Текст книги "Wicked Beat"

Автор книги: Olivia Cunning

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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

Chapter 3

Much to Eric’s delight, the new tour bus had six curtained bunks instead of four, and the mattresses were at least a foot wider. Bliss for someone obscenely tall and forced to sleep in a compartment designed for an average-sized toddler. Being perfect gentlemen—yeah, right—the guys let Rebekah choose her bunk first. She selected the bottom bunk closest to the bathroom where Sed used to sleep on the old bus. Trey immediately claimed the bunk over hers, which had been Eric’s.

“This way I get to be on top of Rebekah night after night after night,” Trey said. He bit his lip and leaned toward her, but didn’t touch her. Her eyelids fluttered, lips parted, and she swayed toward him. Under Trey’s spell already. Son of a bitch. The guy had the uncanny ability of knowing how to seduce anyone. Except Brian.

He’d been trying to get in their lead guitarist’s pants for years. As far as Eric knew, he’d never quite managed it.

Rebekah flushed and giggled like most women did when Trey gave them the slightest notice. If Eric had said that exact same thing to her, she probably would have punched him in the teeth for being a pig.

Eric picked the bunk across the aisle from Rebekah’s. Because he was sick of sleeping in a top bunk, not because he kept replaying her little lesson over and over in his mind. And not because those thoughts were making his dick all tingly with excitement. And definitely not because he might catch a glimpse of her while she slept.

Um, yeah.

Jace tossed his duffel bag into the bunk above Eric’s. “I finally get my own bunk,” he said. In the past, he’d had to take whichever bunk happened to be unoccupied, which changed depending on which band member had claimed the queen-sized bed in the only bedroom for a particular night.

Sed took the bottom bunk across from the bathroom, leaving the bunk above him for Brian, whenever he happened to show up.

“Does this bus have a bedroom?” Trey asked. He slipped the strap of Rebekah’s tank top over her shoulder with one finger. Again, with the flushing and giggling on her part. But her nipples weren’t hard. Not like when Eric had massaged her back. And she wasn’t teaching Trey any lessons. At least, not yet.

“Of course it has a bedroom,” Sed said. He opened the door at the end of the hall. “But now that we each have our own bunk, we don’t have to fight over it.”

Eric turned his attention to Jace, who had this totally annoying, empathetic expression on his beard stubble-covered face. Jace glanced from Trey to Rebekah and then rolled his eyes at Eric. So Jace had figured out that Eric was jonesing over Rebekah. Twerp.

Eric supposed it wasn’t too hard to figure out, but it was easy enough to remedy. If she wanted Trey, what did he care? Trey could have her. Um, yeah.

The group inspected the bedroom, which was slightly smaller than the one on their last bus. This one still had a queen-sized bed, but there was no room for a dresser. Eric shoved Jace in the shoulder and grinned. He pointed at the ceiling. “No hook for your bondage games, Tripod. How will you ever get your jollies off?”

“I’ll save it up for when I get home. Aggie’s dungeon should be finished by the time we finish this leg of the tour.” Jace flushed, as he was wont to do whenever the subject drifted to anything sexual or romantic. Considering the hard-core kink the guy enjoyed, his embarrassment was kind of strange.

Eric was pleased to find that though the bedroom was smaller, the bathroom was larger. You could actually turn around without dislocating your elbow on the wall. The rest was similar to their old bus, except the colors were different throughout. The dining benches, the sofa, and captain chairs had black leather upholstery instead of cream. The carpet was red instead of beige. Black granite countertops. Shiny, black paneling. Black apartment-sized appliances. The curtains that hid the bunks were red. The bedding? Red.

Framing around the bunks? Black.

Everywhere Eric looked: red and black.

“Um, Sed?” Eric scratched behind his ear. “Did you have this thing custom-made in Sinners’ colors?”

“Yeah. It was Jerry’s idea. Cool, huh?”

This nightmare-inducing color palate had been their manager’s idea? Knowing Jerry, he was probably using it in some advertising campaign. “I guess…” Eric shook his head.

“I like it,” Rebekah said. “It looks classy, yet metal.”

“Exactly!” Sed smiled so broadly that both dimples showed. His goofy grin faded into a scowl when his eyes met Eric’s. “Metal,” he said in a low growl.

