Something no girl would ever come between.
And I was starting to wonder if maybe that was going to be a problem.
“Great, Eva, hold that, right there.” The photographer, a flamboyant guy named Tobias, directed over the top of his camera. “Chin down a little, eyes right at me.” The flash went off in a rapid succession of click click clicks. “Yes, that’s it, that’s the one.”
I let out a quiet sigh, relaxing my shoulders. I’d been positioned and posed for the last thirty minutes. There had been no time to take in the sights of Orlando. Alistair had been contacted by The Rock Report. Following the press release, they wanted to run a double page spread article about my joining the Blood Runs Thicker tour. I hadn’t even finished my first coffee when Riley breezed onto the bus looking every bit the assistant to a huge rock band and dropped the bombshell that a car would be picking me up to take me to a hotel downtown. She’d obviously forgotten to mention the band would be coming along because when I had stumbled into the car, still half-asleep, I’d landed half in Rafe’s lap. Levi and Hudson had found it all very amusing while I’d scrambled off his lap quicker than you could say ‘more coffee’.
I hadn’t spoken to him since. When we’d arrived at the hotel, I was ushered off into one room while the band was taken somewhere else.
“You looked great.” Letty said taking the guitar from me. It wasn’t mine. I wasn’t sure if it was even tuned, but they’d wanted the shoot to speak to my country roots.
“I felt ridiculous,” I lowered my voice. “How much longer do we have to be here?”
“The band is just finishing up and then there’s the—”
“Right,” the photographer hollered, “if we can get the guys in here, we can do the group shoot.”
“Group shoot?” I repeated, scowling at Letty.
“I just found out.”
“Of course you did,” I mumbled just as the door opened and the guys piled in, laughing and joking. Rafe’s expression fell the second he saw me though, clouding with desire and regret.
My stomach tightened.
“Okay, Eva, let’s get you in the middle with your guitar please. Boys fill in around her.” Tobias began repositioning the lighting reflector. “Levi, Rafe, if you two stand either side and Damon and Hudson take a knee at the front.”
“Take a knee, really?” Hudson muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Just go with it,” Tobias insisted.
The guys closed in around me. “Don’t look so worried, Angel,” Levi smirked.
“Okay, Levi, let’s have your body angled toward Eva, but I want you to look at the camera. Move in closer.” I felt his breath on my cheek and my own breath caught. “And now, Eva, if you lift your guitar a little and Rafe, slide you hand around the neck too so it looks like you’re both holding it up.”
Rafe let out a low hiss as his hand slid up the neck of the guitar and brushed my pinky finger. Nervous energy vibrated inside me, making me feel a little lightheaded. This was too close, too intimate.
“Good, good,” Tobias cooed. But it didn’t feel good. It felt downright awkward, standing there wedged firmly in between the Hunter brothers. Country’s rose in the middle of two thorns.
I knew there were thousands of girls out there who would pay good money to find themselves in this position, but I was too tense to enjoy it.
I caught Letty’s eye, but she was too busy smothering her amusement.
“Relax, Country,” Levi whispered. “It’s supposed to be fun.”
Fun.
I shot him a hard stare and he howled with laughter. “Someone still has their panties in a—”
“Lev,” Rafe all but growled his brother’s name.
“Everyone needs to lighten the hell up. That shit this morning was funny. Come on, Evangeline,” he taunted, “you know it was funny.”
My eyes slid to Levi’s, narrowing. I didn’t expect him to cross his eyes and pull a silly face at me. The corner of my mouth lifted as I fought a smile, refocusing on the camera. Levi was like a child. A child who was always getting up to no good but in an endearing kind of way.
“Behave,” I hissed.
“Right, if everyone can look at me on three, two, one.” The flash went off. “Now Damon and Hudson look up at Eva. Rafe and Levi too.”
My face burned with embarrassment.
“Looking good, Eva,” Hudson tried to make light of the situation, but I felt ready to combust. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I was sure I felt Rafe’s fingers brushing back and forth over mine. I didn’t look out of fear of giving him away, but I felt it.
I felt it all the way down to my soul.
I only wished I knew what it meant.
If it meant anything at all.
“Okay, now let’s get a couple with just Levi and Eva.”
Rafe went rigid beside me. I peeked over at him, expecting to see anger rolling off him, but his face was a mask of indifference.
“Just you and me, Angel.” Levi grinned.
“Is this really necessary?” I blurted out.
“Alistair wanted a range of shots, and it makes sense to play up your relationship,” Riley sauntered over to us, her saccharine-sweet smile hardly fooling me. She knew I was uncomfortable, but my feelings didn’t enter the conversation.
“Yeah, come on, Country, we should give the fans what they want.” Levi hooked his finger into my belt loop and pulled me closer, the air whooshing from my lungs.
“Yes!” Tobias gushed, letting out a little shriek of approval. “That’s perfect.” He took a bunch of shots before saying, “Eva, now drop the guitar in front of you and lean your hand on it.”
I did as he instructed, wanting nothing more than for it to be over. “Perfect.” Another bunch of flashes later and we were finally done. “We’ve got plenty to work with here.”
“Alistair will want full approval of the final images.” Riley marched over, her cell phone pressed to her ear.
“We know the drill.” The two of them talked shop while I went to grab my things.
“Travis is waiting with the car. We have an hour before we have to be at the Amway Center. I thought you could use some... pizza, after that.” Letty’s eyes flicked over to where the guys were laughing and joking. Except Rafe; he was still brooding, but he didn’t look at me.
“Actually, that sounds perfect.”
“I’ll just let Riley know our plans and we can go.” Letty wandered over to her.
“Yo, Angel,” Levi called, “we’re going to get food. You in?”
“Actually, me and Letty are goin’ to do our own thing.”
Levi shrugged, his eyes darkening. “Fine, whatever,” he clipped out as if my rejection had genuinely offended him. He gave me his back and my instant reaction was to say we’d go with them. But the truth was, after the photoshoot, I needed space.
“Okay, all set?” Letty came back.
“Yep, let’s go.” I motioned for her to lead the way. The sooner we got out of here, the better.
We said goodbye to everyone and slipped out into the hall where Travis was waiting. “Grayson is bringing the car around to the side entrance.” He waited for us to move ahead of him and the three of us walked toward the hotel entrance. There had only been a small group of fans gathered when we’d arrived, but I was in no hurry to face them or the press.