“They do.” She sighed, setting the wand down in order to shake out her arms. “Whenever I decide to do this, I always think about cutting my hair, but then I can’t bring myself to do it.” She picked the wand back up and went about doing her final section.
“No way, do not cut your hair. You have the best hair, it’s so healthy and shiny,” Stacey begged. “I love your hair.”
“I know, and I’ve worked hard to get it that way. Once I stopped putting the blonde highlights in it, that made a huge difference.”
Shell tilted her head to the side. “Has it gotten darker?”
“A little,” Hannah confirmed. “The older I get the more red highlights I get too. It’s evolving, kind of like me.” She laughed. “Finally.” She sighed as she did her last curl and unplugged the curling wand.
“Good, we have right at an hour before we can leave, so we should be running right on time.”
They did their makeup and then went about putting their clothes on.
“Do you like these?” Hannah asked as she went to put on a pair of black leather booties.
“Yes, where did you get them?” Shell asked as put on her stilettos.
“They were actually sent to me. I’m not sure by who, but they are the most comfortable things, even though they have a four-inch heel on them.” She finished snapping the clasp that would keep them in place before standing up and smoothing her dress down her thighs. “Do I look okay?”
Stacey grinned at her sister-in-law. “You look hot. You should make me a niece or nephew tonight.”
Hannah laughed before she walked over to the full-length mirror and inspected herself as she turned this way and that. She wore a red bandage dress that was lower cut than she normally dared, but it was Valentine’s Day. Over it, she’d put on a black, leather half-jacket, along with the shoes. Her makeup was dark and her curls were perfect. She did look hot.
“As do you. C’mon, ladies, let’s go get our guys.”
Chapter Ten
* * *
As they roamed the back hallways of the Wireless Center, they could hear Black Friday already on their fifth song.
“We’ll come in at a good time, and we won’t have to wait forever,” Hannah told them as they flashed their badges to the venue’s security.
Making their way further backstage, they ran into Rick.
“I was wondering when you ladies would make it here.” He reached in, kissing Hannah on the cheek, before doing the same with Shell and Stacey.
“We had planned to be here a bit earlier, but beauty takes time,” Hannah joked.
Rick did a once-over on the three of them, and then offered them a thumbs up. “And beautiful the trio of you do look. You’re dangerous, if I do say so myself.”
Shell giggled. “Thank you.”
“Those dudes aren’t going to know what to do with themselves when they see the three of you looking this way.”
That’s what they were all hoping for.
* * *
Garrett glanced over to the side of the stage, wondering when the hell Hannah was going to get there. He was starting to get worried. They had one song to go, and he still hadn’t caught sight of her. As he looked closer, he saw a group of females making their way through the crowd. It was then that he finally caught a glimpse of her standing next to Shell and his sister. He completely missed his cue as he saw what she was wearing, but luckily the crowd picked it up for him. His wife was hot as hell, and there was no way he was letting his sister be alone with Brad in that little scrap of a thing she wore that some women called a dress.
Jared walked up, still playing. “What’s going on?”
He pointed over to the side of the stage, before putting the mic up to his mouth and picking up where he should, chuckling when Jared also fucked up. He must have caught a glimpse of Shell.
Normally, he savored the last song of the night—wanting to remember everything about it. Tonight, he couldn’t wait for it to be over. As soon as the last chord was played, he’d said his goodbyes, and dropped the mic.
“Holy shit,” he breathed as he hurried over to his wife. “Is this what you’ve been doing all afternoon?”
She was almost breathless as she saw the look in his eye. “This and picking them up.” She pointed over to Shell, who was wrapped tightly in Jared’s arms.
He reached out and stopped Stacey from going to Brad’s. “Does Dad know you’re wearing some gauze and a band aid?” he asked, not able to keep the smartness out of his tone.
“No, does mom know that you like to call your wife a groupie?” she retorted, glancing pointedly at her brother.
The two of them were locked in a stare down, and neither one broke away until Hannah grabbed Garrett’s hand. “It’s Valentine’s Day. Leave them alone.” She pulled him so that he stood facing her instead of the other couple. He heaved a breath and then put his lips to her ear.
“C’mon,” he whispered. “I’ve got us a nice, quiet place to go for the night. I want you all to myself.” He reached under the jacket, grasping her waist with his large hand.
She couldn’t wait.
* * *
It had been a whirlwind from the moment Jared looked over at the side stage and saw Shell standing there. He wasn’t sure how they’d managed to make it out of the venue and to the car then to the hotel suite. The only thing he’d had time to grab was his guitar and a change of clothes.
“I hope you don’t mind that I ordered us dinner in.” She smiled at him, but it was shaky.
Jared knew she was always a little nervous around him, because she was never completely sure where she stood with him. That was his fault, and he was going to do his best to rectify that. “I love that you ordered us dinner in. I don’t want to share you with anyone else looking like this.” He tilted her chin up so he could capture her lips, teasing them open with the tip of his tongue.
“I look this way for you,” she confessed as they pulled back, the air in the room heavy.