Eric’s amusement died when Trey leaned into Rebekah’s personal space again. Her cheeks went pink, and she fidgeted with the bangles on her wrist. Maybe if Eric told her that he found her fidgeting absolutely adorable, she’d teach him another lesson. He could use another one. Or a million or two.

“What in the hell?” Brian said from near the bus entrance. He rubbed a hand over his face as he took in the new bus’s décor.

“Brian!” Trey was down the aisle hugging and pounding Brian on the back before Eric could blink.

Eric caught Rebekah’s bewildered expression before she’d managed to hide it with a friendly smile. She followed Trey to be introduced to Brian. Trey was asking his friend a million questions a minute, leaving Rebekah to stand awkwardly waiting for her opening.

Now that Brian was here, maybe Eric had a chance to catch her attention again. Trey didn’t have time for some chick when his best bud, Brian, was within reach.

“Did you have fun in Aruba?” Trey asked. Brian had finally had time to take a real honeymoon with his wife of five months.

“Of course. I was with Myrna,” he said, as if that explained everything. “Why is our logo painted all huge on the outside of the fucking bus?”

“Because our logo is awesome,” Trey said, initiating a fist bump with Brian.

Brian knocked knuckles with Trey, but still looked less than thrilled about their new bus’s paint job. “We’ll have a convoy of groupies following us everywhere we go.”

“So the roadies can sell them T-shirts when we stop at rest areas.”

Sed shrugged.

“And we can auction off the utilization of Trey’s lips for beer money,” Eric added.

Trey’s eyes widened. “Uh, no. What if some whacko wins?”

“Then I’ll hold you down until she gets her money’s worth,” Eric said.

“At a rest area, I’d be more concerned about some lonely truck driver winning,” Rebekah said.

Eric laughed. “Or a sexually frustrated politician.”

Rebekah burst out laughing. “Or a demented circus clown.”

“Or an escaped convict.”

“Are you two finished?” Trey said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Who’s this?” Brian asked, nodding in Rebekah’s direction.

“Our temporary FOH,” Sed explained.

Brian’s jaw dropped. “Our new front of house is a chick?”

“Thanks for noticing.” Rebekah smiled and extended a hand in his direction.

Brian shook it slowly, pinning her with those intense brown eyes of his. When she flushed and lowered her gaze, he shook his head as if to clear it of cobwebs. He dropped her hand and then turned his attention to Sed. “How did we end up with her as our FOH? I thought Marcus was going to stand in for Dave.” He glanced from one bandmate to the next, looking entirely perplexed.

“I have a degree in audio engineering,” Rebekah assured him. “I graduated in June.”

“As in June of this year?” Brian’s voice cracked at the end.

Trey grabbed Brian’s arm to gain his attention. “Dave’s little sister,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “He trusts her with his trade secrets. No one else. Just her.”

Rebekah lowered her eyes. “Yeah, he gave me thorough instructions on how to set up and run the entire show.” Eric wasn’t sure why she looked so depressed about that. Dave was a wizard at mixing a live show. The audio engineers of other bands would have paid big money to learn his methods, especially for his seamless mixing of a rhythm and lead guitar in a dueling solo.

“But our set list is changing to accommodate the new single,” Brian reminded them. “Totally uncharted territory for us. Piano intro. Bass solo. A vocal duet.” Which frankly made Eric a bit queasy.

He’d be singing vocals live and, at the same time, maintaining the insanely fast drum track of their newest single, “Sever.”

Rebekah brightened at the mention of a new song, her blue eyes flashing with excitement. “I’ll make it sound awesome!” She thrust a fist in the air. “Just you watch.”

Eric grinned at her enthusiasm. Absolutely adorable. But not metal. Like, at all.

“Dave needs to work out the new mix, not some freshly graduated coed. Ummmm,” Brian said. “What’s your name, miss?”

“Reb,” she supplied.

“Reb, I need to have a little meeting with my band.” He swept a hand at them. “Would you excuse us for a minute?” He glanced pointedly over his shoulder toward the exit.

Rebekah’s bottom lip trembled. For a second, Eric thought she was going to burst into tears, and then she straightened her spine.

She nodded curtly. “Of course.”

She started toward the exit. Eric’s first instinct was to follow her and make sure she was okay. Brian had been too hard on her.

