When the band's last song is announced, I lean closer to Ava and cup my hands around her ear. "Come to the stage with me?"
She nods and follows me as I weave past the people who are between us and the front row. I didn't tell Phoenix where I'm going, but I'll let him assume I want to finish out the night dancing with my best friend and having fun. My true motive is to catch Torin as soon as he's done playing, say goodbye, and make a clean getaway ahead of the chance for tension and tempers to rise.
Torin may not appreciate the quick exit, but I'll chat with him later. When I do, I'm determined to have answers for everything he's concerned about. It's better if I'm the one asking Phoenix questions tonight after his spontaneous pop-up. If something shady is going on, then charm, subtlety, and a private place are more likely to coax enough out of him to piece the puzzle together. Torin bulldozing him will only lead to resistance.
Anyone watching me in front of the stage with Ava would think the two of us are having a blast, with nothing weighing on either of us. Maybe that's true of Ava, but I should be nominated for an Academy Award with the way I keep a smile plastered on my face through the end of the song and while Jacob thanks us all for coming. The whole time, I'm itching to leave. I wave Torin over as soon as he gets up from behind his drums.
"Great show!" I exclaim once he's in front of Ava and me. "I need to get out of here, but wanted to say goodbye first."
"I'm going to head out with her," Ava adds. "I'm sure you guys want to get on the road as soon as you can tonight, so say bye to Nash for me. Drive safely."
There's no protest from Torin, and not even a glimmer of surprise that we're leaving so soon, even though Ava also wanting to bolt without saying goodbye to Nash is unexpected. But Torin only mops his forehead with a bar towel he has in his hand, says how great it was to see us and how much he appreciates us coming, and agrees with Ava that he and the rest of the band want to pack up and load out as fast as they can. He doesn't mention Phoenix, but that's probably good. This is Torin on his best behavior.
"They're not staying in town overnight?" I ask Ava as we make our way across the bar.
"Nope. They have a private pool party gig at some resort in Vegas tomorrow. Sound check is early in the afternoon, so they're driving back tonight."
I can't tell if she's disappointed to not have a do-over of last weekend, but I can save my questions for another time. Phoenix is now a few feet in front of us, and he'll probably be elated to see her leave with us and that Nash is nowhere in sight.
He catches my eye as we approach and holds my gaze. His features soften and his posture relaxes as he watches me. People can doubt energetic connections all they want to, but there's a magnetic pull and a crackle of something electric that can't be explained any other way. The universe or some other spiritual force needs to help me out here, because it's taken mere seconds of having this version of him in front of me for everything I've felt this week to start slipping away and nearly become a distant memory.
Ava must sense this, because she elbows me so hard that I jump. Right. Phoenix isn't off the hook just because I'm attracted to him. Attraction and attention aren't the same things as honest intentions and genuine love. I still have a few things to ask him about.
"Let's get out of here," I declare.
Ava all but ignores Phoenix's existence while we amble out of the bar and walk the short distance to a parking garage.
"I'm parked here on the main level," she says. "I'll call you tomorrow."
"Drive safely." We hug for a few seconds, and then she's off, stalking away impressively fast for someone wearing the shoes she has on.
"Good to see you," Phoenix calls out.
"Yep." Ava continues walking, her back to both of us.
She disappears around a corner. Her departure leaves Phoenix and me alone together, next to an elevator. He doesn't ask why she completely dismissed him, even though she was civil to him at Nebula last weekend. Maybe he expected it after going missing for a few days or realizes he's still in the doghouse and on probation after vanishing for six years, even if she's accepted me seeing him again.
"How did you get here from the airport?" I press the button for the elevator.
"With a rental. I'm parked up on level four."
"I'm on three."
He's quiet until I glance up at him. When I do, he seems to take it as permission to cradle the side of my face in his hand.
"Stay with me tonight?"
His request, along with his thumb stroking my cheek, bring back the same buzzing energy I felt inside the bar. Searching his face for signs of what's really going on with him could prove to be my fatal mistake. All I see is adoration and something so tender, it floods me with guilt. Have I been assuming the worst of him and overthinking all week for no reason?
The man can pull off a scripted performance like no other, but to fool me with this would be next level. It would be pure evil for him to waltz back into my life just to take me down again. No matter what happened between us years ago, and no matter how strange this week has been, he wouldn't do that. Phoenix might be my personal brand of kryptonite, but he isn't the devil.
At least I don't think he is.
"Of course." I finally tear my gaze away from him so I can fish my keys out of my purse. "I'll meet you at your place?"
"Thank you." He drops a kiss on the top of my head, and then one on my eyebrow, and rests his forehead against mine. "You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to spending time with you."
We remain that way, our heads together and his arms around me, until the elevator dings and the doors open.
༺â༻ ༺â༻ ༺â༻
Phoenix is already parked in his driveway when I turn onto his street. He waits for me to park, then he opens my car door for me and helps me out, keeping hold of my hand while he leads me up the front steps. I was a bundle of nerves the last time I walked into this house. It's the same feeling I have now when I step inside and he shuts the door behind us, but for a different reason.
