Page 30 of Rising Star

His smoldering gaze nailed me to the floor, and I got sucked in the vortex of everything that Sam Stevens was. He hadn’t even touched me yet, and already he possessed me in the most intimate ways.

My jaw loosened as mischief and hunger crossed his eyes.

Would I survive the night?

10

SAM

“That video. With the girls and me. Wow. Riley told me it was your idea. It’s the most amazing thing anyone has done for me in a long time. It touched me. In a way I’ll never be able to fully explain.”

I wished nothing more than a chance to swim in the pool of her irises as Madison watched me with something akin to adoration. Was it? Yeah, this girl was as gone for me as I was for her.

“It was nothing, I just thought you’d like it. Have a piece of them with you. Every night.”

“Maddie, it wasn’t nothing. It was everything.” I paused, my eyelids heavy. “Both nights I was away, I wished for one thing. And one thing only.”

Her tongue clicked at the back of her mouth as she waited for me to expound.

“You. I wished I could share those moments with you.”

“You did?”

“For an instant, I tried to forget you. To convince myself I was too old, too damaged, and my life was too complicated for you.”

The column of her throat rippled. “How did it turn out?”

“Bad. Super bad. I’m desperate. I wanna know if it’s all in my head. The connection we share. The lust. The desire. The chemistry. The easiness. Tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll never bother you ever again. Tell me it’s all in my mind and that I’m an old man and you feel nothing for me. Tell me to leave you alone and to move on.”

Her eyes darkened. Her pupils dilated, almost wiping out the color of her irises.

Desire flooded us. Its sultry nature adhered to our skin. It permeated the air. I could feel it in every one of my cells, wrapping around me. Making me its prisoner.

Madison shook her head. “No, I won’t. I shouldn’t think about you like that. But I can’t help myself. You’re always on my mind. My days get better the second you look at me. Or smile at me. Or when you enter a room. I’m sorry. That’s not why you hired me. But it’s getting harder every single day to keep the longing that consumes me locked.”

I exhaled my relief. “All I want is to kiss you. But I can’t. God knows I want to. My entire body yearns to, but we can’t cross this boundary. If we do, we’ll never be able to work together afterward, and we’re leaving for almost six months on a tour bus,” I said.

“I agree,” she murmured, doing nothing to extinguish the inferno igniting between us.

Lust and dick. They both messed with my sanity.

Madison twisted a strand of her hair around her finger, and I was dying to do it myself. I craved her. I wanted to touch her, to feel her heart beating against mine. Her heat all around me. Engulfing me. Possessing me.

I forced out the words that made the most sense. “I’m sorry. I need you. The girls need you. I can’t risk everything. They’ve lost too much already. I can’t be the one who chases you away from their lives if getting together messes everything up.”

Instead of pulling back, we collided.

My palms cradled her face, and I lost myself in her eyes.

Her lips called me in.

Her tits molded to my chest as I pulled her closer, my fingertips digging into the crests of her hips.

“Sam, I—”

“I know, babe.” I closed my eyes. “Just bear with me here.” I couldn’t look at her anymore. The temptation to eat her up staggered my being.

Madison’s hand froze over the bulge in my pants, and I forgot how to breathe as fireworks exploded inside me.