and stubble-rough chin against hers. Adam’s tongue stroked rough and sweet into her mouth, and Miranda opened herself up to it helplessly.
A series of wolf whistles finally penetrated the cloud of lust around her head, and Miranda felt the heat rise to her cheeks as she pushed Adam away and settled back on her barstool. She couldn’t stop smiling, though, and when he threw her one last jubilant grin over his shoulder before vaulting up onto the stage, her heart expanded inside her chest until it seemed to press against the walls of her rib cage.
The band members left the stage to Adam, and Miranda couldn’t help noticing that it was Jess who held up a hand to steady Frankie’s jump down. There was something there that made her uncomfortable, but she kept dismissing it. After years of being told by Jess that she was a paranoid worrywart, perhaps it was finally starting to sink in. And her new campaign to let Jess grow up and be independent wasn’t really helped by obsessive worrying over and analysis of every person who befriended him.
Still, she noticed when Jess immediately engaged Frankie in animated conversation, pulling him away from the brightly lit stage and into the shadows beyond.
Before she could get too involved in wondering about that, she was distracted by Adam’s low, husky voice amplified by the microphone.
“I’m going to play a little song for you guys,” he said, looping the strap of an acoustic guitar over his head. The strap brushed through his hair, disordering the curls crazily, and Miranda imagined she could hear the increased heart rate from every woman in the bar. He just looked so damn sexy.
Adam’s warm brown eyes caught hers across the room. Miranda felt the force of his gaze like a physical caress; it made her back arch slightly against the mahogany edge of the bar, her breath coming slow and deep.
“This is for Miranda,” Adam said.
He started to play. And as Miranda recognized the opening chords to a song she’d heard before, she experienced a weird moment of perfect alignment between life and art. Adam’s voice roughed over the familiar lyrics to the Buzzcocks’ biggest hit and