EPIC (Book 1 of the Soundcrush series)

Chapter 5: Rock Stars Get The Girl

Kat

Trace leans over his guitar, his handsome face absorbed in his performance. His dark, messy hair is curled with sweat, and his soaked vintage t-shirt clings to his broad chest. I can't get my eyes wide enough to take him all in. I can't listen hard enough to the electric melody he's making. I can't breathe deep enough to take in the scent of the stage smoke that softens his silhouette. Trace Gallant completely fills my senses.

"Here," Colin's hand is around my waist again, and he's putting a drink in my hand. I take a sip to be polite, but after a moment I sit it on a case and go back to memorizing every detail of Trace's performance. I had plenty of champagne in the limo, and I won't get drunk tonight. The last time I got drunk around Trace ended in disaster.

Snippets of memory from that New Year's Eve flash in my head, all out of order. Angry words. Distant music. Free-fall. Cold fingers on my face, my neck, beneath my shirt. Shivering, then warmth. Pain. Tiny white fairy lights. Exhilaration. Trace saying my name over and over. Red lights, exploding in the distance. Trace's low sexy laugh. Stairs. Softness. Hardness. Screams. Regret. Confusion. So much confusion.

The one thing I remember quite clearly...the kiss. I remember how it felt, start to finish. The way Trace's lips softly teased mine three times before he groaned like he'd lost a war and threw away his pledge of "little" and "innocent." Then his hands wrapped in my hair as our mouths merged in a slow, sweet frenzy. Until Trace kissed me,I didn't even know you could feel that much at once, and I have never felt that much since. Like I was free. Like I was safe. Like I could only do right. Like I never wanted anything before, and I never wanted anything more. Like it could feel this real forever.

I close my eyes and snap my rubber band ten times, and when I open them, Colin is staring at me. He looks from the rubber band on my wrist, to Trace out there on the stage, and then his lips and jaw and shoulders all tense. Damn. He knows.

Trace is my obsession, the unwanted thought I'm always trying to put away by snapping the rubber band.

I lean forward. "I want to go to out front." Trace is too close; I need to get away. I need to be in the crowd. Trace brought me hear to tell me about Ashlynn, and that's what I need to think about. Not about kissing him.

Colin, ever dutiful, nods and turns to find Riley. Maddie and Laurel want to stay backstage, but Colin and I muscle our way out to the pit along with the security guard. To my surprise, he stays with us, discreetly, a few feet back, but guarding our space. I guess he's part of the arrangements Trace made.

I pull Colin's arms around me. He lets me, and moves like me, like the rest of the crowd. It's easier out here for me to focus on the sound, and the whole band. I try to keep my eyes off Trace and pay attention to each member of Soundcrush.

Leed is the obvious attention getter. His voice is rich and sure, and he stalks about, his movements cat-like, raking back his shoulder length copper hair. He pours all his emotion into the performance...his voice sometimes tortured, sometimes frantic, sometimes exuberantly roaring. Every few songs, he purrs intimate stories and anecdotes to the crowd. Trace told me once his nickname in the band is the Lion, and I can definitely see why.

His younger sister MacKenna has the same kind of cat-like grace, maybe not as powerful or predatory as Leed, but definitely as dangerous, and sexy. Her hair is also red—longer, straighter, lighter, and the underneath is filled with pastel colored highlights, like a secret rainbow. She dances while she plays the keys and it's like she's another performance inside the show.

Adam is the bass player. Adam is probably my favorite Soundcrush member, besides Trace. He is a real sweetheart—much sweeter than Trace. More like Cols in disposition, and in body type, but not in looks. Dirty blonde, longish hair on the top that falls down across his face as he plays, and more stubble than the other members of Soundcrush, makes him look deceptively like the bad-ass of the band, but that title definitely belongs to Trace. Adam is large and muscular, but not quite as chiseled and svelte as the others.  He's basically a super sexy farm-boy. From the few times I met him, I'd say his disposition is much the same. He mostly lets his bass do the the talking for him.