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We’d had no physical contact during dinner, but it was still fun. There had been a couple of bottles of wine, dessert, and a lot of fun, interesting conversation. There was a reason I was so infatuated with Devyn, and her friend Jesse was just as smart, sweet, and lovely. Kellan seemed a little enamored with Jesse as well, which surprised me. She wasn’t his usual type. He tended to go for willowy blondes while she was a petite, curvy redhead. She had a smart mouth and a sassy attitude, and that was something he loved, so I was interested to see if this was just sex or something more.
“God, that was amazing.” Devyn was drenched in sweat as finished our final song and ducked into the adjacent building.
“The crowd was into it,” Kellan agreed, taking a towel from Ross.
We’d kept our crew minimal for this show, with just Ross, Grim, and our main roadie, Pete Simms. Luckily, we ducked out the back, got into a limo, and were on our way back to the hotel. Those of us who were leaving would shower and grab our things so we could get to the airport. I’d asked Grim to stay with Devyn over the weekend because I figured she’d be recognized after being on TV this morning, and it was a good thing too.
“Uh, guys… we are all over social media,” Jesse said when the limo was on the way back to the hotel.
“We?” Kellan asked, leaning over to see what was on the screen of her phone.
“Pictures of us from last night. At dinner, walking out of the restaurant, walking into the hotel together…” She glanced at me. “The talk you were worried about? It’s all out there.”
“God dammit.” I didn’t want to call Dorian on Thanksgiving, but I’d text her.
She needed to get on this immediately.
“How bad is it?” Devyn asked quietly. She looked much calmer than I’d expected.
“Eh.” Jesse wobbled her hand from side to side. “It’s mostly conjecture. It’s the comments that are bad.”
“People suck,” Tommy said. “But it’s not a big deal. When Harley and I announced our divorce, you should’ve heard the rhetoric from fans. How, now that I was famous, I was leaving my long-time wife, looking for someone better. How guys like me always do that kind of stuff, blah blah blah. And she divorced me. So, you can’t worry about that shit.”
“Yeah, but no one questioned how you got to be in Onyx Knight,” Devyn said, looking at Jesse. “How much of that is there?”
“Not a ton. One comment on InstaPix says something like, ‘well, now we know how she got the gig.’ But mostly it’s just questions about Kellan’s new girlfriend and—”
Kellan glanced at Jesse and grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
Jesse laughed. “Please. I can handle it. And there’s a ton of security at the office, so if the press tries to get to me there, they’ll be in for a world of hurt.”
“In a few weeks we’ll head off to Europe and they’ll forget all about today’s news highlights.”
“Works for me.” Jesse nodded in Devyn’s direction. “Don’t worry, girlfriend—I got your back. Let them wonder who I am for a while. They’ll be so bored.”
Everyone chuckled.
“You’re the best,” Devyn said. “All of you.”
“I told you,” I said, squeezing her arm. “We’re a family. And you’re one of us now.”
“Thank you.”
Her eyes met mine, and the emotion there hit me right between the eyes.
We’d had a great night together after Jesse had disappeared with Kellan, and the gig had been amazing too.
There was so much good between us, it was hard to pretend like there was nothing. It had only been a couple of weeks and the sneaking around was already getting on my nerves.
It was time to amp things up because one thing had become abundantly clear: I was falling in love with her.
The only question now was what to do about it.
* * *
I called my mom when I got home that afternoon. Z had invited me over but I was tired and didn’t feel like socializing. I’d hated leaving Devyn in New York, and it had taken a lot of self-control not to invite myself to hang out. I could’ve talked Kellan into it too, and the four of us could’ve had a blast. But Devyn wasn’t ready to go public, and she’d told me how much she was looking forward to spending time with Jesse and her family.
It wasn’t that I was needy or that I was possessive like that. I would never tell the woman in my life she couldn’t hang out with her friends. It was more that we were so new and since we couldn’t be together when we were with the band, the holiday weekend had felt like the perfect opportunity to just spend time together. Holed up in my condo. Maybe doing something with Greatty and then going back to my place to watch a movie, make love, just hang. Get to know each other on a different level.
