When I met Rhys’s eyes, he shook his head. “Dude, you look like hell.”
“Thanks dickweed. I feel like hell.”
Abby stood with her back to me at the stove. The sound of my voice caused her to whirl around. With her hair pulled back in a ponytail, she held a spatula in her hand, which was surprising since I didn’t know we had cookware on the bus.
Her blue eyes widened as she took in my appearance, but then she quickly turned away from me. I did a double take because she appeared almost skittish in front of me—something she had never, ever done before.
“What’s wrong with you?” I demanded.
“Leave me alone!” she spat from her place at the stove.
“Ah, there’s my feisty girl.”
Spinning around, Abby’s expression darkened. “Don’t you dare call me your girl after the things you said and did to me earlier today!”
“You got a problem with me?”
“Wow, you must really be drunker than I thought if you have to ask that!” she snapped.
“Trust me, he’s totally hammered. The jackass chased two beers with a fifth of Jack,” Brayden replied, shaking his head.
AJ appeared behind me. “Let’s not start anything, okay? We have a show to see. Let’s just get out the door without any more trouble.”
Abby held up her hands. “I’m not the one starting anything. I certainly didn’t do anything wrong.”
A snort escaped my lips. “Don’t you get it, Angel? You’re what’s wrong.”
“Jake—” AJ warned.
Her eyes widened as she swept her hand over her heart. “Me?”
“Yeah, you.” I lunged forward causing her to take a tentative step back. “It’s you with those sexy as hell cowboy boots that I want digging into my ass as I fuck you until you scream my name. And those perfect tits…” I licked my lips at the mere thought of my mouth on them. But in that pause, my cloudy thoughts veered in a different, less perverted direction. “It’s the way the dimple comes out on your cheek when you smile really big and the way you blush when I tease you.”
I sucked in a breath as a fuzzy memory from the night before crashed over me. “It was the way your sweet, soft hands wiped away my tears, and the way your body just curved into mine when you let me hold you. It all made me feel, for just an instant, that everything really was going to be all right. No one has ever comforted me like that…except my mom.” What the fuck? Did I just say all that out loud? I shook my head furiously from side to side as the room started spinning me like a Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair back home.
Abby grabbed my shoulders to steady me. I blinked my eyes trying to focus on her blurry, but beautiful image. “Most of all, it’s that I want someone like you to want me—just for me, not for Jake Slater the singer of Runaway Train.” I smacked my hand hard against my chest. “For what’s really inside me.”
Abby gasped. “Oh Jake, I—”
She never got the chance to say what I hoped to hear because my churning stomach chose that precise moment to lurch, causing me to puke all over Abby.
CHAPTER NINE
* * *
Abby
Reeling from Jake’s drunken declaration of his feelings, I never anticipated being drenched in puke. I stood there frozen in horror as Jake retched again. I snatched my hands from his shoulders and fought my gag reflex.
Jake raised his glassy eyes to mine. Pain coupled with embarrassment swam in them before they rolled back in his head, and he started to pass out.
“Motherfucker!” AJ groaned as he grabbed Jake’s sinking form.
“He’s out cold,” Rhys reported.
“Ugh, I vote we throw his smelly ass in the bedroom and let him sleep it off,” AJ suggested.
“Sounds good to me.” Rhys helped AJ drag Jake back to the bedroom. When they finished, they slammed the door.
“I’m so sorry, Abby,” Brayden apologized. He started to take a step towards me, but then crinkled his nose and backed up.
“Yeah, I get it. I reek.” As I started for the shower, the guys swept past me towards the bus exit. “Whoa, wait a minute.” They paused and turned around. I glanced back to the bedroom and then to them. “You mean you’re going to leave me alone with Jake?”
“No, you can always come with us. We’ll have an extra place at our VIP table with Jake not going,” AJ offered. He gave me a sly wink before adding, “And I’ll buy you all the Coke Zero you can drink if you’ll promise to dance once or twice with me.”
