Free Twisted (Delirium #1) by Cara Carnes Page B

stage.   
    “Leaving here, walking away from the ones I loved the most was the hardest thing I’d ever done. It took the death of a man we all loved to make us see how much we mourned what we once had.” Caleb stepped away from the mic and removed his shirt.
    My gut clenched when his gaze landed on me. Lips near the microphone, he held the gaze and ran his hand across the dragons on his chest. “The press always asks the meaning behind these two beasts on me. I’ve never told them because I thought it important to share the secret with those who need to know first.”
    An eerie silence settled around me. Flashbulbs flickered from the ground in front of the bleachers. The paparazzi vultures had caught up. Their presence soured the meaning behind whatever the moment was.
    “Seven years ago I made the dumbest decision of my life and chose a career over the only love I’d ever known. The first month I left I found an unknown artist to ink me, to burn images of the person I’d been here and the woman I’d left behind. We’d always had a fascination with dragons and somehow having these two beasts wrapped around one another held me together the first year I was gone.”
    My heart slammed against my chest. They were us? I’d wondered when I’d seen them, even fancied as much when I’d seen him last night. I’d been right.
    Bets squealed beside me, bouncing like a popcorn kernel in a hot pan. She squeezed my hand. “This is so hawt!”
    She wasn’t wrong.
    “Every year on the anniversary of my flight from White Bluffs I hunted him down and inked my regret, my loss for what could’ve been had I stayed.” The red tears.
    “Oh. My. God.” I held my breath when his gaze returned to me.
    “I’ve got something more to say, but first…I’ve written a little song for the birthday girl.” Shock must’ve resonated on my face because he chuckled into the microphone, a sexy, sensual caress to my senses. “This is for you, Shasta Monohan, because I know now there’s no me without you.”
    Holy shit.
    Bets froze beside me, her mouth open and her eyes wide. I felt the same shock rippling through me, casting a brushfire of euphoria to burn any doubt, any negativity from me.
    I clung to every note, every chord and tumbled along with Caleb as he sang every word as though he was ripping it from the very depths of my soul. Each heart-mending moment resonated with me because they were the words I would’ve created. The silence of the crowd was deafening, but I didn’t care if they heard what he said.
    I savored every syllable because they were mine to have, to hold. Forevermore. He sang about the despair, the longing, the raw hunger each night as memories of what we’d shared here in White Bluffs torpedoed his nights with what he’d lost. What he’d walked away from.
    Each line struck a blow to my battered defenses. Caleb’s fingers glided along his guitar’s frets without hesitation. His gaze never left mine. I sensed Bets stand beside me. Firm hands grasped my arm and tugged.
    Without words, without hesitation I trusted her to maneuver us down the rickety bleachers because no way in hell would I sever the eye contact—the emotional bond permanently fusing our souls together. As I trudged alongside my friend, I wept as the emotions resonating within his song enveloped me.
    I wouldn’t be satisfied until I heard it a million times. I’d always wished he’d written something for me. I’d hoped to be important enough in his world to deserve something cherished, beautiful. The fact it was unlike anything they’d ever released offered me a secret realization. He’d written Me Without You alone.
    As the last note echoed in my ears, Bets guided me to the edge of the stage. Suddenly Caleb was there. I wrapped myself around him and allowed my tenuous grip on my emotions to snap. As long as I was in his arms I was safe, protected from whatever hazards awaited us.
    “I love you, Shasta Monohan, and I’ll spend every