The door to the bus opens what feels like only seconds later. Beaumont is standing there, sweat dripping down his face. I can still hear the people cheering in the small building just a few feet away. I hadn’t even realized that the music wasn’t playing anymore.
“What is wrong?” he asks.
“Have you paid off women and had them sign NDAs?” I blurt.
He blinks and I watch him lift his shirt, using it to wipe his face with the bottom before he releases it. His shirt is soaked through and clinging to his muscles. I lick my lips, trying not to think about his body, about his body on top of mine, inside of my own.
“I have. But for very different circumstances. What is all of this about?” he barks.
I gulp, standing to my feet. “Did you date those women?” I demand.
Beaumont takes a step toward me, his hand wrapping around the side of my neck. He dips his chin, his eyes focusing on mine. They’re warm and dark, almost like hot cocoa. I want to melt against him, sweat-soaked or not, he’s beautiful.
“I did, I guess if you want to call it dating, but I need to know what you’re asking me, Hutton. I’ll be honest, you know that, always. With you always,” he breathes.
“Did you break up with them for Andi?” I ask.
I know the answer before he verbalizes it. He releases me, taking a step back and running his fingers through his long hair. His expression is pained and he nods once.
“Andi and I have a history, you know that, Hutton. What is this all really about? Do you think that I’m going to leave you for her? I haven’t even spoken to her since we started seeing each other. I told you, it’s you and me, darlin’.”
God, he’s so convincing, I want to believe every single word that he’s saying. And I do, to a degree.
“For how long?” I ask.
His body jerks, and his eyes narrow, obviously irritated with the question and I would be too, if he were asking me, so I can’t even really get mad at that. He shakes his head a couple of times, inhaling a deep breath before he exhales it.
“For as long as it works, Hutton. I can’t make blind promises and I don’t expect you to either. We’re good though, I like what we are, and the direction we’re headed. Don’t ruin it by allowing other people to muddy up your mind.”
Pressing my lips together, I roll them a couple of times before I release them and begin to speak. “I don’t want to be the girl that I was when you left me all those years ago. I don’t want to be oblivious. You told me that you never loved Chelle?” I ask. He nods, his brows furrowing at my question. “Did you love Andi?” I ask.
“Why does that matter? I don’t now. I’m with you because I want to be, because you and me, we’re good together, because you make me feel a million different emotions. Because you’re who I see myself with.”
Inhaling a deep breath, I let it out and bite the inside of my cheek as tears fill my eyes. “You did love her. If she came here, knocked on this door and begged you to be hers, what would you do then?”
“Doesn’t matter. She won’t and I’m not available.”
The tears swimming in my eyes start to fall. Beaumont lifts his hand, cupping my cheek and tries to wipe them away, but they’re coming too quickly.
“Don’t make a big deal about nothing, Hutton. I have to go back to a meet and greet. Go and lie down in the bed and rest. When I come back, if you still feel like we need to talk about this pointless conversation, we will. I’ll talk as long as I have to, to convince you that it’s you I want, nobody else.”
“Chelle came to see me,” I blurt.
His body jerks, his eyes widen. He doesn’t say anything. He tilts his head to the side, his eyes watching me, waiting for me to continue speaking. I don’t. I shouldn’t have said anything at all, but my stupid mouth got the best of me and just blurted it out.
“We’re talking about this later,” he grunts as his only response.
He leans down, touching his lips to mine, then as quickly as he came into the bus, he’s gone. I watch his retreating form and I wonder what the hell is wrong with me? What am I doing, standing in this bus crying?
Why am I letting that man in my head and why do I think that there is more validity to Daniel’s words than Beaumont is admitting. He’s telling me his truths, he’s being honest, but I wonder just how honest. What exactly is he holding back?
Why does he have an on-and-off relationship with Andi? Why did I tell him about Chelle?
“Got questions?” a voice asks. Turning my head, I gasp at the sight of Austin standing just inside the door, a bottle of vodka in his hand. “Might have some answers for you, babe.”
“Might?”
He shrugs. “Believe it or not, I do want what’s best for Beaumont, even if it doesn’t always appear that way.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
BEAUMONT
The bottle of whiskey looks really fucking tempting staring at me from behind the bar. I think about Hutton back in the bus, angry and hurt by some shit from my past that I can’t change. I feel a hand slap against the middle of my back as I stare at the whiskey bottle, wondering if this sobriety kick is worth it.
“Sweet girl,” Daniel’s voice murmurs.
“Was, until you got in her head, what the fuck is wrong with you?” I spit, turning my gaze toward him.
He shrugs, not looking sorry in the least. “This world ain’t easy, Beaumont. You of all people should know that. Could tell with one look at her that she wasn’t meant for the limelight.”
I grunt, shaking my head. “Don’t want her there.”
He throws back his head in laughter. “Doesn’t matter what you want, that’s where she is. You don’t get a choice. Being on your arm means she’s thrust into the spotlight. It’s just the way it is, it’s the burden of being famous.”
Lifting my hand, I run my fingers through my hair with a sigh. He’s right, to a degree. Being associated with me does put a person in the spotlight, whether they want that or not. I mean, hell, there’s a picture of me fucking her going viral at this very moment.