I laughed. “That’s very tempting, but I think I better stay here. You know, get a little studying in or clean up this pigsty.” I glanced down at my puke-stained clothes. “Besides, you guys need to get going and don’t have time to wait on me to cleanup.”
Brayden smiled. “We’ll make time for you to change, Abby.”
“Aw, that’s so very sweet. Come here and give me a hug!” I offered with a teasing grin.
Holding his hands up in mock surrender, Brayden replied, “Lemme take a rain check on that one.”
“I figured as much. No, you guys need to get going to keep your reservation.”
“Are you sure?” Rhys asked before ducking into the bathroom to check his appearance one last time.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” I threw another uneasy glance back at the bedroom. “And you’re sure Jake will be okay?”
“You mean are you sure you’ll be okay with Jake?” AJ questioned with a grin.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Rhys chuckled as he stepped out of the bathroom. “It’ll be fine, Abby. He’ll be out for hours. And I wager when he wakes up, he’ll be too hung-over to try anything. Your virtue is safe.”
I huffed when he winked at me. “Fine. Go have fun. I’ll just be here baby-sitting the drunken, horny douchebag!”
The guys roared with laughter as they clambered off the bus and headed into the waiting SUV. “Men,” I mumbled as I headed for my suitcase and a clean change of clothes. When I got into the bathroom, I was quick to lock the door. I didn’t want to take any chances of Jake barreling in on me.
Under the scorching stream of water, my mind floated back to what Jake had said before he passed out. I couldn’t help the embarrassing flush creeping over my body at what he’d mentioned about us having sex. At the same time, an ache burned its way through me at the thought of what he had suggested, and for the first time, I felt true desire and longing for a guy. It was like nothing I had experienced with anyone else I had liked or dated. And even though I wasn’t in love with Jake, I wanted him. Bad.
“WHAT?! Have you lost your mind!” I shouted to the shower walls as I raked my fingernails through my hair. I then wildly shook my head back and forth. What was happening to me? No, no, no. I couldn’t think about Jake that way. He was a manwhore who only used women. He could never, ever love me or give me what I wanted in life…could he?
But my mind then whirled to Frank’s earlier conversation as well as what Jake had admitted after all the naughty stuff. He wanted a girl like me to really like him. It wasn’t the first time he had made that statement. He’d made that claim to me after I’d comforted him. Deep down, could Jake want a relationship and more with a girl…with me?
“Ugh!” I grunted as I finished rinsing my hair. I had claimed I wanted to gain some kind of experience of the whole bet situation, and unfortunately, I was getting more than I had bargained for. I’d been on the bus almost thirty-six hours, and my life had already been turned completely upside down.
As I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, I shivered at the thought of what the rest of the week might hold. Trying to tune out the wild and crazy thoughts flitting through my mind, I worked on drying my hair. I doused myself in lotion to make sure there wasn’t the possibility of any remaining puke smell.
Since I had yet to make it the store and my yoga pants and one t-shirt were puke stained, I slipped on a cami and a pair of jersey shorts. After I unlocked the door, I pressed my ear to the frame, liste
ning for any sounds of Jake stirring. I rolled my eyes when I realized how stupid I probably looked. I don’t know what I was so paranoid about. It wasn’t like Jake would ever try anything. I guess I was more afraid of not wanting to stop him, rather than not being able to.
With a deep breath, I exited the bathroom. Jake was nowhere in sight, and I could only imagine he was still dead to the world in the bedroom. Bringing my hands to my hips, I pondered what to do with my evening. Studying and not getting behind while out on tour was high on my list of priorities, so I dug my books out of my bag. But before I sat down, I surveyed the inside of the bus and wrinkled my nose. These boys were just as bad as my brothers when it came to being slobs. Pulling my hair back in a ponytail, I surmised that there was no way I could concentrate on studying surrounded by all the filth.
Bending down, I grabbed a pair of rubber gloves, cleaner, and sponges out from under the sink. As I started wiping down the counters, I realized it was entirely too quiet. I ambled over to the stereo system and started going through AJ’s CD collection. When I got to Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits, I stopped. “Oh yeah, a little old school MJ will do just fine.”
