Chapter 25 Elijah
TWENTY-FIVE
ELIJAH
There is nothing like being in Europe.
“The City of Love!” Amelia and Trinity squeal, straining in their seats and looking out of the small plane window.
“I remember our first time here as a couple,” Leonidas muses, cuddling into his girlfriend.
“You had to drag me away to the next tour stop.” She giggles when Leonidas bites her shoulder playfully.
I can’t help but scrunch my face at the very in-love couple sitting directly in front of me. Going on five years, they still act like they’re in the honeymoon phase. Social anxiety is afraid of them because PDA is their love language.
Unfortunately.
Lily sits quietly beside me, peeking out the window with a conflicted look on her beautiful face.
“Have you ever been to Paris?”
She turns when she realizes I’m talking to her.
She shakes her head, biting her plump bottom lip. “My parents never really had extra money to go on vacations, and neither did I.”
The organ in my chest hurts.
“Don’t judge me, okay?” she whispers, glancing at everyone to make sure I’m the only one listening. When I send her an encouraging look, she continues, “This is the first time I’m seeing Europe.”
“Why would I judge you for that?” When I squeeze her bare knee, I try to not focus on how her sundress is riding up.
“This life isn’t normal.” I gesture to the private plane.
“Before we signed with a record label, we didn’t travel anywhere either.
You should know never to worry about me judging you for anything. ”
Crossing her arms, she huffs and looks away. Oh no, I said something I shouldn’t have.
“What did I say?” I press, tapping her thigh annoyingly.
She swats my finger away without giving me her beautiful eyes, and I blow in her direction.
Groaning, she twists around and snaps, “What?”
“Why are you mad at me again?” I whine, not liking when she’s grumpy.
“Again?” she asks, dumbfounded. “I was never not mad at you.”
I shush her, and she goes cross-eyed when she looks at my finger on her lips. Like a shark, she attempts to bite it, but I pull away in time.
“The City of Love will make you fall in love with my friendship—mark my words.”
Pulling her sunglasses down from the top of her head to cover her eyes, she snorts. “Fame made you cocky.”
I seductively wiggle my eyebrows at her, which I know she’s going to despise.
I lean closer to her ear, not wanting Triple Threat or my brother and sister to overhear.
Leonidas and Trinity are still lost in each other’s eyes.
Stella is sleeping on Levi’s lap while Amelia has her head resting on his shoulder.
Rowan and Axel are in another world as they listen to music with headphones on.
Coast is clear.
“You know what else is cocky?” I gesture down to my pants with my chin.
Her glossy lips drop open. Squirming in her seat under my gaze, she pushes me away by my shoulder.
“I just barfed in my mouth, thanks to you.”
“Won’t stop me from kissing you.” My voice lowers. I see the moment she takes my flirtatious comment as a joke.
“Do that, and I’ll kick you so hard down there that you’ll never be able to have kids.”
I reach out to pinch her scowling face. Seeing her cheeks all blushy and glowy makes me want to groan. She is the definition of flawless, and it hurts my soul because she isn’t mine yet.
“But our babies would be so cute,” I whisper, leaning closer and closer, still holding her face.
Her fingers wrap around my wrist. Freeing her face, she whispers back, “Because they would take after me. You’re welcome.”
Pulling out wired earbuds from her tote bag, she relaxes in her seat once they’re in and ignores me for the rest of the flight.
“Thank you so much!” the fan in front of me gushes, grabbing her now-signed vinyl.
She rushes over to where Amelia sits and waits behind the table with a permanent marker in hand.
Before the next fan comes up, I chug the rest of my coffee, trying to beat jet lag and stay awake. We landed early this morning, checked in to the hotel we’d be staying in for two nights, and got some shut-eye before being woken up by Amelia.
Now I’m sitting, half awake, at a local vinyl shop in Paris, signing a hundred-plus records and taking pictures with our fans.
Nausea pools in the bottom of my stomach from the lack of sleep, and my fingers tremble from a mixture of anxiety and too much caffeine.
I don’t even want to know how I look in some of those pictures.
One eye might be open, the other half shut.
God help me.
The line was out the door and went around the building when we pulled up. As things are winding down now, my hand gives me no mercy by cramping up.
“Hello, Elijah.”
I jump in my seat. I didn’t hear the blonde who’s currently standing in front of me move up in line.
Placing my coffee down, I grab the vinyl she extends to me. “Hey. How’s it going?” I say while signing, trying to remain as friendly as possible when all I want to do is just lie down.
When I slide it back to her, she leans forward on the table. “Can I get a picture with you, cutie?”
Would it be rude if I said absolutely fucking not?
Yeah.
So, I just sit in place and smile, not breaking my furious gaze from her phone when she pushes her boobs right under my nose.
“Do you sign boobs? I want to get it tattooed.”
What. The. Fuck?
Pulling back, I stretch my legs out. “I don’t.”
She frowns. Her boobs practically spill out of her top when she pulls the material down further. “Please, it will only take a second.”
My bodyguard, Jonathan, takes a step closer once he sees the frustrated look on my face.
“I don’t do that, sorry.”
Jonathan places a hand on her shoulder when she starts to protest. “Ma’am, we need to keep this line moving. You need to respect Mr. Drakos’s wishes and move along.”
I tune her out when she grumbles something under her breath as she storms out of the store, skipping Amelia, and slams the door shut.
What the fuck? Leonidas mouths to me, seeing the aftermath of the commotion.
Too tired for this bullshit, I shrug, moving on to the next fan … and the next and the next …