Being Sawyer Knight (Souls of the Knight 1)

“Wait... are you…” Ah, Isaac. He walked into the suite with one arm wrapped around some tits on a stick, pointing at me in recognition. “You went to school with me and Saw, right?”

“Right,” I answered, forcing a smile. I didn’t like him back then and from what I’d seen of him in interviews, I don’t like him now. He’s cocky and arrogant and has seemed to believe from being only thirteen years old that he was put on this earth purely to service the female population. “Jake,” I offered. He scratched his head as if searching for the memory of my name, but in order to remember it he’d have had to have known it in the first place. Back in school, he hung around with Sawyer a lot, but wouldn’t give me the time of day.

“Jake! Of course!” he beamed as if he suddenly remembered. He was a lying shit. “How’ve you been, mate?” he asked, practically tossing the stick woman aside to come and shake my hand.

“Good,” I answered curtly. “Great to be back on home soil,” I added with a smile when I realised I was behaving like a jerk.

“So is there anything else, Claire? Only I’ve got some, um, business to attend to,” Isaac said, tossing a suggestive and slightly nauseating look towards Tits on a Stick.

“No, Kip. That’s all,” she replied, rolling her eyes. Kip? “I just wanted you all to meet Jake.” Without needing a second word of encouragement Isaac, or Kip, had disappeared with his piece of pussy. From the way he looked at her it was obvious she was a ‘one night’ thing. I’d be surprised if he even knew her name. “Okay, guys, well that’s all for tonight. We’ll meet before rehearsals tomorrow to discuss the new plans Jake is proposing.”

“What kind of new plans?” Sawyer asked dubiously. His voice danced into my ears and spread to my veins, warming my whole body.

“I think we, meaning your security team, need a little more structure,” I began. “A designated guard for each band member, a new system for…”

“I’m happy with how things are,” Sawyer cut me off. I had to bite the inside of my lip to stop me from grinning. He was being purposefully awkward and I couldn’t help find it amusing. I was affecting him, and I liked it.

“Well we’ll discuss it further in the morning,” Claire interrupted. “Jake has had a long few days spent travelling, I’m sure he’d like to get to his room and rest.”

“I feel fine. In fact, if you want me to stay behind and explain things a bit more, Sawyer, that’s no problem.”

Please say yes.

“Nah, mate. I’ll wait till the morning like the others.”

Fuck.

“Well how about we just have a drink? Catch up on the old times?”

Sawyer’s hazel eyes narrowed as my question swirled around his mind. His expression screamed unease, doubt… maybe even fear.

“Sure. Sounds good,” he said flatly, refusing to give me just a hint of how he was truly feeling through his tone. “That means the rest of you can fuck off to your own suites. I don’t get why you’ve been hanging round here all day anyway.”

“Yours is the biggest,” Matt – who according to the press, the other guys call ‘Matt the Twat – chipped in. “Therefore you have a bigger minibar.”

“What the fuck ever,” Sawyer said, shooing him off with his hand. “You want more liquor you call room service. No need to hover round my ass all day.”

“What the hell is wrong with you today, man? You get your period or somethin’?”

“Fuck you, Matt.”

“Is this still about the interview? It’s over, dude. Forget about it.”

“You’re still here.”

“Fine. Whatever. Come on, guys.” The other two, Darren and Gavin, got up to follow Matt out of the room. “Hey, Jake… when he starts to piss you off, there’ll be beer in my room!” Matt called back to me. I raised my palm in acknowledgement, even though I had no intention of taking him up on his unappealing offer. And then there were three…

“I’ll get going too,” Claire said, standing from her chair and smoothing her skirt with flattened hands. “And Sawyer, snap out of this mood you’ve gotten yourself into. It was one interview, and you know how important these things are for publicity. It’s part of the deal. Don’t let it ruin rehearsals tomorrow.”

“Sure,” he said, sounding sincere. “Sorry I’ve been such a jackass. I’ve had a headache all day, I guess that made things worse.”

“Get an early night in that case. We’ve only got two days before the first show, and we have a lot to get through before then. Oh and Philip will be joining the meeting in the morning too, so don’t be late.”

“Wow. How nice of him,” Sawyer spat sarcastically. “I’m honoured.”

Claire had opened the door and was hovering in the open space. With her hand on the doorknob, she drew in a deep breath through her nose before squinting her eyes and opening her mouth. “There’s another interview tomorrow with all five of you. Don’t lose your shit.” Then she was gone, with the door closed firmly behind her before Sawyer could even open his mouth to respond.

“Bitch,” I heard him mutter under his breath. Then he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath through his nose. He stayed in that position, relaxed into his chair, legs apart, head back, for a couple of minutes. I just stared at him – devouring the image of him and committing it to memory. My eyes honed in on his strong neck and I absently licked my lips as I watched the thick vein there throb in rhythm with his heart. God, how I wanted to lick that vein. How I wanted to taste his salty skin, inhale the sweet scent of him, feel his pulse against my lips…

“So you don’t like interviews?” I broke the silence, needing to hear his deep, gravelled voice.

“Why are you really here, Jake?” he asked, sounding exasperated, and maybe confused, as he finally made eye contact with me. “After the way we left things…”