The opening 80’s synthesized melody of Beat It blared out of the speakers. Nodding my head, I started singing along, using my sponge as a make-shift microphone. As I cleaned up the table and chairs, I started shimmying and shaking my ass around the bus. There was nothing like cleaning to good music, and you could say I was a bit Michael Jackson obsessed.
I was halfway through playing air guitar on Eddie Van Halen’s solo when a hand on my shoulder caused me to shriek. I spun around, dropping the sponge and cleaner. It clattered noisily onto the floor.
Jake gave me an epic smirk. “Nice moves, Angel, but could you turn that down?”
My cheeks felt enflamed. “Oh, yeah, so sorry,” I muttered, hurrying over to flick off the stereo. As I tried stilling my erratic breath, silence echoed through the bus as Jake and I stood staring at each other. “Um, how are you feeling?”
He winced as he rubbed his head. “What do you think? I woke up in Hell with Michael Jackson pounding in my ears.”
When I snickered, he added, “Not to mention, I staggered out here to scream at the guys only to see you in that outfit,” he motioned to my cami and shorts, “shaking your ass.” He cocked his brows. “Totally not within the parameters of our bet, Angel.”
Sweeping a hand to my hip, I spat, “Sorry, but I have to have music on while I’m cleaning, and as for the clothes, well, you puked all over my least allegedly provocative outfit.”
“Oh Christ,” he muttered. It was like the memory of everything that had happened came crashing down on Jake, and he shuddered, falling back against the counter. His weary eyes met mine. He ran his hands over his face and furrowed his eyebrows at the feeling of the crusty, puke stains. “I was so fucked up earlier.”
“It’s okay. Sit down.” My caring instinct kicked into overdrive as I pushed him into one of the captain’s chairs. After I grabbed a fresh cloth out of the drawer, I ran it under the warm water while trying not to let my mind wander to which part of our earlier conversation he was most regretful about—the wanting to screw me or wanting me to like him.
Instead, I rinsed out the rag and then took it over to Jake. “Um, would you mind doing it for me since I don’t have a mirror?” When I gave him a skeptical look, he laughed. “This isn’t a come on, Angel.” He held out his hand to show me the slight trembling. “I’m not sure I trust my ass walking to the bathroom.”
“Fine then,” I muttered. In long strokes, I started washing his face.
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Damn, that feels good.” I tipped his head back and scrubbed down his chin. Squinting one of his eyes at me, he asked, “Why are you always taking care of me?”
“You’re always a mess,” I countered.
“I know,” he murmured. Sadness swept across his face. “I think you’re a masochist.”
“Huh?”
“You know, someone who likes pain.”
“And why do you say that?”
“Because even though I treat you like a total dick, you’re still nice to me and still want to help me.”
“You’re not always a…” I wrinkled my nose before replying, “dick.”
Jake gave me a half-hearted smile. “Mostly I am. Especially to you. And I’m sorry for it. I really am.”
I froze in mid-scrub at his apology. It was certainly not what I was expecting him to say, and when I searched his eyes, I saw the sincerity in them. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Silence echoed around us until Jake cleared his throat. “After everything, you really don’t think I’m a total asshole?”
I laughed. “Well, not all the time. You were a giant one this afternoon.” At his grimace, I added, “But you’ve also given me brief glimpses of the guy deep down inside you. You have your redeeming qualities too.” I left him to go rinse out the rag again. “And I don’t know about being a masochist. But I do know about trying to be the good person my parents raised me to be.”
Amusement replaced the anguish in his eyes. “Ah, yes, an allegedly good girl with a heart of gold but who also has the mouth of a sailor.”
I couldn’t help laughing at his summation of me. “Yep, that’s pretty true. But hey, I don’t drink or sleep around. I should be able to have one vice, so I guess a potty mouth is it.”
