“Are you sure I can’t do something to your hair?” Cheyenne asked.
She brushed her fingers through it, and I swatted her hand away.
“Let’s just go. Who knows what kind of debauchery they’ve gotten into already?”
“All right, Aribel.” Cheyenne stepped back and knocked into my purse.
It fell over onto the floor and spilled the contents, including the prescription birth control I had picked up earlier from the pharmacy.
Cheyenne’s eyebrows rose as she picked up the packet of pills. “Whoa. Things are serious, aren’t they?”
I snatched the prescription out of her hand and stuffed it into a drawer, out of sight. “Forget you saw that.” I quickly scooped up everything else on the floor and threw it back in my bag.
“What? It’s just the pill. I’ve been on it since I was sixteen.”
“Well, I’m not you, and I haven’t told Grant. So, forget about it.”
Cheyenne laughed. “Whatever you want, but I think he’ll be excited. Then, you won’t have to use a condom.”
I blanched.
Her laugh turned into a cackle. “Oh, my sweet, innocent Aribel.”
“Leave me alone, Cheyenne.” I stuck my finger in her face. “And don’t say a word.”
She mimed zipping her lips. Her eyes twinkled with delight. She loved taunting me about this shit. I grabbed my purse, and we left the apartment. We got into Cheyenne’s car, and she zoomed toward the League.
“Where are Gabi and Shelby anyway?” I asked.
Cheyenne shrugged. “Studying, I think. If I know them though, they’re probably ditching the library and on their way to see the guys. No one ignores an SOS.”
I sulked further into the seat. It was no wonder Grant was ignoring my calls. How many groupies was I about to walk through to get to him?
Another thought nagged at me. What would happen if they got signed and went on tour? He’d have all his vices around him all the time. I wanted to trust Grant, but everyone had limits with the amount of temptation surrounding them.
“Girl, I can see the worry all over your face. Just relax. Grant’s crazy about you. I’m sure it’s fine.”
“He hasn’t returned my messages today,” I whispered.
“Probably because he was out with the guys and didn’t hear his phone. Don’t think the worst until we find out what’s going on.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Since when did you become the sensible one?”
“As soon as you fell in love with Grant McDermott of all people.”
“Yeah. What was I thinking?” I asked.
“Best sex you ever had?”
I glared at her. “Honestly?”
“Oh, right—the only sex you’ve ever had.”
“Don’t fault me because I’m not a whore like you, Cheyenne.”
She shrugged her shoulders and smirked as she pulled into the League parking lot. “We can’t all have such high aspirations as me.”
“Oh, is that what you call it?”
“So, I like rock-star dick. I don’t see you complaining.”
“No complaints here,” I grumbled. No complaints about the sex at least. Just all the complications that came with it.
The parking lot was packed full. Cheyenne finally found a spot on the street a couple of blocks down, and we walked the short trek back to the bar. I braced myself for pandemonium before following Cheyenne through the door.
The League looked like every other night when ContraBand was in the house. Female bodies filled more than three-quarters of the room, and there was a crowd of screaming people by the stage. Cheyenne grabbed my hand as she elbowed her way through the crowd. We stopped once we reached the table where Miller, McAvoy, and Vin sat, staring up at the stage with shit-eating grins on their faces.
Where the hell was Grant if all the guys were here? My eyes traveled away from the table and up to the stage. My heart sank.
The entire time I’d been getting through the crowd, I hadn’t truly paid attention to what was going on. I knew Bank Avenue was playing. I knew the lead singer was gorgeous. But I hadn’t anticipated this.
Grant was on the stage, holding a microphone in his hand, singing with the lead singer of Bank Avenue. No, he was singing to the lead singer.
And not just any song…my song.
My hand fell onto the back of Miller’s chair as ice filled my veins. What the fuck was happening?
“Shit, Ari,” Miller cried over the music. He stood abruptly. “This is not what it looks like.”
I threw my hand up in the air. “Save it.”
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something more, but it was good for him that he realized it was a lost cause.
All I could do was stare as my boyfriend serenaded another woman with the song he had written for me. Cold fury took over, and rational thought fled my mind. The only thing that was there was Grant standing on stage in my favorite pair of his jeans and a black button-up, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His hair was perfectly tousled. His expression had the serenity that always took over when he got lost in his music.
Then, his eyes flickered open at the end of the second verse, and he stared straight ahead at the skinny bitch in an outfit much the same as I had found on the band’s website.
The chorus seemed to play over and over again. Their harmony blended together as if they had done this before.
Every time I see you. You make me feel better.
Every single day. You push away the pain.
You push away the memories.
You’re my life raft. In an endless ocean.
You saved me from drowning.
You saved me from myself.
You’re my life raft. In an endless ocean.
I waited there, paralyzed, until the end. The crowd erupted into cheers. Grant cracked a confident smile, looking out across the room at his many admirers. I knew the instant his eyes landed on me, and I could read his lips all the way across the bar.
Oh fuck.
“Oh fuck.”
Ari’s face in the crowd silenced the cheers. Even through my buzz, I wasn’t stupid enough to have wanted her to see that.
Thanks, I mouthed to Killian.
She winked at me and said something else, but I shoved the microphone in her face and jumped off the stage. The crowd was unyielding as I attempted to reach Ari.
“Fucking fuck,” I grumbled under my breath.
I nearly knocked someone down while trying to get to her.
Her icy glare should have stopped me in my tracks, but I barreled right through the protective wall she had put between us. I grabbed her around the middle and pulled her against my chest. She smelled fucking amazing.