I grabbed that next.
“Let’s hear this song,” I said. “Then you can go back to this shit.”
Sab stood up and looked at Liv. “Hey. What’s up, Liv?”
“Sab,” she said.
I gave Sab his phone and walked to Liv.
I took a deep hit off the joint and stared down at her. I slowly let the smoke out of my mouth and let it consume her face. She blinked fast and looked scared to death. Which was good. She should have been scared. Playing this game with me. Pushing at me. Fucking with me. All because she was Daddy’s little girl and all because some suits told her she was untouchable.
“Want more?” I whispered.
“No,” she said. “You can rot your brain, Nash. I’m happy right here.”
I slipped my hand to the middle of her back. “Listen to this new tune.”
Reed grabbed a remote and turned all the lights off.
We were just in the glow of the computer screen.
With the press of a few buttons, my voice came over the surround sound speakers.
“Yeah, we fucking got it. Start with that riff, Jay. We’ll bring it in…”
Jay’s guitar started to strum. It wasn’t a fast song but it wasn’t a slow ballad either. It was something in between. A risky kind of song that we’d probably either rework or just toss aside with all the other songs like it.
But it was still a good song.
As Jay and Dex worked their song, it poured from the speakers, and Sab’s drums kicked in. And Sab being Sab, he stood there and air drummed the entire thing.
My hand inched around Liv’s body and I pulled her close.
“Listen to the words, babe,” I whispered. “Wrote some of this while standing on the top balcony of a hotel. Just imagining the city at two in the morning. The crazy souls, demons coming out to play, the decisions made that are so fucking wrong but feel right…”
Liv slithered back and away from me.
I turned and looked at her.
She was in the hallway of the bus near the bunks. There was a small set of white lights glowing.
It was funny to see her like that.
Like she was an angel.
And, fuck, the way she looked at me, it was like she had seen the devil.
I slowly took another hit off the joint.
The chorus kicked.
We’re not the morning
We’re not the night
We’re touching between
We know what’s right
You say it’s wrong
You say you’re leaving
But you ain’t moved
And I’m not gone
I reached out with my right hand for Liv to take.
She lifted her left hand and at the last second turned her hand and lifted her middle finger.
“That’s a good song,” she said.
With that she spun around and walked through the bus and was gone.
The second verse of the song kicked in as I stood there.
You’re lost in the sun
Those eyes are screaming none
Where’d that girl go
The one laughing never saying no
I walked through the bus.
I wanted to see how far Liv had gotten.
Which wasn’t far at all.
She stood outside the bus, maybe ten feet away.
I dropped the joint and stepped on it, ready to trade one problem for another.
My feet moved along the pavement in the middle of the night. It was like we were living in a Filthy Line song now. Most everyone in the hotel was asleep. And most of the city around us the same. Only the wild and brave were still awake, willing to flirt and fuck with their demons.
And I knew mine.
Oh, fuck, I knew mine…
My hands touched Liv’s sides.
My fingertips curled, her curves dictating rules that I planned on breaking anyway. I didn’t pull her back toward me but stepped right up to her. There was no hiding the swell inside my jeans. There was no hiding that she was driving me fucking crazy. The words innocent and untouchable meant nothing now.
I’d be fucking crazy though… throwing away a massive record deal. Fucking over my band too. Toby could kiss my ass. But the guys… my brothers… not to mention the crew that worked so hard on the road. And Bill driving us all over the country.
Liv put her head back to my chest.
My hands slid around to the front of her body.
Her hands were at her sides.
She gently touched my legs, almost like she wanted to pull at me.
I stared over her and watched my hands inch up over her shirt.
When my hands crested over the beautiful swell of her breasts, I sucked in a breath and felt my cock ready to explode.
I pressed my lips to the top of her head and kissed.
I moved my hands back to her sides and gently pushed her forward.
“Goodnight, Liv,” I whispered and walked away.
Not toward the bus. No.
Back to the hotel.
Back to my fucking room.
Kristen had one last round to go with me.
Even if that wasn’t going to satisfy what I really fucking wanted and needed.
8
OLIVIA
No.
The word echoed through my head over and over as I stood in the shower. The one cool thing about this whole road and hotel life was that you never ran out of hot water. I did some of my best thinking and writing in the shower. And my apartment didn’t have the greatest hot water.
But here in the hotel…
I wasn’t writing though.
I wasn’t working on my dream novel.
I wasn’t building characters and figuring out what they ate for dinner on a random Wednesday night.
I was staring at my fingertips as they flirted with my belly button.
My eyes watching the water droplets race down my body.
From smooth skin to smooth skin, knowing right where the urge to forget about Nash once and for all waited. I had myself convinced that if I just did it once I could forget about him. My body ached in the wrong way. Even if it felt right. But it wasn’t supposed to feel right. Yet why not? Nash was the ultimate bad boy dream. The rebel rock star. The guy who could punch someone and not get into trouble. Or steal a car and drive it into a lake and not get in trouble. He could do anything he wanted. He could handpick any woman on any night and have her in his bed.
I never thought that kind of stuff would actually get to me.
But being near him…
There was something hidden in his eyes. That went beyond being a rock star.
My knees quivered as I had to make my final decision.
Touch or not?
It shouldn’t have been a big decision. I knew my body. I knew what I liked. And it wasn’t anything I hadn’t done before. Or done recently.
Fucking Nash.
My phone buzzed and rang, the ringtone echoing louder in the tiled bathroom.
I pushed opened the glass shower door and stepped out, water dripping everywhere, not a care in the world.
When I saw the name on the screen, I laughed.
“Fucking Nash,” I said.
Once again, it was something nobody would probably believe me if I told them.
That I had the numbers for each guy of Filthy Line in my phone.
“What do you want?” I asked as I took the call.
“Are you in the shower?”
I shut my eyes and felt the heat rush to my cheeks. “No.”