The Arena was still lit up for the night. With the light from the parking lot and the arena's yellow glow piercing the sky like beacons. The glow surrounds each light pole from the fog. The parking lot had this mystical quality. As if the man from the crossroads would step out and I'd finally get to meet him. I always found it funny how he's scorned as the devil for offering choices. As my family always sees him as Eshu, maybe we don't blame the messenger for offering the option. Because everything comes at a price and Eshu always eats first. The van comes to a slow stop next to my little car. I lift my head from Asher's shoulder. A part of me is sad the ride is over.

Rux opens the sliding door of the van and offers me his hand. I take it and step out of the van under the parking lot light. Somehow, the air is cold and fog is rolling into the night. It's like the night can't remember the scorching heat from the day. I zip up Asher's jacket, then remember I need to give it back. Asher steps out of the van next and then Rux gets back in and drives towards a tour bus. It leaves just me and Asher in front of the King's arena. For a place filled with over seventeen thousand people earlier in the night, it was so empty now.

My brother's truck is not here yet. I unzip Asher's jacket. But he stops my hand on the zipper. His touch on my zipper is still a shock to the system. And then I look up into Asher's nebulous hazel eyes. His hair is all over the place messy. The tattoos on his neck and up into his hair can be barely seen in the street light of the parking lot. But he looks my age. The artifice of the rock star is at the edges of him.

"Your ride's not here yet?"

"No, not yet." His hand hasn't moved from the jacket zipper.

"Sabali, wait on the jacket."

"Ok," yeah, that wasn't too articulate of me. No great witticism in ok. "Thanks for the ride."

"Thanks for the story," he smiles again. It's a cute smile. I'm a sucker for smiles. He moves my hand away from the jacket zipper and zips his jacket back up, locking in the warmth. All my nervousness from earlier rushed back to me. It's like we didn't spend time in the car or have a whole conversation. I somehow got reset to square one. I didn't become a contestant in the contest. He didn't know my name. I'm Wheelz. But I was wrong. He steps closer to me and the spicy smoke scent is stronger.

"You're welcome," my voice cracks on it. Of course! Asher smiles again. He should smile more. It's dangerous. But then again, I can hardly handle the first one. Do I really want the second one? It's giving me a little floaty in my stomach.

Asher grabs me, and I realize a little too late that I stop breathing again. It was a complete repeat of this morning, but at least I didn't blackout. Shit!

"Whoa, there Birdy." He pulls me in close to his body. Too close, that tattoo on his neck, following to his hazel eyes. "Are you feeling ok, why did you stop breathing?" The gold hazel nebula still has the same effect. Stars and an endless playlist of music. Space clouds and universes. Breathe.

"I forgot."

"You forgot?" He was looking for a deeper explanation. I didn't have one. You're so hot and I kinda forgot to breathe because I'm a complete goober with low social skills doesn't work. Wheelz strikes again, I guess.

"Sometimes I think about things and forget to breathe." I had a feeling that we were talking past each other. Something unsaid and I couldn't figure out what.

"Oh?" Asher's callus thumb grazes against my dark cheek. I felt that touch all the way down to my toes. He leans in and his lips brush across mine. A hesitance touch as he explores his way. It was something I never would have expected of him, and then he smiled into my lips. And his tongue slides into my mouth, weaving with mine. Asher tasted of burnt honey and bad decisions. Oh, it was utterly intoxicating. He grasps his jacket, pulling me even closer to him. That smokey burnt honey smell is all around me enveloping me inside and out. Heat spread through my body to the tip of my nipples that rub against him. I wanted more, I needed more. That sound made in the back of my throat as my body got away from me. I didn't even know it was me that made it until my racing mind caught up to me.

