Текст книги "Strings Attached"

Автор книги: Stephanie Julian

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter Thirteen

“Jesus, Baz. I can’t believe that after all these years, you still trip over that damn chord change.”

Nik had a smile on his face that made something loosen in Baz’s chest and he smiled back while giving Nik the finger.

“Don’t worry. When I have to, I’ll get it right.”

“Boys, boys, no fucking around now. We’ve got two more songs to rehearse. Then we can call it a night and take a few days off.” Trev shook out his hands and rotated his neck before grabbing his bass and curving his fingers around it again. “And then I’m not gonna look at your ugly faces for at least twenty-four hours.”

“Jesus, what are you? Eighty? You sound like my fucking grandmother.” Jase threw a pick at Trev, who responded by tossing a nearby water bottle at his head. “But even she doesn’t bitch as much as you guys do.”

As they continued to toss insults back and forth, Baz soaked up the atmosphere.

Jesus, he’d missed this. He’d missed the guys. He hadn’t realized how much until they’d all been together in a confined space for weeks on end. First in the studio and now here. This rehearsal space was state-of-the-art amazing and they’d nailed down most of their set list in the past week.

They meshed liked they hadn’t been apart for almost a year.

But he couldn’t wait to get back to Tru. They still hadn’t talked about their relationship and what happened when he went on tour. He’d bailed on that conversation a week ago and had practically fucked them both comatose instead.

He’d decided to drive back to Philly tonight to see her. They’d talked a couple of times since he’d been up here. All calls he’d initiated. And every time they talked, he heard the distance between them grow. But there was nothing he could do about that.

He’d made a commitment to his band members, that he’d be here and he’d be better than he’d been before. That he’d fix what he’d broken.

But he didn’t want to lose Tru in the process.

“Baz, you still with us?”

He turned to give Zach the finger, who grinned back and picked up his sticks again.

“Alright, assholes,” Nik stood at the mic and grinned at him. “Let’s get this done.”

*   *   *

“Hey, babe. How’s it going?”

Tru turned with a gasp, her bag falling to the ground as she lost her grip on it. “Sebastian. What are you doing here?”

His mouth quirked in a rueful smile. “I kinda figured that’d be obvious, since I’m standing in your doorway.”

She admitted it’d been a stupid question, but she hadn’t seen him in six days. Six long days during which she’d convinced herself they were over.

“I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Yeah, I guess I deserve that. I should’ve called. Sorry. So, are you leaving? Want to get some dinner?”

Yes, she wanted to get dinner. It’d been a long week. She’d been busy with last-minute details for the release of Greg’s film all day and she’d missed lunch, so now she was starving. She’d had plans to head home, grab something to eat, then take a hot bath and relax with a glass of wine.

She’d much rather take Sebastian home with her, pick up a pizza, and spend the rest of the night having sex.

But she knew that was only prolonging her misery. She’d had a lot of time to think this past week and she knew what she needed to do.

Didn’t make it any less painful.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He didn’t look surprised by her response. He almost looked like he’d been expecting it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the doorjamb.

“And why’s that?”

Oh, hell. Her heart beat like one of Zach’s drum fills as she tried to catch her breath. She wanted to cave and go to dinner with him, spend the night with him.

Then she stiffened her backbone. “The tour starts in a few weeks. Are you excited to be going back on the road?”

His gaze narrowed, trying to figure out where she was going with this. “Yeah. I love performing. The rush is like nothing else in the world. The sound of the crowd singing along to a song you wrote.” He paused. “But it’s different now. I never had someone I didn’t want to leave behind.”

Amazing how such a simple sentence could make her breath catch in her lungs and her stomach drop to her feet.

God, he wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? And she wasn’t sure she could do hard without breaking under the pressure.

But she knew if she didn’t keep her heart disengaged, she wouldn’t be able to move on when he left and didn’t come back.

And she refused to be an overused movie cliché.

Life wasn’t like the movies. A guy like Sebastian never returned with his head sticking out of a limo to take you away from your life as a prostitute. Or the managing director of a production company.

And he didn’t show up at your door with flashcards and a boom box to profess his undying love.

