73. Chapter 73
Jase would remember Lake Havasu as the place where he lost his head.
He was not a jealous man. To be jealous, a person needed to give a fuck, and Jase gave famously few fucks in his lifetime.
Until Declan.
Until Lindsey, idiot.
He’d been keeping an eye out for Declan, hoping to steer clear of the dickhead Lindsey had been texting all day.
He figured they’d stay for a couple of songs and Jase would convince her to go back to the hotel with him.
To do what, exactly, he wasn’t sure. He knew what he wanted to do.
Was very aware of the erection tucked into his waistband to keep it from jamming her in the back.
As much as his erection ached to bend her over in that scrap of a skirt, he also wanted his share of the six million bucks at risk if he buried his dick between her ass cheeks.
He was coming back from fetching a round of drinks when an Alice Cooper classic narrated his own destruction.
During a damn good rendition of the classic “Poison,” Jase wove his way through the swarm of goths, two beers in his hands, to find his woman getting felt up by the English prick looking to plant his foreign flag.
Except she wasn’t Jase’s woman, and it was surprisingly easy to forget. He’d gotten so cockeyed by the outfit he wanted to dismantle he forgot he wasn’t the one she’d insisted they spend the night in Lake Havasu City to meet.
She wore the leather for him, not me.
He would’ve left Lindsey at the concert to salvage his pride if a tiny blonde with a rose tattoo on her lower back hadn’t fallen into his lap.
Hers was another skirt, a low-cut shirt, a tongue ring flicked on his ear when she told Jase her name was Kelly—everything he wanted spotting Lindsey in Billy’s clothes across the lobby and mistaking her for someone he could have.
Everything he needed now that the paws on her skin belonged to someone else.
He offered the blonde the drink he bought for Lindsey, and she thanked him by grinding her tiny frame along the front of his body.
It didn’t take long for Lindsey to notice Jase was not standing idly by while Declan’s arms snaked around her stomach from behind.
It was almost funny how fast her expression changed.
What was that look? Surprise he’d found someone else so quickly?
Feeling’s mutual, babe.
Jase set his hands on the blonde’s waist and welcomed her into his chest. He didn’t think he’d have to pay for a tattoo tour this time, outside of a few drinks.
Sometimes it really was this easy. With a sideways glance at Lindsey, Jase dipped his face into hair smelling of cigarettes and day-old shampoo and braced himself for the inevitable retaliation.
Eyes smoldering with damage she intended to inflict, Lindsey swept her hair over her opposite shoulder, giving Jase a clear shot of Declan’s mouth sucking down her neck.
Okay, Sundress. You want a show? I’ll give you a fucking show.
Jase spun his partner to face him and kissed her. It was too far, but it was the best—or the worst—he could do. When he came away, Lindsey was gone, and Declan was sipping his beer, thumb up his ass, oblivious to Jase only a few feet away with two fists dying to pound the kid into minced meat.
“Son of a bitch,” he hissed, swiveling to find her.
Catching snatches of her weaving through the throngs of metalheads and punk kids thrashing to a new song with a heavier beat, Jase ditched the blonde to hunt down the black leather skirt he couldn’t get out of his head and definitely could not let get away.
He caught up with Lindsey in front of the porta-johns and took her by the arm.
“We need to talk,” Jase said. Four words he’d never spoken to a woman.
He hauled her behind the bank of toilets. It was quieter, the spastic guitar riff less jarring. Lindsey ripped her arm from his grip.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.
“I’m tired of watching you get felt up by some guy you don’t even know, that’s what.”
“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed.
“Somebody’s gotta watch your ass. What are you thinking, Lindsey?”
“Me? You’re one to talk. Do you even know her name?”
He couldn’t recall the blonde’s name at that exact moment. Lindsey didn’t need to know that.
“Christ, I just don’t get it. I’m doing everything you asked,” Jase said. “What more do you want from me?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I do know what you don’t want from me.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I heard you and Graham talking tonight, okay? I won’t hold you back. Go sleep with her, or whatever. You’re off the hook.”
The conversation was still fresh in Jase’s mind. She’s too good for you, man still ringing in his ears with the squealing guitar onstage. He didn’t know why it mattered to Lindsey.
“Off the hook from what? Just what exactly did you think this was?”
“This?” She waved her hand between them. “Nothing.”
“I came here with you tonight, and I’m gone for five minutes, and some asshole already has his hands all over you. What am I supposed to do?”
“You didn’t waste any time moving on.”
“Moving on from what? You made it clear I’m not supposed to touch you. Ever. You can get drunk and kiss me, but I’d better watch my ass or you’ll leave, and I’ll lose—”
“You’ll lose what?” she asked.
“I’ll lose my goddamn mind, that’s what,” he finished. “If you think I came here to help you get laid…”
“I didn’t. I’m not—”
“Well, that’s what dickhead thought. I’ve played along until now because I like you, but I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” Jase shook his head. “I’ve got to wonder what an idiot I am.”
“Why are you an idiot?”
For wanting the wrong woman. For touching her.
For not touching her. For standing by while some other asshole touched her.
For wanting to weave his fingers through the ties of her shirt, drag her against his chest, and plant a kiss on her mouth that made it clear to every dick twitching when she walked by that Lindsey was off limits as long as Jase was around.
For saying the wrong thing every fucking time.
“I mean, you’re Graham’s ex-girlfriend, for Christ’s sake.”
The cheap shot snuffed the fire from her eyes. Jase watched her shrink and her chest stop heaving until it no longer stretched the ties that barely contained her breasts.
“I guess I’m the idiot then, huh?” she said.
He opened his mouth to speak but his boot was so firmly planted between his teeth he nearly choked on the laces.
Over chimed again. That’s what this felt like, whatever this was. The word sent panic alarms through his head.
“I’ll find my own way back to the hotel,” she said when he didn’t say any of the half dozen things that might’ve made a difference. “Goodbye, Jase.”
This time he didn’t chase her. From behind the porta-johns, Jase watched Lindsey’s white skin and black leather until they were swallowed up by the crowd, the machines in his head signaling another kind of death.
Beep. Beep. Beeeeeep.