Chapter 12 Kelsey
Kelsey
“Don’t tell me it’s nothing when she’s blowing up your phone.” She gave him her number, which means he must have called for her to have his. “She wants you. You should answer it.”
He releases me to answer her call. My breath catches. I’ve tried hard not to fall all the way in love with my best friend, but I don’t think I ever had a choice. I’m obsessed with him and always have been. I’ve tried not to be possessive. I’ve told myself a million times not to be jealous.
Yet here I am letting my jealousy get the best of me.
“Baby, I’m waiting for you...” Her shrill voice is loud enough that he doesn’t need her on speaker phone for me to be able to hear her.
“Sonatina.” He shuts me out, his shoulders blocking my view. “You need to stop calling me.”
Maybe if he’d locked eyes on me instead, my heart wouldn’t feel like it has shrunk enough to fall out of my chest.
“I’m still not wearing any panties,” she says.
I shut my eyes to try to keep my emotions from going into free fall.
“I’m not going to answer again,” he tells her and hangs up.
“You and her...” I start when he looks at me again. It’s obvious that something happened tonight.
“Fuck that,” he snaps.
“If you haven’t already, you should.” I push past him. “Since you won’t be fucking me anymore.”
“This is bullshit, Kelsey.” Grabbing his bags and mine he follows me out of the bus.
The car is pulling up to take us to the airport. How am I supposed to spend three days with his family like this?
Storming past me, he tosses the bags in the trunk. “You of all people know me better than this.”
I thought I did.
“My stalker saw the two of us together. I had to warn her.” He storms back to me. “What was I supposed to do? Ignore the fact that she might be at risk because of her antics tonight? It was plain human decency. Nothing more.”
“Fine.” Perhaps I’m overreacting and it’s all one-sided.
Notifying her of the danger is what anyone would do.
But I didn’t miss the way she flirted with him, mentioned her lack of panties.
If I’m forced to spend one more minute thinking about her tonight, I’m going to scream.
“Let’s just go.” Opening the back door of the limo, I climb in and shut it in his face.
I slide my headphones on before he gets in on the other side. I need a moment to breathe.
One of our last-minute bodyguards climbs into the front of the car next to the driver.
The other enters after Riot and sits opposite me.
Leaning back on the headrest, I shut my eyes and pretend that neither Riot nor the bodyguard are there.
Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones or straight up exhaustion, but I can’t deal with any more tonight.
I wake up to dark carpet and luxury leather, the steady whir of airplane engines. Darkness through oval windows. When I look up, I see a day’s worth of stubble on the most perfect jawline. A cap brim pulled down over closed eyes.
His chest rises and falls in a deep, even rhythm. I’m nestled into his warm body, a blanket draped over both of us. Which means he carried me onto the plane and probably hasn’t let go since.
This is my favorite place in the world. When it’s me and him.
Alone. His cologne making me warm and tingly.
His strength makes me feel possessed and protected.
He’s the world’s most beloved rock star, but to me he’s something much more.
He’s real. I know things about him no one else does.
I get to sleep in his arms. Is there a place for us to be a family in this world we’ve built?
He would be a good dad. But does he want to be?
I press my lips to the hinge of his jaw. “I love you, Riot Maddox. I always have.”
His grip tightens when I try to twist away. “What did you say?”
“N-nothing. You’re asleep. Dreaming.” I wiggle my fingers in front of his face when his eyes open. “Wooo.”
“Candy head.” He smirks. “While you frequently haunt my thoughts, you aren’t a ghost. Repeat what you said.”
“I’ve forgotten.”
He rolls his bottom lip between his teeth. “I believe, and feel free to correct me if I get any of the words wrong, but it was I love you, Riot Maddox. I always have.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” I try to free myself from his arms again. “And if you give me a little time, I can come up with a plausible explanation. Or at the least allow me to tack on as a friend.”
“But it isn’t as a friend, is it?” he watches me with serious eyes. “Like the way I feel about you isn’t friendly.”
My heart skips a beat while we stare into each other’s souls. How long have I wanted him to say something like this? How many times have I imagined it?
“I called her so she would be aware of the danger. Nothing happened between us. Nothing will ever happen between us, because as far as I’m concerned, I’m a taken man.”
Is he saying what I think he’s saying? My chest fills with warmth. The tension and worry of these last hours doesn’t stand up to the happiness filling me.
“Your man, in case that wasn’t clear. Your boyfriend. Your rock star who doesn’t need any other woman’s panties shoved in his pocket.”
“You’re serious?” He’s really serious about this, isn’t he?
“I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now.
And then tonight I planned...” He removes his cap, scrubs his palm over his face and smiles.
“It doesn’t matter. We got here in the end.
I want you to be my date to the wedding.
I want to tell Rebel and Rogue and West that you’re my girlfriend.
Make it an official thing. Can you handle that? ”
I twine my arms around his neck. “Yeah, I can handle that.”