She might work on films but she wasn’t foolish enough to believe in a storybook happily-every-after. Real life definitely didn’t deliver the feel-good ending. Life continued to roll on after the wedding and it took a damn lot of hard, hands-on work to make it last.

And if you were apart more than you were together, well, the temptation to stray could be overwhelming.

“I think we both know this relationship has run its course.”

“Both of us, huh? So now you know what I’m thinking?”

She’d thought he wouldn’t put up a fight. She’d almost convinced herself he’d be happy she was breaking it off, that he’d be relieved.

“No, I don’t know what you’re thinking. But we don’t have a relationship, Sebastian. We had a few great sessions of sex and now it’s time to move on. You’re going out on tour and I’m staying here.”

His gaze narrowed. “And you don’t trust me?”

“This has nothing to do with trust. This has everything to do with wanting a man who’s actually going to be here.”

The pain in her chest leaked into her voice more than she’d wanted. And she knew he heard it.

Damn it, she’d wanted to be rational. Steady. Not an emotional wreck. But now, here he was, right in front of her and she had to stifle every emotional response rioting through her body.

Tears threatened, pricking at the corners of her eyes but she willed them away. She refused to cry. He didn’t need to be subjected to that and neither did she. Especially since she was the one breaking things off.

She expected him to fight her, expected him to at least offer some resistance. His arms crossed over his chest. “I never expected you to be a coward, Tru.”

“I’m not being a coward. This makes the most sense—”

“And you’re all about making sense of things, are you, Tru?”

Yes, she was.

“That’s who I am. You knew that. Or you should have.”

Pushing away from the doorjamb, he walked over to her. She held her ground but couldn’t help the way her blood fizzed in her veins at his proximity.

“What I know is I’ve missed you. I also know I’ve been busy and yeah, I’ve been preoccupied. But damn it, Tru, I thought you were braver than this.”

He kept coming until she had to tilt her head back to look up at him, getting lost in the masculine beauty of his face. So damn handsome. She wanted to sigh.

And when he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, she wanted to lean into his palm. Instead, she froze, unable to look away.

His eyes were a sharp blue tonight and they raked over her expression, as if trying to see inside her. When his hand moved, she almost grabbed him to keep him there. But he didn’t move away. His hand drifted back to wrap around her ponytail. He didn’t tug. He stroked his thumb along the strands for several seconds before releasing her, cupping her jaw again before letting his thumb brush against her lips.

Trying to contain her shiver, she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. His gaze dropped to watch and heat began to bloom low in her body.

“I honestly thought– Yeah, well, I guess I thought wrong, huh?”

Stiffening her back, she tried to drag her composure around her. And thought she might be failing miserably.

“We had a good time. But you’re going out on tour and I don’t want to be an anchor—”

“No. Don’t even try to sell that shit to me.” He released her, took a step back, and let his hand fall to his side. “That’s not what this is about. This is about you being afraid. And making me the bad guy. Fine. I’ll be the bad guy, Tru.”

“You’re not the bad guy.”

“No, I’m not. But you overthink everything, Tru. Do you ever just let go and enjoy what you’re doing when you’re doing it?”

“Of course I do.” But he was right. She did overthink everything. “That’s who I am.”

“No, it’s who you think you should be. But, damn it, Tru, that’s not all you are.”

He grabbed her hips, pulled her flush against him and settled his lips on hers for a kiss that made her toes curl.

He didn’t let her up for air as he licked into her mouth, forcing her to breathe through her nose if she didn’t want to pass out. His tongue slid against hers, tasting, playing with her.

A rush of overpowering emotion threatened to make tears well as her hands clutched at his waist, trying to bring him even closer. His erection pressed against her lower belly, making her hips strain forward. The sensation made her even more desperate for him than she already was.

That desperation made her moan a little and made her rejoice when he kissed her harder, his fingers biting into her shoulders as he held her tighter.

She hadn’t thought she’d get to kiss him again and frantic anxiety bubbled up through her blood, making her lungs ache and her muscles tighten.

When he made the slightest move to draw back, she went up on her toes and wrapped her hands around his neck so he couldn’t get away.

Now he groaned a little deeper and he slanted his head to deepen the kiss even more.

When he finally drew back, she was breathing so hard, she thought she might hyperventilate.

Lifting one hand, he cupped her jaw and rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, which felt puffy and had to be red and swollen.

