AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m tired of living in a cage, Dash.” Tortured eyes held mine. “I’m so sick of my anxiety ruling me. It’s exhausting. Why can’t I be free?”
My heart cracked in my chest. “You can be anything you want. I’ll join you out there and we can dance together.”
“Me too,” Tristan nodded. “Although I might suck at it.”
Cody popped over to our table, leaning against the side. His curly brown hair damp with sweat and his smile lifted to light his brown eyes. “You’re going to dance?”
Romeo nodded and swallowed the rest of the glass. “I need another one to calm my nerves first.”
“I’ll go with you when you head out there. What about you?” he asked Slater.
“I’m good right here, kid.”
Cody’s smile slipped. “I’m not a kid.”
“You can’t drink. That makes you a kid.”
He propped his hand on his hip, fully facing Slater. Cody had muscle on him. Xaiden said he worked with him at his gym. Nowonder he looked how he did. And he wasn’t shy about it. His fitted white T-shirt stretched across his chest. His jeans weren’t painted on, only hugging his legs enough to show them off. “Is that what makes me an adult to you? That I can legally drink?”
Slater shrugged. Oh, my brother was digging a deep, deep hole.
Cody planted his hands on the table and leaned close to Slater. “When you’ve seen the shit I have, you grow up real fucking fast. You look at me and see a child. Well, let me tell you, I’m all man. I didn’t survive what I have for you to look down on me.”
“I wasn’t doing that,” Slater forced out in a shaky breath. My brother was on the verge of a panic attack. For all the bravado he had when we performed, he wasn’t the same away from his guitar. “I wouldn’t—”
“Don’t,” Cody said and stood straight. “There are plenty of others here who would like my eyes on them.” He turned away without another word and went back to his family.
None of us spoke, but we watched Slater because we knew he was beating himself up. He tried to come across nonchalant to Cody and failed as Cody mistook the intention.
Slater stood and made a quick exit of the VIP area. I was about to go after him when Casper got up. “I’ll go.”
I couldn’t sit here and let my brother suffer while Cody thought Slater was an asshole. I stood as well and went to Cody’s table, which was on the other side of the one Dexen and his partners sat at.
Nodding my head to the side, I drew Cody away toward the corner, where I could talk to him privately.
“Listen,” I said. “You don’t know my brother, but what just happened, he honestly didn’t mean to upset you. He’s… Fuck, you’re not the only one with shit in your head, okay? Slater saidwhat he did to keep a wall between you two. You’re young, Cody and Slay’s thirty-eight.”
“That’s just a number,” he shot back, a bit of anger still simmering in him.
“But it’s not. We’re in the spotlight all the time. You’ve seen what your friends and family go through and how people judge them. There’s a nineteen-year age difference between you two. My brother won’t want a fling if that’s your aim. He sleeps with men who aren’t part of our circle to ensure there are no ties.”
“So, what you’re saying is I need to be older and approach him a different way.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re going to hold out and wait for my brother? That’s some dedication for a man you’ve met tonight for the first time.”
“Did you ever meet a person and just know? Your music has been playing in my ears for years. You’re famous and damn good. Sure, I think you’re hot, your whole band is. But seeing him tonight, meeting him face-to-face, I can’t describe it. I just knew.”
“Jesus,” I muttered and dropped my chin to my chest. Because I understood what he was talking about. Romeo and Tristan drew me in and haven’t let me go since.
“I’m not a kid, Dash.”
Lifting my head, I speared him with my gaze. “He won’t step a foot toward you at nineteen.”
“I’ll be twenty in eight months.”
“I can’t tell you what to do or to put your love life on hold. Twenty is better, but I’m not my brother. Slater is one of the good guys. He needs someone who will love every part of him. You see my boyfriend, Romeo? I’m sure you’ve noticed how nervous he is here and how he stays with Tris or me?”
Cody nodded.
