Fucking hell.
The picture was taken. We were done. Until he asked, “Can I get one with just you, Daisy?”
Aw, shit. The no was on the tip of my tongue, but “Sure” came out instead.
Same process. The pic was taken and he was being ushered out. What bothered me the most was how familiar he acted with me. As if we’d known each other or known each other. But I wasn’t my brothers who, at various times, had fucked anything that moved. I hadn’t had so many partners that I wouldn’t remember this guy when face to face with him.
But it was done. Over. Time to move on.
“I need a shower,” I muttered as I too left the room.
Chapter Two
Lawson
“What in the ever-loving love of fuck?” I said to no one in particular since I was alone on my bus. “Who in the fuck—?” Nope. Didn’t need to finish that sentence. I knew exactly who the hell had done this.
This was the first tour with Courting Chaos where I got my own bus. The one with Kissing Cinder had me on the bus with a bunch of roadies, which was fine. Before that, I’d bus with the guys. But this time… I got my own space. And when I’d left the bus earlier to ask Barrett to handle getting the new opening act settled, there sure as fuck had not been a damn harness system at the head of my bed.
With wrist restraints on the end.
I sure as hell never asked to have them installed, so that only left one option. And I was going to go find that option now.
When I entered the venue, I yanked the door harder than I needed to. It banged on the outside wall before bouncing back and slamming shut. The noise of the arena didn’t even hit my ears as I was laser focused on my destination.
I’d been Courting Chaos’ manager almost since they’d formed, but certainly since they’d actually started getting buzz. It didn’t make sense to most people, given that I was only a few years older than they were and had no notable experience. But I’d known I could do it, so I had. The guys were mostly twenty-four, with the exception of Booker, who was a year older. I was only twenty-seven, but I’d proven myself in this job from the start and now… Now no one questioned me being there.
Especially after handling the Eric Drinkswine debacle last year.
Finally, I arrived at their dressing room and barreled right through that door like a bull without knocking or giving a shit if they were all fucking naked.
“What the fuck?” I asked without raising my voice. I almost never raised my voice. Didn’t need to. Usually, when I spoke, people listened.
“Who pissed Dad off, guys?” Booker asked. It wasn’t him who’d been the mastermind of this. He was far too… Booker to have come up with this.
“I think it was me.” Dixon raised his hand. “But you were all a part of it, so no throwing me under the bus.”
“What the fuck?” I repeated.
Ransom let a shitty grin play on lips. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“The fucking harness system on my bus,” I told them. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Oh, we know,” Dixon said.
Barrett gasped. Which was the first moment I noticed her in the back area tapping away on her iPad. My jaw tightened and I blew out a slow breath.
“Can you tell me why you thought I needed a fucking restraint harness over my bed?”
“Oh my god,” Barrett muttered behind me. “Fucking idiots.” I wasn’t sure if the guys could hear her, but I sure had.
“We’re in Cincinnati,” Dixon said, as if that explained a damn thing.
All of the muscles in my body tightened. “More.”
“Come on, Lawson,” Cross told me. “We know Leslie comes to see you in Cincinnati. We thought you might like to spice it up.”
They weren’t totally wrong. Leslie did usually come see me when I was in driving distance of Cincinnati. She wasn’t a girlfriend. I didn’t have a girlfriend and hadn’t in a very long time. With being on the road so much, it wasn’t a good idea. But they were wrong on the idea that she was coming tonight. She’d sent a text but I declined the offer. We had to leave right after the show and I didn’t necessarily think I wanted to keep revisiting a friend with benefits situation right now.
“First, fuck all of you.” All that did was elicit a bunch of laughs from them. “Second, you won’t be seeing her. Third, I want that gone.”
“We’ve got a show to play,” Dixon told me while trying not to laugh. “No can do.”
“I hate you all.” Then I left the room to another round of rowdy laughter.
If I were being honest, it was kind of funny. But the last thing I needed was someone seeing that and for the rumors to swirl. We’d spent the last year undoing the damage Eric Drinkswine had done and we weren’t going back.
Courting Chaos was only going forward and I was going with them.
Now I had other shit to do. The harness would have to wait.
A while later, I briefly met the new band. I’d heard of them and when they’d been suggested as a replacement after the accident with Hurricane, sound-wise, I’d known they’d be a good fit. After that first meeting, I knew they’d be a good fit all around.
At first, I’d thought it was a little weird that they were a family. Like it was a gimmick. But now, I could see how close they were and the way they harassed each other reminded me of the guys. This would work. I could feel it.
I also had to bite my lip to keep from laughing as I watched their lead singer Daisy give her brothers hell. I had to bite my tongue for other reasons as well because that woman was fucking beautiful. Her bright red hair would’ve looked ridiculous on most people but on her… it fit. Made me wonder if that was her natural color.
After another quick talk with the guys, I decided to go watch Pushing Daisies do their first show. That had always been the plan. Just to make sure this was as good a match as I thought it was.
As the first song began, I couldn’t stop watching Daisy.
She was rather small, only around five-feet-three-inches or so, probably weighed a hundred and twenty-five pounds soaking wet, yet those pounds worked for her in the curve of her hips and swells of her breasts.
Shit, she was hot as fuck as she moved across the stage, ran a hand down the side of her body. I almost couldn’t concentrate on the words coming from her full lips. Watching her work her way into the hearts of the fans had all kinds of part of me stirring alive.
And that copper red hair meant she’d stand out in a crowd no matter who she was or where.
Fucking hell, the things I was thinking about doing to her and with her. She was twenty-one, for fuck’s sake. Far too young for me. But damn, watching her did something to me.
I needed to walk away. Find something else to do. Anything else to do. This much I knew. Yet here I stood watching Daisy work the crowd like a pro.
“She’s awfully hot,” Barrett said, suddenly beside me. “Beautiful, right?”
“Hadn’t thought about it,” I told her but only glanced her way quickly then went right back to watching Daisy on stage. Like a fucking creeper.
“Sure, you haven’t,” Barrett said. When I looked at her with, what I hoped was a what-the-fuck-does-that-mean face, she bit her lips together like she was the cat who’d eaten the canary. “How could you not? I’m not into women, but I noticed.”