Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
LOXLEY
Somehow, we made it out of the shower and into the kitchen, scavenging for food like two half-starved animals.
The air between us was light, tinged with a glow that hadn’t been there before.
We settled on peanut butter sandwiches. I offered to make them while Miles disappeared to secure the gun he’d tossed onto the coffee table in the heat of the moment.
When he returned, his shoulders relaxed, though a faint furrow remained on his brow. He sighed as he joined me at the small table, shaking his head. “I’m never that reckless with my weapon.”
I smirked, licking peanut butter off my thumb. “I guess that’s my fault?”
“Most of the trouble in the past week has been your fault, Lox.” He winked, then took a bite of his sandwich. His eyes widened like a kid tasting something magical. “Holy shit, this is good.”
I laughed, the sound bubbling out of me. “It’s literally just bread and peanut butter. Same thing you made yesterday for our picnic.” I took a slow bite, savoring the simplicity of it. “But I’ll admit, after two orgasms and a warm shower, this might be the best sandwich I’ve ever had.”
We fell into a comfortable silence. We stole glances at each other between bites, sharing goofy smiles like teenagers with a crush. My cheeks ached from grinning so much, but I couldn’t stop. Miles looked exhausted, though as his head leaned back slightly, his eyes hooded but still locked on me.
When he finished, I grabbed his empty plate and tossed it into the sink. The clink of ceramic against metal echoed softly in the quiet room. As I walked back to him, I realized that if we hadn’t put clothes on, I would have climbed onto his lap and begged him to take me again, exhaustion be damned.
Instead, I reached for his hand. “Come on.”
He let me pull him to his feet, his larger hand enveloping mine. I led him toward the darkened hall, flipping off lights as we went. I also used his little trick, murmuring a command to Alexa, and the main light in the house obeyed, plunging us into near darkness.
When we reached his bedroom door, I stopped, suddenly shy. It felt like I was dropping him off after a date. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek, then his lips, soft and fleeting. “Goodnight.”
I turned to leave, but before I could take a single step, his arms wrapped around my waist. In one effortless motion, he lifted me off the ground.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To the rat room?” I laughed, confused but amused.
His brow furrowed, and his lips twitched as if he were holding back a grin. “Did you seriously just drop me off at my door like, ‘Thank you for the fine fuck, my dear sir, but I must be on my way’?”
I snorted, my laugh echoing down the hall. “I’m not gonna be the reason you don’t sleep again tonight.”
“The fuck you are,” he chuckled, carrying me into his room and tossing me onto his bed. The mattress bounced beneath me, and before I could protest, he climbed in after me, pulling the blankets over both of us, wrapping me in his warmth.
His voice softened, a low murmur against my hair. “I don’t know how much time you’re gonna give me, Lox. Let me enjoy it while I can.”
My breath caught. For a moment, I wondered if I was just fulfilling some fantasy for him—as Loxley Adams, the persona the world knew. But then I remembered the way he’d called me Ms. Anderson while he was inside me.
At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it, but now, I was thankful. Because maybe, just maybe, that meant he saw the real me. The girl from South Carolina who loved to sing, not just the girl the cameras adored. The thought settled deep in my chest, warm and terrifying all at once.
“My brother died when I was fifteen,” I whispered, the confession slipping out before I could stop it. “He was only fourteen. A freshman in high school.”
Miles stilled beneath me, his body tensed as he absorbed my words. His hand paused mid-stroke along my arm, his breath catching for just a second before resuming, steady and grounding.
I wasn’t sure why I said it. Maybe because, tangled up with him in the dark, I felt safe enough to let someone in.
My brother was part of who I was before I was famous, and after all the things I had been thinking about, I just wanted him to know something about the girl I was that no one else knew.
“Tell me more,” he whispered, his voice gentle, coaxing me to tell my story.
I smiled faintly, the memory bittersweet. “He used to ask me to sing to him. He’d tell me I was going to be a star one day and asked if he could be my bodyguard. He didn’t want me to leave our small town alone. He said the world was too big for me to face alone.”
