Page 85 of The Déjà Glitch

Gemma laughed, her face warmed with gratitude and chagrin, and hugged her best friend again. “Thank you, Lila. Have fun and be safe.”

“Always,” she said with a flirty tilt of her chin. She turned to Jack and held up a finger like she was going to lecture him. Instead, her words seemed to get stuck in her throat. She swallowed, and the momentary moisture that glossed her eyes put a hard lump in Gemma’s own throat. Lila turned her hand to point at Jack and tapped her finger right on his heart. “Be good.”

It was a command and a wish all at once.

“Always,” Jack said to her with a smile.

Gemma and Jack slipped away and skirted the edge of the room to make their exit. Breaching the hot pocket of the doorway was as refreshing as jumping into a cool swimming pool. Gemma inhaled a breath of much fresher air and felt the flush in her cheeks ease like a fever breaking. The tension in Jack’s hand, which she hadn’t noticed until right then, loosened into a more relaxed grip. She shot him a smile, realizing he’d been holding on to her so tightly at least in part because he was as uncomfortable in the crowded room as she had been.

They entered the hall and should have turned right to wind their way to the exit. Gemma was already buzzingwith anticipation of where they were going to go together when a door to their left—toward the stage—banged open and caught their attention.

They turned to see a man with a headset looped around his neck carrying a box out the door. He looked dead on his feet and ready to be done for the night. He crossed the hall into another doorway, and the door he’d come from stood open long enough for Gemma to see the inky black hollow inside it.

A wild idea struck her.

“Come on,” she said to Jack, and pulled on his arm.

They hurried down the hall, Gemma keeping an eye on the doorway the man had entered, and dove into the doorway he’d left open before he noticed.

Thick darkness instantly swallowed them whole. Gemma couldn’t see a thing. She knew they’d entered the wing of the stage where light went to die.

“What are we doing?” Jack whispered. His voice close by in the dark shot a thrill through her veins. “Can we be back here?”

She took a cautious step forward, one arm out in front of her so they didn’t crash into a wall. “Probably not, but if we get caught, I’ll play the Dad card.”

Jack quietly laughed. “Is that on the table now?”

She took a few more steps farther into the dark. Her hand brushed what felt like an amplifier. “Should the situation call for it, yes.”

“The situationbeing getting caught trespassing at a world-famous concert venue?”

“That would be the one.”

She tripped over something unseen on the floor. Jack blindly reached out to catch her and, in the dark, landed with his hand high on her ribs. The contact shot that same thrill from before through her veins at about a million times the intensity.

“Careful,” he whispered, and didn’t move his hand.

Gemma felt it there, warm and firm, each of his fingers like a live wire. It was minimal, but his touch was... everything. She found herself slowly sinking back into him until her shoulders met his chest.

He pulled in a breath, pausing for a second, before softening and easing into her like he’d been holding back all day but desperately wanted to touch her in that exact way. He wrapped his arms around her, encompassing her with a warmth that was at once comforting and exhilarating. Her entire body came to life in a way she hadn’t felt in ages, if ever at all. She reached her arm up behind her and pushed her hand into his hair. It was as soft and thick as she imagined. At the feel of her fingers tugging, he slowly exhaled, melting into her, and sank his lips to her neck with a small sound from deep in his throat that made her knees weak.

They’d been reserved in public, minus the make-out behind the drummer during the show, but the restraints of polite-enough company were off.

Gemma turned in his arms and dropped her bag. He walked her backward up against the object that was in fact an amp; she felt its wiry mesh screen on her back when he leaned into her. He at first held her face in his hands, kissing her softly and slowly like someone tasting a delicious new food. When she hungrily ran the tip of her tongue over theswell of his bottom lip, he opened his mouth like he was suddenly starving.

As if they’d flipped a long-waiting switch, everything began moving faster.

His hands went to her shoulders, her waist, her hips like he was outlining her body in one fluid motion. He pulled her close and kissed the breath right out of her. She’d never felt anything like it. Something so soft yet powerful and limitless. It was as if he’d reinvented making out. But it was really a matter of how perfectly their lips fit together, she realized. How complementary he was to her in shape and taste and other ways she couldn’t wait to explore. She fisted her hands in his hair and then ran them over his shoulders, memorizing the form of him. She wanted to touch him all over and felt the same need in his grip, his kiss. She heard it in the desperate, heated sounds coming from him like he couldn’t get enough. Neither of them could.

“Is this okay?” he paused to ask once she was disheveled and dazed.

Her eyes had hardly adjusted in the pitch black, but she saw the wet flash of his, the shine on his lips. She grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him flush up against her. “Definitely.”

She saw his teeth when he smiled. “Good, because I’ve been dreaming of it for five months.” He went back to kissing her, his hands in her hair, the taste of him like a glass of fine wine she wanted to sip with great care and never reach the bottom of.

Through the hazy fog, she could sense she’d wanted to do this for months too. It was as if a box opened inside her, one filled with hidden, piled-up pining that exploded andhit her all at once. Her desire for him, this man who had suddenly appeared in her life but had also been there all along, was bone deep. She knew it in every cell. And she had the instant gratification of him right there in her arms. She didn’t have to wait for his mouth, urgent but soft against hers, or his whole body pressing into her.

He firmly gripped her hips, his hands hot through the thin fabric of her romper, and moved so that his leg pressed between her thighs. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt every nerve in her body reach out for him.