I clutch my towel again, safety measures and all. Swatting him, I point to the door. “Get up, I need to get dressed and the bathroom is occupied. You need to leave.” He smirks, rubs his hands over his face. I cock my head at him, pointing to the new piece I see blended onto his chest. “New tattoo?” I ask. “Wouldn’t think you’d have any space to put anything else.”
He grips his fingers around his neck, his arm muscles flexing. “I have plenty of places I can fit new ink,” he replies with a slow smile.
“Oh, okay, ew. Get up…come on.”
He looks around the room and laughs. “Fuck you know how to party, little T. I guess I’ll be leaving without my top.”
“I guess so. Come on.”
I kick Leo and he stirs from under his long hair. “Leo, get up.” He runs his hands through his ash blond hair that hangs to his neck.
“All right, all right, shit.” He moves from the sofa, putting a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it up.
Walking them to the door, Ryker follows behind. He leans down to the back of my neck, the breath of his whisper sending shivers down my spine. “You realize,” he starts, his voice low, deep and seductive, “I can have that towel off that sweet little body in minus one second?” I roll my eyes, swinging the door open. He pulls me in, kissing my head softly. “I meant it when I said that I’ll always have your back, Phoebe. I know my brother. He cares about you too much, that’s his problem.”
I clutch my towel, smiling at him. “Well, he has a shitty way of showing it.”
He shakes his head and chuckles. “Oh, he won’t show it. He’ll wait until something catastrophic happens then he’ll show you. Us Oakley boys are a complicated mess.” He winks at me before clutching onto Leo’s shoulders before they begin walking down the hallway. I shut the door and collect my clothes, taking them to the now vacant bathroom.
“They gone?” Nettie asks.
I nod my head. “Yeah, I needed to get them out so I can get changed.”
Nettie laughs. “You took your top off last night to change into my Twisted Transistor top, Ryker looked like he wanted to slap the shit out of you for doing it. He jumped off the sofa so fast, throwing you over his shoulder and taking you to the bathroom, shoving the T-shirt through the door for you. It was an interesting thing to watch.” She laughs, shaking her head. “He really does care about you. I can see that. We all saw that.” She gestures to Dolton and Elijah and they both nod their head.
“Yeah, I care about him, too,” I whisper before adding, “Unfortunately, it’s the wrong brother.” I smile at them sadly.
“It’s not too late to change?” Nettie says with complete seriousness as she pulls her hair into a ponytail.
I laugh and shake my head. “No, I’m really not like that.”
She nods her head. “I figured that.”
The water is cascading off me, the steam filling the entire bathroom like a hot sauna, causing sweat to drip off my forehead and fall on my torso. I turn the faucet to scorching hot before taking a seat on the floor, letting the water run all over my face. This girl knows how to twist my whole world around—that hasn’t changed at all. Running my fingers through my hair, I wipe away the water from my face.
“I’m fucked.”
Stepping out of the shower, I wrap the towel around myself before opening the door to Ryker and Leo walking through the front door.
“Where were you two last night? I came to your room, but you weren’t there,” I ask both of them, their faces that of two toddlers being caught red-handed in the cookie jar. Whose fucking cookie jar is the question, and it had better not been mine.
“Errr, yeah, about that…” Ryker started, “Look, don’t be mad but we partied with Phoebe last night.” It was mine.
My body stills as if a bucket of ice water had just been tipped over my head and frozen me in place. What the fuck does he mean partied with Phoebe? I know he’s not dumb enough to go after her on any level, but I also knew once I saw her walk onto the jet that they would become inseparable again. But as far as boundaries go, Ryker has none.
“What do you mean partied?” I ask both of them.
Leo shrugs his shoulders. “The girl is still a good time. Ryker here almost shit himself when she started to strip on top of the bed, though.” He laughs to himself as he makes his way to the fridge, taking out bottled water.
Whipping my head back to Ryker, my eyes narrow. “Explain, right fucking now.”
“Shit! Okay! Fuck’s sake, Leo. Did you have to go throw in that curve ball? Shit!” He continued,
“Look, she was drunk. No, she was drunk as fuck…fucking legless. She began to remove her shirt to throw on Nettie’s Twisted Transistor top...in front of everyone. So I threw her over my shoulder and placed her carefully in the bathroom, handing her the top and ordered her not to come out until she was dressed,” he blurts out and I instantly relax.
