by Salsbury, JB
She shrugs, all her hair falling down to cover her face while she ties her boots. “Ask Charles.”
I fist my hands to avoid reaching forward and pushing all the fucking hair out of her face so I can get a lock on her expression. She’s wearing Jesse Lee concert merch, the shit we keep in the bus in case Ethan has a sleepover guest who might not want to crawl out of the tour bus wearing her micro-mini from the night before.
A heavy weight lands square in my gut, the sensation new and really fucking unpleasant. “You fucked Charles?” Oh God, it’s too late to suck back the words.
Both Jade and Jesse fix their wide eyes on me.
What the hell was I thinking? Why would I say that? I shake my head, searching for an apology. “That’s not—”
“You are unbelievable!” She stands and stomps into my space. I force the soles of my Vans to stay put, even though the urge to flinch is overpowering. She stops when we’re about nose-to-nose, reminding me of her height. She’s at least five-foot-eight to my six feet. “I’m not even going to dignify your dumb-ass assumption with an answer.”
There aren’t many times in my life where I’ve been so overwhelmed by a person that I can’t think clearly enough to find the words to excuse myself from their presence. If I’m being honest, I’ve never been overwrought by anyone.
Until now.
She cocks a hip, waiting for me to respond in some way, an apology maybe, and I can’t help but wonder why she seems different today.
Maybe because she looks less weary, more rested, focused. I scent the light, almost sweet spice of my shampoo and body wash, and my chest swells with some kind of caveman-like pride that she smells like me. Maybe it’s the shower that calmed her a bit from yesterday. Not that she’s calm, no. Her eyes glisten with barely concealed rage, her cheeks flushed, her lips peeled back from a row of perfectly straight, white teeth. The kind of teeth I wouldn’t expect to see in the mouth of a homeless woman, which means her situation is more recent.
“Jade, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Jesse chuckles and flips the page on a different magazine, this one also from our bathroom collection.
“What’s so funny?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing. I just, I’ve never seen this side of you before.” He flicks another page, still grinning. “Didn’t know you had it in you to be such a dickhead.”
“Says the king of all dickheads.”
He frowns, nods, and goes back to his magazine.
I look back at Jade who is pulling on her beanie over her thick wavy locks. “I…” I shake my head, unable to keep her gaze. “I was out of line. I don’t even know where that came from.” That’s a lie. The outburst came from some unjustified jealousy I have no fucking right to feel. She’s a homeless woman, a stray, and just because she’s been on my mind more than an acceptable amount of hours doesn’t mean she’s my responsibility.
She opens her mouth when a knock on the door sounds, and Oria stomps up the stairs holding two bags of folded clothes. “Here you go,” she says in heavily accented English. She doesn’t seem to feel or care about the thick tension in the room.
Jade dives for the bags, earning a glare from all of us. Oria takes in what Jade is wearing, I’m sure noticing how attractive she is, and shoots Jesse a pointed glare. He throws his hands up. “Don’t look at me! That ship has sailed.”
Oria’s dark eyes slide toward me in accusation. The woman is like our road mom, she knows all about our personal lives, cleans our buses, stocks our refrigerators, and brings us medicine when we’re sick. “Ryder.”
“Innocent.” I cross my heart with my finger. “Swear.”
She pushes up her thick-lensed glasses and grumbles Ethan’s name laced in disapproval.
We don’t correct her. After all, Ethan is technically the only single guy in the band. It’s better Oria believe Jade is with Ethan than know she trespassed and hid on our bus overnight before getting caught.
She stomps out of the bus mumbling something in Spanish. When I turn back toward Jade, she’s already halfway through one bag of clothes. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for my clothes,” she says absently. “And before you think the worst, Charles offered to have your staff wash my things while I stayed in the RV last night.”
That was nice of him. Why didn’t I think of that?
She drapes her jeans over her forearm and keeps sifting through the stacks. “I’ll be out of your way soon. I would’ve left sooner, but there’s no way in hell I want to be caught in these clothes.” She stops digging and frowns in Jesse’s direction. “No offense.”