“Thank God.” He finally skates his mouth over mine.
I’m the one who deepens the kiss. Who needs it to be more. I open and stroke his tongue with mine while I kneel to straddle him.
He wraps his hands around the back of my thighs as my knees sink into the leather. He rocks my hips so that I can feel how hard he is.
“Where are the security personnel?” I kiss his throat, his jaw.
I let my head arch back as he bites along my collarbone while he drags the thin sleeves of my cashmere wrap off my shoulders and down my arms. He cups my breast and rubs his thumb over the nipple. “As absent from our private time as possible. They’re up front with the door shut.”
My nipples tighten for him, sending lightning shooting to my core. I reach between us and unlatch the button on his black jeans. Peel the zipper down slowly. He’s almost always commando.
He lifts up under me, shoving the material down until his cock is free before settling back in his seat. Rising on my knees, I reach inside the blanket he’s carefully wrapped around our bodies and tug my shorts and panties to the side.
Guiding his cock to my entrance, he watches me while I lower myself onto him. His gray gaze is hooded. Molten. “Nice and slow, candy head. Take control and ride me like we’ve got all the time in the world.”
I move over him slowly, making every move purposeful. Intense. Our gazes stay locked the entire time. Sharing soft groans and lingering kisses. Building heat between our bodies and a connection between our souls that will last a lifetime.
All that emotion is too much for my heart to hold. It spills into every cell. An orgasm that’s more than physical begins to well in my core.
“That’s it. Like that.” He’s reverent in the way he loves me. As if, until now, he’s locked everything inside where I couldn’t see. The look in his eyes is open and raw and sexy as hell. “God, it always feels good with you.”
The orgasm finally breaks its dam. I shatter slowly. My inner walls ripple as my back arches. My senses temporarily shut off when the pleasure overwhelms. A sob rips from my lips, and he catches it greedily.
He leans forward, adjusting our angle and thrusting deeper. Coming as hard as I did while he sucks my breast through my tank top.
I wrap my arms around his head. Kiss the top of his hair as I try to come back down to earth. But the intimacy, and the fact that he’s my boyfriend, is making that impossible.
Resting back in the seat, he holds me close while he tucks the blanket around us so I’m cocooned against his chest.
The pilot announces that we’re approaching our destination as predawn gray secedes to morning light.
“I should clean up.” I push at his chest.
“You should stay where you belong.” He tugs me back down. “We’ll clean up together when we land.”
It’s another twenty minutes before the wheels kiss the tarmac. The plane’s bathroom is more confined than the one on the tour bus, but we clean up and change into the outfits we brought for the meet and greet brunch.
I apply my liner less heavy handedly than normal while Riot watches my every move like it’s fascinating. He’s watched me do this a million times, but everything now feels different. I unscrew the wand from my favorite mascara. “Enjoying the show, perv?”
He smiles and straightens the rope and leather on his wrist. “There’s never a time you’re in the room when I’m not watching you. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world, candy head. I can’t get over the fact that you’re finally mine.”
“I can’t believe this is my life. That you’re my boyfriend.”
I turn to him, and my belly grumbles. My heart skips a beat. I haven’t eaten in twenty-four hours and I’m pregnant and he doesn’t know. It’s all so new that I feel like I’m living in a dream world.
“Believe it.” His gaze flares as he moves closer.
I need to come up with a plan. Before I start showing, whenever that will be. The slightest hint will send the media into a frenzy. “After we tell your family about us, maybe we can make it public?”
“I want to.” He reaches for my waist, his gaze saying he might not want to as much as he’s telling me. “I’m just not sure now is the right time. Can we get used to my family knowing first? Enjoy that it’s still a bit of a secret.”
I don’t want that, but I find myself nodding anyway. We have a big few days ahead of us. He might change his mind when I tell him about the baby. My stomach gurgles again.
He catches it this time. “I didn’t ask when you woke up. Are you feeling better?”
“Uh, yes.” Shifting my focus back to the mirror, I apply one last layer of mascara. Do I tell him I’m pregnant now, when we’re about to meet up with his brothers? Or wait until the hecticness of the wedding is over?
Especially when we’re announcing our relationship to his family. Some of whom I haven’t met yet. I don’t need anyone bursting our love bubble with the idea that we’re together because we’re knocked up.
So I’ll keep my secret a little longer. By the time the next leg of the tour kicks off, the whole world will know this man is mine.
“You’re preening.” He smiles indulgently.
“No, I’m not.” I fluff my hair one more time.
“You should be.” He peers over my shoulder and fixes a couple of his own strands. “I am. You and me... the whole world is going to cream.”
I laugh and roll my eyes as I face him. A hand to his chest, I pretend to keep him at bay when he leans in to kiss my jaw. “Settle down. That might be a bit of a stretch.”
His phone chimes. He reads the screen. “It’s Rebel. He sent me a picture of the plane. It’s captioned... hurry the fuck up.”