Miles’ fingers resumed their soothing strokes along my arm, his touch grounding me as I sighed deeply at the memory.
My brother and I never wanted to leave our mother, but we didn’t want to be stuck in the same small existence that she had lived from the moment my father left.
We wanted out, we wanted more, and I hated that he never got to grow up and become something on his own.
“It’s not online, or in articles,” I added, my voice barely above a whisper.
“No one knows I even had a brother. No one cares. But I don’t think there is a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.
I didn’t mean to make this moment between us so weird, but for some reason, I wanted you to know he existed.
I wanted you to know something normal about me. ”
Miles surprised me then, his hand sliding up to gently pull at my hair, angling my head to face him.
His eyes met mine, filled with something I couldn’t quite name but felt down to my bones.
“This isn’t weird, Lox. I want to know everything about you.
Just like I told you about my parents. Tell me the rest. Tell me what happened to him. ”
I nodded, giving him a tight smile, then rested my head back down on his chest. “It was a car accident. A distracted driver t-boned him and my mama on the passenger side. Mama was barely scratched, but he died on the way to the hospital. Mama was never the same. Not that I blame her, I don’t think I was ever the same either.
I can’t even remember where they were going, but I remember the sheriff showing up at the house and telling me he needed to take me to the hospital to be with my mama.
I was supposed to be doing my homework, but I was writing a song. ”
“Is it one I’d recognize?” he asked softly.
“Nah,” I scoffed a laugh. “I’ve never gotten to release my own music. They let me sing one every now and then in a show, but I have a strict list of genre-approved songs for the two albums I’ve released.”
“I want to hear all the songs you’ve ever written.”
“It’s not as many as you’d think. After I lost my brother, I stopped writing for a long time.
I stopped singing, too. Then one day Mama came into my room with a few thousand dollars in a little envelope.
She told me Mr. Harris from down the road was headed to Nashville and agreed to give me a ride. She told me to go chase my dreams.”
“How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
I heard his sharp intake of breath, the shock evident. “Holy shit, Lox. You’ve been on your own since then?”
“Not really,” I laughed softly. “I walked right into the record label I’m with now and sang until someone threatened to kick me out.
Sam walked in before I gave up, and he took me upstairs to the executives.
They listened to me for a minute, had a meeting behind my back, then told me they’d sign me.
I was stupid enough to think I’d have it made, and in a way, I did.
I was almost seventeen, had my own driver, a new condo, and a cushy bank account.
It happened so fast. I wish I could go back, be smarter. ”
“You were so young and on your own, they probably figured they could puppeteer you, mold you to be anything they wanted,” Miles added, hitting the nail on the head.
“Bingo,” I poked at his chest. “It hasn’t been all bad. I’ve been lucky, in a way. They’ve controlled my career, but they’ve never done anything to me that would harm me.”
Miles grabbed my wrists, his fingers brushing over the faint bruises Sam left before I ran. He didn’t have to say a word before I shrugged and sighed.
“Yeah, but I meant in ways some young women are treated in this business.”
I could feel him relax a little underneath me, which made me realize he had been thinking it but didn’t want to ask. Knowing I’d never been sexually assaulted, or made to do anything of that nature, settled what I guess was idle rage inside him.
“I still don’t like anyone controlling you, Lox.”
“I’m free for now, and when I go back, I’m gonna be stronger and ready to fight back. Thanks to you.”
“You didn’t even know me when you made that decision.”
That wasn’t entirely true. I ran before I knew him, but being around him, feeling cared for and safe, it empowered me in a way he’d probably never realize.
But it didn’t feel like that was something I needed to say out loud, so I stayed quiet and let his fingers relax me as they rubbed up and down my arm.
For a while, both of us were silent, soaking in everything that had happened and changed in the past few hours. None of it I would ever regret, and I hoped Miles wouldn’t either.
When the motions on my arm stopped, I assumed Miles had finally fallen asleep, so I stayed still and closed my own eyes. But then I heard his deep, tired voice say my name.
“Lox?”
“Yeah?”
“You never told me your brother’s name.”
I smiled and looked up at him, resting my chin on my hand. “His name was Adam.”