Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
HAZEL
There's a small table set up backstage with a box of tissues and a bottle of water. A note on the table reads:
Hazel- Enjoy the show. Here are some tissues for when you are overwhelmed with awe at our godlike performance and can’t hold back the tears.
XOXO, Xan and Tobias
These assholes are irritatingly charming. I make eye contact with Tobias, who’s the last to go on stage tonight just as he walks out. He blows me a kiss and winks as the crowd cheers when the spotlight hits Stone.
Jade and Darren join me as the band plays the first song of their set. She picks up the note and scoffs.
“Arrogant little fucks.”
“Are you really going to cry?” Darren asks, sounding uncomfortable.
I turn to him with tears already streaming down my cheeks. “Yes.”
His face scrunches, and he reaches for a tissue, holding it in front of me until I take it. “I, uh, need to make a few calls to the label real quick.”
Jade giggles deviously as he hauls ass away from us.
“I’ve never seen him run from anything that quickly.
I should have tried tears a long time ago.
” She wraps her arm around my waist. “Let it out. You crying like this is just a sign of deep empathy. Concerts have so much energy, I’m sure you’re just overwhelmed by feeling it all. ”
I’ve always wondered about that. If it’s just me picking up on the energy around me and struggling to work through it.
I’ve never considered myself to be an empath before, and I still don’t think I am.
Emotions and I have too much history for me to really let myself think I’m somehow so deeply connected to those and everything around me.
Stone turns his body from the mic toward me, and his eyes do a full sweep of me, lingering on the tears streaming down my cheeks.
A smile blooms across his face, and he winks at me before turning back to the crowd.
After about twenty minutes, I finally get tears wrangled back into my eyes and can settle in to watching the guys up close.
Tobias is a mystery to me. How he can flail around behind his drum set with so much energy and life while not having eaten for the past twelve hours is bananas. His blond hair, soaked with sweat, falls over his brow as he concentrates on one of the many solos he has throughout the show.
I’m so enthralled watching him that I don’t notice Stone until he’s palming my face and turning my attention to him. His eyes are alight with the high of performing but edged by sharp possession. He’s covered in sweat but doesn’t let that stop him from lowering his mouth to mine.
The kiss is fast and dirty. He slides his tongue past my startled lips and laps at my mouth like a man dying of thirst. I moan at the taste of him, mint and the salt of his skin.
But before we totally lose ourselves to each other, he’s pulled away from me by Darren who shoves him back on stage with an annoyed huff.
Stone looks out at the crowd with kiss swollen lips and winks. Feminine cheers erupt when he puts both hands over his mouth and blows a kiss to me. He turns and struts back to his mic, whipping his guitar back to the front of his body.
“Sorry about that. My girl was watching Tobias play his solo, and I had to go remind her who she belongs to.” He looks at me and gives a shit-eating grin. “Me.”
“Oh my god,” Jade whispers.
“Holy shit.” I turn to her with wide eyes. “Did he really just do that?”
“He did.” Darren smirks. “That’ll be making the rounds online. Hopefully it gets enough traction that some of the morning news programs pick it up. That was money.”
“Who cares about money?” Jade scoffs, turning to me. “Stone just laid claim to you on stage in front of nearly seventy thousand people. This is a sellout crowd.”
“No one really knows it was me, though.” Surely it was just for show. We just started fucking, it’s not like we’re dating. Right?
Now’s not the time to be distracted by the what-ifs of what he just said. More than likely it was just for show. All he did was say that I was his girl, not his girlfriend. That’s something I haven’t even considered.
I’m not going to waste anymore time thinking about it. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I step away momentarily to check it. There’s a text from Greg, it’s a photo of him sitting up in bed shirtless and alone save for his laptop.
Greg: I miss you
Greg: When can I see you?
Me: When the tour is over
I black out the screen and walk back over to where Jade and Darren are standing. They’re both so focused on the band I take a moment to observe them. Jade is locked on Xander. Her eyes rarely stray from him, I’ve noticed.
Darren has always intimidated me, the way he walks around fully sure of himself and his place in every room.
