Chapter 20 #2
I wrench back abruptly, breathing hard as I drop my forehead to hers. Several long seconds pass, lust and scorching replays saturating the misted air.
It’s nearly impossible to let her go, but I have to. There’s no way this can go where I want it to. Where she wants it, based on how she’s still looking at me. Still touching me.
I’m incinerating, aching for her. She has to see the torture all over my face because I feel it radiating from me.
My fears are confirmed when her lips curve in a knowing smile .
Wait…
“You did that on purpose,” I accuse in a strained voice, still hoarse with lust.
“Did what?” There’s nothing innocent in her return grin.
Now she’s seducing me?
I let out a breath and shake my head with a smile. This girl never ceases to surprise me.
“Come out when you’re ready, you vixen.”
I press a quick kiss on her forehead and escape while it’s still possible.
I try to play it cool when I return to the guys. Based on the sheer delight on their faces when they see me, there’s zero chance they’re going to go easy on me.
“That was quick,” Eli quips. “Poor girl.”
“Shut up,” I grunt. “I was just warning her you guys were here.”
“With your dick?” Eli returns, motioning toward my jeans.
“Shit.” I zip my pants and secure the button.
Sweeny bursts out laughing. Even Luke has an amused smile on his face.
“Whatever,” I mumble. “You’d understand if you saw that woman in a towel.”
Luke lifts a brow, and I cringe. “Wait. No, that’s not what I meant.”
Eli and Sweeny are now straight up cackling.
Assholes.
I fire warning glares at both of them. “If you even think about her, I’m ending both of you, got it?”
They lift their hands in mock surrender, still chuckling, and I shake my head.
“I’m ordering food,” I snap, moving toward the island .
I take as long as possible to order lunch for all of us, mostly so the conversation veers away from Callie. At any moment, she’ll walk out of that room, and I don’t want this to be any weirder for her than it already will be.
As hoped, the redirect sends Eli and Sweeny to the half bath across the room to freshen up after traveling all morning. Luke joins me at the counter.
“This look good to you?” I hand him my phone to review the takeout order before submitting it.
He scans it for a few seconds before his expression changes.
His gaze shoots to mine with alarm, then something close to anger.
I furrow my brows at his weird reaction to my lunch order. “We can change it if?—”
“Why the fuck is Orin Cantea texting you?” he hisses, shoving the screen at me.
Shit .
Orin must have messaged me while Luke was looking at the menu.
His gaze shoots to the other side of the living room to make sure we’re still alone.
“I had to fix the Callie-Chair thing,” I whisper back. “It’s fine. I’ve got it handled.”
“Nothing is fine when it comes to that predator! You’ve been fighting him off for years and you sell your soul to him now?”
I snatch my phone back with a hard look. “I said, it’s handled. I gave him some scoops in exchange for fixing the narrative about you and Callie, so what?”
“So what?! He does nothing for free and you know it.”
“He didn’t do it for free,” I fire back. “I told you, I traded information.”
“Like what?”
It’s my turn to check for spies. “I told him about Penchant.”
Even he doesn’t know about Jana, since he was already gone when that whole thing went down. Hell, his abandonment and the pressure it brought was what made it go down.
His eyes widen. “Casey…”
“What? What else was I supposed to do?”
“Let our own PR manage the situation!”
“You don’t even know what the situation is , so don’t lecture me on how to ‘manage’ it!” I retort before I can stop it.
He flinches and sinks back. Guilt creeps in for my harsh response, but I don’t have the energy or patience to fight this battle on three fronts.
After a long silence, I fear he’s going to lash out again when he moves closer. I’m surprised when he rests his hand on my shoulder. His eyes search mine, and I see the remorse and pain hiding in their depth.
“You’re right,” he says quietly. “I don’t know, and I’ve left you alone to handle the fallout of my choices for a long time. I’m sorry, Case. I’m sorry that my actions forced you into this position.”
He squeezes before dropping his arm, and I stare at him, speechless. I have no idea how to respond to the unexpected apology, but it doesn’t matter when the rest of the band makes their way back.
Their animated conversation dies when they reach us.
“Whoa. Vibe shift,” Sweeny observes. “What’s going on?”
I shoot Luke a pleading look. No one else can know about Orin. He wasn’t even supposed to know.
“Nothing,” Luke says with a quick smile. “Casey’s ordering Mexican food, but we just did that last night, so I wanted something else,” he lies.
I breathe a sigh of relief. “This place is fast and close,” I say.
“Fast and close sounds good to me,” Eli chimes in.
Of course it does. The dude can put away calories like I’ve never seen. We always joked that we should have two riders in our contracts—one for Eli and one for the rest of us .
We catch up for another twenty minutes until movement in the hall draws everyone’s attention. All gazes shoot to Callie as she emerges. My breath catches when I see why it took her so long.
Damn. She looks amazing.
The guys toss me a discreet glance of appreciation, and I whisper a prayer they’ll contain their inner asshole for the foreseeable future.
“There she is,” I say before they get a chance to screw this up.
I can tell she’s nervous as I introduce her to the band, so I lean in for a quick encouragement kiss on the cheek. It was supposed to be innocuous, but once I get a whiff of her shampoo, all kinds of inconvenient memories of what just happened in her room come racing back.
Her heated glance tells me she’s feeling it too. We’re going to have to figure this out at some point. Soon.
We exchange more small talk, until Eli turns to me with a change in expression.
“Oh hey, it’s still downstairs, but we brought some of your stuff, Case. TJ said you were looking for a few things to prepare for Friday.”
A rush of excitement shoots through me. “My gear?” I ask. I thought I was going to have to wait until Friday to do any serious production on the song.
Eli grins like he knows he just made my day.
He says they couldn’t bring all of it, but what he lists is plenty to get started.
I don’t even realize I’m bouncing like I have to piss until Luke scans me with amusement.
“Just go, Case,” he says, knowing I don’t want to wait for the porter.
That’s all the encouragement I need.