Wild Chase (2 page)

He grabbed my hand.

“Where are you going?” he asked, mischievously.

My jaw hit the floor.

“I was just about to teach you some new dance moves!” he laughed with that charming grin still plastered on his face. I must have looked dazed, confused even.

Did he just ask
me
to dance?

Vic’s eyes lit up like the Fourth of July. I felt her move behind me and smack my butt just before shoving me into my naughty stranger.

“Get ‘em, baby girl!” she hollered at me, before instantly grabbing a boy of her own to get her groove on with.

I bit my bottom lip as I looked up at this boy, who just continued to smile at me. The next thing I knew, he had spun me around and had my body pressed against his. My hands slid up his rock hard, tattooed forearms and I started to feel a little light headed. When I felt his arms slip eagerly around my waist, my mouth went dry. Suddenly, Victoria’s constant quest for male attention was completely validated.

My heart raced as his muscular body pressed against me, rocking us to the beat of the song. God, I hoped he couldn’t feel how I was trembling in his arms.

“So what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” he asked with a smirk.

Cheesy line, but I’ll bite.

“I’m afraid that’s top-secret information,” I said in my best flirtatious voice.

He licked his lips, his lip ring twisting slightly, drawing my eyes there like a moth to a flame.

“Is that right?” he asked. I swallowed hard, trying to tear my eyes away from his sexy mouth, and nodded.

“How—how about you? What brings you here tonight?” I finally managed to say.

He shrugged, “In town visiting family. Out celebrating tonight. I heard there was going to be live music here. You can’t go wrong with that. Well, unless the rumors are true about the first performer tonight.”

And that’s when my heart sank right out of my chest.

“Why? What’s wrong with the first performer?” I managed in my best big-girl-not-about-to-cry voice.

“Heard it’s some high school girl. She’s probably going to be some sort of Ke$ha wannabe who will make all of our ears bleed,” he stated with a laugh that rumbled through me.

I relaxed against him slightly. He was wrong about that, because I was so not singing any of that!

Hold on, how old did he think I was? Thinking back to the bathroom at Vic’s house, I remembered just how much makeup I was wearing. It probably wasn’t a stretch to think that I was twenty-one.

That would probably make him a few years older than me, to say the least.

An older, tattooed boy in a bar, and I already wanted to lick him? God help me.

I shrugged and chuckled, “Yeah, kids these days. They just don’t know real music, do they?”

His eyes lit up, and he laughed, “I wouldn’t have said it like that but, yeah. At least not real good music.”

As I was about to say something else, I felt a hand tap my shoulder. I turned my head, not wanting to move from my naughty stranger just yet. However, when my eyes fell on Vic, I remembered why I was there in the first place.

“It’s that time, Girl!” she said, all smiles.

I turned back to my dance partner and gave him an apologetic smile, “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

Stepping away from him felt like ripping a Band-Aid off, painful and pointless. I wanted to be stuck on him for the rest of the night, but I had a mission.

“I’m Avery, by the way,” he said, tugging at my hand before I was too far out of his reach.

I spun around and grinned, “Thanks for the dance, Avery.” I turned to walk away and I heard his intoxicating voice again.

“What’s your name? Are you sticking around for a while?” he asked, biting his bottom lip, probably not wanting me to hear the eagerness in his voice. It matched the same feeling in my eyes when they lit up.

“It’s Chase, and yeah, you’ll see me later,” and with that I hurried off across the crowded bar, and I made my way through a black door at the back of the bar. I immediately fell against the cold wall in the hallway, trying to catch my breath.

Suddenly, it wasn’t the thought of singing in front of an audience that had my stomach tied in knots, but those wolf-like eyes.

I desperately tried wiping the sweat from my palms and knuckles onto my jeans, fanning myself from the flames that engulfed my skin from the inside out. Cursing under my breath that tomato red was not the color foundation I put on tonight, I heard a whistle to my right and my eyes flickered over to Vic as she pranced over to me with her wide, curious eyes.

Here we go
, I thought to myself.

“Oh. My. Sweet. Baby. Jesus. Chase! Who was that boy?” she cried out in a breathy voice.

Lord, don’t let her see me blush!

“I don’t know. I just bumped into him on the dance floor. His name is Avery. He seems nice,” I get out in the most monotone voice I can muster and trying not to smile like a goofy fool.

She leaned back against the cold concrete wall beside me, and she gazed dreamily up at the ceiling.

“Seems nice? Nice is for kids and old folks! He seems dirty, and I mean the good kind of dirty. The kind that pins your arms above your head and pushes you roughly against a wall before—”

“I barely talked to him!” I stuttered as I was unable to wipe the image of him doing just that to me out of my head. “We just danced a little, that’s all.”

She blew out a long breath.

“Girl, I was ready to turn him into the crème filled center of one of those cookies, and lick him right there in front of God and everybody! You better not let that one get away tonight, or someone else is gonna grab him up! Oh my gracious, those tattoos… and did you see the size of his hands?” she giggled. My jaw hung open at her choice of words.

“VIC! Seriously?” I cried out, shaking my head at her, while secretly thanking the stars above that I wasn’t the only one in here with the urge to lick a stranger.

She turned to me, rolling her eyes. “Oh, come on, I saw the way you were looking at him! The only thing that surprises me is when you finally look at a boy, he isn’t one that looks as if he spends his days in a library. I’m so proud!” she fake cried, pretending to wipe a tear away as I playfully smacked her arm.

We both laughed as Baird made his way toward us. His gray hair and brown eyes always looked ragged and tired, but he had a youthful smile. At almost sixty, he wasn’t a bad-looking older guy, if he would just avoid tight tank tops and short jean shorts.