I trailed the rag down his chest, swiping the puke off the intricate tattoos inking his skin. “So many tattoos,” I murmured.
“You don’t like them?”
“No, I do. My brothers have some. In fact, I was thinking about getting one.”
Jake howled with laugher. “You cannot be serious.”
“Well, I am,” I huffed smacking his arm with the rag.
“Oh Angel, I would love to see that.”
“Fine then. Maybe you can take me to get one.”
A mischievous glint twinkled in his blue eyes. “Are you about to make another bet with me?”
“Maybe.”
He shook his head slowly back and forth. “I don’t think so, babe. If you go back to your brothers inked up, they’ll kick my ass.”
I rolled my eyes. “Leave my brothers out of this.”
Jake held his hands up in defeat. “Okay, okay, I’ll take you to get a tat.”
My eyes widened. “Really?” I squealed.
He winced and cupped his ears. “Jesus, ease up with the screeching.” When I glared at him, he grinned. “Yeah, I really will. My guy, Adam, is the only one I would trust your delicate skin to. But you better not pussy out on me.”
I knew he expected a reaction out of me because he had used a word I hated. But I kept my demeanor calm. “Awesome.” I then turned my attention back to cleaning him up.
When I skimmed above the waistband of his jeans, he grabbed my hand. “I can take it from here.” He winked at me. “You’re getting a little too close for comfort, Angel.”
“Oh, um, sorry,” I replied. Trying to hide my embarrassment, I whirled around and went back to the kitchen. While I tried busying myself with putting away the clean dishes, Jake rose out of his chair.
“I probably should grab a quick shower.”
“Okay.”
As he handed me the rag, a sheepish look came over his face. “When I get out, you think you could fix me some of that chili you made for the guys.”
“Are you sure your stomach can handle it?”
“Oh yeah, once I puke it all out, I’m usually good to go and starving a few hours later.”
“Ew,” I murmured.
He grinned. “Sorry. But that’s the truth.”
“Fine. Go shower, and I’ll fix you some dinner.”
“Thanks, Angel,” he replied before pulling me to him in a chaste hug. When he kissed the crown of my head, I tried not to shudder at the tingly feeling it sent racing throughout my body. My mouth hung open in shock as he padded into the bathroom and closed the door.
“Wonders never cease,” I murmured under my breath. I then busied myself with reheating some dinner for Jake.
At the sound of the bathroom door opening, I whirled around. Jake stood there with just a tiny towel wrapped around his waist while water dripped off his body. He glanced down at his lack of attire. “Sorry. My booze-head brain forgot to bring my clothes in with me.”
“Um, no, it’s okay. I’m just heating up the chili for you. It’ll be ready when you get dressed.”
“Great.”
Even though I shouldn’t have, I stood watching him as he walked down the aisle to the bedroom. The fluttering of my heart and churning of my stomach made me realize I was in serious trouble.
I turned my attention back to setting the table for Jake. He appeared a few moments later in a t-shirt that was entirely too small for him because it highlighted every rippling muscle he had along with a pair of ratty boxer shorts.
Frozen, I stood staring at him like he was a vision or something. His hair was still damp, and a few droplets glistened on his face. When he caught me, warmth burned across my cheeks.
“Were you just ogling me, Angel?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
He chuckled. “I think you were.”
I whirled around and swept my hands to my hips. “Fine I was ogling you. Happy now?”
“Actually I am. I like it when you look at me like you want me. Like you think I’m… handsome.”
My brows rose in surprise. “Handsome? That doesn’t sound like the way you would describe yourself.”
With a grin, he asked, “And just how would I describe myself?”
“Hmm, sexy, hot as hell, and panty melting?” I challenged as I handed him a Coke.
“Yeah, you’re right. Those really describe me better.”
I set a glass of water down. “Make sure you drink all of that and the Coke. You’re probably dehydrated.”
“Yes, Dr. Renard,” he replied, amusement twinkled in his eyes.
Rock Star Romance Ultimate Volume 2 Page 12