He grabbed her hand and pushed her away from him. “Spin around for me.”
With him it was always like this. He was a man of such few words that Shell always did what she was told. There was something about following his orders that she loved. So with a glance up into his brown eyes—eyes that were hot with desire—she turned a small circle on the tips of her high heels.
Jared bit his lip as she did so, playing with the lip ring that was there. This woman was everything he’d ever wanted in one package, and he knew he hadn’t worshipped her enough. These last few weeks of being separated and seeing the relationship that Garrett and Hannah had managed to have was his undoing. He had to have this woman—body and soul. The lavender dress she wore was short and had ridden up as they had touched one another; now it stopped just below the swell of her ass. The stilettos she wore accentuated her calf muscles and put her near the same height as him. Unlike Hannah, she wore no jacket, and his eyes took in the delicate swell of her shoulders and collar bones. Her blonde hair surrounded her like a halo.
“Do I pass inspection?” she teased, her blue eyes twinkling.
“You more than pass inspection. You’re fucking hot, and I’ve missed the shit out of you.”
She had missed him too, more than she wanted to admit to anyone. It had been hard, staying away these weeks, trying to convince herself that she was doing the right thing when she hadn’t been sure.
“I’ve missed the shit out of you too.”
He didn’t want to ruin this, but he had to know, so he broached the topic. “Have you thought more about coming out on the road with us?”
Turning her back to him, she walked over to the glass windows that encompassed this suite. Hannah’s name got her huge favors when she decided to cash in on them. Looking out over the skyline of Charlotte, she contemplated if she wanted to go through with her plans or not. It wasn’t a decision she’d come to lightly, and she so badly wanted to make the right one. She felt the heat of his body as he walked over to where sh
e stood and pressed her against the mirrored glass. When he placed one hand on either side of her head, she was effectively closed in.
“I asked you a question,” he whispered darkly into her ear.
She tilted her head away from his mouth, opening up her neck to his lips. He took full advantage, nipping at the tender skin there. She breathed heavily as she put her hands on the glass next to his to steady herself. It had been weeks since she’d felt his touch, and she was dying. “I want to stay with you. I’m going to do online classes, but I don’t want to miss you anymore. If Chris can make it work, I can make it work.”
At those words, Jared could have shouted to the world, proclaimed that he was the luckiest man alive, and run through a burning building for her. Instead, he removed one hand from the glass and slipped one shoulder of the dress down before the other and pulling it below the lace strapless bra.
“Thank you for taking a chance on us.”
Pulling his other hand off the glass, he inched it down her side and to the edge of her dress, pulling it up and over her ass, baring the skin there. His intake of breath was sharp. “You haven’t been wearing underwear this whole fucking night?”
Glancing back behind her shoulder, she shook her head. “Nope. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
It was those words that caused him to attack. Reaching down, he wrenched the fly of his pants open, pushed them down around his knees, and in one quick thrust claimed her.
Shell gasped as she was pressed against the cool material of the glass. Could anyone see them? Did anyone know what they were doing? Her head fell against the glass as he pulled out and pressed back into her body. She had missed this, she had missed him more than she admitted even to herself.
Jared knew he had to see her. Pulling out of her tight heat, he turned her so that he could see her face. “Do you love me?” he whispered, pushing the skirt up higher so he could grasp her around the ass and press her against the glass.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, nodding her head at his question.
“Tell me.” He pushed back into her as he gripped her thigh, holding her so she wouldn’t slide down the slick surface.
“I do love you, Jared, and it scares me,” she gasped out when he pushed deeper inside of her.
Not able to stand the look in her eyes, he put his forehead at her neck, his body heaving for air. “It scares me too,” he admitted. “I love you so much, it scares me too.”
Those words were the most beautiful words she’d ever heard in her life.
* * *
Hours later, they lay in bed, wrapped up in one another’s arms. Jared cleared his throat. “I never gave you your Valentine’s Day gift.”
“I don’t need anything.” Shell shook her head. “Being here with you is exactly what I needed. It’s the best present ever.”
He got up, putting his boxer briefs back on before walking over and grabbing his guitar. “I kinda wrote you something,” he told her as he had a seat and started strumming some chords.
As he started singing, she listened, really listened to the lyrics of the song. They talked about love and how the man had a hard time letting his feelings show. How he wanted his lady to stay, and the only way he could make her do it was to tell her he loved her. When he finished, she had tears streaming down her face.
“That was beautiful,” she told him, shaking her head in amazement. “I can’t believe you wrote that for me.”
“Garrett helped me with some of the phrasing. You know he’s romantic like that.”
She wanted to argue that he was romantic like that too. He’d gone out of his way to do this for her. That said a lot about the man he was becoming. She watched as he sat his guitar aside and then went in search of his pants.
“I have one more thing for you.”
“I don’t need anything else, truly. This is enough right here.”