“See you around, Tru. It’s been fun.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Man, you’re fucking pitiful. No wonder she dumped your ass. And what the fuck did you do to her anyway? Do we need to kick your ass?”

Baz gave Zach a lethal glare. “I didn’t do anything. She’d already made up her mind. She was out. Nothing I said would’ve changed her mind.”

“So you didn’t even try?”

Yeah, he had. He’d kissed her, had tried to show her just how much he cared for her. And she’d still let him walk away.

“You don’t know Tru.” Baz shook his head, tossing his Xbox controller after his character got lit up and died. “She wasn’t gonna change her mind. Look, can we please not talk about this anymore? It’s just pissing me off.”

“You don’t look pissed off, man. You look like someone ran over your damn puppy.”

“Fuck, man, that’s sick. Who’d run over a puppy?”

Sitting in Zach’s suite at Haven, they’d been chilling, playing Halo on Xbox. They’d finished rehearsals yesterday and were taking a day off before they started the full-court press of public relations for the new album. Tomorrow, the entire band had their first interview since he’d overdosed. The reporter had interviewed them before and they trusted her, which was why they’d agreed to it.

Baz didn’t expect her to go easy on him. He wanted to be treated exactly how he’d been treated before. Except now, he hoped, he had a little better handle on himself.

Hell, he’d nearly died and had his heart broken in the past year. That made you grow up pretty damn fast.

“And now you’re deflecting.” Zach paused the game and turned on the couch so he could look at Baz. The problem was, Baz didn’t want to be seen.

“Well, damn, look at you. You added a new word to your vocabulary.”

And as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back.

“Fuck. Zach, goddamn it. I’m so fucking sorry. You know I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

Baz forced himself to look up at one of his best friends and found Zach shaking his head, a wry grin on his face but no hurt. Zach had still been in high school when they’d gone on tour. He was the only one of them who hadn’t graduated and Baz knew that was a sore spot with him. And he’d intentionally needled the guy about it.

Fuck. He was a total asshole.

And Zach just shrugged it off. “No worries, man. Didn’t I tell you? I finally got my GED last year. Guess your overdose was good for something, huh?”

Baz barked out a quiet laugh, then shook his head. “Damn, that’s great, Zachy Bear. Seriously. I’m glad something good came out of my fuckup.”

“That wasn’t the only thing, you know. If you hadn’t taken last year off, you wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to write that kick-ass score for Greg’s film. And you might never have met Tru.”

Yeah, the score was the one bright spot to come from his OD. But Tru . . .

Jesus, just thinking about her made his fucking heart hurt. Like it was trying to shrivel in his chest to get away from the pain.

Every time he thought about her, which was every other minute, he wanted to sit in a corner and bang his head against the wall. Or bang out stupid love songs on the piano.

The guys had gotten sick of hearing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and “More Than Words” the past few weeks during rehearsal. Hell, if he even made a move toward the piano now, they threw things at him before he sat down.

“She didn’t care about me enough to even try to keep our relationship going. Or maybe I just saw more there than there really was.”

“Nah.” Zach shot that down immediately. “We all saw how much she liked you. But you gotta admit, the lifestyle can be a problem. Especially for a girl like Tru.”

Baz frowned at Zach. “What? You think I should quit the band and score movies for a living?”

“I’m not saying you have to give up the band. I’m just saying maybe you gotta do more than tell her you love her. You gotta make the grand gesture and show her. She works in the movies, for chrissake. She’s used to a big finish. Like . . .” Zach’s brow furrowed and then straightened as he snapped his fingers. “Ooh. Like at the end of Valley Girl.”

Baz frowned at him. “You want me to go to her prom and punch out her boyfriend?”

Zach reached across the cushion and punched him on the shoulder. “No, asshole. You just need to do something like that. You know, show her you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get her back.”

“That’d be great if I actually had time to spend with her. We’re leaving for six fucking months.”

“I didn’t say it was gonna be easy, man. But you’ve gotta decide how hard you wanna fight.”

*   *   *

“Alright, Tru. I’ve had just about as much as I can take.”

Tru’s head shot up from where she was reading over the plans Talia had made for the opening night party. It was her second time through it, and for some reason, she couldn’t seem to retain any of the information.

