“Am I not safe here?” The words just poured out. It wasn’t that I objected to having a bodyguard, I didn’t, but I didn’t exactly understand how these things worked either.
“You’re perfectly safe, Ms. Walk... Eva.” Travis’s expression softened. “But I’m still coming with you.”
“Because it’s your job?”
He nodded. “And because your safety is my number one priority.”
“Well, okay then, I guess. Thank you.” I didn’t know what I was thanking him for, but our exchange settled some of the nervous energy bouncing around my stomach.
I found the restroom without difficulty. After washing my hands and checking myself in the mirror, I slipped into the hallway connecting the restrooms to the main room, grinding to a halt when I saw Rafe and Riley at the smaller bar. She was laughing at something he said. Jealousy burned through me which was ridiculous. Rafe wasn’t mine and they were only talking. But I couldn’t deny it hurt seeing him with her. Just another thing I’d underestimated when I agreed to come on tour with the band. There would be girls, lots of them if the news stories were anything to go by. Levi and Hudson seemed to live the playboy life more than Rafe and Damon, but I wasn’t a fool. I knew there would be other girls.
Girls who weren’t me.
Knowing it and seeing it were two different things though.
“Eva, is there a problem?” I sensed Travis inch closer, but I couldn’t make myself move. Riley was touching Rafe. Her hand was rested casually on his arm, as if it belonged there.
As if she belonged there with him.
“I... uh, what?” Forcing myself to meet his concerned gaze, I smiled. “No, I’m fine. Thank you for waitin’.”
He gave me a sharp nod before stepping aside to let me pass. I made a beeline for Letty and my sugary drink. It was only supposed to be one, but after seeing Rafe and Riley, something told me I was going to need a couple more if I was going to survive the rest of the night.
“Eva, baby, come dance with me.” Hudson crooked his finger, a wicked glint in his eye as he prowled toward me.
“Oh, hell no,” I said, backing up. Letty cackled beside me, making no effort to protect me from the Black Hearts drummer.
“One dance,” he drawled. “You’ve been sitting here like Debbie Downer all night.”
“I have no—”
He reached me, pressing a single finger against my lips, stealing me of both my breath and my argument. “One dance, Angel. Let’s go.” Hudson curled his hand around mine and yanked me toward the dance floor.
“It’ll go a lot easier if you don’t resist,” Letty yelled after me.
People smiled and laughed at us as Hudson pulled me right into the center of the dance floor. “Don’t tell me a country girl as hot as you can’t dance?” He cocked a brow.
“You’re drunk,” I remarked, letting him twirl me around the floor.
“It’s a party, you’re supposed to get drunk.” Hudson beamed at me and I couldn’t deny it was hard to stay mad at him. His excitement was infectious.
Just then, the music switched gears, the latest P!nk track blasting into the club. “Show me what you’ve got, Angel,” he shouted over the music, rolling and popping his hips in a way I would never have imagined.
“You’ve got moves,” I replied, fighting a smile.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Hudson closed the space between us, hooking his arm around my waist and pulling me flush to his chest. My body was pliant in his hold as he swayed and jerked us to the beat. “He’s watching you know.” Hudson’s warmth breath tickled my ear. He flattened his hand against my back as he swung us around so that I could see who he was talking about.
Rafe.
My breath caught.
His eyes were narrowed, intensity rolling off him as he watched one of his best friends dance with me. It was almost impossible to figure out what he was thinking; his expression clouded with so much emotion I felt a little winded.
“He’s not fooling anyone,” Hudson went on. “But the question is, what you gonna do about it?”
I reared back, startled. “You’re lovin’ this, aren’t you?”
“Loving it? Rafe’s been nothing but a miserable fuck since Camdena.”
He had?
But that didn’t make any sense.
“And what about you?” I asked, desperate to deflect the attention from me to him. I needed to clear my head, process what he was saying.
What he was implying.
I risked peeking over at Rafe again, but he was gone.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Hudson growled the words, but I saw the amusement in his eyes. Everything was a game to him. But what I couldn’t quite figure out was if it was real or a front.
“Nothin’.” My brow quirked suggestively but I kept my lips pressed together.
Hudson accepted my silence, refocusing his efforts on moving me around the dance floor like a rag doll. It was completely over the top, but by the time we were done, my sides hurt from laughing and I hadn’t felt so alive in a really long time.
“Someone looks like they had fun out there,” Damon said as I accepted a much-needed bottle of water from him.
“Best time of her life,” Hudson winked at me before chugging down his beer.
I glanced around looking for the Hunter brothers. I spied Levi in the middle of a group of people, his hands moving maniacally as he told them something.
“Looking for someone?”
My eyes slowly lifted to Damon’s. “No.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” I said defiantly, hopping up onto a stool and switching my water for a cocktail. Letty was busy flirting with the bartender from earlier. Riley and Alistair were entertaining a group of industry looking people. I couldn’t help but notice if she sat any closer to him, she’d be in his lap. I snickered.
First Alistair. Then Rafe. And now Alistair again. Maybe Letty was right. Maybe Riley was only interested in working her way up the ladder.
“What’s funny?” Damon asked, nursing his drink.
“This... everythin’.” I let out a weary sigh. I’d only had a couple of drinks, but I felt the effects swimming in my veins. Or maybe it was the aftereffects of dancing with Hudson. Either way, I felt kind of weightless. Drifting in my own body.
“You’re drunk.”
“Am not,” I grinned, spinning the stool, my head rolling on my shoulders.
Okay, so maybe I was a little tipsy.
Damon pulled out his cell phone and texted someone. The next thing I knew, Travis appeared. “Time to go, Eva.” Damon doubled in front of my eyes and I blinked, grinning like an idiot.
“You look funny.”
“Shit, how many did she drink?” Letty was here now.
“Two, maybe three. But she had a ton of water.”
“She’s not used to it.”
“I am riiiight here you know? I can hear you.” My words sounded slurred.
Whoa. Being drunk was weird. The room was spinning and my skin was vibrating in the best kind of way.
“I’ll take her to the car,” Travis said.
“I’m coming,” Letty grabbed my hand.