Chapter 10 Obsession Unmasked #2
“Oh,” she says, eyes widening at the phones in our hands. “The frequencies are resonating globally. I felt them from the hallway.”
“Mom,” Zane hisses.
She smiles sweetly. “Carry on. Don’t let me interrupt fate.” Then closes the door.
I groan into my pillow.
Zane plops onto the bed and holds out his phone again, forcing me to look at the tidal wave of attention. “Listen,” he says.
The track plays. My hum. His piano.
The memory of our bodies in every rise and fall of the melody.
My entire soul goes molten and I can’t look at him. I can’t breathe. Lord above, but I can’t process any of this.
The band bursts in like a stampede.
“Sweet Ballykissangels, does anyone knock around here?”
Jude, the bassist, shouts, “brO, IS THIS THE THING SHE DID TO YOU YESTERDAY?”
Bishop, the drummer, clutches his chest. “It’s unreal. It’s intoxicating. It’s—oh my God, Ruby, this is you?”
King, the guitarist, mutters, “I knew it. I fucking knew she was a muse.”
I expect Zane to lose his shit, to roar at his bandmates to get the fuck out because I’m naked under the sheets. But he just…beams. “I know.”
I cover my face with both hands. “This can’t be happening.”
“It is,” Zane says simply.
A new wave of notifications hits.
I’m crying???? SIREN IS EVERYTHING
Whoever she is I want to thank her
Saint Sin finally sounds human
Others:
Who is this barista slut?
She’s using him for clout
She ruined Riot Saints
She needs to get out of his life. Who’s up for making that happen?
I feel the blood drain from my head as my throat tightens.
Zane sees it and his expression changes, goes darker, sharper, lethal as he reads the messages over my shoulder. “No one touches you,” he growls. “No one talks about you like that. I’ll shut this entire fandom down before I let them hurt you.”
“Zane—”
“No.” He cups my jaw, tilting my face up so I’m forced to meet his eyes. “You’re not alone anymore. Not ever.”
I start to shake my head but he drops his forehead to mine, his thumb brushing back and forth across my bottom lip.
“I’ll protect you, Ruby. I swear it,” he whispers. “From them. From the noise. From the entire fucking world if I have to.”
I swallow hard. “Zane… they’re your fans.”
“Not anymore,” he says simply. “Not if they come for you.”
Oh God. I pull back and look into his eyes. See that he means it.
Mama Draven opens the door again, sighing dreamily. “The frequencies are escalating. I knew the siren would do this.”
Zane rolls his eyes. “Not now, Mom.”
She nods solemnly. “You must bind her to your aura soon. Before the others sense the shift.”
“The others?” I squeak.
She blows me a kiss from the door. “Oh, darling. You’ll see.”
And she’s gone.
The band stares after her like she’s an apparition.
Zane?
Zane just pulls me into his chest, phone abandoned, the world shut out.
“We’re in this together,” he rasps into my hair. “And I’m never letting you go.”
Zane
Ruby collapses against me, boneless and warm, her breath soft against my throat. She’s worn out, and rightfully so. I rode her delicious pussy for hours, and she took every second of me like she was made for it.
She falls asleep fast.
I don’t.
I lie there with her draped half over me, listening to her quiet hum-snore, and my mind doesn’t slow or soften or quiet the way it does when she’s awake, when she’s looking into my eyes and chasing my demons away.
The band hasn’t shut the hell up for hours about how I’ve finally found my muse.
Bishop kept saying, “She’s it, man. The spark. The magic. She’s our holy fucking grail.”
Jude kept grinning like he’d won a bet.
King asked what took me so long.
They’re right.
All of them.
But they don’t understand the full story.
They don’t see that Ruby isn’t ready for the tidal wave that is my life. Or notice that she flinches when fans get too loud.
They were too busy celebrating and didn’t see how she looked pale when her face hit number one on the trending list. They’ve lived this life for so long and are completely oblivious to the fact that she has no idea what living in my orbit actually means.
Those are my problems to deal with.
I’ve already tightened security. Unobtrusive and discreet with carefully vetted men who blend into walls and shadows. Because no one gets close to her without me knowing.
But sure, it’s a fucking privilege to protect my woman but…security won’t be enough.
Not for someone like me and most definitely not for someone like Ruby.
Eventually she’ll rebel, call fuck it to the spin cycle of bullshit that comes with fame. And, Jesus…if she leaves…fuck, if she ever tries to run from me again…
My chest tightens until it hurts. Until I can’t breathe.
No. She won’t…can’t leave. Not if I move fast. Bind her to me in all the ways she doesn’t see coming.
I pick up my phone and open the cycle-tracking app I built for her. My pulse spikes, hard when I read the data..
Fuck…her fertile window is next week.
A perfect storm.
A perfect opening.
A perfect fate.
I’m halfway through imagining her belly round with my child, her madonna face glowing with the blessing of impending motherhood when I sense someone in the doorway.
Mama.
She steps into the dim room, eyes softening when she sees Ruby curled on my chest. Then her gaze lifts to mine, and it’s the kind of piercing and knowing that makes my insides squirm.
I might call her woo woo to hide my own unease but my mother has a spiritual intuitiveness that’s saved me many times.
I swallow now when she nods once, glides across the room to sink low beside the bed. Silver eyes I inherited from her burn into mine, steady and sure.
“The frequency lines are aligning better than I’ve ever seen them,” she whispers. “Move with them, Zane. Don’t wait.”
My breath shudders and for probably the first time, I nod without rolling my eyes or making a smart ass remark.
She presses a kiss to my forehead like she used to when I was a kid trying not to cry through a storm episode.
“I love you, Mama,” I murmur, voice breaking open in a way no one else ever hears.
“And I love the man you’re becoming,” she answers, cupping my jaw. “But hold on to her, Zane. Destiny doesn’t hand out second chances.”
She leaves as quietly as she came.
I lie there for another minute, then I slip out from beneath Ruby gently, covering her with the sheet. She murmurs in her sleep but doesn’t wake.
In the bathroom, I turn on the soft light and find her bag on the counter. I flip it open and there they are.
Her birth control pills, sitting on top.
I pick the pack up between my fingers.
Stare down at it for a long, steady moment.
And then, resolute…I smile.