She’d been like this for a week. She was attributing it to prerelease stress. She refused to believe it was related to anything else.

“What’s wrong?”

Greg dropped into the chair in front of her desk and lounged back into it, like he wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

“I’m pretty sure you know what’s wrong. You’re just ignoring the problem.”

Her breath caught in her throat. “I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

“Yeah, you do. So either snap out of this already or do something about it.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit.” Greg shook his head. “Time to admit you screwed up, Tru.”

Yeah, she had and she knew it. She just didn’t know how to fix it. And because Greg seemed to know exactly what had happened, she didn’t feel the need to go through it again.

Hell, every time she even thought about it, she felt sick to her stomach and wanted to sit in a corner and have a good cry.

“I admit I probably didn’t handle the breakup well.”

She immediately bit her tongue. Damn it, she hadn’t meant to say anything else. She really didn’t want to talk about any of this and she hadn’t even told anyone. Not her friends, not her parents, not her sister. And it was eating away at her until her concentration was shot. And ManDown couldn’t afford for her concentration to be shot right now.

Greg was stretched thin at the moment with everything related to the release and the overall business. He trusted her to keep the details running smoothly. She couldn’t let him down by missing something she would’ve caught at any other time.

“Probably?” That one word held a wealth of sarcasm.

She wrinkled her nose at her boss and considered telling him to go jump off the nearest building. Instead, she blinked away sudden tears.

“Well, it’s not like he’s pining away over me. He’s getting ready to go on tour. He’s got an album releasing in a month. He’s probably not even thinking about me.”

“Uh-huh. You keep deluding yourself, Tru.”

A sudden burst of anger made her glare at him. “What do you want from me, damn it? Why are you here? To make me angry? To make me cry? What? Yes, I could’ve handled it better but . . .”

Greg cocked an eyebrow at her and she wanted to pluck out each individual hair. “But, what?”

“But I don’t think I can handle worrying about what he’s doing every minute of every day. And missing him for weeks on end.”

“Ah.”

She threw up her hands in defeat. “Are you deliberately trying to piss me off?”

Greg’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “No, I’m not. I care about you, hon. And I’m worried about you. You look heartsick and I hate it. And when I talk to Baz, he sounds the same. I don’t want to see two people I love hurt like this.”

And here she thought she’d been doing a good job of maintaining a calm exterior. This is why she hadn’t become an actress.

“It doesn’t matter now. It’s too late. He’s gone. And we’ll both move on. And since when do you get to give me romance advice?”

“Since I’m the one who has an actual romance. You made a mistake. And I know you already regret it.”

“So now you can read minds?”

“No, but I know you. And you’re so fucking sad right now, you can’t even manage to fight with me. Just call the guy.”

“He doesn’t want to hear from me. Not anymore. I’m sure he’s moved on.”

“And now you’re not giving him enough credit. Don’t be a coward, Tru. Just call him.”

She wanted to believe him. And she didn’t want to believe him. She wanted Sebastian to move on.

And she was being a total ass because she was lying to herself.

Christ. How much of an idiot had she been?

A big one, obviously. She’d thought she’d be getting over him by now. It’d been a week. One really, really long week. She’d cried herself to sleep the first three nights. The next night, she’d only cried for an hour.

But instead of feeling a little better every day, she felt a little worse. She’d actually forgotten to update her calendar yesterday and almost missed an important meeting with the city fire marshal. And today, she couldn’t even read through a simple agenda without having to blink away tears.

She’d made a huge mistake. She knew that now. But she couldn’t fix this with a phone call. She’d have to do so much more but for the first time in her life, she didn’t know what exactly she should do. And it left her paralyzed.

He’d walked away and hadn’t looked back. And even though she’d tried not to stalk him through Facebook or Twitter, she couldn’t help herself.

All of the band members had Twitter accounts and they’d been active the past week. Sebastian had posted a couple of pictures, none of himself. But Nik had taken a few of Sebastian and she’d drooled over those more times than she wanted to admit.

“Tru?’

“Yeah?”

“Call him.”

She sighed, unable to think straight.

“A call won’t fix this. I’m not sure anything can. There’s no easy solution.”

“I’ve never known you to give up, Truly.”