Eric figured it was mostly the shock of knowing his complicated sound would be at the mercy of some amateur. Master Sinclair expected perfection in his live sound and so did Sinners’ fans. But he shouldn’t have said those things in front of Rebekah. She glanced over her shoulder with longing and then grabbed the handrail to start her decent of the steps. Eric couldn’t stand to see someone so full of life look so downtrodden.

“Hey, Reb,” Eric called.

She glanced over her shoulder, her pale eyebrows raised in question.

“Would you do me a huge favor?”

She grinned deviously and his heart skipped a beat.

“Depends.”

“Um, could you move my car into storage? Travis can show you where to park it.”

She smiled and nodded eagerly. Eric tossed her his keys and she caught them. She cradled them against her chest and hopped down the stairs with a spring in her step. Eric grinned. He just prayed his stubborn car would start for her.

“Uh oh,” Sed said in his typical, low baritone growl.

“Houston, we have liftoff,” Trey said. He cupped his hands around his mouth and made CB radio scratch noises. “Head in the clouds confirmed. Roger.”

Eric turned his attention to his bandmates who were staring at him with wide grins.

“What?” Eric asked.

“Someone has a little crush,” Sed said.

“Nah.”

“Dude, you let her drive your car,” Trey said. “You don’t let anyone drive your car.”

“Drive is a relative term in the case of that piece of shit.”

Sed chuckled.

“Fuck you, Sed,” Eric grumbled.

Sed just laughed harder.

Eric shook his head. “That isn’t why I let her drive it. I don’t like her, like her.”

Jace choked on a laugh. Eric sent him a look of warning. No one needed to know he had already locked lips with Rebekah. And oh yeah, he’d liked it, liked it.

“She just looked…” Eric sought the right word to explain why he’d broken his no-one-drives-my-car rule. “…sad.”

“If you do like her, and I’m not saying you do, but if you think you might, do not let her walk all over you like the others,” Trey advised.

“I don’t like her,” he insisted. “Besides, she has a thing for you, Trey.”

“Does she?” Trey grinned. “I guess I’ll have to use that to its greatest advantage.”

“What do you mean?”

Trey’s grin widened. “You’ll see.”

“I didn’t call a band meeting to discuss Eric’s nonexistent love life,” Brian interrupted. “How could you guys just hire her without consulting me?”

“You were unreachable,” Sed said.

“That’s bullshit, Sed. You could have called me. This isn’t some trivial decision you make on the fly. Have you even seen her work?”

Sed crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Well, not exactly, but Dave vouched for her. That makes her okay by me.”

“Of course Dave vouched for her. She’s his sister.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” Sed asked.

“Find someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing. How about that?”

“I think we should give her a chance before we fire her,” Jace said.

Everyone hesitated, still not used to Jace speaking his opinion.

It wasn’t that they didn’t respect it. They just didn’t expect him to voice it so readily. Jace’s woman had somehow managed to break through the impenetrable wall he’d hidden behind since he’d become a member of the band. Aggie should consider a job in top secret military weapons development or something. If she could break through Jace’s defenses, she could break through anything.

“I agree,” Eric said. “I think Reb will do fine. Dave wouldn’t throw her off a cliff without a safety harness.”

“Does Marcus know about this?” Brian asked.

Shit. Wow, look at that new carpet. Very nice. Eric noticed the black flecks in the red for the first time as he stared at it to avoid Brian’s accusatory glare.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Brian sighed. “You know Marcus wants the FOH position. As monitor engineer, he has seniority.”

“I’d agree, except Dave’s coming back,” Sed said. “We’re not giving Dave’s job to Marcus. We owe Dave that. This is just temporary, until he gets back.”

Brian rubbed a hand over his face. “You know I hope you’re right, man, but let’s face facts. Dave’s paralyzed. How likely is it for him to ever return?”

“He can move now,” Jace said. “We saw him a few days ago. He was moving. Wasn’t he, guys?”

Trey nodded slightly. “Yeah. A little.” Trey stared down at his hands and flexed them into tight fists before lifting his head to look at Brian. “We’ve got to give him more time to recover before we do anything hasty.”

“So we’re going to give Rebekah a chance then?” Eric prompted.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Brian said.