He’s wearing his usual suit, forgoing a tie and leaving his shirt unbuttoned at the top, showing the slightest hint of a muscled chest. Stone mentioned that he works out daily with the guys, following the same fitness regimen.
He even occasionally joins Stone for Pilates, but he bitches the whole time.
His attention seems to be focused on Tobias, mostly. Occasionally he’ll glance at the front of the stage where Xander and Stone stand in front of mics, each playing their instruments with surgical precision. But then he’ll direct his gaze right back to Tobias.
I wonder if there’s some drama happening within the band or something.
Obviously Stone’s been preoccupied with me.
But from what I understand the label wants him writing music, and I know he’s nearly filled his notebook full of ideas.
Hell, he didn’t even come to bed until the sun was rising this morning.
I told Anya that he didn’t get any sleep when she showed up with her transportable reformer this morning.
She looked at the bedroom door, worry on her face.
After explaining that he was just up all night writing, her shoulders loosened, and then she looked at me and said I’d do the workout in his place.
She didn’t seem interested in taking no for an answer, so I went with it.
Plus, I haven’t worked out in days, it felt good to get back into it.
Jade nudges my shoulder with her own. “You look lost in thought.”
“No.” I shake my head.
“Who texted you?”
“Greg.” My voice goes flat just saying his name.
Seeing his photo did nothing for me either. Two months ago getting a text like that would have had me jumping in a taxi and heading across town to find my way into his bed. Now, there’s nothing. He must have texted me back, I felt my phone a few minutes ago, but I’ll check it later.
The band is about to play my favorite song.
I want to experience first hand right beside them as they work the crowd into a frenzy.
A pair of panties flies onto the stage, sliding right past Xander’s feet.
He smiles into the crowd. When he has a second to bend down, he does, scooping them up and hanging them off the tip of his bass.
He even gives them a little twirl which causes the crowd to scream wildly.
Jade scoffs and rolls her eyes at his antics. Her annoyance doesn’t feel like normal step sibling stuff. I want so badly to ask her about the tension between them. I don’t want to overstep, though, so I keep my mouth closed. I will for sure be sharing my observations with Stone tonight.
By the time the guys finish the show, I’m so ready to get Stone back to the hotel and all to myself.
I want to gush about how amazing it was to be close to them while they played.
I don’t even care if he gloats about being right.
From now on I’ll be right offstage, watching him kill it in his element.
“I have a surprise for you,” Stone says quietly as he opens the door to the suite.
My stomach flutters as I follow him into the room. I don’t know what lies in store for me. Knowing him it could be hundreds of roses or a private film screening of the movie I was telling him I wanted to see earlier.
He leads me to the couch where a beautifully wrapped gift lays. I let him direct me where to sit and then he hands the present to me.
The paper is a beautiful matte black with a red, velvety ribbon tied around it. It’s almost too beautiful to open. My eyes meet his as I pull the ribbon free and set it aside. I slip my finger inside the folds at the edge of the gift and delicately tear apart the paper.
“Do you open all your gifts this slow?” he asks with exasperation, kneeing bouncing.
I stop opening it all together and smile at him. “Is this gift for you or for me? Because it seems as though you’re more excited about it than I am.”
“It’s for both of us.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means open it and find out.” He groans. “You’re killing me.”
I remove the wrapping paper and find a discrete white box with red lettering of a brand I’ve never heard of. Is it lingerie? I flip open the lid, and nothing could have surprised me more than what awaits.
“Is this what I think it is?” I look up at him, shocked.
Excitement fills his expression as he nods. “It is.”
I look back down at the contents of the box. Sitting nestled in tissue paper is a strap on harness, a rather impressive looking dildo, a bottle of lube and a cleaning solution. There’s also a small vibrator off to the side.
We’ve had multiple conversations about pegging as it pertains to the couple in the book I’m writing. How I’m worried about writing something I have no experience with. I know he’s much more experienced with all this than I am, having been with not only women but also men.
The fact that he trusts me enough to let me try doing this so I understand the act a little better makes me feel—I don’t know, I can’t even find the right words for it. Is this how a man feels when a woman is willing to let him into her body? Probably not.
“What are you thinking?” he asks. “Is it too much?”
“Honestly, I’m thinking it feels like an honor to be trusted with this.”