“I’m not getting back with Andi, you can just kiss that publicity wet dream goodbye,” I state. “Hutton is a nice girl and I’m ready to settle down.”
“So you want kids?” he asks.
I shrug one shoulder. “Always have. Just think that I may finally be ready to go there.”
He nods, his eyes finding mine and I see a hint of compassion behind the ruthless shark that he always holds upfront. Daniel isn’t a bad person, he does have both mine and his best interest at heart. But no matter how much of mine he has at heart, his best interest is always quite a bit larger.
“Can’t you just settle down with Andi? It would just make your life so much easier. Do you know how many of these marriages don’t last?”
Snorting, I look over at him. “My guess is the marriage to the good girl that knew you and liked you before you were a household name lasts a hell of a lot longer than the one to the equally selfish and busy starlet.”
“Maybe. Maybe not when that hometown girl is as insecure as the one that’s… where? Run away?” he asks.
He doesn’t say another word, instead he turns and walks away just as a group of women make their way up to me. A couple of them are timid, but one is bold as the day is long. She asks me for a picture and presses her tits against my side as she poses for her friend’s phone.
I grin, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. The rest of the women take their turn, then Brian takes a picture of the five of us. Three of the women scatter, except for the bold one. She sticks her bottom lip out as she eyes me.
“I love your music,” she says with a faux timid smile.
“Thanks.” I grin.
Inside, all I want to do is run to Hutton and reassure her that everything is going to be fine. That she just has to have faith in us. She can’t hold all the shit from my past between us, letting it hinder our future. I’m not the same man today as I was a decade ago, and neither is she the s
ame girl.
“I think it’s really admirable what you did. Going to rehab. I’ve been myself,” she offers. Lifting my eyes to her, I see that she at least looks sincere in her words.
“Do you mind me asking you what for?”
She shakes her head. “Not at all. I used to drink and have an unhealthy addiction to sex.” I cough, my eyes widening from her frankness. She smiles, shaking her head, her dark hair flying around. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“No, it’s just, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“I saw your picture online,” she whispers, taking a step closer toward me. I gulp when her hand touches the center of my chest. “You could make a girl consider falling off the wagon,” she breathes, her tongue sneaking out to taste her red painted bottom lip.
Wrapping my hand around her wrist, I squeeze her gently. “I’m taken by the woman in the picture,” I rasp.
She grins. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
“She’s around.” I nod.
Releasing her wrist, she drops her hand and takes a step back, tilting her head to the side. “You can’t blame me for trying, Beaumont. I’ve never fucked a rock star before.”
“That is something I’m not, not really. I’m nothin’ but a fraud, darlin’.”
“Do you not play your own songs? Write your own music and lyrics?” she asks.
Obviously, she knows more about me than I’d anticipated. I grin, nodding my head. “You know that I do.”
She grins. “Then you’re not a fraud, maybe a little lost, but not a fraud.”
Chuckling, I tell her goodbye and turn around. I can’t be in here, no matter what my obligations are. I need to be with Hutton. I need to make sure she’s okay and remind her that she’s mine, that I ain’t going anywhere at all and neither is she.
HUTTON
I can’t do this.
Pacing the bus with Austin sitting at the table, his worried gaze focused on me. This isn’t the cocky asshole from just yesterday. Right now, he looks more like a concerned friend, and that alone makes me a bit uneasy, not including what he’s actually said to me.
“How many women?” I ask.
Austin chuckles, shaking his head. “Guy code. I can’t tell you that, Hutton.”
“How many women have been paid and signed those papers?”
He grunts, leaning back in his chair. “Four.”
I make a whining noise in the back of my throat and sink back down onto the sofa. The door opens and I glance to the side to see Jesse and Laurie stumble inside. She looks over to Austin, then me, and I watch as she frowns.
“What the hell is going on?” she demands. I almost laugh at her overprotectiveness.
Shaking my head, I decide not to tell her. “Nothing. I’m just going to head back to the hotel. I’m tired and we have an early flight in the morning.”
Nobody stops me from walking out of the bus and I’m glad. I just want to be alone, to think, to try and decide what in the hell I’m going to do. I should have ended this with the one night of closure and called it even. I shouldn’t have let him talk me into more.
“You runnin’?” a deep voice asks as soon as I step off onto the gravel parking lot.
Turning my head, I see him leaning against the bus. His legs are crossed at the ankle, his black eyes focused on me and his hair still wet from his show, long and messy. He looks lickable, he looks like every dream I’ve ever had come to life.
I wish that I could keep him, always.
“It’s time, Beaumont. We were living in dreamland if we thought we could do this.”
He shakes his head, pushing off of the bus and closes the distance between us. My breath hitches when one of his hands clamps down around my hip and the other around the back of my neck before he none-too-gently yanks me against his chest.
“You’ve let people plant seeds, you’re waterin’ them right now and they are fruitless, darlin’ girl,” he growls. “I can’t stop that from happening. All I can do is tell you that I’ve been nothing but honest. I don’t want Andi. I don’t want anyone else but you.”
