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Then he’d take her hand and say his vows in front of his friends and what few family members he could get there in time.
After all that…after he kissed his bride…
How was he going to ever resist making love to her?
ChapterTwelve
Avalynn lay in bed, eyes closed. Every day she was on the road, she played the Where Am I? game.
Vegas to California, that much she knew. Without getting out her list of tour dates, she couldn’t recall if she was in San Francisco or Los Angeles this week.
Her mind drifted to her last performance. God, she hadn’t beenthatnervous in many, many years. Not even when her first album dropped and she had no idea how the world would receive a wholesome girl from small-town Texas.
Since that sex tape released, her life had been a blur. She’d ridden plenty of rollercoasters in her career, but this one held the most peaks and valleys by far.
Through them all, she had people who cared about her. Heidi and Lana. Damon and Freddy. The musicians in her band. Her momma was only a phone call away.
And Julius.
Her body tingled just thinking about him. He’d told her that he wanted her in his bed. That hadn’t happened last night, but the fact that he eventhoughtabout it made her pussy clutch with desire.
How would it be to wake up next to him? To open her eyes to his handsome face, made rugged by the short facial hair he sported plus more five-o’clock shadow. The black ink of a tattoo encompassing his shoulder and biceps all screamed bad boy.
While the thought of Julius taking down that guy who rushed her onstage shot fear through her, it also made her stomach leap in awareness. He possessed so much strength and skill she never got a chance to see.
And the things those callused hands could do to her…
She curled her toes against the sheets and gave a languorous stretch at the memory of her lover taking her to the screaming breaking point.
But she meant every word of the lyrics she’d sung. She loved the ways he showed that he cared. Loved the way he made her melt when he glanced her way. Those things she didn’t pay him to do, and neither did Sentry. He did them because…
Well, she could only guess at the level of his feelings. But there was no way she was reading him wrong. There was no possible way he could be playing a role.
During a short stop en route to California, he’d left her locked in the tour bus, probably thinking her asleep. But she’d watched out the bus window and saw him climb out of the black Sentry vehicle after being sequestered in there for a good half hour. What the team discussed about her case wasn’t something she liked dwelling on. She left those matters up to people who knew how to do their jobs. Fussing and fretting about who had made the sex tape only sapped her energy and drained the creative well that she needed every single day.
Maybe someday she’d feel the need for therapy over the whole thing, but for now…she felt strangely serene.
The calm before the storm?
She didn’t have time to think about it. Right now, she needed to get out of bed and get ready for…
Well, whatever interviews, live radio shows or photoshoots were written in her calendar today.
She rolled out of bed and padded barefoot across the floor, which was a rich honey-colored wood, distressed in places as though it had been reclaimed from some ancient building.
They’d rolled into the venue in the dark. A writing streak had struck her on the road and by the time Julius led her to her room, she’d fallen straight into bed, exhausted. She didn’t get a chance to do much more than acknowledge the big, comfortable bed before her eyes slammed shut.
Now she got a chance to inspect the room. White hand-plastered walls made her feel as though she were in a French country home. Along one wall was a fireplace in the same plaster. A single brass jug of fresh-cut greenery sat on one corner of the mantel. The bed linens were pale rose and the patterned carpet looked worn in spots, which only lent to the charming aesthetic.
Across the room there was a set of glass doors with black accents. When she brushed the sheer drapery aside and saw the view, she let out a gasp. The doors led onto an iron balcony and opened into a stunning…vineyard?
She gaped at the landscape for a moment. This was not San Francisco nor Los Angeles.
“Julius?” she called out, twisting away from the doors. “Julius!”
The door that joined their rooms struck off the inner wall as he blasted through it. His gaze swept the space, his jaw set and hand on his spine where she knew he tucked his weapon in the waist of his pants.
“What’s wrong?” He stalked to the open doors and peered out.