He blinks, shocked—I’m sure—at her dismissal of his signature fan-wear.
She’s unaffected by Jesse’s fame and doesn’t seem to care about bruising his ego making her refreshing and even more attractive.
She finds her sweater next, adds it to her forearm, then digs low and pulls out a sports bra before digging more. “Dammit,” she mumbles.
I scoot closer to help. “What is it?”
She tilts her head to look at me as if she’s trying to decide how much she wants to tell me, but then she blinks and goes back to digging. “I can’t find my underwear and socks.”
If her underwear and bra were out to wash, it means she’s naked under her sweatpants and T-shirt. I clear the sudden thickness in my throat. “Oria usually puts that stuff in the middle.”
She lifts a brow. “So this happens often, huh? Girls panties tangled in with your clothes?”
I shrug. She doesn’t need me to answer. She knows it does. What she doesn’t know is that the reasons are rarely scandalous. Chris’s wife and kids joined us for a short leg of the tour. Bethany is almost always with Jesse on his bus but not recently only because she’s busy setting up the home they just purchased in LA. Rachel’s been asking to come along, and I’ve been hesitant to invite her. She’s not the type of woman to sit by while female fans throw themselves at me. Fighting over text is one thing. I don’t need the extra pressure having her on the road.
Jade gives up on the first bag, and I’m biceps deep in the second when my fingers come upon something small and softer than our boxer briefs. I tug out a pair of black cotton panties and hold them up. “These them—”
She snags them from my hand, and her cheeks take on color. “Yes. Thank you.” After turning toward the bathroom, she stomps off and without looking back says, “If you could find my socks…”
I get the sense she’s embarrassed. “Yeah, I’ll dig them out.”
She scurries to the bathroom, closes the door behind her, and the lock slides into place. When I drag my eyes away from the bathroom, I tell myself not to envision her pulling that T-shirt off to reveal perfectly round, naked tits tipped with hard nipples from the cold. I close my eyes and force away thoughts of her naked behind the thin walls of the bathroom, in the shower with her hands in all that hair, water and bubbles sluicing down between her full breasts, over her belly button, and into the slit between her legs—
“Dude.”
My eyelids fly open and find Jesse looking at me like I have dog shit on my shirt. “What?”
He nods toward my belt.
“Shit.” I rearrange my stiffening dick. “This isn’t what you think.” I fumble with the bags of clothes. “It’s those magazines.”
“Amazing what a pair of cotton underwear on the right woman will do to a man.” He crosses his arms at his chest, a smirk on his asshole face. “No judgment. I get it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He laughs, loud and fake and obnoxiously. “You’re in rare form. I’ll give you that, but there’s no doubt in my mind you wanna fuck that girl.”
I drop onto the nearest chair and cringe at the pain of crushing my hard-on behind my jeans. “I have a girlfriend.” My words sound more like a confession than an admission of fact.
“You really are a dickhead.” He slams his palms on the table like a judge’s gavel. I have been wei
ghed on the scales and found… lacking. “I can’t wait to tell Bethany.”
“I haven’t done anything, okay? I can’t control my body’s reaction. It’s not like I’m acting on it.”
“I told you, bro. TMI. It’s a necessity on the road to avoid shit like this.” He sighs like a disappointed parent. “Oh, well. Even if you did try something with that woman, nothing would happen.” He throws his thumb over his shoulder toward the bathroom door. “She can’t stand you.”
Fucking ouch. “See. So there’s nothing to worry about. Besides, she’s leaving today.”
“Right.” He props a hand on his chin and leans forward. “Where is she going again?”
I shrug. “Don’t know, not my business.” I’ve already decided I’d give her enough cash to take a bus tour of the US if it’s what she needs.
“You sure she’s not your business?”
The bathroom door opens, and Jade steps out in the clothes she was wearing yesterday. Her faded blue jeans are clean and hug the curves of her hips and ass. Her blue sweater is much brighter, almost the same color as her eyes as she stares between me and Jesse. I’d do my dick a huge injustice if I didn’t at least peek at her tits—oh fuck, big mistake. Not only are her breasts full and round, but her bra has no padding, and it must’ve been cold in the bathroom as her sweater does little to hide her pebbled nipples. They are just as I imagined. All the blood in my brain rushes south.
