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The door has swung closed in my face, the thin wooden panel blocking her from my view and I have yet to move. I’m pretty sure if I do, I might die.
Dramatic, I know.
Still standing there where she left me, hands laced at the top of my head; I practice a breathing technique to bring myself back. Expanding my lungs with deep inhales and slow exhales. Sweat sheens my skin, heat radiating from my body, hair sticking to my lips as I suck life back into my vibrating body.
I was ready to kill for her. Pissed that my security let someone past them, but ready to act, nonetheless.
She’s worth jail time.
“What the fuck are you thinking?”I hear my girl yell through the thin door. Her sister yammers some shit I can’t make out, all I know is she’s kinda scary and I fucking love it.
“Don’t be like them, you asshat. He deserves some fucking respect.”
Wait … he?
She’s defending me?
My arms fall to my sides, my chest filling for a different reason this time. Emotions I’m a little scared to name but have been waiting for knock at my ribcage and have me questioning my sanity level.
I wrote an album for this woman.
I reach out and crack the door open at Aria’s back. Her head bobs, her longer-than-I-remember hair swaying around her shoulders, as she melts the face off of her sister. She catches me, the sister, with watery eyes and a trembling bottom lip.
“I’m sorry, Rex.” She speaks between Aria’s harsh words, drawing the attention over her sister’s shoulder. Green eyes that shine with emotion I recognize in my own heart meet mine and bring a pull to the corner of my lips.
“You don’t have to apologize to me.” I meet her sister’s blotchy face with sincerity. “Having cameras in my face is what I do.” I wink because that’s what douches do, and step closer to the woman whose eyes haven’t left my profile since I stepped out of the door.
My next move … it makes a statement. For the whole bus to see.
I wrap my arms around Aria’s waist and pull her flush against my body, pressing a kiss to her temple as she watches on in horrified embarrassment that she refuses to let stop her. Or me.
Thank God.
“I just don’t want to violate anything Aria’s not ready to give up,” I speak to her, taking pride in the flush that rises across her cheeks when I cup her face in my hand, one that deepens in color when I press my hard dick into her pelvis.
“Rex,” she breathes. “Shit isn’t that fucking easy.”
Knowing this, I bob my head and prepare my rebuttal. I’ve been trying to practice what I’d say if she ever gave me the chance again. Trying to find the words that match how she makes me feel, every goddamned day since the moment I met her.
But now? I feel the eyes of my family and hers on me, on us, and I realize that a lot could have changed in the last few months.
What if she’s with someone else?
What if she isn’t?
I shake my head but smile at her. I know I have to try despite the stage fright that sets in and threatens to paralyze me in this spot.
She has been my weakness since the photoshoot.
“I know it’s not that easy, babe. Trust.” Pressing my forehead to hers, I close my eyes and let her scent fill me up with resolve. “But I’ve been a songwriter for decades.” I pause and meet her gaze through my lashes without leaning back. “And I’ve never written an album about someone like I did with this one. That means a fuck load to me.”
“Damn you.” She whispers to me, her anger deflating like the shoulders that relax into my hold.
“I want you. I want a life outside of the stage lights. I want all my work to be worth something.” Palms to her jaw, I look her dead in the eye and admit shit I haven’t said out loud to anyone before. “I’m fucking great at lyrics, but terrible at this.” I chuckle but continue with itching eyes. “You had me since ‘holy shit’ crossed those fucking lips because of what those wordsmeant.” I press a kiss to the tip of her reddened nose. “You didn’t recognize me as the front man of a famous band.” Another peck to her forehead. “You saw me as a man.”
I see the soul she bares to me through her irises despite the gulping bob I catch in her throat. Crickets envelop the bus and I furrow my brow at the silence that falls around us.
My lungs falter when all she does is continue to stare at me, blinking slowly.
