I wanted to invite Jared back to my room that night, but I had dinner with Julie and Carla after the show so we could catch up and we ended up drinking too much for them to drive back. They crashed on the extra bed in my hotel room, and I spent the night tossing and turning, partly stressing about whether our performance would be good enough to keep us on the show another week, but mostly replaying those stolen minutes against the fence with Jared.

My friends didn’t have tickets for the results show, so I returned to the theater alone the next afternoon. I’d slept in late and hadn’t spoken to the guys at all, so I had no idea what kind of reception our song was getting online. It was actually nice being oblivious; people on the Internet could be pretty damn cruel sometimes. But at the same time, it made my stress levels shoot through the roof. Had anyone liked our version of “Enjoy the Silence” or was it too different from the original? We’d picked such a classic, well-known song, and it was hard to know if people would love or hate our darker take on it.

I met the rest of the band in the lounge. Jared wore his black leather jacket again, and the wicked smile he gave me filled my head with naughty thoughts.

“Tonight,” I whispered to him as we walked to the stage. “After the show, my room.”

In response, he set his hand on my back, moving lower to rest on the curve of my butt. I sucked in a breath, heat building between my legs at his touch, but he released me before anyone saw. Or so I hoped.

We waited while Dan and Lissa finished their duo, their two distinct voices meshing surprisingly well, and then our team was rushed on stage. I held my breath as Ray called the names, but our band was saved first, followed by The Quiet Battles, leaving the Christian heavy metal band to be kicked off this time. Safe for another week, and now we were in the semi-finals. I never expected to get this far, and it only made me want to work even harder to make it to the finals next week.

We all ran off the stage and hugged, and when Jared’s arms wrapped around me, I had to restrain myself from kissing him in front of the other guys. It was getting harder and harder to keep up this friends-only charade in public, and I worried we were too obvious with all of our secret looks and quick touches. How could anyone miss the fire smoldering between us every time we were in the same room?