by Lisa Suzanne
And I like what I see.
CHAPTER 5: EMILY
My cheeks are burning, and I think I feel a little bead of sweat roll down my back just from the heat in his voice as he calls me the nickname he’s always used since he incorrectly used it the day we met.
His eyes are on me, and if I’m not mistaken, I think I see some heat in them.
I have to be mistaken. I’m in Vegas. Surely it’s the thought of Sin City and drinks and he’s a rock star and Oh. My. God I haven’t said anything back to him yet. We’re just staring across a small space at each other as I’m completely lost in some idea that we could have some fun this weekend.
I’m not over my crush on him.
Not by a long shot.
Respond.
Words.
I need to say some words here. “Hey, Adam.”
He was always delicious, but he’s aged well in the three years, eleven months, and eighteen days since I last saw him.
It was two days before Christmas, and while part of me remembers that date because it was the last time I saw him, the other part of me remembers that date for a very different reason.
It’s funny how life is made up of moments. Some pass you by without a second thought while others have the ability to change you forever.
And what happened three years, eleven months, and eighteen days ago changed me forever.
It wasn’t just the day I saw Adam look at his new girlfriend with so much love in his eyes as I snapped a photo for the Wilson family photo album. His arm had wrapped around her tiny waist and he pulled her close to him. She looked forward at the camera and smiled as they stood beside the Christmas tree, but he was looking down at her. The look on his face paired with the intensity in his eyes—intensity that I knew he’d never have in his eyes when he looked at me—told me I needed to give up my crush on him.
It was also the day I met Chad.
It was after the Wilson Christmas party, and I stopped for gas on my way home. As I was exiting the gas station store with a bottle of wine in hand to help me forget about the way Adam had looked at Bree, some guy bumped into me. I fell and rolled my ankle. He felt so horrible he insisted on taking me to the hospital. We started a friendship that night that eventually turned into something more.
Until he cheated on me with one of my closest friends.
He’s been calling me and texting me nonstop, presumably to find out if I’m okay or maybe just so he can ask me to move my stuff out of his apartment, but I haven’t answered. I’m debating blocking him altogether. At one point, I clicked on the text message icon on my phone, found his name, saw I had nine unread texts from him, and deleted his entire contact without reading them.
I’m moving on, and I’m not even mad about it.
Speaking of which...
Last I heard, Adam is single, and as of a couple days ago, I am single, and we’re here in Sin City together for the weekend.
Can’t a ridiculously sexy, hot, single guy and I have a little fun this weekend?
I realize I’m not over Chad since we just broke up a few days ago, but this is Adam Wilson. Adam Wilson. If Adam would’ve propositioned me when I was with Chad, I would’ve had a hard time saying no.
For the record, I would have said no, though, unlike my cheating dick of an ex.
Maybe getting over him will be easier than I thought.
He finally breaks eye contact with me as he moves with my suitcase toward an open door. “You two can stay in here,” he says, wheeling my bag in and disappearing into the room. Amber follows, and I take a deep breath and shake out my hands to try to calm my nerves before I move in that direction.
Though I can’t help but wonder which of the other two rooms Adam is sleeping in and whether he’ll be sleeping there by himself...
“I have some exciting news,” I hear Adam tell his sister as I make my way toward them. “Vail invited us onstage with them tonight.” I peek my head around the door just as he finishes his sentence. “Do you two wanna come?”
“Oh my God, Adam!” Amber smacks his arm. “Of course we want to come! Vail is my all-time favorite band EVER!”
“MFB isn’t?” he deadpans, naming his own band.
“MFB is mine,” I murmur, my eyes widening at the view of Las Vegas Boulevard down below our window. It’s true. MFB is my top favorite, with Vail coming in at a very, very close second. Okay...maybe they’re tied for the top space. The lead singer of Vail is awfully dreamy.
“Ass kisser,” Amber mutters.
Adam laughs. “What can I get you two to drink?”
Amber thinks for a minute. “Rum and Diet Coke.”
Adam rolls his eyes. “Rum? Still, Amber? Haven’t your tastes matured yet?”
She laughs, and he looks over at me with a question mark on his cute face as if to ask me what I want to drink without saying the words.
I don’t want him to judge my drink preference the way he just judged Amber’s, so I’m thinking rum is out...which is fine since I haven’t had rum since I was seventeen. And then I realize that I can’t be intimidated by the hot, older rock star brother of my best friend. He asked me what I want to drink, and I want a damn margarita. If he judges me for that, well, then maybe it’ll just be further proof that I need to get over my crush. “I’d love a margarita.”
He looks at his sister and jabs a thumb in my direction. “See? Now tequila is a drink choice I can get behind.” He winks at me, and my heart flutters.
My heart actually flutters. And my stomach flips and I think I might be sweating again.
“Let us freshen up and we’ll meet you out there,” Amber says, and Adam gives me one last long look before he nods and leaves, closing the door behind him.
“Oh my God!” Amber squeals as soon as the door clicks shut.
