Truth

I braced myself for the worst. The question was a last-minute decision, one I’d probably regret later, because if there was one thing I’d learned about Reid King over the last week, it was that he didn’t care about my feelings—or anyone’s, for that matter.

Reid’s eyes stayed glued to mine for a few more seconds before his gaze roamed over my cheeks and down past my face. I stayed still as they shifted to my bare shoulder, to my chest, and then to my crossed legs. Then he moved his gaze upward again slowly—so slowly that I started to lose track of time. When he met my eyes, his gaze was softer. His jaw was relaxed, his mouth parted ever so slightly. That angular jaw wasn’t as sharp as before; his known scowl had vanished. My mouth went dry. My body did something that I only ever felt when I was turned on, and surely, I wasn’t getting turned on in this moment.

Reid King was obviously emotionally scarred, downright insulting, and struggling with something that went far beyond the normality that I was used to.

I was not getting turned on by him staring at me.

Absolutely not.

Reid’s gravelly voice broke me out of my sweat-inducing panic. “You know what? I think I could probably sleep right now. For once.”

I nodded my head quickly, shooting up out of the bed so fast that I tripped on the cottony blanket, clearly flustered. “Yeah, okay. Good. You need some rest. I’ll… um…” I started backing my way to the door, my eyes looking anywhere other than on him. “I’ll think of a few more things we can do to work out what’s going on, maybe make a lesson plan or schedule, and then maybe when we get a chance, we can break out the guitar and start working on tunes and verses. Take baby steps.”

Reid didn’t even muster up a grunt, so I hurriedly turned around and bolted out the door. I moved so quickly I didn’t even shut the thing. I paused in the dark, and took a second to gather my bearings. What in the hell just happened?

I breathed a few more times before using my hand to guide myself along the wall and past the bunks. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the darkness and roamed over to the couch that I took residence on, I yelped.

“What the heck?”

I looked back as Reid popped his head out of his room, the light behind him illuminating his dark hair and shadowed face. “What?”

He began to walk down the short hallway at the same time I turned on my heel to run away from the scene that I just walked in on.

Finn was lying butt-ass naked on top of an equally naked girl ON MY BED. Okay, it was the couch, but I slept there. I’d been sleeping there since the first night I’d climbed onto the bus! My skin was crawling, like a thousand bugs were skittering across it. Who knew what that girl had?! He brought a groupie back to the tour bus and had his way with her on the spot that I slept! And on top of my blanket!

Reid grunted the second my body slammed into his. He reached his hands out and gripped me by the arms, momentarily stopping the assaulting scene of a naked Finn that was on repeat in my brain. “Why are you yelling? Afraid of the dark, are we?”

I snatched my arms out of his hands and smacked his hard chest, annoyed. “There’s… and it’s…” I groaned. “It’s on my blanket!”

“What the hell are you rambling about?”

Then, I pointed to the crime scene—okay, yes, I was being dramatic, whatever—and watched as Reid walked toward the darkness to see what I was yelling about. I could see his tall shadow bend down as he tried waking Finn up, but all he got was an inaudible groan as the girl below him stayed dead to the world.

Where was everyone?! Where was Rod? Kent? Was this the norm? Was this what rock stars did in their spare time after shows? God, I was in over my freaking head.

“Does this happen a lot?” I asked, my voice all high-pitched and frazzled.

Reid strode toward me. “Sometimes, but usually, the next morning when they wake up, Finn or whoever it is that thought it’d be smart to bring a groupie onto the bus hates themself, because they’re stuck with the chick until we get to our next destination. Things get awkward pretty quick.”

Reid and I were now standing in the unlit, small hallway so close together that I could feel the heat emerging from his body. “So, I’ve been sleeping on a couch that has herpes?! AND NO ONE TOLD ME?!”

I couldn’t see Reid, but I had a big feeling he was doing that tipped up lip thing that made my stomach drop. “There’s a fourth bunk you could have been sleeping in.”

“Have you slept back here with them? They smell! They had a farting contest two nights ago.”

“Why do you think I sleep back there on the bed?”

I huffed, crossing my arms. “I don’t know, because you’re selfish?” Instantly, my eyes grew wide, and I slapped my hand over my mouth. “That was not supposed to come out.”

And then the unthinkable happened.

Reid King laughed.

It wasn’t a chuckle or a snicker. Reid King actually laughed.

I was breathtakingly surprised, just like when he’d smiled earlier. Reid - 2, Brooklyn - 0.

“Do you know how fucking refreshing it is to hear someone talk back to me for once? To not walk on eggshells around me?”