His lips twitched with the barest of smiles, which for Sin was like a full-blown grin. He didn’t smile much, and that made me sad. Without thinking, I touched his arm, the one that was scarred up from the dog bite he had gotten protecting me. Ever since that day, I’d felt like we had a stronger connection. Not as strong as the one I had with Gray, but for this guy, it was the strongest connection he had with anyone else.
As my thumb skimmed over the teeth marks, he sighed and pulled back a little, which made my hand drop to my side. “Let’s at least find a seat,” he grumbled. “I kind of missed you too.”
My smile was beaming as I followed him to a couch across the room. “I knew it. I’m wearing you down.”
His chuckle was hard, but with him, that was like getting a full belly laugh. We sat, keeping half the couch between us because he hated to be crowded in, and talked for a long while before Kin and Angie came back. But they weren’t alone.
Jace and Gray went over to the bar to get themselves a beer while Kin and Angie came to sit with us. Angie sat on the arm of the couch and Kin made me scoot over so she didn’t have to sit beside Sin, who in her eyes was just as bad as Gray, if not worse.
As the guys walked over, Gray gave his friend a hard look when he saw how I was sitting closer to Sin. He bent and lifted me into his arms as if I weighed no more than a doll. Then he sat in my place with me on his lap. As he arranged me on his legs, I glared at him.
“You know,” I said, “there are two more couches over there. You could have pulled either of them over and sat there.”
“Nah, I’m good here,” he said with a smug grin as he lifted his beer to his lips.
“You’re such a pain in the ass,” I grumbled, but I stayed where I was.
This felt like old times, before he had moved away and things had changed between us. Sitting there, talking to Sin, with Gray including me and making me feel like I was special and important to him, was something I hadn’t realized I’d missed until right that minute.
I began to relax, falling back into the familiar and enjoying myself for the first time since I had given in and told Gray I would move in with him and Jace. As the night wore on, I found my eyes growing heavy and rested my head on Gray’s shoulder. His hand tightened its hold on my hip and he tucked me closer against him as I gave up the fight and let sleep take me while knowing I was safe in this man’s arms.
TWENTY
Gray
Emmie Armstrong’s office was downtown. She owned four of the thirty floors she used for everything from offices for her staff to a recording studio for her clients to record demos. We already had one demo Emmie was presenting to various record labels for us, but today, we were going to do another one.
This time, it was with one of Kin’s songs that she had written herself. We might not get along half the time, but the chick had some serious writing talent. Since she could play the guitar almost as well as I could, I didn’t question her when she explained how she thought the solo for one of the songs should sound.
From the control room, Shane Stevenson was sitting at the switchboard, waiting patiently for us to go over last-minute changes Kin had thought of the day before. The bassist for Demon’s Wings could have done anything he wanted now that the Demons weren’t touring as often, but his passion seemed to be in helping newbies to this part of the music world get their name out there.
Since this was only a demo, we could record everything at the same time. But, if it had been for an actual album, we would have had to record the drums and my guitar separately in isolation booths to keep the instruments from interfering with the microphones for everything else.
As Kin finally left us to get started, I glanced through the soundproof window into the control room, where Kassa was watching us beside Shane. The Demon was talking to her as he messed with a few controls, making her laugh. Not for the first time that day, jealousy punched me right in the gut. I kept telling myself that the older rocker was only being friendly, that he was a married man with kids at home, but when had that ever stopped a guy before? Kassa was beautiful, had the body of Aphrodite herself. Every guy who saw her wanted her.
And I was no less immune. I wanted her like a drunk wanted his next drink, like an addict who was desperate for his next fix. And I couldn’t have her. Things were just starting to get back to normal after the last fuckup I had caused, and I couldn’t risk alienating her more.
Turning her head from the Demon, Kassa saw me looking at her and waved.
I grinned. “Be good,” I told her, knowing she couldn’t hear me but could easily read my lips.
Her eyes widened before she rolled them at me and flipped me off. Laughing, I blew her a kiss. Beside her, Shane said something that had her cheeks turning pink as she looked at him in shock. She adamantly shook her head, which had the guy shrugging, an amused look on his face.
A moment later, Shane’s voice filled the room. “Okay, guys. Let’s just do the song all the way through once to see what you sound like then take it from there.”
An hour later, we had a working demo for Kin’s song that we were all happy with. I carefully put my guitar in its case while the others packed up their stuff.
“I gotta get to work,” Cash grumbled as he set his bass in its case. “Fuck, I hate that damn job, but I’m making a killing in tips.”
“It’s your pretty face,” Jace said with a laugh. “Those cougars are always slipping you their numbers with a big tip.”
“Dude, some of those cougars are smoking hot. I’ve hooked up with a few of them, and fuck, man, they can get freaky.”
“You always were into older chicks,” I laughed.
“Hey, nothing wrong with that. It beats having to ask for ID to make sure the girl is legal.” He lifted his case and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ll see you fuckers later. And do not come in to the restaurant tonight. I see enough of your ugly faces as it is.”
“Aww,” Kale pouted. “But I was gonna leave you a good tip and ask you to come home with me.”