“You are such a light weight.” Dallas teased as she took my glass from me. “You need water before you get another round.”

With a pout, I followed her to the bar and downed half a glass of ice water before she would let me have a shooter. Of course she was on her fourth beer—and who knows what number of shooters—and wasn’t even feeling the effects yet. Dallas had been drinking since she was twelve as a way of coping with her mother.

When our pink lemonade shooter was set in front of us, Dallas picked hers up and lifted it in a toast. “To deserved new beginnings. If that editor for Rock America has any sense, they will snatch you up.”

“I’ll drink to that!” I tossed the shooter back, licking my lips as a drop clung to the corner of my mouth.

“It’s about time he got here.” Dallas pointed toward the entrance, and I followed her gaze to find Linc coming in. “Who’s that with him?”

I frowned, not having noticed that Linc wasn’t alone until she had pointed it out. The club was so crowded it was hard to make out who was with whom. Of course it was hard to miss Linc as tall and broad as he was. With the guy behind him just a few inches shorter and a good twenty pounds leaner, I didn’t see him until it was too late.

Dressed in designer jeans that looked like they had been made specifically for him, a shirt that had some MMA fighter’s logo on it, and his hair styled in a I-don’t-care-and-I-still-look-sexy-as-hell kind of mess, Shane made my mind go blank for a second.

And then the kiss came back to haunt me.

I closed my eyes as the remembered embarrassment washed over me. I turned away, not ready—really would I ever be?—to come face to face with the man that had given me my first knee weakening kiss before running off like the hounds of Hell were right behind him.

Of course I couldn’t just ignore him. Linc, and especially Dallas, would know something was up, and I didn’t want to tell them how stupid I’d been in thinking for all of five minutes that I had a chance with someone like Shane. So when the two men reached us, I gulped down the last of my water and pasted on a smile before turning around.

“Hey, stranger,” I greeted him. “It’s been a while since we saw you.”

Shane smiled but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Was it so hard to be around me now? It wasn’t like I was going to claw his eyes out or anything. He couldn’t help that he didn’t want me. “Hey, beautiful.”

“Poor bastard was waiting in the lobby when I got home,” Linc said, turning from the bar with two beers. Handing a Corona over to Shane, he laughed. “His brother kicked his ass out.”

Dallas snickered. “Told y’all she wasn’t comin’ home tonight.”

“I’m not going to complain. They should never have been apart in the first place.” He took a long pull off his beer. His eyes kept drifting to me, and of course he caught me staring each time.

Grimacing, I turned around to order another shooter…

“Shane!”

We all turned when a girl screamed his name. “Shane Stevenson!” she squealed, running up and throwing her arms around his neck. Her lips covered his before I could even figure out what was going on.

He didn’t struggle, but he wasn’t exactly holding on or kissing her back. I figured she was some drunk college girl that had spotted the rock star and thought she would say hello…or whatever!

“Yo, bitch!” Dallas grabbed the drunk girl by the hair and pulled her back. “My friend isn’t interested. Go suck face with someone else.”

The drunk girl took Dallas in, sizing her up. If she was smart she would walk away. Dallas was not someone to get into a catfight with. I have seen her pull a girl near bald and scratch up her pretty face firsthand. She fought dirty and didn’t care who knew it. The other girl only glared at Dallas for a moment, noticing her tattoos and piercings and determined that she wasn’t sober enough to mess with my friend.

Shrugging, the drunk girl walked away without a backwards glance.

“Another round!” Linc called to the bartender with a laugh.

Shane

The past couple of weeks had been anything but easy for me.

I tried everything possible to forget about Harper Jones and the kiss that nearly brought me to my knees. And I mean everything !

After calling and talking to Emmie, I had felt more grounded. Emmie always had that effect on us all, but for me especially. Once I had gotten my shit together, I had took Axton up on his offer of hitting one of the many clubs that every major city hosted.

Two hours into a foursome and I was feeling more sick and nauseated more than anything else. There I was with two blistering hot chicks, ready and openly begging me to fuck them hard, and all I had felt was dirty and ready to vomit. Axton had laughed it off, telling them that I had some bad sushi. I took the excuse and ran… Literally. I grabbed my shit and got out of there fast.

One kiss. That was all it had taken for Harper to leave her mark on me. I wasn’t fit for anyone else. The thought of some other female with her hands on me made my stomach roll and I broke out in a cold sweat.

Still, I hadn’t been ready to give in. I still thought I was going to taint Harper with the things from my past.

Unable to do what I normally did, which was fuck everything in sight with a vagina, I started running more and more. Sometimes I would even go to Fit for Life in the middle of the night and just run on the treadmill for hours. When that didn’t work, I would hit a bar or club and drink until I couldn’t remember my name.

The second morning I woke with a hangover to rival any that I could remember my brother having, I realized that I couldn’t let myself go down that road. Not only was it not where I wanted my life to end up, but I had to respect Drake enough not to do that shit when he had come so far after his own battle with the bottle.

Yesterday I had finally faced the truth. No matter how scared I was of my past and sullying Harper with it, I wasn’t strong enough to give her up.

When Drake had called earlier tonight and told me to stay out of the apartment for the night, I had gone to the one place I wanted to be more than anywhere else—to Harper’s. Of course she hadn’t been home and I’d been a chickenshit, scared that if I called or texted her she wouldn’t answer.

Not that I could blame her. I kissed her and ran. She probably thought I wasn’t worth her time, and she would be so right.

Linc had saved my ass, getting home just when I was ready to give up and go to the gym for a few hours. When he invited me to come with him to the club, where Dallas and Harper were waiting for him, I had rushed to accept.