“I know!” I squeal back. I can hardly believe the chemistry I just felt in this room between her brother and me, and clearly she saw it, too. Oh my God, we’re going to be sisters. It’ll be by marriage, but still. She’s been like a sister to me since my preteen days, and if Adam and I get together and someday down the line we get married, we really will be.
I may be getting a tad ahead of myself, but whatever. We’re squealing and it’s exciting.
“Can you believe it? My brother...” she trails off and I’m about to interject about how I’m so glad the sexual tension between us wasn’t all in my mind when she shakes her head, sighs dreamily, and then finally finishes her sentence. “He’s going to be sharing a stage with Vail tonight! Mark Ashton! Ahhh! And Ethan Fuller! And the other guys, too! Holy shit!”
My heart races as my gums flap like a fish for a second. Right. She was squealing about Vail, not about the possibility of being sisters-in-law someday because her hot brother carried my suitcase into our hotel room.
So I got a little excited. So I romanticized things I might’ve been imagining. So what? It was all in my head, and no one ever has to know.
I sigh, playing it off like what she’s rambling about is what I’m thinking, too, though the truth of the matter is that she kind of brought me back to reality.
She heaves her suitcase onto a luggage rack, and I do the same on the other side of the room. I sit on the bed for a minute, watching her as she unzips her bag and starts rifling through the clothes in there, debating what to wear to such an epic event as the one tonight. She pulls out her make-up bag and her toiletry bag and sets to work on freshening up, and once I gain my bearings back, I start to do the same.
“This or that?” she asks, holding up two outfits and playing the game we always play before we go out. We’ve never gone out to hang backstage with one band while they go on stage with another band, though. I nod to the one on the left, jeans with a red shirt as opposed to a fancy, sparkly dress. I’m feeling out of sorts because of this huge crush I’m harboring for Adam, and jeans tend to be my comfort zone.
“Really?” she asks, her face falling.
I roll my eyes. “Then why’d you ask?”
She giggles. “You think casual? I’m thinking it’s Vegas and we go flashy tonight. When will we have the chance to go backstage with Vail ever again?”
She has a point, though I have a pretty good counterpoint. “Considering your brother’s band signed with Ashmark, I don’t think it’s as far-fetched a fantasy as it would be for most people.”
“Touché. But I’m still going glam tonight.”
I sigh, but then I realize stepping out of my comfort jeans zone and glamming it up might be just what I need to impress the boy I’ve had a crush on for a very, very long time.
CHAPTER 6: ADAM
“What’s the plan for tonight?” My sister collapses on the couch in the main living area after setting the rum and Diet Coke I just mixed for her on the end table beside her. Emily sits next to her, margarita in hand, and Rascal pours himself a drink by the bar.
“We need to leave in about an hour.” I slide into a recliner opposite them and take a sip of my Guinness.
Amber sits up. “An hour? I only have an hour to get ready?”
“Didn’t you just get ready?” I ask, eyeing both women sitting across from me. Amber looks like she put a little more make-up on, and Emily looks perfect in a casual white t-shirt and jeans.
Perfect.
That’s not a word I’ve ever used to describe Emily before...not even in my head.
Has she changed? Is she different?
Or am I just really seeing her for the first time ever?
The last time I saw her, I was with Bree. I didn’t have eyes for anyone but Bree. And Emily was just a kid back then...at least that’s how I saw her, but now she’s all grown up, and she’s all woman.
I shake my head and attempt to focus. “We’re meeting with Vail to run through the song a few times before their show, and they said they’ll have food for us. We’ll perform there, and then we have a club appearance at ten. The night is ours after that.”
“What does that mean?” Amber asks, standing and chugging her drink.
“It means we can hang out at that club or go to another one, we can go to a casino, we can go downtown...whatever you want.” I nod to her empty glass. “Need another?”
“Yeah, and Emily will need another margarita, too.”
Emily looks back and forth between us, and then she shrugs. “Eventually.”
“I’m on it,” I say, and the two women head back to their room to get ready.
“Dude, did your sister get hotter?” Rascal asks when I join him at the bar.
“Were you just sitting back here creeping on her?” I ask.
He laughs. “Maybe a little.”
“I already told you, she’s off-limits.” I reach for the rum.
“You can’t keep making her forbidden fruit. It’s just going to have the opposite effect that you want it to have.”
He has a point, but beyond that, Rascal’s really not a bad guy. A little immature, maybe, but he doesn’t really sleep around, at least not like Dax and Brody used to, and he’s never had a serious relationship. We tease him a lot, but the more I’ve gotten to know him, the more I’ve seen up close the reasons why he’s never gotten serious with a girl.
It’s not for lack of women wanting him, believe it or not.
It’s because of the wall he puts up. Deep down, he has the same fear that I have: that a woman will only want us because we’re in a successful band.
I’ve learned over time that the fear was why I held onto my relationship with Bree longer than I should have. She was with me before MFB saw any real measure of success. It’s a revelation I had after long talks on a tour bus late into the night with Rascal while everyone else in our band was fast asleep in their bunks as they held their own girlfriends close.
