It’s only the beginningListening to Houston sing the words I’d written, I thought about my father’s offer for the first time since he made it. I didn’t count Colorado because I’d been bluffing as usual whenever Houston pissed me off.
The bitter truth is that my feet were firmly planted.
I couldn’t walk away from my friends as easily as I’d done my parents. It’s why I hated them so much. I loved them just as deeply.
No matter how much Houston and Rich hurt me, I’d keep coming back for more. The three of us were toxic as fuck, together and apart, but we were all we had. It hadn’t always been like this, and I think remembering all the good is why we stayed through the bad.
Seventy-thousand people were on their feet by the time we walked off the stage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It was a rush I never got tired off. We had maybe twenty minutes to collect ourselves before the first round of meet-and-greets began. I was actually looking forward to it since it was the only time we got to see Braxton smile these days.
When she wasn’t cursing one of us in her head, that is.
She hadn’t remarked on the stunt I pulled last night, but I expected no less. I think she figured out that I thrived on attention, so she punished me by depriving me of it. Figures. It was like she’d flipped a switch and became the center of my universe. Everything I am revolved around her. I never even considered trying to undo what she’d done.
Two hours later, the meet-and-greets were over, and Braxton immediately headed back for the bus.
Houston, Rich, and I stayed behind to give her “space.”
We used that time to have a powwow with a few roadies as if they didn’t have an entire stage to tear down.
“Has it been enough time?” I snapped once we were done distracting our crew. They had enough shit on their plate without us adding in our melodrama. “Can we go back to the bus now?”
“Relax,” Houston responded dryly. “It’s only been ten minutes.”
“This is dumb as fuck if you ask me.” I cut my gaze at Rich, who noticed.
“There’s a reason no one asks you.”
Fuck this.
I walked off, and they shouted my name once they realized the direction I was headed. It didn’t take them long before they were hot on my heels. They didn’t try to stop me either—not that they could—when I climbed inside the back of the SUV.
The drive back to the bus was only fifteen minutes, but it felt like fifteen hours. I couldn’t understand why my palms were sweating, and my heart was racing. I only knew the stirring in my gut that told me Braxton was up to no good.
I screwed with her, and she’d been compliant.
I should have known better than to trust it.
She was a devious little thing.
Before the SUV fully rolled to a stop, I was out and taking off for our bus. I could hear a baffled Houston and Rich talking shit behind me, but I paid them no mind. They were unaware of what I’d done last night. If they knew, they’d be going crazy too.
Bounding up the bus’s stairs, I slammed my palm on the button to activate the sliding door. Stepping inside, I peered through the dark interior. It wasn’t until a low whimper drew my attention that I spotted Braxton on the couch, naked as the day she was born, red hair cascading down her back, and straddling my goddam pillow.
I knew it was mine because of the dark-green pillowcase.
“Holy shit,” I heard Rich whisper like a virgin. I don’t know why he bothered to conceal his presence.
Braxton knew we were here.
She planned this.
I watched her ass and tits jiggle every time she moved her hips. My pillow was providing the friction her clit needed as she rode it like a professional jockey. She was at the perfect angle for me to see everything while she performed like we weren’t even here. Hell yes.
“What the hell is she doing?” Houston asked no one in particular.
Without taking my eyes off Braxton, I answered my best friend. “She’s upping the ante.”
I was willing to give whatever at this point to make her mine.
Ours.
Whatever.
I wanted to move in closer, maybe touch her or join in. I knew the second I did that it would be over, so I stayed put.
Meanwhile, Braxton sped up her pace, her cries becoming more desperate as she humped my pillow with reckless abandon. Her small hands clutched the casing, her nails digging in as she held on for dear life.
The only thing that could make this moment more perfect was if she were sitting on my face and not my pillow. Swallowing when my mouth-watered, I admired the moonlight washing over her and the sweat glistening on her skin.