“You ready, Lady? They have the stage set up for ya. You get about 12 minutes, so limit it to about three songs. Any questions for me?” he said in his deep, bass voice. I choked down half of my tongue and just shook my head. I’ve had this moment planned out in my head for so long now that I knew the drill. It was just the execution scaring the hell out of me.

“You’ve got this, Chase. Now get out there and show them what you’ve got!” he said, patting me on my back and walking up the stairs to the stage to start the introductions for the night.

My lungs felt like they instantly turned to steel and I couldn’t breathe. I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder and looked to see my supportive sidekick.

“It’s about damn time that someone other than me gets to hear your beautiful voice. Now, don’t you let any of these damn redneck fools make you nervous. Get that cute butt out there and kick some ass!”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and, just like that, helped to wash away all of my jitters. Moments like this reminded me of how much I loved that crazy girl.

Victoria moved behind me and out the door, making her way to the front of the stage like she promised me she would. She also promised me it was okay to picture her naked. I smiled and laughed at the thought, shaking my head. I heard Baird’s voice over the speakers. As the crowd began to cheer, my heart began to pound.

I don’t remember telling my feet to move, but before I knew it, I was behind the heavy black curtain, listening to the muffled sounds going on around me. Instead of performing acoustically, Baird talked me into performing with a band. Some of the guys from the headlining act surprisingly agreed to play my backup. They all smiled at me, giving me thumbs up as I took my spot behind the microphone.

I grabbed onto it with both hands and closed my eyes, concentrating on anything other than the thudding of my heart against my chest. I could feel the sweat rolling down the side of my forehead, but I didn’t dare move my hands to wipe it away. I vaguely heard my name being introduced, and some light applause as I felt a gentle gust of wind against my face from the curtain being moved. I kept my eyes firmly shut as the beat of my first song started. I took a deep breath and let it out infinitely slow, counting down until my first lyric came up and then it felt like my whole body was on fire as the words flowed effortlessly from my tongue.

I started my short set with “Smooth Criminal.” Even in this Texas crowd, I knew the tune would be appreciated, and everyone seemed to be instantly impressed with my selection. It had taken me a while, but I had changed the arrangement around. I upped the tempo so that the song was a little more rock and roll and paired nicely with my fiery alto voice. I finally opened my eyes about halfway through the song and instead of scanning the room for fear of lighting my nerves up again, I looked straight down to find Vic. She was dancing like a mad woman, and I couldn’t help but smile.

By the time the last note rang out, I felt incredible. I would always remember the way it felt to be in that moment. Completely alive with no one to hold me back or hide me away. The yelling and applause brought me back to the now, and as I scanned the crowd, I couldn’t believe how many people were smiling and clapping for me!

I smiled and did a little bow as the notes of the next song started up.

I began singing one of my all-time favorite songs by Heart. My mother would kill me if she knew that I listened to them, let alone sang every single word to “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You.” It was a no brainer when I picked my set list because I knew I could pull it off. Vic had always told me that I sounded like a mash-up of Joan Jett, Amy Lee, and Carrie Underwood, whatever that meant. I just hoped the audience was agreeing with her while I rolled into the chorus.

I felt a little braver as I scanned the crowd while singing my heart out, with every pair of eyes glued to me until I came upon those stormy gray eyes. The static in the air around me crackled, and my brain seemed to short out. Avery was making his way up front without taking his eyes off me. Luckily, I knew the words by heart and didn’t miss a beat, but the way his eyes pierced right through me distracted me from everything else going on in the room. His body moved through the sea of people just to get closer to me, and that gave me a whole other reason to feel nervous. I heard Vic’s catcall as her favorite part of the number approached, and I thanked my lucky stars for it as I closed my eyes and sang the next part of the song with all the power and emotion I could.

Nearing the end, I opened my eyes long enough to lock them with my sexy stranger again and it sent my stomach into knots. I had a brand new understanding for all of the songs and books that I’d buried myself under all these years. I forced myself to look away from him long enough to finish out the track.

The cheers that roared through the bar startled me; I let out a laugh as I took in the happy crowd.

“Thank you so much!” I spoke into the mic, hoping they couldn’t tell that my voice was shaky with happy tears.

My last song started up and I crushed it. It wasn’t a classic like the others, but was one I loved, and I knew I could sing it without a problem. “Waiting,” by Michael Tolcher wasn’t mainstream, but it fired up something deep within my soul. My own voice rang through the speakers and rattled when I hit certain notes, the feeling was incomparable to anything else.

When my final note echoed through the room, I thought my heart would explode. I smiled and let out a laugh of relief and gratitude as I did another small bow. Quickly, I made my way off of the stage. The guys in the band called out ‘great job’ to me as I took the steps two at a time and found myself pressed against the cold concrete wall again.

I did it. I had finally done it! I couldn’t catch my breath for a second as the level of emotion I had suppressed finally hit the surface, and then my laughter and panting turned into sobs. I knew this was it for me. After I was done with high school my parents had plans for me, and those plans didn’t include me going to the college of my choice. No, I was going to be sent away on a Mission to start a church somewhere. Denying the inevitable would only make it worse. There had been no discussion and I knew there wouldn’t be; it was just what was expected. My life had never been my own, but on that stage I got to hold a tiny piece of it. They couldn’t take tonight away from me. Embracing the side of myself that I had been hiding from everyone but Victoria had been such an amazing feeling. I let out a deep cathartic laugh as my sobs finally calmed. I wiped my face and pushed my hair back as I heard the band start their set. Smiling to myself, I opened the backstage door and headed out onto the floor to find my friend, and instead, ran smack into that black-shirt covered chest.