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“Eh, she’s like my cranky sister.”
“I hear that.” Thinking of Ethan, Lauren nodded and scurried after West. He still held her hand, but his super long strides ate up pavement faster than she could keep up in her hell shoes.
They circled the arena—which took forever and a day—then looped a path through the nearly empty parking lot at the rear of the building. Finally, the nirvana that was the long bus parked way in back came into view.
“Thank God.”
“Almost there.”
Grimacing, she nodded and kept going. She craned her neck in search of groupies, hoping to get in a little research time before she stepped into West’s lair. But no one was around, save a couple of girls passing a cigarette—okay, probably not a cigarette—back and forth as they eyed the bus from their spot along the guardrail a few feet away. They didn’t make a move to come closer, and West paid them no mind.
Must be he wasn’t the member of Warning Sign they were after. Lauren frowned. She herself hadn’t noticed West first out of the bandmates, but now she couldn’t understand how anyone could miss him.
After a short while in his company, he was already everything. A life force she couldn’t look away from. Just the scent of his sweat and his soap and she could’ve sworn an electric charge went through her.
The man was magnetic. Seriously intriguing, and not just because of his incredible talent. That was only one part of the whole. But if she was the only one who knew that—at least tonight—well, she didn’t really mind. She was more than happy to keep him to herself, research project or not. She could always pick his brain on his experiences with fans.
Fans like you? Fans he brings back to his bus to fuck?
She could only hope on that last one.
West let her go long enough to do some kind of complicated hand knock that had the bus door folding open. A pretty dark-haired woman seated in the driver’s seat propped her elbow on the wheel and her head on her hand. “This the girl I heard so much about? Bennie?”
West glanced at Lauren. “Her name is Lauren.”
“No, she played Bennie with you. Lord, Weston, I haven’t had enough alcohol to deal with you at three in the morning.?
?
“You haven’t had any alcohol.”
“Exactly my point.”
West grinned and squeezed Lauren’s hand before motioning her ahead of him on the bus. “Your chariot awaits. Also, bathroom is in back, far right. If you want a shower, extra towels and some of Molly’s disposable slipper thingies are in the cabinet under the sink.”
“Oooh, you’re setting her off on a dangerous path already. You know how Molly is about—”
“Everything? Yes, I know. We all know. And she can deal. Go on,” West urged when Lauren hesitated on the bottom step.
“I don’t bite,” Denver said. “I just take good care of my boys and girls. Even when they’re assholes. Especially then, because I’m like their momma without the stretch marks. I love them the way no one else should.”
“You’re our age. How can you be their mother?” Lauren asked.
“Taking care is a state of mind, baby doll. Now go on back there and get cleaned up before Mal returns with his bimbo du jour. Or bimbos. He tends to like to use the bathroom for nefarious purposes.”
“Okay. Going. I really could use a quickie. Shower, I mean,” she added as Denver’s dark eyes gleamed.
“Sure, honey. They all come here just for the free water.”
She didn’t add run along now but it was heavily implied.
“Denver, don’t be a dick.” West gave Lauren a nudge, shifting the pizza box under his other arm. “Ignore her. It’s a hazing ritual she does to anyone we bring home.”
“I’m okay with it. I realize probably most of the women you bring here aren’t virgins. Which I am,” Lauren informed Denver.
It was nothing to be ashamed of.
“Heard that before too. It’s a good line.” Denver went back to the folded magazine in her hand.
