Tainted Kiss (Tainted Knights 1)

Kassa turned her blue eyes on Gray and gave him a smirk. “Make me,” she murmured in a husky voice as she slid past me.

“Make you?” he repeated with a growl that was dark and a little scary. “Make you, Kas?” One second he was on the couch, drinking his beer, and the next, he was across the bus with her tossed over his shoulder. His hand landed on her ass with a loud clap. “If that’s what you want, then I’ll fucking make you, little caterpillar.”

He hauled her away, muttering something to her that only she could hear. As they passed me, Kassa shot me a wicked wink, and I tried to hide my grin.

Placing his phone on the counter beside me, Travis half-turned toward me, his back to the others. “Surprised you’re here,” he commented in a voice that was oddly quiet.

I lifted a brow. He hadn’t willing spoken to me since our clash over that damn photo shoot in the past. “Oh, yeah? Why is that?”

“Figured after that picture in the tabs you wouldn’t want to deal with the rocker bullshit.”

I glanced over his shoulder at Kale who had taken Gray’s place on the couch. Kin had broken away from Jace long enough to say something to him, and he was grinning as he spoke to her.

Forcing my eyes back to Travis, I gave him a closer look. “I trust Kale.”

“Huh,” he said with a roll of his eyes and a slight sneer. “Figured you’d be smarter than that.”

I stepped closer to him, not liking what he was insinuating. “What does that mean?”

“These dipshits have a new girl every night of the week. Every one of them, Santana. On the road, they don’t care what’s waiting for them back home. There are different rules on this bus.”

“If you’re trying to make me think that Kale would fuck around, you’re going to have to try harder. He loves me.”

The sneer grew bigger. “Not what he was saying when he had his hands on those two groupies two weeks ago, but whatever.”

“What the fuck did you just say?”

I jumped at the sound of Kale’s voice. He was standing right behind Travis now and neither one of us had heard him.

Lifting my eyes to his face, I realized I had never seen this side of him before and wondered if this was what he had looked like when he’d confronted Wade all those weeks ago.

Travis was slow to turn and face him, but when he did, he lifted his hands and took a step back, nearly knocking into me.

I crossed to Kale, putting my hands on his waist. “Babe, calm down.”

He pulled me into him long enough to press his lips to my forehead, his eyes never leaving Travis. “Go to Sin,” he commanded.

Sin was on his feet in the next instant, taking my elbow and pulling me as far away from Kale as possible inside the bus. “Stay behind me,” he told me in a rough voice. “It’s about to get real ugly.”

“But …”

“What did you just say to her, Travis?” Kale gritted out, and I noticed his fists were clenched at his sides.

Thinking he was going to get into a fight then and there, I tried to move around Sin, but Sin put his arm out, blocking my way.

“It was nothing,” Travis tried to backtrack. “I was just telling her how it is with rockers sometimes. That’s all.”

“And how is it with rockers?” Kale stepped closer. “What was I saying when I had my hands all over those groupies?”

Jace lifted Kin off his lap and put her on the couch. Then he stood behind Kale. Cash moved to flank him on the right, but he didn’t seem to notice either of them as his eyes drilled into a now pale-faced Travis.

Their road manager gave a forced laugh. “It was a joke. I was only playing.”

“From where I was sitting, it sounded more like a jealous, little weasel lying to a girl who won’t give him two seconds of her time about a guy who is about to use said weasel’s face as a punching bag,” Kin said with mock yawn. “But that’s just from where I’m sitting.”

“Kale, it’s okay. I didn’t believe him,” I tried to reason. I told him I trusted him, and I did. Nothing Travis said was going to change that.

“Who took the picture, Travis?” Kale’s voice was starting to scare me now. It was low, menacing, and dangerous. I shivered as he took yet another step toward Travis, backing him into the kitchenette. “Was it you? Did you set that shit up?”