“I have a bad feeling about your face, but we still let you hang around,” Eric said.

Brian crossed his arms over his chest, and after a long tense moment, nodded. “Fine. We’ll give her chance. I just hope I won’t be saying, ‘I told you so’ in three days.”

Eric grinned. “Great, I’ll go tell her.”

“Nope, I’m going to tell her,” Trey said and sprinted down the steps.

Eric dashed after him.

Chapter 4

Rebekah shut off Eric’s Corvette and glanced up to find Trey Mills grinning at her from beside the car. His sultry, green eyes held a spark of orneriness. Her heart skipped a beat. He always looked like he’d just crawled out of bed after a night of fantastic fucking.

Rebekah wouldn’t mind volunteering to keep him in that look. The man was too fine for his own good. Or her own good, she wasn’t sure which.

“Hey.” Trey’s deep, teasing tone sent a shiver of delight down her spine.

She flushed, wondering why this man just had to look at her to get her all hot and bothered. A bit belatedly, she noticed that Trey had Eric in a headlock with his hand over Eric’s mouth. Eric poked Trey in the ribs, which made Trey squirm, but he didn’t release him.

“What are you doing to Eric?” Rebekah asked.

“You can’t take this obnoxious guy anywhere,” Trey said.

“Brian’s decided you’ll do a fine job as our soundboard operator.”

She grinned and shook her head. “Liar.”

When she opened the car door, Trey stepped back, forcing Eric to move with him. Eric made a sound of protest against Trey’s hand.

Trey got a strange look on his face and then laughed. “You think licking my hand will make me release you, Sticks?”

“So what did Brian really say?” Rebekah asked.

She took one of Eric’s hands in both of hers. Looking up at Trey, she drew her tongue over Eric’s palm. Eric shuddered.

“He said you deserved a chance,” Trey said. “Brian is a really great guy, you know. Fair. Considerate.”

Eric said something against Trey’s hand that earned him an elbow to the ribs.

Rebekah still didn’t believe Trey. Brian didn’t want her there and she knew it. She’d just have to show him that she could excel at this job and change his mind about her ability as an audio engineer. Show him that great things came in small packages. That you shouldn’t judge a book and/or FOH by her cover. And any other relevant clichés that came to mind.

Rebekah traced Eric’s lifeline with the tip of her tongue, and his fingers curled. Trey’s hand muffled the little sound of torture Eric made in the back of his throat.

“What are you doing?” Trey asked, his green eyes following the motion of her tongue as she slowly licked Eric’s fingers one at a time.

Strong fingers that gave wonderful massages. Eric’s entire body was trembling by the time she reached his little finger.

“I thought you might release him if I licked his hand.” She sucked Eric’s middle finger into her mouth.

Trey watched her draw Eric’s finger deeper into her mouth. He bit his lip and held a hand in her direction. “My turn.”

His mouth now free, Eric wriggled out of Trey’s stranglehold and stood upright. Her plan had worked. And she’d gained Trey’s attention as a bonus.

“If you’re trying to make my fly too tight, little Reb,” Eric said, “you are succeeding.” He adjusted his jeans with a pained wince.

She grinned around his finger. That hadn’t been her original intention, but she liked how he readily admitted her effect on him.

She needed to feel desirable. She hadn’t felt that way for a long while.

Too long. Her body had healed after her surgery, but she knew she was missing something. She felt different. Empty. And when her long-term boyfriend Isaac had tried to make love to her, he had made her feel the loss of her womb to the depths of her soul. He hadn’t been intentionally cruel, but it had wounded her nonetheless.

No matter how much she’d once loved Isaac, she’d had no choice but to leave him after that.

Rebekah reached for Trey’s outstretched hand and tugged him closer. She released Eric’s finger from her mouth and drew Trey’s inside. When Eric started to move away, she held his hand firmly.

She didn’t want him to go. She wanted Eric to want her. And she wanted Trey to want her as well. She wasn’t sure she wanted either of them to do anything about their desire. She just needed to know it existed.

While Eric seemed content to let her suck on his finger alternately with Trey’s, Trey wasn’t so patient. When she shifted her attention to Eric for a second time, Trey moved to stand behind her.