Inhaling a shaky breath, I hold it in when I feel his lips touch mine, just for a brief moment. He lifts his head and his eyes find mine. His are liquid, glittering with anger, but I could get lost in them just the same.
“I have,” I admit. “But every question that I ask when I attempt to dig a bit deeper into what you’re not telling me, it helps to fertilize those seeds, Beau.”
He snorts. “Yeah, Hutton. Fertilizes them with shit.”
“Maybe so, but did you pay off four women you dated? Because you didn’t tell me the amount. Just that you did. I want to know why,” I demand.
I expect him to push me away, but he doesn’t. Instead he pulls me even closer against his body. His lips touch mine with just a hint of a brush. He doesn’t move his head away from me, or his mouth away from my own before he speaks again.
“Paid one off because she was going to go public with my drinking. Another, I paid off because she had video of us fuckin’ and I didn’t want that shit going viral. The third it was because she and her friend came in and we had a foursome with Austin. They were going to go public with that. The fourth, it was because she tried to claim she was knocked up with my kid and she was going to go public with a statement saying that I forced her to get an abortion.”
I gasp at his words. Closing my eyes, I let out a long exhale.
“Ask me,” he demands.
“Are they all true?” I ask, not wanting to pick out the one that I want to know the answer to the most, the last one.
He nods with a short jerk of his head. “All but the last. She was never pregnant and I would never ask a woman to do that, not fuckin’ ever. Saw how it fucked up Wyatt for fifteen years. Never want to fuck myself up worse, or fuck someone else up like that, not ever.”
Lifting my hand, I cup his cheek. I need to feel his beard beneath my fingertips. It’s soft and I can’t believe that this could be the last time. I just don’t see how we’re going to work, no matter how badly I want it to.
No matter how much I’ve fallen for him, fallen in love with him.
I just don’t see how this can go on. How I can live a life like this, a life where my privacy is nonexistent, a life where this man that I’m supposedly with has paid off women to keep his secrets, to keep him from being in the middle of scandals.
“I’m not that man anymore, Hutton. I wasn’t sober, I wasn’t making good decisions. I’m different. I’ve changed,” he promises.
I shake my head. I want to believe it, I want to believe every single word and a part of me does. But part of me doesn’t at the same time.
“I just can’t help but feel like all of this is going to explode,” I whisper.
He chuckles, touching his mouth to mine again. “It could. Fuck, I hope you always explode on my cock,” he says with a smirk. “But you and me, we’re going to be okay, as long as you don’t believe everything that you hear.
“Daniel wants me with Andi for his own reasons. He wants to make money off of us being an IT couple. Austin wants me single so that we can continue living a life of debauchery. Neither of them cares if I’m truly happy.”
“And I make you that?” I ask on a rasp.
Beaumont is silent for a moment, then he shakes his head before his lips crash against mine. He kisses me so hard that I gasp as my breath leaves my body. He turns us and backs me up against the bus, my body slamming against the side. I moan when I feel his hips against my belly, his hard length beneath his jeans pressing against me.
He rips his lips from mine, his chest heaving with his breath as he looks down at me. His hand is still tangled in my hair at the back of my head, his other one is gripping my hip tightly and his eyes, they’re sparkling as he stares down at me.
“I’ve never been happier than I have been with you. Jesus fucking Christ, Hutton. I don’t know how else to fucking tell you, don’t know how to show you just what yo
u mean to me. Tell me, how do I make this fucking shit sink in?” he demands.
Tears fill my eyes, except this time they’re not from sadness, no, this time they’re from overwhelming happiness. Cupping his cheeks with my hands, my tears fall down my cheeks as I look up into those glittery brown eyes that own my soul.
“I’m sorry. It all felt like too much,” I whisper.
He nods. “I get that, but never run off half-cocked. Always ask me, please God, fucking ask me.”
Nodding, I rise to my toes and press my mouth against his own. “I will. I’m sorry, it was just a lot. Forgive me?” I breathe.
He snorts, his tongue sliding along my bottom lip. “Always, Hutton. Fuck, not much I wouldn’t forgive you of, darlin’ girl.”
He kisses me against the bus for a few more moments, then he takes a step back, those brown eyes focused on me and he grins. “Need you, Hutton.”
“Want to go back to the hotel?” I ask.
He looks back at the parked SUV, then shifts his gaze to me. “Can’t wait that long.”
“In the car?” I hiss. “Didn’t those pictures teach you anything?”
His smile is huge, his hips grinding against my belly again and he hums. “Limo tint, darlin’. Come fuck me in the back of that SUV. Show me how wild my girl can get.”
Chapter Thirty
HUTTON
Laurie and I stand at the sidewalk of the hotel while Jesse and Beaumont load up our luggage in the back. I can’t take my eyes off of Beaumont. Last night, after he took me in the back of the SUV that I’m standing in front of, we came to the hotel and we made love again. That’s exactly what we did too—made love.
I’m still not convinced that this will last between us. That this is what he truly wants. Being with me isn’t easy, not with his fame. I’m honestly not sure how much I will be able to handle, this world he lives in is nothing like I’d ever imagined and I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.
FRAUD: An Unfit Hero Novel Page 22
