One Night with Sole Regret 01 Try Me Read Online Free Page B

much.”
    “I recognized the other guys in the band because I
saw them on stage, but you . . . ”
    “Were the blur behind the huge drum kit.”
    “Yeah.” And he looked like a regular gorgeous guy,
not a rock star. She touched her cheeks with her fingertips and
found them hot. “I really am sorry I spit water on you. You must
think I’m a psycho.”
    “Actually, I think you’re charming,” he said. “I’ve
never met a woman with the balls to turn Shade down and call him a
freak in the same breath.”
    Melanie groaned. “I can’t believe I did that.” She
plopped down on the sofa beside Gabe again and buried her head in
her hands. “I don’t really think he’s a freak. He’s just
so . . . ”
    “Arrogant?”
    “Yeah.” She turned her head to look at him. “But you
don’t seem to be.”
    “I’m just the drummer.” He touched the center of her
back, engulfing her in his body heat and the clean fragrance of
soap and hot-blooded male as he moved closer. “Do you have a
boyfriend?” He stroked her left ring finger just above her first
knuckle. “I know if you had a husband or a fiancé, he wouldn’t let
you out of his sight without a ring on your finger.”
    Her heart skipped a beat. Was he hitting on her? She
was pretty sure he was. Did she mind? Hell no. Even though he was a
musician and had a tattoo, she loved what she saw. And she
wanted to do so much more than look.
    “I’m currently single,” she said. Yay! she
added silently.
    “I thought maybe that’s why you rejected Shade, that
you were madly in love with some lucky jackass. You honestly aren’t
attracted to him?”
    She shook her head.
    “Not even to his notoriety?”
    “It doesn’t make him any more special than any of
us. So he’s famous. Big whoop. It doesn’t give him the right to
behave like an ass. You’re famous and you don’t act like that.”
    “Are you sure about that?”
    She nodded resolutely.
    Gabe leaned closer still, his gaze so intense she
felt frozen to the spot. He lifted a hand to brush his fingers
across her cheek. Melanie’s heart thundered in her chest.
    “I’m going to kiss you,” he said.
    She couldn’t drag her gaze from his. She’d never
seen such green eyes. The contrast of those bright irises against
his dark lashes was mesmerizing.
    “You are?”
    “Yes.”
    “But I’m not attracted to guys like you.”
    “Guys like me?”
    “Guys with tattoos.”
    “Hmm,” he murmured close to her ear.
    Her eyelids drifted closed.
    “What about guys with mohawks?”
    She gasped and her eyes flew open. “Never.”
    Gabe pushed his ball cap off, revealing that the
sides of his head were not only clean-shaven, but tattooed with
black and red tribal patterns. The strip of hair down the center of
his head was a couple inches long and jet black with crimson tips.
So not her type. Then why was her belly tightening with need and
why were her panties uncomfortably damp?
    “And I suppose you’d never be attracted to a guy
with a body piercing.”
    His warm breath caressed her ear. She stifled a
groan. Why was everything about him turning her on? She really
wasn’t attracted to these bad-boy types. She was likely to cringe
in fear when confronted by someone who looked like him. Now, even
though Gabe had her cornered against the arm of the sofa, she felt
no fear at all. She wanted to touch him. Stroke his mohawk, rub his
scalp, caress his tattoos with her lips. How had those desires been
spawned? She should be flinching away from him, not swaying toward
him. He was exactly the type of guy she avoided as a rule. Yet she
wasn’t the least bit afraid of Gabe. She wanted him.
    “My navel’s pierced,” she blurted. One moment of
recklessness on her twenty-first birthday.
    “I don’t believe you.”
    She lifted the hem of her top to show him the
jewelry dangling from her belly button. His breath caught, and his
fingers traced the slender chain around her waist. A pulse of
pleasure converged between