“Did you find my socks?” Her bare toes flex against the floor, making me imagine all the different ways I could make her toes curl—
“Stop it,” I mumble to myself.
Jesse’s shoulders shake in silent laughter.
Fuck him.
Jade
With my borrowed clothes folded on one arm, and my boots hanging from my hand, I watch the two grown men before me act like boys. Ryder’s face is flushed, and Jesse’s body shudders with laughter. I seem to be the only one who missed out on the inside joke.
“Um… my socks? You know what? Forget it.” I head back to the bags of clothes. “I’ll find them myself.”
My jeans feel like heaven against my thighs, my sweater like silk, and it all smells so good. I didn’t realize how rejuvenating clean clothes would be.
Ryder comes to help me find my socks, but he’s walking a little funny, hunched over and shuffling.
“Are you okay?”
Jesse barks in laughter. “He’s good. A little something came up while you were getting changed, that’s all.
I focus on Ryder as he grabs a bag and turns away from me. “Did you hurt your back or something?”
Another chuckle from Jesse.
Ryder shakes his head. “I’m fine,” he says through what sounds like clenched teeth.
What the hell is going on?
Wait… Why do I care?
I finish rummaging through the bag and no socks. Ryder slowly straightens up, does a shift with his legs, then turns toward me offering me a thick pair of white socks that look as if they were made for cold-weather hiking. “Here, take these.”
“No, I can’t take your socks.”
He holds them out again. “Please, I have a ton. They’ll keep you warm.” There’s a softness in his voice, a tenderness I haven’t heard from him before.
I don’t trust it.
“I can’t. I’m sorry.” I dig through the bag one more time.
“They’re lost,” he says. “It happens. Just take mine.”
“He’s right.” Jesse stands from the table. “It happens a lot around here. Oria’s great, but she washes a lot of clothes, and shit gets lost.”
I stare back down at the offered socks. They look like they’ve never been worn. “Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
I take the socks, and he seems to stand taller when I do. “Thanks.” I hold up the clothes I borrowed. “Where do you want these? You’ll want to have them washed before you use them again.”
“I’ll take ’em.” Ryder snags the sweats and T-shirt from my arm and walks toward the back of the bus, I assume to put them into the dirty clothes. I’m a little surprised when he takes them into the bathroom with him.
Maybe I didn’t see the dirty clothes hamper in there.
I sit and slip on the socks. They’re thick and soft, way better than the ones I had.
“Where do you plan to go now?” Jesse asks while casually leaning against the table.
“A shelter until I figure out where to catch my next ride west.”
“Huh.” Jesse doesn’t take his warm hazel eyes off mine, and I focus on my boots to avoid it. “Ya know… we’re headed west.”
My gaze darts to his, and a strange warmth builds in my chest. “How far?”
“We’ve got another three weeks on tour, our last show in LA—”
“You’re playing in Los Angeles?”
He shrugs. “Why don’t you stick around?”
My head gets light, and I blink as flashes dot my vision. “Are you, I mean, can you… am I allowed?”
The guy smirks in a rock-god-superstar-boss-of-everything kind of way. “Last I checked, this was my tour. I can allow any fucking thing I want.”
I grip my head to keep it from spinning and flying right off my neck. “Really?”
He frowns. “No. I’ll have to make sure it’s cool with Bethany first.”
“Bethany?” Come on, brain. Get back online. Focus.
He already has his phone out and hits a couple buttons. The ring sounds loud and soon so does a sweet, female voice. “Good morning, Sir Pumpsalot.”
“’Mornin’, Ladyfingers.”
“You caught me in the bath, just in time for—”
“Whoa, baby. Hold that thought. Um… cover your tits with some bubbles or something. I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”
“Jesse!” she shrieks. “You could’ve warned me first.”
