I didn’t want to laugh, but I did. Inside. “If you had an upbringing like mine, you’d understand. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Mine wasn’t the most forgiving.”
He grabbed me again, holding me by my hips, but it was his eyes that conquered me. Not his hands. “How can I convince you?”
“You can’t.”
“Have you met me?” he shot back, his voice deep and low. When he kissed me again, he tasted like morning dew. I couldn’t get enough. When he finally pulled away, it took us both a moment to catch our breath. “I can run circles around your demons, Braxton. Just let me in, and I’ll handle the rest.”
The romantic I kept in line with a bat and knuckle dusters sighed in appreciation. He was saying all the right things. Naturally, since it was Loren, I was suspicious. “If this is some ploy to sleep with me, I’ll make you sorry.”
“Fuck, you’re sexy.”
It was hard not to fall for his gorgeous smile that lit up my entire life, but I managed. “You won’t think so when I slip orange dye in your shampoo or shave your eyebrows while you sleep.”
Sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he stared at me for a long, long, long time. “Duly noted, baby.”Denver, as it turns out, was a thirteen-hour drive from Phoenix. Add in the frequent stops, including our current one in some town bordering Colorado, and I wondered if we’d ever reach the city. We didn’t have another show until Friday, which gave us two days to find trouble.
I didn’t know we’d do it in one.
The warning stirred in my gut as I inhaled the air and tried not to fixate on this new turn of events. Houston hated me, Loren had a crush, and…I couldn’t figure out Rich’s angle. A part of me hoped he didn’t have one because I liked being around him a little too much. I didn’t have to keep my guard as high.
“Feeling all right?”
The voice was partially obscured by the howling wind, giving me no choice but to face them to solve the mystery. I thought I was the only one hanging around the buses. Everyone else had gone across the street to dine in the only two food options offered. Peeking over my shoulder, I expected to find either Rich or Loren waiting. Maybe even Xavier.
Of course, it had to be Houston. He was best at getting me riled.
Wearing his usual T-shirt and jeans combo, he held a black store bag from the gas station where we filled up the buses.
“For me to answer that, I’d have to believe you cared.” Scoffing at the notion, I turned away from him. It hurt too much to look at Houston, knowing he cast me out. I wouldn’t dare swim in those gorgeous, green pools and dream.
I listened to the plastic from his store bag rustle, followed by the pop of the tab on a can. “Of course, I care. If you bail, I’m short a guitarist. Again.”
I spun on my heel, hoping I’d find remorse or a sign that he was joking. The strong wind whipped through his chocolate hair, but the rest of him remained unmoved. He looked like someone who’d come to conquer me.
“Is the tour really all you care about? You don’t give a crap about me. Fine. What about Rich and Loren?”
It was the subtle tells with Houston. The ones like his quick pause before taking a sip that told me I was getting a rise out of him. The last time that happened, he kissed me. “You question me like you have all the facts.”
“I’ve been around a while,” I reminded him with a shrug. “I’ll be around a lot longer. If I don’t have them now, I will soon enough. You’re really not that hard to figure out.”
“Funny,” he said, looking genuinely amused. “I was just thinking the same about you, little girl.”
Careful not to hand him my anger on a platter, I let my feet carry me closer and stopped just out of arm’s reach. “Now who’s bringing a knife to a gunfight? Treating me like I’m inferior, pretending that I don’t mean anything… It stopped working when I realized it’s your only move.”
“Is it?” he whispered before bringing the energy drink to his lips. He eyed me the entire time he drank his fill, and then he closed the last of the distance between us. I already knew his bite was worse than my bark.
I didn’t fight him when he pressed me against the bus or rested his forearm on the black surface. The open door a foot away beckoned, and Houston had left the way to it clear. Running was exactly what he wanted me to do.
I stayed put.
The driver was gone, and so was everyone else. We had all the privacy we needed to hash this out. The only distraction was Houston’s soap permeating off his warm body. He smelled so good.