Page 39 of Until Joy

“Joy, you don’t have to do⁠—”

“Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from Jasper Creek, I would like to introduce to you Joy Magill, who I have been told has the voice of an angel.”

Joy turned her head, hiding her face in my chest.

“Come on, Joy,” Kayan shouted. “You’ve got this!”

“You’ll have fun,” July assured her.

“It’s only five minutes of your life,” Harmony said as she pushed over another tequila shot.

Joy looked up from my shirt, picked up the shot, drank it down, wiped her mouth, and took just a small sip of water.

“No more cookies for the two of you,” she pointed at Kayan and July.

I leaned in until my lips were against her ear. “You don’t have to do this,” I whispered again.

She squeezed my shoulder and smiled. “I’ve got this.”

Hell, every time I turned around, there was more and more to like about this woman. I watched as she made her way up to the stage. She and the DJ conferred for a moment, then she turned around, pointed two fingers toward her eyes, and then pointed them back at Kayan and July, who were laughing so hard I thought they might fall out of their chairs.

Now what?

Joy took the mic and went to the middle of the stage. When I had picked her up from Miss Laverne’s, my eyes had popped out when I saw her body-hugging pink dress, but now, seeing her under the stage lights, my tongue was about to fall out of my mouth.

The stage lights cast a golden glow over her, making her hair shimmer. The music started. It took a moment for me to recognize it, and when I did, I looked at Kayan and July and glared. It was “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. Then Joy started singing.

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

She started off soft. Her voice was husky, maybe a little shy, but she hit every word and note smoothly and effortlessly. The room went quiet. We were all waiting for her to start the chorus. And when she did, she did not disappoint.

“I kissed a girl, and I liked it.”

She sang loud and passionately, her delivery fun and flirty, yet you still felt like she meant every word. I looked around, and every single person I saw was grinning. The entire crowd was drawn in, even the women. It was like she owned the stage.

When she got to the line, It felt so wrong/It felt so right, I got so hard, my cock could pound nails.

She kept singing. Once again, she dropped down to that soft, husky tone, her body swaying just a little. But then it came time for the chorus once more, and she belted it out. She swayed as she sang, and as she moved to the music, all I could think of was sex.

Hot, sweaty sex.

The song lasted a second or forever, I wasn’t sure. But when the last note faded away, people jumped to their feet and stomped the floor. Then my Joy blushed. She wobbled back to the DJ to return the mic.

“What do you say, ladies and gentlemen? Should we have Joy sing another song?” the DJ asked the crowd.

I saw Joy’s embarrassment, and I made it up to the stage in a nanosecond. People were calling for her to sing another song, but looking at her discomfort, I knew I needed to get her out of there.

When I got to her, I leaned in close, my lips just brushing her ear. “We’re leaving. Now.”

Her breath hitched, and she gave me a grateful smile.

As I led her through the crowd, her fingers tightened around mine, her breath still uneven from her singing. I leaned down, murmuring in her ear, “You have no idea what you just did to me.”

Her soft gasp told me she had some idea. I looked into her eyes and saw need staring back at me. Well, fuck me. Maybe slow was no longer necessary.

Chapter 11

I looked down at Graham’s hand as he shifted gears. I remembered the feel of him caressing my bare skin and shuddered. Every so often he’d glance over at me, and I could feel the electricity arcing between us. As far as I was concerned, we couldn’t get to his house fast enough.