"Are you hungry at all?"
His question may have a double meaning, since he brushes my hair to the side and touches his mouth to the back of my neck. It starts with soft kisses that become gentle nibbles, and it's already enough to bring goosebumps to my arms and short-circuit my brain. These goddamn chemicals that rule my body. It isn't fair.
"Is there food here?" He hasn't been home in two weeks that I know of. Not that I care much about what's in his fridge.
"There are a few things in the freezer I could heat up, or I can see if anything is still open and will deliver." His breath tickles my skin, and lord, here we go again. My appetite for food is overpowered by something more primal.
Concentrate. Breathe. Speak.
"I'm good for now, I think, as long as there's water."
Except I should have requested food, because that would take at least a few minutes to prepare and give me a break and some time to mentally reset. How does the slightest touch from him absolutely torpedo my willpower this way?
"I do have water. Want some?"
At the slightest bob of my head, he places one last kiss on my neck and then stops. Thank God. Maybe I have a shot at forming sensible thoughts again.
I follow Phoenix into the kitchen, watching him while he opens the fridge and takes out two waters. He sets the plastic bottles on the counter, and I cautiously join him there, all the while sifting through my brain for a way to ease into the conversation I came here to have.
My brainpower doesn't last long. Phoenix picks up where he left off in his foyer and it's like my head is filled with glitter and cotton candy. His gentle caresses and butterfly kisses send a cascade of tingles through every inch of me, and the situation becomes even more hopeless when he reaches my earlobe. When his arms circle my waist and he draws me in closer, and when his hand slips under the bottom hem of my halter top, I'm tempted to cast all of my questions aside for the night. It would be so much more physically gratifying to let this go where it inevitably will and figure things out tomorrow.
Another part of me has more self-respect than that. I can't give in to this until after we talk, and only if I'm satisfied with what he has to say.
"Where were you working last week?"
"Hmmm?"
His hand is lower now, playing with the zipper on my skirt. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the desire rising inside of me, then take hold of his hand before it roams anywhere else.
"The place with bad phone reception."
"It was way out in the desert," he replies after a second or two. Was the pause for him to collect himself and settle down, or did he have to think about what to say?
"Isn't it brutally hot there right now?"
The counter stool next to me presents an opportunity to create more distance. I take a seat on it, creating distance between us, and wait for him to answer.
"Insanely hot," he agrees. "I've never felt an inferno like that before, even in Las Vegas."
"And you stayed there for a few nights?"
"We had an RV with air conditioning, and it cooled down a bit at night. I still wouldn't ever want to do that again." He sits on the stool next to mine and reaches for a water.
"Do you have to?" I ask.
"I don't think so. We got what we needed."
The "what" in "what we needed" is still a mystery. I reach for the other water and take my time twisting off its cap.
"Tell me more about what you're working on? I miss the days when you told me what happened on set."
"I wish I could say more right now." He glances at a spot on the counter, and then at me again.
There it is. He can act, but he can't lie. His eyes just gave it away.
"Why can't you?"
Peeling the label off of his bottle of water suddenly becomes an all-consuming task. "There's an NDA. I probably shouldn't have even said I was in the desert. Everything is that locked down." He finishes peeling the label and puts the bottle down. "Promise me you won't mention where I was this week to anyone? Not even to Ava or Torin, please."
I can't see why disclosing such a vague location would be a problem, especially when most of Nevada is the desert, but I'll play along for now. He doesn't need to know I was with Ava when his text came through and he claimed phone service problems, or that I'd speculated about him being somewhere in the desert when she asked if he was working from the moon.
"There's a lot riding on this," he continues. "I wouldn't ask you to keep it to yourself if it wasn't important."
"Whatever you're working on must be top secret if you can't give me even a little hint." It's tempting to point out that he works in the film industry, and that sharing a few details won't compromise national security or change the fate of the world, but I have a hunch that won't go over well.
"I'll tell you everything the second I can." He leans forward and covers my hand with his. "I would do it now if I could. I swear that on my life, because I don't ever want you to think I'm keeping things from you."
"Would you also swear on my life?"
"Yes."
In spite of what he said and how serious he seems, he rubs his chin and blinks a few times. Rapid blinking is a sign of someone dodging the truth, which is something I found out when researching body language for one of my past books. Is he lying to me right now?
"Okay." It's not, but I'll clock it and move on for now. There are other things I want to know. "Since you can't talk about work, there's something else I've wanted to ask you about all week."
"What's that?" He offers me an apologetic-looking smile. "If I haven't signed an NDA about it, then I'm an open book."
We'll see about that. Something tells me he'll want to dodge the next topic even more. I tilt my head to the side, though, and look him right in the eyes.
"I want to know everything you haven't told me about Len."
༺â༻ ༺â༻ ༺â༻
I'm going to guess this isn't the night Phoenix was betting on when he showed up at the Ocean Floor to surprise Del and asked her to stay with him. Just a hunch.
Stay tuned, because it may be after midnight for these two, but Del has more questions and she isn't going anywhere.