Trey’s hands rubbed over her rib cage and hip bones, urging her to lean back against him. She felt it against her lower back—the hard ridge of Trey’s cock within his jeans—and she shuddered.

She wanted to feel Eric’s desire for her as well. She urged him toward her until there were scant inches between their bodies. She wrapped both arms around Eric and pulled his long, hard body against hers. Just like he’d said, he was hard. For her. She felt his hard cock against the heated flesh of her belly. Two handsome, sexy men who could have just about any woman they wanted, desired… her.

Yeah, but for how long? If they knew how useless her body was, that would send them running in opposite directions. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she tilted her chin down to press her forehead against Eric’s hard chest. She couldn’t let him see that she was emotional when she should be nothing but aroused.

Trey’s hands slid between her and Eric to rub the under-curves of her breasts. He used his chin to brush her hair aside so he could suck on her neck just under her ear. Her thoughts scattered as she lost herself in the moment.

“Oh,” she gasped. She hadn’t expected Trey to move so fast, but his mouth, his hands, the solid strength of his body behind her felt so good, she only considered stopping him for a millisecond.

Trey bent his knees so that his erection slid down the crack of her ass.

“Oh!” She tilted her head back and looked at Eric. His vibrant blue eyes were partially concealed by heavy lids as he gazed down at her. The sultry look that came so naturally to Trey looked even better on Eric. His hands slid between Trey’s hip bones and her butt to draw her closer. Eric lifted her feet off the ground, dragging her up his cock until it pressed against her mound. Trey followed her upward motion, keeping his cock pressed firmly against her ass. Rebekah couldn’t think of anything more exciting than being pressed between these two strong and sexy men.

Couldn’t think of anything more exciting until Eric lowered his head to kiss her. She clung to his back and opened her mouth to his questing tongue.

While Eric had her distracted, Trey’s hands slid from her breasts to the waistband of her leggings. He slowly eased them down. His fingers against the bare skin along both hips brought her back to her senses.

She jerked her mouth from Eric’s and moaned, “No.”

“Yes,” Trey whispered into her ear. “You mean yes. Say yes, Rebekah.”

“Yes,” she gasped.

“That’s a good girl.” Trey looked over Rebekah’s shoulder at Eric. “Please tell me you have a couple condoms on you. I got nuthin’ with me.”

Condoms? Why did he need a couple condoms? She was especially confused by his need for more than one. When realization struck her, Rebekah’s entire body stiffened. Trey thought she’d do that? Here? With him and with Eric? Simultaneously? Was that even possible? How would they… Take turns? Or would they both…

Rebekah’s heart thudded so hard she expected it to burst right through her sternum.

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“Shh, shh, sweetheart, we’ve got you,” Trey murmured. His warm breath against her ear sent shivers of delight down her spine.

“Just relax. We’ll make you feel so good.”

Panic setting in, Rebekah struggled for her freedom. Eric took a step back and lowered her feet to the ground. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he murmured. He removed his hands from her butt and moved one to cup her face.

The strange thing was that somewhere inside she did want to.

She wanted Trey to slide his cock up her ass and Eric’s to plunge upward into her hot, achy pussy. Thrusting into her. Together.

It wasn’t that idea that made her stop them, but the thought that they’d find out. That they’d know. Know she wasn’t whole anymore.

Isaac had stood beside her all through her cancer treatments and surgery. Been endlessly patient and understanding while she’d healed.

When they’d finally gotten intimate again, he’d lost his erection, saying she felt weird inside. So weird that he hadn’t wanted her anymore. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. He’d wanted kids. She couldn’t give them to him no matter how much she wanted to. And now, she couldn’t help but think that no man would ever want her. Sure, they might when they didn’t know the truth about her, but as soon as they found out her womb had been taken…

Rebekah couldn’t stop shaking. She felt like she was going to collapse.

“I d-don’t want to,” she whispered. A lie. But better than them finding out and making her feel the way Isaac had made her feel.

Empty. Useless.

“Cock tease,” Trey muttered under his breath. He pushed away from her and stormed out of the garage.

Rebekah watched him stalk off, not sure why it upset her so much. “He’ll hate me now,” she whispered.

“He’ll get over it.” Eric wrapped an arm around her back and rubbed her upper arm encouragingly. “You okay? You’re shaking all over.”

