16. Jez
CHAPTER 16
Jez
I spend the late morning showering and pacing my beautiful penthouse suite. Caylee had said this would be the nicest room on the tour and to make the most of it, but it’s not like I’ll have energy to soak in the Jacuzzi for hours afterwards, or use the gym, although I hear they have a climbing wall and Viv and I used to climb a bit together before she became pregnant.
Why does it feel like I’ve been without her for a year instead of just a month? I saw her here and there before the tour, but I severely underestimated how lonely I would feel once tour started.
We lived together until she moved in with her pack. And although I still have the same flat and she’s not far down the road, a hole opened in my life when she found the family she’d been wishing for.
You’ll always be my family, too, Jez. Forever, she’d assured me. I just can’t have pups with you, she’d laughed.
Life changes, and that’s to be expected. Somehow, I didn’t.
“Hey, can I come get you in five?” Caylee says when I pick up her call, which interrupts my very busy morning of wearing a track in the plush carpet.
“Soundcheck’s at 2:30 though,” I say. I know because I’ve taken to examining each itinerary a dozen times and committing it to memory after the incident at the rehearsal space.
The electric kettle announces it’s boiled so I head to the kitchen area and pour myself a big mug of hot lemon water, then blow on it.
“Ash and Jay want you there a bit early for some meet and greet stuff. There are few VIPs visiting Fable and Jay insisted they say hello to you as well.”
Grand. That sounds like the time my dad forced the neighbor’s son to take me out on a date when I was seventeen because his parents owed Dad a favor.
“Ah, okay. No worries, see you shortly!” I say.
Shit.
I race around, dumping my mug of lemon water into my travel mug and double-check the contents of my duffel for the evening: makeup, hair products, deodorant, toothbrush and paste, and my vocal and med kit. Honey tea, check. Nebulizer, check. Lozenges, check. Vocal straw, check. Teddy bear my mum gave me when I performed in my first talent show at age 8, check.
I throw the bag over my shoulder, take my clothes in the wardrobe bag from the closet, and stand at the door like a horse guard at Buckingham Palace. Caylee knocks exactly five minutes after hanging up and she and a dude with a ginger beard, who I assume is security, lead me to the lift.
The same exact lift.
I watch their faces but Caylee seems oblivious, making small talk about some of the celebs said to be attending tonight, and the security guard pipes up when she mentions a big TV star he’s a fan of.
I just stand there sniffing the air, and all I can smell is Thomas’s and my sex scent. We were here. We might as well have plastered the walls with our cum.
Thankfully, Caylee and this dude are both Betas for sure. But the guilt is written on my face, and the inability to look Thomas in the eye when the others are around is undeniable. I felt safe with him, but now it feels like some parallel realm we traveled to that we can’t admit exists in front of anyone else, for fear of being locked up.
I hadn’t expected to get through my heat with a member of Fable, of all people on this earth.
I didn’t even fire up my video game for my usual distraction. I’d laid in our sex sheets for an hour before peeling myself off and taking a shower. I haven’t felt so relaxed, so calm, or so satisfied in—well. Maybe forever.
Thomas was so attentive, so ready to serve. I have zero regrets, despite who he is. And I know when the heat next rears its head, it’s Thomas I’m going to look for.
And pray he’s alone.