“I just did, babe—wait, don’t put down the phone. Let me watch.” There’s a soft growl, then the sound of the phone being set down. Jesse frowns. The splashing of water, the whipping of fabric, then the phone being picked back up. “That was uncool.” Jesse pouts.
“Whatever. Okay, who do you want me to meet?”
Jesse flicks his fingers for me to come to him. “Her name is, uh…”
“Jade.” When I get close enough, he turns his phone toward me.
He snaps his fingers. “That’s right. Jade. This is my life, Bethany.”
Life? Or did he mean wife? I don’t have to time to ask as the screen is shoved close to my face, and a pretty woman with dark hair pulled up high in a messy bun waves at me and smiles—actually smiles. I can’t think of many women who would be so accepting of their man introducing them to another woman on their tour bus. These two clearly have a ton of confidence in each other.
“Hi, Jade. It’s nice to meet you,” she says without a hint of skepticism or jealousy.
“Nice to meet you.” I shift awkwardly on my feet as Bethany studies me through the phone screen.
Jesse gets close enough to join me in the frame. “Jade here is homeless and trying to get to the West Coast.”
Bethany’s pleasant smile turns down. “Homeless?”
“Yeah, I don’t know the whole story, but she’s got a nasty bruise on her face and that says enough. Don’t worry she’s not a crazy groupie. She hasn’t lunged for or even looked at my dick once.”
Bethany and I roll our eyes simultaneously.
“Crazy,” Jesse says, “I know. Anyway, I thought since the tour is headed west, why not just let her hang around? She’d ride with the boys.”
Her kind, brown eyes focus on me. “As long as you’re comfortable doing that, Jade.”
“Uh…” Am I? I’d have to put up with Ryder’s hot-and-cold personality, but I’d have Ethan, Chris, and Charles as a buffer. I’d be safe, warm, and stay fed, but I couldn’t possibly accept their kindness without offering something in return. “This sounds a whole lot better than hopping from big rig to b
ig rig. That last ride didn’t turn out well for me.” I blush as Jesse and Bethany both narrow their eyes at my cheek. I dip my head, feeling the bruise on my face throb. “But I don’t want to feel like a freeloader.”
Bethany nods, and her expression hardens as if she understands. “There’s got to be something you can do around there so you don’t feel that way.”
“Oria could use some help to keep track of people’s things. Or maybe Jade could be our water girl?” Jesse says, the question directed at Bethany.
“That’s not even a real thing. Oria could use the help but she’d never agree to taking it.” Bethany’s gaze comes to me. “She lost my favorite pair of pajamas. They had sloths on them.”
Jesse groans. “Those were so hot.”
Just then Ryder comes out of the bathroom, his cheeks flushed and his eyes a little glazed over.
Bethany smirks at her man. “If you like those…” She pans the phone down toward her feet that are tucked inside fluffy, sloth-head slippers. “How do these make you feel?”
“Oh, fuck…” Jesse looks at me. “You’re hired, water girl.” He dips his nose back to the screen. “Babe, take off the robe. Give me two minutes to get to my bus for some privacy.”
Bethany laughs. “Nice to meet you, Jade! Oh, and I’ll see you soon. We can hang out!” she yells as Jesse makes his way to the door.
“Get back in the tub but keep the sloths on—”
The door slams behind him.
I stare at the door, stunned, amazed, overjoyed, and also… scared shitless. What did I just get myself into?
One minute I’m hiding out at a truck stop, and the next I’m working for Jesse Lee in exchange for shelter, food, and a ride west.
“I had a call to make.”
I blink away from the door and focus on Ryder. What is he talking about? And why does he look so… flustered? “Huh?”
“If you wondered why I was in the bathroom so long.” Pink paints his cheeks, making him even prettier.
“Honestly? I didn’t even realize you were gone.”
He flinches but only slightly. “Right. So uh… what was Jesse going on about?”
I can’t help it. I smile. Not big enough to do any real damage but enough that Ryder’s eyes widen and the muscles around his lips relax. “Looks like I’ll be sticking around for a bit. Jesse just offered me a job.”
