“Keep it down. Nat has a migraine.”
“Is she okay?” I demanded, glancing down the hall toward the roosts. I’d only ever seen her with a migraine once in the entire time I’d known her and she had been in so much pain, vomiting all over the place and basically blind in one eye. I’d wanted to take care of her then, but she’d refused to let me close.
“She took her meds and she’s sleeping now. Just keep it down. She needs the rest.”
Leaving everyone in the living room, I went back to the sleeping area and straight to her roost. Pulling back the curtains, my heart nearly stopped when I saw her curled up on the bed with that stupid little tiger I’d given her years ago. She still slept with it? I knew that she had in the past, but had figured she had tossed that little stuffed animal out when our relationship had gone to hell.
Shaking my head, I let my eyes travel up to her face where a washcloth was lying over her eyes. Her skin was paler than it had been earlier and I clenched my hands into fists to keep from reaching out and skimming my fingers over her cheek. I didn’t to wake her in case she was still in pain.
My eyes drifted higher, landing on her short pixie-style haircut. I had to admit that the haircut suited her, and I liked that it made her look a little older. I’d run my hands through it earlier, when I’d had her in my arms and been balls deep inside of her tight little body. It was still just as silky, still just as beautiful. Sure, I would mourn the loss of all that long, glorious hair, but I’d rather mourn it than not have her.
I stood there for a long while, just drinking in the sight of her. Damn, but she was so beautiful. I’d been a lucky fucker when I’d been able to call this girl mine. Not just because of her beauty, either. She was an amazing chick. Hardworking, determined, feisty, kindhearted, and she didn’t take shit from anyone. I’d fought my attraction for years until I just hadn’t been able to contain my feelings anymore. Now, I might not ever get the chance to really call her my own again.
Eventually I felt the bus start to move and with a reluctant sigh closed the curtains to her roost and climbed into my own across from hers. It was a long time before I fell asleep.
The bus bouncing over a pothole woke me. Slowly I blinked my eyes open and reached for my cellphone that was beside my pillow, which showed that it was nearly two in the afternoon. With the heel of my hand I rubbed the rest of the sleep from my eyes and opened the curtain of my roost.
From the bathroom I could hear the shower turning off. I quickly grabbed a pair of boxers and some jeans from my case and stepped into them before I had company just in case it was Marissa. I didn’t want to die at the hands of Liam—or worse, Wroth—if Marissa happened to see my dick swinging free.
I was zipping up my jeans when the bathroom door opened and Wroth walked out. I wasn’t even sure if he saw me as he headed through the sleeping area and down the hall. There weren’t many people I would ever admit to being scared of, but Wroth was number two on the list of people I wouldn’t willingly fuck with. Emmie was number one. Call me a pussy all you want, but that little redhead terrified me.
Once Wroth had shut the door behind him, I moved to Natalie’s roost. I hoped she was still asleep, so maybe I could climb into bed with her and just hold her for a little while. When I pulled the curtain back, though, her bed was empty. The covers had been straightened and her little stuffed tiger was resting on her pillow.
My heart clenched at the sight of that little stuffed animal. I’d bought it and given it to her on a dick move on the first tour she’d ever gone on with OtherWorld. Even then I’d struggled with my attraction and feelings for her. I’d hoped that by continuing to remind myself that she was too young that it would help curb my overpowering attraction. Giving her the stuffed tiger had been one of a thousand insults I’d tried to throw at her.
And she’d just rolled her eyes at me and slept with the damn thing every night during that torturous tour. Every tour afterwards I’d found that little tiger in her roost. Even last spring when we’d been sharing a roost almost every night, she’d slept with it on our bed. That it was here now had to mean that she still cared about me.
Right?
Not bothering to grab a shirt, I left the sleeping area. I didn’t bother to close the door behind me as I walked down the hall. When I reached the living room my eyes went straight to Natalie sitting on the couch with her legs tucked under that long-ass sweatshirt that she always wore when she wasn’t feeling well. Normally it was what she wore when she was on her period, when she said she was feeling fat and ugly.
Crazy chick. She could gain a hundred pounds and suddenly sprout warts and moles all over that elfin face and I would still think she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Someone shifted on the couch beside her and my eyes zeroed in on the person sitting so close to her. I blinked back the red trying to cloud my vision. “What the fuck is Tomlinson doing here?” I barked. I turned my glare on Natalie. “Did he sleep here?”
Say no, Nat. I silently begged her. Say no.
“I slept here,” Rhett spoke up when Natalie just sat there frowning at me. I felt my blood pressure skyrocket at his words. My eyes snapped back to him before I could read the expression on Natalie’s face. I was going to kill him. They would have to scrape his body from the highway when I was finished with him— “Marissa asked me to.”
Oh. Well, fuck. The red haze vanished from my eyes just in time to see Wroth’s reaction to the other man’s confession.
“You’re fucking kidding me. Right?” Wroth spoke so loudly he might as well have bellowed. I saw him start to shake as he took a step toward the couch, but I wasn’t worried for Marissa. Wroth would have thrown himself in front of a speeding eighteen-wheeler before he harmed a hair on her head. As for what he might do to Rhett? I’d offer him some assistance if he wanted to kill that fucker. “Did he sleep with you last night, Rissa?”
“He slept in my bed last night…” She bit her lip, something she was starting to make a bad habit of doing. Sure it was sexy, but she was starting to turn into that damn chick off those fucking vampire movies Natalie had forced me to watch over and over again. “…but sleeping was all that happened if you really must know.”
“Oh, I really must know.” Wroth did bellow that time and I grimaced as the loud, scary-ass voice hurt my ears. He moved so quickly that I didn’t have time to move before he was in front of the three people sitting on the couch. I started to take a step forward, intending to grab Natalie and get her out of harm’s way but Linc was already grabbing hold of her and pulling her out of the way. I let out a relieved breath, knowing I wouldn’t have gotten to her in time if Wroth suddenly turned rage monster and killed the rocker with his bare hands.