He shook his head and reached into his pants pocket, pulling something small out. It was a coin that he flipped in the palm of his hand before he went over to sit next to her. He held it out to her. “It’s my sobriety coin. I have 250 days sober, and I know without you I wouldn’t be here. In the last meeting, my sponsor talked about the important things, the things that made us want to stay sober. I thought really long and hard about it, and I knew I wanted to stay sober for you, but I kept asking myself why. It wasn’t an easy question to answer, and I know I’m not the man you thought you would be with – hell, I’m not the type of man that deserves you.” He reached over and cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand. “But I realized that the reason I want to be sober is because I want to prove that I love you, I want to prove that I am good enough for you to accept that love. So, I’m giving you my sobriety coin, and with the coin, I give you my heart. Don’t break it, Shell,” he pleaded.
Throwing her arms around him, she couldn’t help the emotion that poured out of her body. In that moment, she felt like the luckiest woman in the world.
Chapter Eleven
* * *
March
Hannah groaned as she checked her cell phone.
“What’s wrong?” Garrett asked, looking up from the news article he was reading on his iPad.
The two of them were waiting for everyone else to get ready before they left for the venue.
“I have to have my annual next week, which means I need to fly back to Nashville for the day.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste.
“Have fun with all that.”
She rolled her head around on her shoulders, dreading the conversation she knew she had to have with him. “Actually, there’s something I need to talk to you about in regards to that.”
“Me?” They were married and all, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the details of her gyno visits.
“Yeah, you know I have an IUD. It’s time for me to take it out and decide whether I want to put another one in or not.”
It took him a minute to realize what she was saying to him, but once he got it, he scooted closer to her on the seat in the bus. “Are you saying you might want to go ahead and try for a baby?”
She pursed her lips and nodded quickly. “I think we’re in the best situation right now that we’re going to be in for a few years, and if it was to happen now, I wouldn’t be sad about it. However,” she grabbed hold of his hand, “I think this is something you should talk to the guys about too. This will not only change our lives, but theirs as well. That’s why I’m bringing it up so early, I want to give you time to talk it through with them.”
Garrett folded his tattooed arms over his chest and worried his bottom lip between his teeth. “I’m tempted to say it’s none of their business. This is our lives and our family, but I realize what you’re saying, and I think you’re right. My next question is, are you sure? You’re still young. In life and in your career. I don’t want you to regret this as soon as it happens.”
Hearing him talk about it like it was a done deal made her stomach clench in delight and anticipation. “I’ll never regret that, just like I’ll never regret this.” She ran her hand over his wedding ring.
“Okay, then I’ll have a talk with the guys about it.”
“And I’ll have a talk with Shell. Actually, we’re planning on hitting the mall tomorrow, so while we’re there, I’ll bring it up. Sound good?”
“Sounds like the greatest news ever to me.” He smiled widely, leaning in for a kiss that quickly got out of hand. It got broken up as the rest of the crew filed into the main living area and started making porno music noises. Which caused Havock to bark loudly and jump in the middle of the fray.
“Thanks, guys.” Hannah laughed as she pulled back and wiped her lipstick. It was a good thing she wasn’t as embarrassed by these things as she once was.
* * *
“Do you wanna stop for some lunch?” Shell asked Hannah as they made their way out of the Victoria’s Secret in the mall they were visiting in Atlanta.
Hannah had been waiting for the perfect time to tell her
friend about her plan all afternoon, and now it was finally presenting itself. “I could definitely eat. I think we’ve walked like five miles.”
There was a restaurant inside the mall, so they went up to the hostess station, and to their surprise, they were shown right back to a table. “Thank you so much,” Shell said as they were seated and brought glasses of water.
The hostess smiled back at them. “It’s not every day that Reaper’s wife decides to come have lunch in our establishment.”
As the hostess left, the two of them looked at one another and giggled. “It’s funny in some circles how I’m Reaper’s wife, and then in other’s I’m Harmony and he’s my husband.”
“The joys of marrying someone just as famous and hot as you are,” Shell mused. “You mind if we get an appetizer? I didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning after my run with Jared.”
The two of them had taken to doing runs each morning, no matter where they were. When the bus stopped, they quickly got on Google, mapped out a two mile run, and took off together. It was their alone time throughout the day, and by all appearances, they both loved it.
“Absolutely. How are things going between the two of you?” Hannah hadn’t wanted to be nosy and was trying to give Shell plenty of time to settle in before she started questioning her about how their relationship was going.
Shell beamed. “It’s going way better than I ever thought it would or even could. I always assumed that if I came out here with him, he would feel like I was smothering him, but instead, I feel like maybe I’m anchoring him.”
“I think so too,” Hannah agreed as she took a drink of her water. “He seems much more at peace now that you’re here. Not that he wasn’t at peace before, but there’s something about you that calms him down.”
A waitress came to their table then, allowing them to order their appetizer and their meals.
“So how are things going with you?” Shell asked, taking a sip of the wine she’d ordered with the appetizer.
“I’m glad you asked that, because I have something I want to talk to you about.”
Full Circle (Rockin' Country Book 3) Page 6
