I swallowed. “Is that right? You don’t seem like a man interested in a powerful woman. Considering how often you bag and ditch them.”
“I don’t meet many powerful women,” he said. His voice was low and gravelly as his blue eyes bored into me. For a second, I was lost to him. Then, he smirked and opened his mouth. “So…have you done anything like you’ve read in these books before?”
I smacked him on the shoulder. “God, you’re terrible. Is sex all you think about?”
“After reading over your shoulder…”
My eyes widened at the admission. Had he just admitted to thinking about sex because of reading my book? Was he thinking about me? Oh fuck. This was…this was bad.
Because suddenly, I had the vivid image of Hollin holding me down with those big hands of his. Doing all the dirty things that I read about on the regular that, despite not answering his question, no one had ever done to me. It had just been fantasy. An escape into a reality that was so far removed from my own. I never thought anyone would look at the books I read and wonder if I wanted to be held down and fucked.
I couldn’t help it. I flushed all over and hastily looked away, but he caught the blush on my cheeks.
He grinned devilishly. “Mission accomplished.”
“What?” I gasped out.
“I love to make you blush.”
I shoved up out of my seat. “I am not one of your three-date-rule bimbos. I’m not falling for this stupidity, Hollin. Just…go bother someone else.”
I left the room, nearly running into Julian and Jordan on the way out. They looked at me in confusion, but I brushed past them. I needed to get far, far away from Hollin and his lack of boundaries. Or the fact that I liked that he had none.
12
Piper
The Cosmere show was night and day to whatever Campbell had thrown together at the opening of the tour in Lubbock. That had practically been a personal party rather than a concert. This was a full stadium experience. Impressive light displays, perfect acoustics, backup dancers. The whole shebang.
I avoided Hollin through the rest of the show and drowned in Campbell’s heartfelt lyrics with Annie and Jennifer. Blaire stayed on her feet through the show with the rest of us, but she spent as much time on her phone, doing Blaire Blush stuff, as she did, listening to the music. And at one point, she left right in the middle of their biggest hit, “I See the Real You.”
And now, we were at the door to backstage. We flashed our passes to the bouncer and then were through. Even Hollin and Nora were excited about coming backstage even though they had to have been backstage for their brother a bunch.
An assistant found us at the door. She smiled wide. “Hi! I’m Libba. Campbell sent me to get you. He said you could wait for him in the lounge.”
“Great,” Hollin said. “Show us the way.”
We bypassed a line of eager fans, hoping to get one last glimpse of the band. We followed Libba away from the crowds and through the crush of workers, who had made sure the show went off without a hitch. Then, we were at the door of a lounge full of booze and women. The other members of the band were already there.
Viv played bass. She’d recently dyed her hair purple and shaved it on one side. She was smoking a joint and crowed when she saw Hollin. They hugged, and Hollin dropped into a seat on the couch next to her. A pang shot through me even though I knew Viv had a girlfriend, Kris. Yorke played guitar and was the hottest guy in the band after Campbell. He had this dark and mysterious thing to him. All hard edges and broody silent treatment. I rarely heard him speak, but when he did, everyone stopped to listen. Yorke was sitting next to Santi, who was the effervescent opposite of Yorke’s taciturn demeanor. They were best friends and had met at a local LA talent competition when Santi showed up and played the drums so well that Travis Barker took him on as a prodigy. They’d paired up with Michael on keys shortly after that, who was currently video-chatting, likely with his wife and young daughter.
Viv had been introduced to them by the label. At the time, Santi had been singing lead, but it wasn’t until they added Campbell as the lead singer and his incredible lyrical talent that they’d taken off like a rocket. And now, they were an international sensation.
We were just missing Campbell in the room.
The door creaked open behind us, and a boom of screaming girls hit us.
“Well, that’d be Campbell,” Santi said with a laugh.
He elbowed Yorke, who looked back at him with a flat expression.
And then Campbell walked in the room, slamming the door behind him. He looked…tired. It had been a long day for him. He had to be exhausted.
“Good show, y’all,” he said.
Viv gave him a thumbs-up. “I found your hot brother.”
Campbell laughed. “Excellent.”
Despite exhaustion etched into his features, Campbell hung out with all of us as if he weren’t tired. He shook hands with Jordan and Julian, dragging them across the room to do shots. He hugged all of us, even signing the backstage passes for me, Jennifer, and Annie. Annie had asked, of course. She was the boldest of the lot of us. Jennifer had blushed from head to toe at the question.
“Seriously?” Campbell asked with a laugh. “It’s your goddamn photo.”
“It sure is,” she said, biting her lip.
He shook his head, but he signed the pass. Blaire didn’t offer hers up, and he carefully avoided looking at her.
I took a seat across the room from Hollin with another Bombay and lime. I’d done shots with Campbell, and the alcohol was finally hitting me. I had a high tolerance from all the wine, but even I couldn’t compete with tequila shots. If I was honest, there was no one alive who could compete with tequila shots.
Santi leaned into Nora and was telling a story about the lot of them getting lost in Salt Lake City earlier that week. Everyone laughed as he regaled us with how they’d had to hike several miles through snow to find someone who finally recognized Campbell’s face.
Campbell held his hand out. “Hey, it’s not my fault that the car broke down.”
“No, it’s Yorke’s,” Viv said. “He should work better at a stick shift.”
Yorke shrugged and kicked his feet up. “Sure.”
“Why were you even driving around by yourself?” I asked.
All eyes shifted to Santi, who held his hands up. “Hey, hey, hey, I swore there was good Columbian food in that shopping center. Made by real Columbians.”
“The food was delicious,” Viv said with a sigh.
“Damn straight,” Santi said. “Right back to my roots.”
Santi winked at Nora, who flushed.
Campbell narrowed his eyes at Santi. “Hey, that’s my little sister, dipshit. I know what that look means. Keep your hands to yourself.”
Everyone cracked up, except Nora, who looked indignant.
“Nothing is happening, Campbell! I’m taken anyway.”
“Yeah. Hands off our little sister,” Hollin piped up.
Santi raised his hands and threw his arm over the other side of the couch, wrapping it around Blaire. “You taken, sexy?”
Blaire opened her mouth in shock. “I…”