THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER
I woke with the daylight cutting across the bed. My body pulsed in the hundred places where Theo had been. I felt hungover with him, swollen and aching, satiated and deliciously heavy.
I sat up, brushed the tousled mess of hair from my eyes and glanced around. Theo’s room was neater than I expected. The comforter on his king-sized bed was dark blue, as were the curtains. Brown furniture, beige rug.
My eyes landed on a picture on the dresser. The sleepy smile slipped from my lips.
Jonah and Theo, the big brother with his arm slung around his little brother, smiling his bright, open smile. Theo’s was more of a smirk, but I knew him now. To find Theo’s happiness, you had to look in his eyes.
I glanced at the sleeping man beside me. On his stomach, his face half-buried in a pillow. The light fell over the muscles of his back, the smooth skin tattooed along his arms and down his right shoulder blade.
Memories of other men from my past—nameless roadies and faceless musicians with inked skin, swam up at me. Men I’d used for comfort and pleasure, and then discarded.
This isn’t the same, I thought. It’s not what I came back for last night. Not why I’m here now.
My gaze went back to the photo of the brothers, then returned to Theo sleeping. I clutched the sheets to my naked body, waiting to see which feeling was going to hit me first. The one Yvonne said held the truth.
But my eyes landed on the clock radio next to Theo’s bedside and a jolt of panic tore through me.
“Teddy! My flight! Shit…”
Theo bolted upright.
“What? Your flight…” He blinked sleepily at the clock, his hair a tousled mess. “What time is your flight?”
“7:45,” I said. I glanced around frantically for my clothes. “Oh my God, that meeting. I’m going to miss that meeting…”
“Shit.” Theo threw off the bed sheets and drew on a pair of jeans, as I raced out of his room.
In the kitchen I found my clothes lay in a heap on the floor. I dressed quickly as Theo came in, grabbing for his wallet and keys.
“Is there a later flight?” he asked, helping me zip up my dress.
“Yes, but mine is the only one that’s direct. All the others have long layovers and wouldn’t get me back in Louisiana until tomorrow morning.” I stopped, staring at the digital clock on the stove. “I’m going to miss that meeting with Sony.”
“No.” Theo took my face in his hands. “We’ll make it. I’ll get you there, Kace. I swear.”
We hurried down to his truck and Theo raced us to my hotel where I had only time enough to grab my suitcase.
Then on to McCarran where I’d embark on a cross-country Flight of Shame in a wrinkled dress, with Theo all over me.
No shower. No time to wash my face. It seemed to like no time at all from waking in his bed to my hurried departure.
On the drive to McCarran, Theo’s eyes were intent on the road, driving fast as he dared with cool precision, weaving expertly in and out of the lean Sunday morning traffic.
He glanced at me sideways, then did a double-take, his brows coming together.
Without taking his eyes off the road, he reached over to touch my lower lip.
I felt the little sting of a cut on my bottom.
“Shit, I did that…”
“It’s not just you.” I reached over to touch the small bruises and bite marks on his neck. “We got a little carried away. God, did we ever.” I shook my head, turned to watch the road race by beneath us. “We haven’t talked. We haven’t figured out… anything .”
Theo kept silent, his eyes on the road and dropping now and then to glance at the clock, racing the minutes.
I bit my lip. “What are we doing? Is it commiseration? Comfort? No one gets it but us…No one understands what we went through…Is that it?”
Theo’s jaw muscles clenched.
“Or was it just an insane sexual attraction we seem to have? Just sex—”
“It wasn’t just sex,” Theo said, his eyes hard. “What Oscar said was bullshit. I’m not like that. I haven’t been with anyone since…” He bit off his words.
“Since when?”
“Since Great Basin.”
My head shot up. “Wait… Great Basin?”
He nodded.
I stared. “When? The time that we all went…?”
“Yes.”
“You were with Holly…” Memories flooded back. “No, you broke up with Holly. Right in the middle of the trip.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Teddy…” I gave my head a little shake. “And that was the last time you were with another woman?”
“I didn’t sleep with Holly in Great Basin. The night before, maybe, but not while we were up there.”
My heart was thudding in my ears. “Why not?”
“Because of you,” Theo said. “You sang, Kacey. And that was it.”
“That was it…” I sank back in my seat. “Why…why didn’t you tell me?”
He glanced at me sideways. “Tell you when? When you were with my brother?”
“ No,” I shook my head. “After. Any time after…”
“I couldn’t. I can’t. It’s not up to me.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He started to answer but we’d arrived at McCarran. There was no time for Theo to park. He screeched his truck into the departing flights drop off and jogged around to my side to help me with my luggage.
On the sidewalk, he pulled me into the strong circle of his arms.
“What do we do? What happens next?” I said into his chest.
“You get on that plane. You take the next step. Sign a contract, make a shit-ton of money.”
“You know that’s not what I’m asking.”
He sighed, shook his head. “You have to get on that plane and make that meeting, Kace. You have to. I can’t let you lose this opportunity.”
“What about us? You and me?”
You and me. Kacey and Theo.
I swallowed hard. A heavy swamp of emotion suddenly welled in my chest at those words; a deep warmth that spread out from my heart and a million times more potent than the physical pleasure Theo and I had created.
“Please, Kace.” Theo said. “You have five minutes.” He pulled me to him in a swift, strong embrace. “Get back safe, and call me tomorrow after your meeting. Let me know how it went.”
“Then what?”
“Then we’ll go from there.”
Go where? I wanted to ask. He was in Vegas, I was in New Orleans, and in between us lay not just fifteen hundred miles, but the judgment of our friends and family who didn’t want to see Theo and Kacey, but Kacey and Jonah.
Theo pulled away to kiss my mouth—a soft, deep kiss—and then let me go, and the truth I’d been waiting to feel finally rose from the quagmire of emotions.
I’m tired of saying goodbye.