Hard Freak

Yep. I’d been lucky being on this tour. No matter how annoying the guys could be, they weren’t sleazes. They all kept their hands to themselves. And if anyone did act like that, Polly would cut them down to size.

My stomach lurched when I thought about it.

I’d bitched and moaned about Polly being so overprotective, but maybe that wasn’t always a bad thing. With guys like that in the world, you needed a bit of protection. I just thought she was wrong when it came to Crow. I wished she’d get to know him better. He’d never act like that. If anyone around here had been acting sleazy, it’d been me. What had I been thinking? If some dude let himself into my room and planted himself naked in my bed, I’d have a fit. I blushed thinking about it from that perspective.

“Does anyone know about this besides you and Lij?” I asked him.

“You don’t want Polly to know?”

“Of course not. She’d go nuts.”

“Well, I can’t speak for Elijah, but I won’t say anything.”

“Elijah had better keep his mouth shut. I’ll make sure of that.”

We arrived back at the hotel and went up to Crow’s room.

He lingered in the doorway. “Ah... I guess I should go to Damo’s room.” He glanced back down the hallway.

“Stay a little while, please. I don’t want to be alone, and it might be weird being in Damo’s room without him there. You know what he’s like. You might nudge something out of its perfectly aligned right angle.”

I didn’t want him to think this was a ploy to seduce him or anything. I really did want him to stay.

Crow chuckled, but he took a step farther into the room.

“Anyway,” I said. “I feel bad about kicking you out of your room like this. I’ve been a pain in the butt, haven’t I?”

“You’re barely,” he said with a big grin.

That grin disappeared almost as soon as it appeared on his face. He stepped closer to me and pulled the neck of my t-shirt aside.

“That bastard,” he said. “He really hurt you.”

The light traces of his fingers on my shoulder took away any pain I was feeling. I wanted him to keep that up, but then I noticed that black expression back on his face. I didn’t want him dwelling on this.

I adjusted my t-shirt back into place. “It’s fine. I bruise easily,” I said. “The bruises will fade. They look worse than they are.”

I sat down on the sofa, wanting to relax. My whole body slumped after all the tension. “We can watch a movie or something,” I said.

He nodded and sat down on the sofa beside me. Even though it was a three-seater, he sat right beside me so his leg brushed against mine.

I picked up the remote control and turned on the television. There was an old movie on. Some sappy romantic comedy.

“Are you okay with this?” I asked him.

Crow didn’t seem like a romantic comedy kind of guy. On the other hand, he didn’t seem like an explosions and car chases kind of guy, either. I had no idea what his taste in movies was. I still had so much to discover about him.

“Yep, anything you want to watch,” he said.

I shuffled a bit closer. Crow was so nice and warm, and the smell of him made me happy. I didn’t want to do anything weird like put my head into the crook of his neck and take a big whiff, but the thought did occur to me.

I curled my legs up on the sofa, leaning against Crow. I wondered if he’d put his arm around me, but I wasn’t sure if he would. Of course, I could ask him to, but I wanted him to do it out of his own choice. The gap between him putting his arm around me of his own free will and doing it because he felt sorry for me was a massive one.

When he moved, my heart sang. He put his arm over my shoulder, lightly, as though he was worried he’d hurt me. I rested my head on his chest. He had a nice chest for resting your head on. Those muscles were a lot more comfort than you’d think. He had nice arms too. Almost everything about Crow was nice.

“Do you want me to order something from room service?” he asked. “Since you missed out on your tacos.”

“Nope. I’m fine.”

If we ordered room service, we’d have to move, and I was perfectly happy snuggled up with him like this. I’d be happy if he wanted to kiss me too, but having the comfort of him was pretty damn good.