That one stung. She wanted to lash out and tell him to go to hell. But he was right.

When she stayed silent, Greg shook his head, his expression resigned. “Alright, how about this? Come with me and Bree Monday night. The band’s doing a secret show at Xander’s. At least go and see him so you can convince yourself you’re over him and move on.”

*   *   *

“Shit, there’s a fuckload of people out there.”

“You think they know who they’re here to see?”

“No idea, man. But I hope they don’t fucking stone us when we walk out.”

“Yeah, that would totally suck.”

Standing backstage, waiting to perform as Baseline Sins for the first time in a year, Sebastian wasn’t worried about anything.

He was excited as hell about being on stage with his friends again, playing their music. He just wished he didn’t still feel like shit about Tru.

He’d thought about calling her and inviting her to the show, but she’d made it pretty clear they were finished. Hell, she’d probably already made plans to date fucking Cory Shirk again. And that ripped at the hole in his chest a little more.

“Hey, Baz. You okay?”

Turning his head, he found Nik standing next to him, staring at him like he expected to see him puke or run. “I’m good. Just anxious to get this started.”

“Me, too.” Nik fell silent for a second. “She’s out there. Did you see her?”

Every muscle in his body tensed. Damn it, he didn’t want to know that. And now that he did, he wanted to see her.

“No. Doesn’t matter.”

Nik bumped his shoulder against Baz’s. “Fuck that. Of course it matters. Now, what the hell are you gonna do about it?”

Not one damn thing. “She’s the one who dumped me. I don’t know why she’s here. Probably just wants to see me fall on my face.”

Nik snorted. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”

It was. Tru wasn’t like that. Still . . . “I don’t have a fucking clue why she’s here. Maybe just to keep Sabrina company. I wish she wasn’t.”

“And I cry bullshit again. You fucking lit up when I told you.”

Yeah, he had. He honestly hadn’t expected to see her tonight. And now that he knew she was here . . .

Jesus, maybe she’d shown up just to drive him crazy because that’s exactly what was happening.

But he knew that wasn’t Tru. Not at all.

Maybe she was here to see him because she missed him?

Christ, he wished she did because she was almost all he thought about lately.

“Alright, alright, alright.” Xander’s voice boomed above the music pumping out in the pit. “Gentleman, are you ready to get this show started?”

Adrenaline pumped through Baz’s system. Yeah, he was ready. He actually couldn’t fucking wait. Redemption waited out there.

Catching the eyes of each of his bandmates, who all stared at him, Baz nodded to Xander.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

*   *   *

An hour and a half into the show, Baz felt like he could play all night.

The audience had screamed and stomped when Xander had introduced them, and that primal, gut feeling of being exactly where he belonged had flashed through his body like a gasoline-fueled blaze.

So fucking good. Better than any drug in the world.

And made better because he knew she was out there. He’d caught sight of Tru standing beside Sabrina, had seen the smile on her face and it made him feel like a god. As if he could do anything.

The energy from the crowd was an entirely different animal but he soaked that up, as well, letting it lift his spirit even higher.

If the audience reaction was anything to go on, they loved the new music, though they screamed loudest for the classics. Once the album dropped, that would change somewhat, but for now, at least they didn’t boo.

Nik had the audience eating out the palm of his hand, which was par for the course. He’d always been an engaging front man, talking to the crowd between songs, getting them to sing along and occasionally wading out into the pit. Nik fed off the crowd’s energy, maybe even more than Baz. That connection when they all sang with him, there was nothing like it.

They had another half hour to play when Nik grabbed the mic stand and set it center stage between songs. Baz didn’t think anything of it until Nik started to talk.

“So we hope you’ll bear with us a minute.” Nik held his hand up to get the crowd to settle into a dull roar. “We’re about to play something you’re not gonna expect from us. But trust me when I say it’s for a good cause.”

Nik turned and looked at Zach, who smiled and grabbed a tambourine. Why the fuck did Zach even have a tambourine with his kit?

Baz looked at Nik for an explanation but Nik had taken a few steps away from the mic as Jase exchanged his electric for an acoustic guitar.

Then someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to find Teri, his guitar tech, handing him an acoustic.

He mouthed “What the hell?” at Teri, who shrugged with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Okay, he had no idea what was going on.

