Chapter 15 #3
“Well, no, because I know I won’t be able to.
I’m too amped up. Pacey already passed out, poor thing,” she says, wincing.
I know she feels guilty about what happened, but it wasn’t her fault.
She was just standing up for Tanner, which shouldn’t make me feel itchy, but it does.
I chalk it up to a side effect of the pills.
“Not your fault, Ellie,” I repeat for the third time.
“I should probably learn to keep my mouth shut, huh?”
My tone is firm and I shake my head. “Don’t ever change.”
The elevator doors open, and she steps on. “Are you going back to the bus?”
“I was.”
“That’s lame. I thought rock stars could party all night.”
I chuckle. “You know damn well I can go all night.”
Her head tips back with a throaty laugh, but she doesn’t blush. “There’s a bar downstairs,” she points out.
“Well, let’s go.”
She leads the way, her arm linked through mine.
We drop down at the stools, the place relatively dead at this hour.
Ellie orders us a shot and a beer after I promise her I’m not taking any sleeping pills tonight.
We throw the shot back instantly. I consider this might be a bad idea—us alone, drinking—but quickly flick it away.
“So...” She trails off, taking a sip of her drink.
“So?”
“How are you feeling?”
My head rolls back and I groan. “Christ, Ellie, I wouldn’t have come if I knew this was going to be a therapy session.” Seriously, when did she become so concerned with my feelings and shit?
“I’m just being nice, asshole!” she scolds playfully. “Tours are hard. I mean, at least for me, and I’m not doing half as much as you guys. Just wondering how you’re handling it all.”
I puff out a breath. “I’m fine, but I miss my bed.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“You homesick?”
“I was. I feel better now that Liv’s here, but I’ll be sad when she leaves.” She takes another drink, and her tongue comes out, licking a missed droplet from her bottom lip. “What’s your favorite part?”
My gaze is trained on her tongue as it disappears between her lips. Damn, I miss her mouth. Warm and always eager to welcome my cock.
“Travis?”
My eyes snap up. “Huh?”
“About the tour? What’s your favorite part.”
I lift my shoulder. “I don’t know. All of it. None of it.”
She frowns, and I want to wipe it away immediately. What the fuck is wrong with me? I push my beer away. I need to stop drinking already.
“None of it? I hardly believe that. You were stoked a few months ago.”
“I’m kidding. It’s all pretty incredible.
My favorite part is getting to be on stage with my best pals.
Simple as that. Seeing people enjoy our music, watching the crowd get bigger and bigger each night.
Fuck, that’s cool.” I glance at Ellie, and she’s staring at me, her frown still intact, but her eyes are all fucking starry. “What?” I snip, a little too harshly.
A smile spreads across her face. “Nothing. I just thought for sure your favorite thing was going to be the vast amount of groupies throwing themselves at you.”
The smirk I give her is forced. “You didn’t let me finish, that was my next favorite thing.” That’s a lie. I’m sick of them already, but she doesn’t need to know that.
She laughs again. “Of course.”
We finish a couple of rounds, keeping the conversation light, but at some point, it turns again.
“You have soo many piercings,” she slurs slightly, leaning close and letting her finger trail over the gauges in my ears before tapping the gold hoop in my nose.
“Yes.” This is nothing new to her.
“I want one.” She lifts her beer to take a drink but pouts when she finds it empty. Ellie isn’t a lightweight by any means. In fact, she can hold her alcohol almost as well as me, but it’s starting to hit her. I haven’t seen her eat for a while.
She waves at the bartender, but when he looks our way, I shake my head, letting him know she doesn’t need any more. I need to get her back to her room and into bed.
“What would you get?” I ask to distract her from the fact that the bartender is not bringing her another.
Her attention swings to me, her eyes shining with delight when she says, “I’ve always wanted my nipples pierced.”
Her confession nearly knocks me off my stool. Damn, now I’m picturing it. Her perky pink buds decorated with shiny little studs. Fuck, that would be hot.
I nod, not trusting my voice to speak as my cock threatens to grow right here. Ellie types on her phone as I signal the bartender for the check and slide my credit card from my wallet.
“Look!” she gasps. “They’re open all night and only four blocks away!”
I scribble my name on the tab and push it back across the bar. “What is?”
“This tattoo and piercing shop.” She looks at me like I’m stupid for asking.
I chuckle, shaking my head and moving toward the elevator with every intention of plopping her ass back in her room. “You’re crazy.”
“I did it. I booked an appointment online for twenty minutes from now.”
I spin around. “What?”
She peers up at me, wearing a sweet smile, and lifts the phone so I can see she’s not shitting me.
“Wanna come?” she asks, fluttering her eyelashes.
I grit my teeth. She’s baiting me. She knows there’s no way in hell I’d let her do something like that alone in the middle of the night, in a random city.
But she’s tempting me again. Am I just supposed to sit there and watch her nipples harden while someone else touches them? Wait, will it be a dude?
“Lead the way,” I say, and she squeals.