She swallowed her threatening tears and nodded. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm herself. Eric’s steady strength comforted her more than he could possibly realize. That he didn’t demand to know why she was so upset and stupid won the guy so many brownie points, he could have led every Girl Scout troop in the contiguous forty-eight states. Not that she could ever mistake him for a girl. Not after feeling that stone-hard cock against her mound. And he was still threatening to bust the zipper of his pants. Not that she was staring at it or anything.

“So you got her started?” he asked.

Rebekah jerked and tore her eyes off the bulge in Eric’s pants, erm, her shoes to glance at him in question. “Huh?”

“My car.”

She smiled, grateful for the subject change. It helped her bury all the hurt and distract her from the white elephant in his pants, erm, in the room. “Yeah, she started right up.”

“She must really like you.”

Rebekah’s smile broadened. “You think so?”

“Oh yeah. She has excellent taste in women.”

Rebekah felt her cheeks grow pink. “Has she started for a lot of women then?” Surely a handsome, successful musician like Eric Sticks had a harem of women at his disposal. She glanced at him and found him staring at her through half-closed lids. Her nipples pebbled under his attention. She swallowed and averted her gaze.

Even when Trey had been stroking her breasts, her nipples hadn’t gotten that hard. Why Eric? There was no denying he was handsome, but Trey… Whoa. She’d always thought Trey Mills was finer than Royal Copenhagen china. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe some Corelle dinnerware was more practical. Maybe Eric could be her everyday dish, and she could take Trey out for special occasions.

If ever. He’d sure look nice in her china cabinet stored safely behind the glass.

Eric grinned, obviously unaware that she was mentally comparing him to tableware. “My baby doesn’t kiss and tell.”

She laughed. “Fair enough.”

“You ready to get on the road?”

“Heck yeah, I am,” she said.

“You have your CDL, I assume.”

“CDL?”

“Commercial Driver’s License. You’ll need it to drive the bus.”

Rebekah’s heart slammed into her ribs. “I can’t drive the bus!”

“Then who’s going to drive? Dave used to be our regular driver.”

“Not me.” Dave had crashed said bus and nearly died. He would have died if Jace hadn’t pulled him from the fiery wreckage or if Eric hadn’t resuscitated him by giving him CPR. As she and Eric walked out of the garage and back toward the tour bus, she paused and took his arm to draw him to a halt. “Eric?”

He looked down at her and her heart started thudding again.

Why did it keep doing that? He was just standing there. Yes, he looked at her like she was his favorite dish and he was starving to death, but that didn’t explain her reaction to him.

“Yeah?” he asked.

Her grip on his arm tightened. She wanted him to feel her gratitude. See it in her eyes. “Thank you for saving my brother’s life.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. If there’s anything I can do to repay you…” And she did mean anything. Well… with the exception of threesome quickies in a storage area.

He shrugged, but couldn’t hide the pleased little smile on his lips. “No big. That CPR stuff comes in real handy around this band.

Are you certified? You never know when someone’s going to have a grand mal seizure, crash a bus, or pass out in their own vomit.”

Ew. Rebekah’s stomach rolled. “Um. Vomit?”

“No worries. I’ll take care of all the vomity ones.”

She chuckled and then broke into delighted laughter.

He grinned. “You get that I’m joking?”

“Well, of course you’re joking. Vomity ones.” She laughed again. “Too funny.”

“Most people don’t get my jokes. Say they’re inappropriate.” He finger-quoted inappropriate.

“Are they idiots?”

“Arguably.”

She laughed again.

“A woman who gets my jokes…” His pleased little grin turned into a broad smile. “Can I buy you a coffee sometime? Or a jet?”

“A jet?” She laughed until her stomach ached and she had to bend over with her hands on both knees to catch her breath. “You’re killing me.”

“Gives me an excuse to practice my CPR. So nice of you to volunteer your soft and tasty lips.”

When he leaned closer, she halted his seeking lips with a hand in his face. “Easy there. Do I look like CPR Annie to you?”

“Not at all. But if it will make you feel better, I can close my eyes and pretend.”

Actually, she was already feeling better. She didn’t need to pretend. Eric Sticks was like a refreshing breeze, blowing away all the clouds that insisted on blotting out her sunshine. Too bad she still had her heart set on Trey.