He’d never admit that vulnerability to anyone else, though, and so instead he masks it with immaturity and insults and a generally cynical disposition.
“Does this look okay?”
Amber’s voice pulls me from my musing as I stare out the window, another beer in hand as I mentally prepare for tonight. I glance over in her direction, but I can’t look at my sister when my eyes fall on the vision beside her.
Emily wears a glittering gold dress that fits her like a glove. It’s a little short, a little tight, a little revealing, and absolutely perfect on her. The color accentuates her golden skin, making her brown eyes glow even from across the room.
She’s beyond beautiful, and as she tugs at the bottom of her dress, I immediately know that she doesn’t even know how gorgeous she is.
Maybe someone like me needs to be the one to let her in on the secret.
Shit.
Wait one fucking minute.
This is my little sister’s friend. Nothing more.
I clear my throat, trying to focus on anything other than sex as my dick traitorously hardens in my jeans.
My eyes move over to my sister, which definitely helps battle against those thoughts. “Yeah, you look fine.”
Amber blows out a frustrated breath, indicating that my answer was the wrong one.
Rascal saunters up beside me, a drink in his hand, too. “I think he means you look fine.” The last word drips with sexual undertones, and it makes me a little nauseous.
That’s not the effect it has on my sister, however, whose whole face lights up before she winks at him. “Thanks, Will. That’s more like it.”
Will?
I mean…I realize that’s his name, I’ve just never really heard anyone other than his mother use it.
They hold each other’s gaze for longer than I’m comfortable with, and I look between them in absolute horror. Rascal may have shown his vulnerable side to me over the last few months, but in no way does that mean I’m down with the idea of him porking my sister.
My sister has always had crushes on my friends. First it was Dax, then Brody. Both of them have fiancées now. But never, not in a million years, could I ever have dreamed up the idea that she might be interested in William Rascowicz.
The thought is just...weird.
“All right, all right, enough,” I finally say, forcing myself to stop looking at Emily and to take control of the situation. “It’s time to head out.”
Dax and Kylie, our manager, have their heads bent close together by the table as they go over tonight’s plan when we get to their room. She isn’t just our manager—she’s Dax’s fiancée. Brody and Zoey, one of our backup dancers and his girl, and Kane and Sierra, his woman, are waiting on the couch for us with drinks in hand. We take a private elevator down to the main floor, where we’re ushered out a private exit toward the ride waiting to take us just over a mile down the road to the MGM.
We’re treated royally when we arrive at a private entrance for the Garden Arena, unsurprising considering we’re here to hop on stage with their special guests. We’re taken back through a series of hallways, and eventually we stand outside a door knowing that the four legends of Vail are on the other side.
Dax knocks, and the door is immediately thrown open by none other than Mark Ashton himself. My sister gasps beside me, and I give her a look that plainly says keep it cool. But this is my sister we’re talking about, and let’s be honest. She has zero chill.
“Oh my God, it’s Mark Ashton!” She doesn’t just say the words, she squeals them like a damn hyena, and I’m embarrassed for her. You’d think considering her brother is in a fairly successful band, she’d be semi-normal meeting celebrities...but she’s not. Mostly because my family life and my work life have tended to fall into separate categories over the years. I’ve invited Amber to MFB shows before, and she’s been there, even backstage...but I guess it’s different when it’s your brother’s band versus someone else.
“Ahh!” Mark squeals back, clearly teasing her. “And it’s someone with MFB!”
“Mark, stop,” his wife, Reese, scolds him, rolling her eyes. “Welcome, MFB!” She hugs each of us. This isn’t the first time we’ve met her, not by a longshot. She was involved with our sea
son of Rock on the Road, the reality show developed by our record label that follows a band from album launch through the tour promoting it.
We’ve been lucky enough to tour with Vail in the past. My sister wasn’t able to make it out to any of the shows we had when we toured with them, though, which is one of her biggest life regrets.
“Sorry,” he says, giving my sister a hug. She looks like she’s about to pass out, and I can’t help my laugh.
“This is my sister, Amber, and her friend, Emily,” I say, making the introductions. “And this is Vail.”
Each member of the band introduces himself, but my attention is pulled away by Dax. “Are you good on vocals?” he asks while my sister finds herself in heaven.
I nod. I typically sing back-up for him, and when we toured with Vail, we performed this song with them almost every night.
“There’s food in the room next door,” Mark says. “Help yourself to anything in there, including whatever you want from the bar. Let’s rock this shit!”
We all respond with a resounding cheer, and then we’re off to the room next door for dinner. Long tables are set up along a wall with a buffet of all sorts of salads, pastas, chicken, and vegetables, and smaller round tables for five are set up around the room for us to sit and enjoy our meals. Amber and Emily trail close behind me, and I notice Rascal seems to be trailing close behind my sister.
I told him she was off-limits, and I thought Bro Code would mean he respected that...but this is Rascal we’re talking about. He probably doesn’t even know what Bro Code is.
On that note, I ask the bartender for some whiskey after I set my food down at a table. I need something stronger than beer if I’m going to witness Rascal attempting to hook up with my sister.
