Chapter 35
Tai
The flight to Vienna is only an hour and a half.
We barely have an opportunity to settle into our seats before we’re rushing off to a new hotel.
This time, Connor doesn’t even entertain the idea of staying with Bruce and Aaron, and brings his luggage straight into my room.
Aaron still won’t meet my eyes, and he’s keeping his distance from Connor.
I should probably apologize at some point, but for now I’m enjoying our privacy.
Our schedule only gives us today off, so we stay near the hotel.
We make the best of it, enjoying the sunshine as we stroll through the bustling urban streets.
The group splits in two. Dante and Theo join me and Connor, but since Eric and Dmitri are the more recognizable faces of the band, Connor insists on both Bruce and Aaron joining them.
Concert preparations take up the bulk of the next day.
It leads to another incredible show, pumping energy back into the group as we move to our next stop.
It’s sad to leave Vienna after being here for barely forty-eight hours, and I watch the blur of buildings beneath us as we take off.
Up here in the sky, the pointed gothic spikes of cathedrals reach for the clouds, and monolithic castle walls look as small as twigs.
Blue skies and unusually high temperatures await us in Hamburg.
The moment we step into the sun, sweat forms on my back and tickles down my spine.
Eric grumbles and tugs his shirt away from his damp skin, while Theo is more concerned about his eyeliner running.
Everyone is on edge after the tight schedule we’ve been keeping, but one blast of cold air from the van and everyone shuts up.
Nobody speaks much on the drive, and once we’re at the hotel, we tuck into our rooms to get settled. I flop onto the bed, starfishing in the center as I stretch out my back.
The mattress dips as Connor sits beside me and rakes his fingernails through my hair. “Are you doing okay?”
The scratch against my scalp makes me close my eyes with a deep sigh.
“I’m exhausted, but yeah, I’m alright. We knew it would be intense when we agreed to do this, but the reality hits different when you’re living it.
Jumping from place to place is exhausting, but the alternative is spending more time at each stop.
Then we’re looking at months away from home, and a small fortune in lodging. ”
“Which do you prefer—this, or touring on a bus?”
I grin at the memories of piling onto a bus with the guys. “In most ways, this is still less stressful, although those cramped quarters are the reason we’re all so close.”
“You and Dmitri seem to butt heads more than the others.”
I hum my agreement. “Dmitri is possessive as fuck. He has this wild idea that Eric and I had unresolved romantic feelings for each other when he came back into Eric’s life. His jealousy comes out to play every once in a while.”
“Were there unresolved feelings between you and Eric?”
I huff as I stare at the ceiling. “Fuck no. Eric was straight as a pair of carpenter jeans until Dmitri.”
“So was I until I met you.”
“Yeah, but…” I trail off, then shift onto my side, propping my head up on my hand. “Hang on, are you jealous? And before you deny it, remember our rules.”
Connor bites his lip, then sighs. “Maybe a little,” he mumbles.
I scoot closer and rest my hand on his forearm. “You know you have nothing to worry about, right?”
“I know, I do,” he insists. “It’s not like me to be jealous, but everything changed with you. My entire life was upturned the minute I laid eyes on you.”
The teasing fades from my expression as I tug him in for a kiss. “As soon as you laid eyes on me, huh? What did you think when you first saw me?”
Connor swings his knee over my hips, palms on either side of my head as he hovers above me. “I thought you were beautiful,” he admits as he peppers kisses across my face.
I scrunch my nose, pretending to be annoyed by the attention. “Now you’re just trying to suck up.”
“Me? Never.” He kisses my lips this time, then pulls back with a smile. “What about you? What did you think when you first saw me?”
“My exact thought?”
He hesitates. “Maybe I don’t want to know after all.”
I laugh, running my hands down his pecs before squeezing his biceps. “My first thought was ‘Holy fucking himbo.’”
His brows pinch as his forehead scrunches. “What’s a himbo?”
“You are.” I burst out laughing at the deadpan glare he shoots me. “A himbo is a big, muscled hottie that’s maybe a little clueless.”
His jaw drops open. “Did you just call me dumb?”
“No, no,” I rush to say as I loop my arms around his neck. “Granted, I didn’t know you at the time, so I was focused on the hottie part.”
“Uh huh,” he drawls, unconvinced. “And if you were to cast a himbo in a movie, what sort of role might it be?”
I fight my grin, but it sneaks free. “A gentle giant of a man who could probably bench-press a car but would still apologize to the furniture if he bumped into it.”