He looked back to find Nik setting sheet music on a stand in front of the mic.

“Now, this is a dedication for a special girl.” Nik lowered his voice until he sounded like one of those late-night DJs taking requests from the lovelorn as a few members of the crowd hooted. “She’ll know who she is.”

Then Nik gestured for Baz to come to the mic.

Narrowing his gaze, Baz closed the distance and leaned down to speak in Nik’s ear.

“What did you do?”

“Something you wouldn’t. Don’t fuck it up.”

When he pulled away, Nik’s expression told him nothing but his gaze burned.

Then Baz looked down at the stand.

And started to laugh.

*   *   *

When Sebastian began to play, Tru had no idea what the song was.

It’d been obvious that he hadn’t known what the song was before looking at the sheet music. But then he smiled and laughed and thrummed the strings once before getting into it.

Behind her, she heard Greg laugh but her gaze was glued to Sebastian. Who only had eyes for her.

He sang directly to her and, even though she had no idea what he was singing, she heard the intent in his voice. And saw the heart-felt emotion in his eyes. All for her.

Then he hit the chorus. And she laughed. Couldn’t help it.

The tattooed rock god was singing “Truly Scrumptious.” For her.

Except she was pretty sure someone had changed the lyrics. And added snippets of music she recognized from Sebastian’s score for the movie.

It was beautiful. And she couldn’t stop smiling because it seemed so ridiculous.

Suddenly, Greg swung her up in his arms and handed her to a security guard standing near the front of the stage. Obviously, he’d been expecting her because he immediately hoisted her up to Xander, who appeared out of the wings to take her and set her on her feet just out of the spotlights trained on the band.

While the other guys continued to play, Sebastian stepped away from the mic and walked toward her.

Her heart beat so hard, she thought she might pass out. And the look in his eyes made her want to cry. Because he was offering her so much more than a song.

When he stopped in front of her, he was no longer smiling and his gaze asked a question.

It was only when she smiled and nodded that he grinned.

He grabbed her and kissed her in front of a packed audience and made her knees weak.

When he finally let her up for air, Zach, Trev, Jase and Nik had all come to the mic to continue singing and she was smiling so hard her face actually hurt.

“I love you, Truly.”

She leaned forward, lifting onto her toes so she could rub her nose against his. “I love you, Bastian.”

His smile shone brighter than the spotlight. “Damn right you do.”

*   *   *

Baz kissed Tru again. And again. And again.

Even though he had her naked and under him in his suite at Haven, he couldn’t quite believe she was here.

Pulling away, he knelt between her legs, watching her eyes open to hazy slits of sky blue. She reached for him.

“Come back.” Her voice held a purr that made his cock throb.

“I’m right here. And I’m not planning on going anywhere fast. But I want to see your face.”

“I missed you.”

Grabbing the spare pillow, he tapped her hip and watched as she arched her beautiful, naked body so he could slide the pillow under her ass.

“I missed you, too, babe.” He rose onto his knees and moved forward until he was at the perfect position. “I will miss you every single day we’re apart. But when we’re together, it’s just gonna be you and me,” he slid inside her slowly, forcing his eyes to stay open as hers closed the deeper he went, “and this.”

Grabbing her hips, he pulled her forward, burying himself completely inside her.

Her groan was music to his ears. He swore he was going to write a song composed of the sounds she made in bed. He’d never let another soul hear it.

“Bastian.”

Leaning forward, he watched her face as he moved in an excruciatingly slow rhythm. He could barely breathe. Everything in his world had shrunk down to this room with this girl. And the way she took him inside her.

“Yeah, babe. I’m right here.”

She lifted both hands and he laced their fingers together, pulling her closer and working his cock that much deeper.

“God, Bastian, don’t stop.”

“Not gonna, sweetheart.”

And he meant that sincerely.

Only his body had other ideas. His body wanted to come, and then he’d have to stop. He’d been holding off his orgasm as long as he could, but apparently he’d reached the end of his rope. She’d pushed him into it.

He thrust hard, felt her spasm around him and call out his name. And that was all it took.

With a groan, he came, watching her face as she opened her eyes.

When he could finally breathe again, he fell to the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

“It’s gonna be fun, Truly.”

He’d make damn sure of it.