Asher's kiss changed. He chased my tongue, and I met him again, weaving for a second time. That heat burns in my belly. More... My hands came up to his thick, messy hair. I wasn't sure if I was trying to hold him in place or get more of what he offered. His was harder and more demanding. It was like his singing, abrasive and beautiful crushed diamond and burnt honey. Beautiful things that are just a little off-center and just a little broken. Asher groans into our kiss. Dangerous as we race together, his thigh shifting between my legs. And I pressed against it, needed pressure right there.

Hips rocked against him. Shifting against his thick, well muscled thigh. His hand on my ass pulled me in closer to him. That heady scent building. Asher makes a growly sound into my mouth. Things become wilder and more frantic. 100 miles an hour on a highway in the middle of the night.

My head got that floaty sensation as my center dove for the connected spots between us. I wanted more. I wanted every little bit I could give and get. An addiction waiting to happen, delicious sweet and ... and...

Asher breaks the kiss suddenly and takes a step back from me.

"Huh?" I lick my lips, blinking furiously. It was a knockout punch. What just happened? Was I bad? Was it bad? Asher's expression shifts and something moves into its place. That fierceness he had when he glared at Paulie on stage. His hazel eyes were hard and unmoving. Coldness rushed in his absent heat. All my insecurity was ready and willing to greet me. What am I doing? Then some intangible thing passed over Asher's face. I couldn't tell you what it was, but it reminded me of that moment he was on stage and I wanted to touch him. Because everything was wrong, like a silent scream.

My hand reaches up in the moonlight to his cheek. When I mix colors for my journal, I always do a deep dark umber for myself with hints of gold hues. So, deep and dark that you see ten different colors when you look into it. As if the color is a cosmos and inside you see the universe. Because only in darkness can you kiss color in just the right way, so it's the brightest. The dark umber of my hand cup the side of Asher's cheek, I searched his changeable hazel eyes. His peach warm skin heated the inside of my palm. What is going on in your head? How can you kiss someone one moment yet be so unable to ask such an intimate, probing question the next? How does that make any sense? But I felt like if I asked him in that vulnerable moment that I'd be asking for something so big. So, personal, it would be intrusive. Paulie, his agent, his label, tv, papers, paparazzi, fans, enough people buy and sell Asher every day. But I didn't need to be one of them. He turns his cheek into my warm palm.

Asher's hand comes back to my cheek, cupping it as fragile as a feather he might break. He leans in and kisses me gently on the lips just once and pulls away without all the confusion this time. It was the most delicate of kisses. As if kissing me more would be the greatest of sins. So, I wonder who was giving who the apple? I try to figure out if he's telling me something. Anything when he breaks the kiss. He looks past me in the distance, then zips his jacket back up.

"See you later, Birdy." Heads towards the same tour bus that Rux parked the van next to. And he doesn't look back once. Wait, wait, rewind. Did he walk away?

The firm meaty slap of my hand to my forehead. I'm so confused. What just happened here? We kissed. He got mad because of something, then he kissed me again and walked away. I would have been perfectly happy to keep kissing. A crunching sound of tire wheels behind me. Oh, my brother's truck. I pick up my bag and head to the passenger side of the truck door. It almost reminds me of high school a little too much. I resist the urge to push all my frustration into the open and slamming the door of Maurice's truck.

I expect him to hitch my little car to the back and we can go. I was so wound up. High and down, pissed and happy. I couldn't tell you if I was coming or going. Mixed up all over the place. Then I settled in and focused on the good parts. I can't do anything about the other stuff and it might not be anything I will ever come to understand. Like why Paulie made him so mad and why kissing me gave him that look in his eyes. The same look he gave to Paulie after he betrayed him. It's something that I couldn't have caused. I don't know him well enough. Focus on the good.

My brother in his fire station t-shirt gave me a side eye as I put on my seat belt. It completely knocked me out of my toxic headspace. "Who was that?" Maurice asked.

"Just a guy."

A/n: working on Noah, and making some choices with it. Love the hype for the upcoming release. It's going to be in the same book. I'm just going to count.