Despite my guilt. Despite my shame at not telling her. The glorious sight of her made parts of me pulse and grow. Again.

As she stepped into the shower her eyes fell in that directon and her mouth curled into a sexy closed-lip smile. She looked up and her bright green eyes glittered with wickedness. They rolled over me like I was a delectable piece of dessert that she was about to devour.

“Again?” I laughed as she reached for me.

Her tongue slid up the length of my neck. “Again, and again, and again,” she whispered.

Hell, who was I to argue?

* * * * *

HARLOW

Vengeance performed a late afternoon time slot just as the sky turned a soft shade of pink and gold. It was a magical time of day. The searing summer heat was cooled by a breeze that blew across the music festival, bringing an atmosphere of excitement amongst the 20,000 strong crowd.

Piper and I watched from the sidelines, perched on stage risers. When Vengeance appeared on stage the crowd erupted with appreciation and goosebumps covered every inch of my skin.

From the moment he opened his mouth, Heath owned them. His voice was powerful, his pitch clear, his tone perfect. His charisma won the crowd over as he spoke to them in between songs, usually whipping them into a frenzy and leaving them wanting more. It was easy to see that this was a band that was going to conquer the world someday. And it was hard not to grin like a fool as I watched my man strut his sexy ass across that stage.

Their set was only fifty minutes and it went by so quickly. But the crowd wasn’t finished with them. Twenty thousand people chanted as one, demanding an encore: Vengeance, Vengeance, Vengeance.

So the guys obliged with another two songs. And Heath’s dimples were deep as he walked back on stage to a thunderous applause.

When they finally came off stage, he was pumped. But I didn’t get to see him straight away. People—industry types—flocked to them. Piper and I watched from our vantage point on the stage risers as they talked with their manager and several people I didn’t know. Heath looked up and caught my eye. He winked and smiled.

When he finally got to me he stepped between my legs and I wrapped them around him tightly as he stretched up to kiss me.

Piper squealed and leapt off the riser into Jesse’s arms, who then whisked her away to meet a singer from one of the headlining bands.

“Come down here and kiss your man properly,” Heath said.

I grinned and slid down from the riser and into his big arms. He was covered in sweat.

“You’re very aromatic,” I joked, wrinkling my nose at his sweat.

“Babe, that’s the smell of awesome,” he said, using a towel he had around his neck to wipe his face.

Piper bundled over to us, a ball of red hair and red hot energy. “We were just speaking to Fletcher Wilkington from Viper and he said a few of the bands were heading over to a club called SkyLab. We were going to check it out too, you guys want to come with us?”

I looked at Heath who seemed cool with it. I nodded. “Sure, sounds like a plan.”

He nodded just as Tommy appeared with a stunning brunette dressed in a short blue dress and the longest legs I’d ever seen on a human being. Her long, iron-straight black hair was pulled over one shoulder and plunged past her large cleavage.

She was smiling broadly.

At Heath.

Her vibrant blue eyes twinkled across at him through false lashes.

I felt Heath tense next to me.

Tommy looked like he’d just won the lottery. “Guys, this is Mia. She’s with the record label— ”

“Well you look a lot happier than when I saw you last.” She directed her words at Heath, ignoring the rest of us, and her lips curled seductively as she spoke.

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like the way she was looking at him. Like she was about to eat him. Or worse. Like she had already had him and was coming back for seconds.

“You guys know each other?” Tommy asked innocently.

Heath looked uncomfortable. Mia, on the other hand, looked like the cat that ate the cream and seemed oblivious to the rest of us standing there with them.

“Yes … we met yesterday,” She said, her eyes not leaving his face. “Maybe this time I’ll buy you a drink.”

Piper looked at me, whereas Heath couldn’t meet my eyes. My spine tingled with an awful foreboding.

“Oh Jesus,” Tommy muttered.

I knew I had to say something. To let the bitch know in no uncertain terms who she was standing next to and that flirting with my guy in front of me was really uncool.

When she licked her lips like she was about to eat him, I stepped forward and offered her my hand. “Since Heath seems to have lost his tongue I should introduce myself. I’m Harlow. His girlfriend.”

Her well-shaped brows rose high on her forehead and then dropped. She smiled mischievously. Blue eyes glittered over me as she took my hand, but turned back to look in Heath’s direction.

“Well he didn’t seem to have lost his tongue yesterday. I can vouch for that.”

I dropped her hand.

Up until that point I had been prepared to give Heath the benefit of the doubt. Being the girlfriend of the lead singer of a band meant you had to tolerate a certain amount of bad behavior from the girls who wanted to get their hands on him. I accepted that. But this? This was beyond bad behavior.

It was glaringly obvious that Heath and this girl had done something together the day before which had involved drinking and tongues. Just because I was naïve with a lot of things, didn’t make me stupid.

“I think you’d better go now,” Piper snapped. All four-foot nothing of her stepped between the girl and me. And when she didn’t move, Piper glared up at her ready to strike. “What? All that fake tan make you deaf? Get the fuck out of here!”

With another smoldering look at Heath the she-devil in the blue dress sauntered off, throwing a smug backwards glance at me.

My face was stiff, my throat cold and I was unable to swallow. Piper shot a murderous look in Heath’s direction. She took my hand. “Are you okay?”

I had no words because my heart had vomited itself into my throat.

“Don’t let it bother you, Harlow. She’s lying. Girls like that like to cause trouble.” She shot another stare-of-death at Heath and warned, “She’d better be lying!”

For the first time since Mia had appeared Heath met my eyes. And I knew. Right then. I knew.

“But she’s not lying, is she Heath,” I said in a strange alien voice.

His lack of denial was like a slap on my cheek. Heath had been with her the day before.

I was mindful of where we were. That being in the middle of a music festival was no place to have the confrontation we were about to have. Despite my growing realization and my hurt, I was still capable of thinking rationally and knew I had to get out of there.

“Baby—” He reached for me but I pushed his hand away.

“Tell me she’s lying,” I demanded.

“After I saw you with Colton—”

“You went and stuck your tongue down the throat of some random girl?” I seethed. But when he still couldn’t meet my eyes I felt the oxygen leave my lungs. Oh God no. “You had sex with her?” I cried out.

“Harlow, please …” He stepped towards me.

“Tell me you didn’t have sex with her!” I exclaimed, quickly stepping away from him. “Tell me!”

His silence sucked away every morsel of hope.

“No!” I sobbed.

“It was a mistake.” He grabbed me by the arms and gave me a little shake to make me look at him. “It didn’t mean anything. I was drunk. I’d just seen you with Colton …”

I found him through my tears and suddenly wanted to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him so bad. I wanted to punch him. To open hand slap him across his face. Yell at him. Scream at him. I wanted to take him out with the most hurtful words I could muster.