Chapter 14 #2
For half a second, I wonder if I should bring up what I saw at the club, but then think better of it. If it’s something they want her to know, I am sure they will tell her when they get back.
In response to her playful question, I smile. “Too much drama, for sure. I’d much rather be somewhere more quiet and”—I pause, pretending to think of the word—“intimate.”
She bites her lip, and there’s a fire in her eyes that I haven’t seen before. “What would you call what we did in a crowded club, then?”
Oh shit.
My lips part and my heart pounds in my chest. I didn’t think she would bring up our little tryst in the bathroom.
“That was more primal than anything,” I respond. “But still just as special in my book.”
Her face flushes, the more subdued girl I remember entering the conversation.
She seems to like going tit for tat, but I can see the desire for submission glossing over in her eyes.
It speaks to me in a way that might be considered barbaric, but I can’t help the images that pop in my head at her suddenly bashful state.
I can do a lot with that. I can find many different ways to make her flush that very pretty pink, the color so striking that it tugs my alpha from his deep slumber in my chest.
She opens her mouth to say something else, but then the door to one of the buses swings open and Lennon appears.
“Oh!” he exclaims when he sees us, acting surprised, but I know he had to hear us through the thin bus walls. What a little shit.
He’s completely shirtless, and by the way his arms are propped up on the side of the door entry, I’d say he did it on purpose. He flexes as discreetly as he can, his stomach muscles becoming prominent in the moonlight. I roll my eyes, but I also can’t help admiring him myself.
“You’re back early,” Lennon comments, his accent prominent as his lips curve into a shit-eating grin.
“I didn’t like the noise,” I say, stealing Josie’s excuse. She looks at me, her lips twitching with amusement once more.
“That’s a lot of snacks,” Lennon inserts, pointing at the pile in Josie’s arms.
“I was hungry,” she says with a laugh, and then looks toward her own bus. “Have a good night.”
She starts to turn, and I panic, pointing toward my bandmate in the open doorway. “Do you want to hang out with us?”
I expect a polite refusal, but she turns back to us with a look of something that I’ve been feeling all too well these past four weeks. There’s reluctance, but there’s also longing—it reaches out and grabs me so quickly that I can’t stop the surge of hope that bursts right through my chest.
It’s like nothing ever happened. I am completely in, ready to give this omega everything she’s ever wanted.
“You don’t have to,” Lennon says and she turns to him.
“I… no, I think that’s cool. I’d like the company.”
The smile that takes over my bandmate’s face is wide, light sparkling in his eyes. “Then welcome to our humble abode, little vicious.”
She bites her lip at the nickname, but doesn’t say anything as we move inside the bus.
Lennon has the laptop that we use for movies placed on the kitchen table, paused on some anime that I’m sure he has seen a million times.
He moves to the tiny kitchen and tries to hide a cough by muffling the sound with his shoulder.
I give his shoulder a small squeeze. He looks back at me and gives me a weak smile, letting me know he is okay. I think I’m the most panicky when it comes to his condition, even more than he is. I hate that he doesn’t feel his best all the time, but I’m sure the night in helped him recuperate.
I turn back to Josie, her eyes stuck on the place where my hand holds Lennon’s arm. I try to hide a smile but fail, moving my hand so I can take a seat beside her on the bench.
“Fancy a drink, love?” Lennon asks Josie as he opens the lock for the tiny cabinet in the small kitchen granted to us.
“Sure.” She gives a tiny nod, her nervousness evident as she takes off her jacket and holds it in her lap.
“I thought you’d be pissed, Remi,” Lennon says, taking out the plastic tumblers before going over to the fridge to get a pitcher of juice.
“Why would you be pissed?” Josie turns to me, her brows scrunched.
I let a chuckle out before clarifying, “Pissed as in drunk, not upset.”
“Oh.” Her lips part, understanding flashing over her features, but then her lips fall. “I see. Because of me.”
Lennon accidentally clinks the pitcher against the counter, causing a loud sound to cut through the tension just before silence falls over us.
We weren’t going to bring up our current situation, and it isn’t in our character to guilt trip anyone, so we were going to leave it unspoken.
I’m surprised that she brought it up so willingly.
I clear my throat. “Not because of you, because of the situation. We’re all still trying to wrap our heads around it.”
“I know it sucks. I’ve been feeling—” She shakes her head, her voice a little hesitant. “My omega has been in shambles, but I don’t know what else to do. Things might fall apart at any second, and I don’t want to be the reason for that.”
“What do you mean by that?” Lennon asks before continuing to make a drink for both of us. “Cyrus didn’t really give us any details. He just said you had some stuff to take care of.”
She sighs. “I trust that whatever I say won’t leave this bus?”
We both nod. “Anything you say to us will stay between us, lovely,” I tell her. “No matter where we are.”
Lennon steps closer, handing over the drinks before taking the seat next to me.
She takes a quick sip, humming when she enjoys the taste of whatever my friend put together.
I take a sip of my own and find a mix of champagne and strawberry lemonade.
I give him a look of thanks before turning my attention back to our omega.
“Cleo changed when we started touring. Not just this time, but our last tour as well,” she admits.
“Our friendship has become strained and I don’t know how to help her.
She’s distant, cold. She yells at the crew a lot more than usual.
I feel like something bad happened along the way and I just didn’t look hard enough to see what it was.
“She started using drugs during our last tour. Uppers, I think, so she could get through the rest of it without burning out. We were all so exhausted, and she was always front and center. I think she’s clean now, but there’s no way to tell.
I don’t really remember how it started last time. It’s all a blur.”
The image of Cleo Del Rossi taking coke from a random guy in the club tonight flashes in my mind. The angry face of her drummer ordering the bodyguard to get rid of the dealer, the savage snarl Cleo gave the bodyguard in response.
My stomach coils tight with unease.
“I’m sorry that things are strained between you two,” Lennon says before I can speak up. He leans forward to look at her. “But I do know that whatever is happening isn’t your fault, or your responsibility.”
She nods. “I know… I mean, I should know, but sometimes I feel responsible. It was my idea for us to go into this industry to begin with. What if I had never suggested it and things were better? If we were living normal lives somewhere, with normal jobs—”
“You can’t play what-ifs. That doesn’t solve anything besides making yourself feel guilty, and you don’t deserve to feel that way.
” I place my hand on her knee instinctually, touching the comfy cotton of her sweatpants.
I hold my breath, expecting her to pull away, but she doesn’t.
Her body relaxes, and she leans more comfortably in her seat.
She sighs. “Life in the spotlight isn’t as rewarding as we both expected.”
My friend and I both nod, knowing the truth in that statement all too well.
For the most part, we are grateful that our career has taken off to this extent, but we aren’t blind to the way it’s cost us certain privileges, especially with Cyrus.
He shoulders a lot of our responsibilities in the public eye.
We wouldn’t even be playing to the kind of crowds we’re playing to right now if it weren’t for his sacrifice.
Not to mention, he has to hide his bond with Jamie, which still grinds my fucking teeth in.
There are downsides to every job. We get to live our dream, but it comes at a cost.
“Anyway.” She waves it off, turning to hold my gaze. “I actually wanted to ask you about your scent.”
My lips twitch from the change of topic. “You want to know what it is, don’t you?”