“That’s not…” He trails off, pursing his lips.
“See? Even you can’t deny it.”
He huffs as I tug him down for a kiss and slide my hands up his chest, feeling the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath my palms. He melts into me with a soft sound that vibrates against my mouth.
“If I’m a himbo,” he murmurs between kisses, “what are you?”
I smile against his lips, nipping lightly at the bottom one before soothing it with my tongue. “Oh, black cat for sure.”
He chuckles as he drops his weight, pinning me to the mattress. “Why do I feel like you’re speaking a whole new language right now?”
I thread my fingers into his hair, tugging gently to tilt his head so I can deepen the kiss.
His tongue meets mine in a lazy, heated dance, and the playful teasing from moments ago dissolves into quiet, needy sounds that escape us both.
His hands roam my sides, slipping under my shirt to trace warm paths along my skin.
I arch into him, chasing the friction and the solid comfort of his body against mine.
We lose ourselves in it for long, indulgent minutes—soft sighs, the wet sound of lips parting and meeting again, and the gentle scrape of stubble against my cheek—until he pulls back just enough to break the kiss. I chase his mouth, but he only pops a quick peck on my nose instead.
“Can I trust you to stay here for a few minutes?” he asks.
I gawk, tightening my grip on his neck. “I am literally hanging off you right now and you’re leaving me?”
“I need to take care of something.”
“You can take care of me, big boy.” I move my hands to his hips and tug him down until our bodies sit flush.
“You’re trying to distract me from my mission,” he says with a slow rock of his hips.
A pleased hum leaves me as I feel him getting hard. “Is that what I’m doing?”
He grips my chin for another kiss. “That’s exactly what you’re doing, and you know it. Letting me feel how hard you are when I’m desperate to have you inside me again? Yeah, that qualifies as distracting.”
“I’ve been inside you almost every day,” I counter.
“Your fingers, yeah,” he agrees as he presses a more forceful kiss on my lips. “But I want more.”
“What do you want?”
His breath is hot against my mouth as he nips at my lips. “I want you to fuck me. Wanna feel your cock stretch me open and your cum mark me from the inside.”
“I can get on board with that,” I breathe as my hand slides between us, palming his erection behind his shorts. My fingertips trace his waistband, curling around the elastic to dip underneath.
He catches my wrist with a smirk. “But right now, I have something to do, and you are distracting me.”
I protest as he stands, gesturing indignantly at both our obvious bulges. “Seriously?”
He adjusts himself as he slides on his shoes. “Stay here and catch up on some rest. I’ll be back soon, okay?”
“Cock tease,” I hiss as he opens the door.
He hesitates, then returns to my side to press a kiss on my lips. “Trust me?”
“You’re evil,” I mutter with a sigh as I relax back onto the bed.
“I’ll be back soon, sweetheart.” He brushes my hair back before he steps out and closes the door behind him. Exhaustion hits me hard, and as I close my eyes, my limbs grow heavy.
The next thing I know, Connor is kissing me awake.
His lips brush softly against my forehead, then my temple, then the corner of my mouth. I blink at his smiling face a few times, still half-lost in the warmth of sleep. He’s already dressed in a simple white t-shirt and those ridiculous pink flamingo trunks that somehow look perfect on him.
“Get dressed,” he murmurs as he nuzzles my cheek. “I have a surprise for you.”
“I am dressed,” I mumble, sitting up slowly and rubbing my eyes. He shakes his head with a quiet laugh and rummages through my bag, pulling out a pair of my swim shorts that had been buried at the bottom.
“Put these on.”
“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?” I ask, still blinking sleep from my eyes as I reach for him instead of the shorts, tugging him closer for a proper post-nap kiss.
He indulges me for a moment then pulls back. “Prepare to be abducted, because this is a kidnapping.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to announce when you kidnap someone,” I point out, fighting a smile as I take the shorts from him. “Or give them time to plan. Although asking someone politely tracks for you.”
“What is the proper way to kidnap someone?”
“I dunno, something a little more gruff? Like, ‘Excuse me, kind sir, might I ask you to come with me so I may forcefully pillage your maidenhood?’”
“Maidenhood,” he snorts as he chucks the swimming trunks at me. “Put those on, you brat.”
I pull on a shirt and slide my feet into my sandals, and he leads me through the hallway and into the elevator. When we reach the lobby, he guides me through a different corridor. There’s a door at the end, blocked by a sign that reads Closed for Private Event.