The Rocker Who Shatters Me (The Rocker 9)

I grinned up at the sexy drummer. “Yeah, sleep.” He’d been deep inside of me within seconds of getting me behind a closed door. Not that I would be complaining.

He lifted a hand and touched the dark circles under my eyes. “Sleeping is all I want you to do, Nat. When this tour is over I’m taking you on vacation. Somewhere that doesn’t have cell service or Wi-Fi or people.” He leaned down and kissed my eyes closed, as if he were trying to kiss away my tiredness. I swallowed hard to get the sudden lump in my throat to go down. “Better go now, baby.” He kissed the tip of my nose and stepped back. “Have fun.”

“Y-you too,” I breathed, reaching for the still-warped door with a trembling hand.

Devlin

I ran a tired hand over my face, wishing I were back at the bus in bed. A week had gone by since our last guys’ night, and normally I would have been happy to be sitting in some bar drinking with the majority of my friends and the rockers who were slowly becoming friends.

We needed nights like this to just kick back and unwind. Tour was stressful no matter who you were or how long you’d been doing it. Taking a night off and just hanging out prevented burnout, something that we’d all come to understand over the years.

Tonight, however, I’d have much rather been back at the bus, cuddled up to Natalie. We didn’t have to make love or talk, simply hold onto each other and let the stress of the last week go. Maybe I’d even grow a pair and tell her I loved her when she was awake this time.

“So, when are you going to tell me what really happened between you and Z?” Shane asked. He was sitting beside me at the tables we’d pulled together earlier. It was just him and me because everyone else who had come out with us tonight were in the back playing pool. Axton and Wroth were playing pool with Rhett and Linc while the others pretended to play pool, but mostly soaked up the female attention that they were getting.

My gaze went to Zander who had his hands around some chick wearing a skirt that barely covered her ass and a top that was so sheer you could see her bra underneath. There was a time when a girl dressed like that, who giggled and flirted and batted her fake eyelashes up at me, would have done something for me. Now she just made me grimace as I realized what shitty taste I’d once had.

Zander whispered something in the chick’s ear, making her giggle again. I rolled my eyes, but a small grin tried to lift my lips. I doubted that Zander and I would ever be as tight as we once had been, but now that I had Natalie back and she seemed to have gotten over that fucking bet, my hate for him was starting to simmer down.

“Dev?” Shane snapped his fingers in front of my face and I remembered that he’d asked a question.

I blew out a frustrated sigh. I couldn’t tell my friend what had caused the fight that had completely destroyed my friendship with a man who had once been like a brother to me, even if I’d wanted to. Natalie would kick me in the balls if I confessed that I’d busted Z’s ribs because he’d spilled the beans about a juvenile bet we’d made over bagging Shane’s sister.

But I had to tell him something or he wasn’t going to give up. I shrugged and lifted my beer to my lips, needing an extra minute to figure out what to say to him. Might as well go with part of the truth, just no names. “Z and I wanted the same chick…” Shane made a face and I shrugged again. “The chick was into me and I was really into her, but Z wanted her too. When I got her, he wasn’t happy. Started running his mouth. So I shut him up… But I lost the girl.”

“Because of a fight?” Shane obviously knew that there was more to the story.

“No.” I took another long swallow of the beer and dropped the empty bottle on the table. “Z and I made some stupid-ass bet about who could get the girl into bed first. When he started running his mouth, he told her about it. She thought I was just playing a game and I couldn’t convince her that I cared. So she walked away and I didn’t deal with that well.”

Shane’s blue-gray eyes narrowed, but he just nodded and lifted his beer. After studying it a moment, he nodded again and took a long swallow. “Yeah. I can see why she walked.”

Axton dropped down into the chair across from us, his phone in his hand and I knew he was talking to one of two people: Emmie or Dallas. One was his best friend, the other was his other half. I doubted an hour went by that he didn’t have some kind of contact with those two chicks. After a few more seconds of typing, he put his phone on the table and picked up an unopened bottle of beer. “What are you two fuckers doing?”

“I’m about ready to head out,” I told him. “You coming?”

“Dallas is still with the girls, so no. I don’t want to go back to the bus yet. Might go get something to eat. Take my girl something salty to snack on.”

I nodded. Dallas was having cravings already and they mostly consisted of things that were salty. Potato chips, pretzels, pork… None of it stood a chance when she was around.

Since the girls were having their night in on my bus, I knew I probably shouldn’t go back yet, but I just didn’t give a fuck. I wanted my girl in my arms, and I wanted it now. So I said goodnight to them and went out to grab a cab back to the buses. It took fifteen minutes to get there and I gritted my teeth the entire time against the ache in my chest. Damn, it was getting worse. What I felt for Natalie was getting to the point that I didn’t want to be away from her at all.

Once I paid the driver, I headed toward my bus. From Drake’s bus I could hear him talking and laughing with Nik and Jesse, but didn’t stop to see what they were doing. Three buses down, I knocked on the door to warn them I was coming in and stepped onto the bus.

Dallas, Harper, and Marissa were dancing to some shitty song that was playing along with the movie that they were still watching. Lana and Jenna were sitting on the couch but I didn’t really see any of them other than to skim across them in my search for Natalie. When I saw her sitting in the recliner, her sweatshirt on and her feet tucked under her, my chest seemed to tighten and I couldn’t keep away.

It took a handful of steps to reach her. Those blue-gray eyes were glued to mine and her mouth was slightly gaped open as she watched me walk toward her. She didn’t make a sound when I bent and lifted her into my arms. Behind us, I left a room full of stunned women.

“That was ballsy,” I heard Jenna grumble but didn’t pay her any attention as I carried my girl into the sleeping area and shut the door behind us.