Leo laughs again from behind the rim of his bottle and I narrow my eyes at him. “What?” I ask annoyed.
“Oh, nothing, just that…” he takes a drink of his water, laughs and places it back down to the counter, “…he also slept in her bed, with her in it.”
I walk up to Ryker as he begins shaking his head, throwing his arms up. “Wow! No, no, no. It’s not what you think. We were both drunk. Okay, hang on…not helping.”
Pushing him up against the wall, his eyes narrow and I know he’s had enough.
“Really? Really, Ryder? You’re a dick to her, but no one else can be nice to her? You know she and I are nothing more than practically siblings. I love her like a sister, get your fucking hands off me unless you’re actually going to hit me, but get on with it because we have rehearsal.”
I calm slightly at the truth in his words. “Ryker, I swear to God, if you go anywhere near her with any sort of Ryker-like intentions, I will chop your balls off and feed them to you. Brother or not, understood?”
He laughs briefly before turning serious. “I’d like to see how you explain to Aunt Trish that she’s not getting any grand babies out of me. Because let’s face it, I’m the better looking one. But sure bro, whatever you need to help you sleep at night.”
What I need, is for her to be next to me, that’s what I need to be able to sleep at night.
Letting him go, I push him away from me then walk into the kitchen to grab out a drink.
“We need to leave, now.” Leo looks at his watch.
Walking into the arena, we find Tommy on the drums already, putting a beat down.
“Sorry we’re late,” I say to him and he looks skeptically between the three of us.
“Don’t ask,” I add, he nods his head before taking a large gulp of his water.
“I want to rehearse the opening song,” I say to them and Ryker stops in his tracks.
“What? Right now? Is that a good idea?”
I nod my head. “We need to. I’m still not one hundred percent happy with it. Something needs to change.”
Ryker agrees, pulling his guitar over his shoulder. I take the mic off the stand just as the door flies open and in walks Marcus, our manager.
“Sup?” Ryker tilts his head at him.
“Sorry, I’m late, boys. Fucking airports, I fucking hate them.”
“You could have borrowed Alyx’s jet since Ryder wanted to take ours.” Ryker smirks at him. It’s funny because Alyx’s jet is the girliest jet you’ll ever see. All fixed out with white leather and pink fur. Fucking pink fur, for fuck’s sake. The girl makes me sick.
“Nope, fuck that,” Marcus replies.
I chuckle. “We’re just about to rehearse the opening song.”
He smiles. “About that, I hear there’s a little someone who crashed the tour?”
“You could say that,” I reply dryly.
“All right, let me hear what you’ve got.”
We walk into the arena where the concert will be held tonight and where they’re doing sound checks, the boys all on their instruments. I clutch the coffee
in my hand, staring away from them as I pull on the scarf that’s around my neck, loosening it to take it off. The coldest month of the year in Madrid is January, which just so happens to be the time we decide to visit. I hate the cold. I’m wearing skinny jeans, black ankle boots, a loose fitting top and a brown leather jacket thrown over the top. It’s casual, I know, but it’s not like I’m getting paid to dress myself.
“Come on, we’ll go to Alyx’s room.”
I follow behind Nettie, Elijah, and Dolton, trying my hardest to ignore Ryder.
I wonder if he knows we all partied last night? Probably...
The stadium is dark, the only light shining is that of the spotlight pointing toward the stage. I know they can’t actually see us—unless they’re looking closely. The drum starts a beat, Tommy bobbing his head along to it slowly, his cap flipped backward and his dimple popping out as he curls his lips under his teeth in concentration. I look to Ryker as his guitar begins a slow, sensual sound. The strum can only be explained as exotic and electrifying. He bites down on his lower lip, with his tongue following cue.
When the base kicks in with Leo behind it, they all merge together, sending sound waves through my ears latching onto my soul. I love the sound of this song, whatever it is. My walking has slowed as I try to stall myself so I can hear the song. I haven’t heard it before, it must be one of their new ones. Not that I actually listen to their music, because I don’t. I hear songs on the radio sometimes, or Maree plays some loudly from her office when she’s having a moment. Their genre is hard rock, similar to the sounds of Disturbed, Korn, or Avenged Sevenfold.
When Ryder sings the first line, I feel the air be pulled out of me along with my senses.
His voice husky, low, yet full of power and seduction. Hearing him live makes me want to get on my knees and kiss the holy ground he walks on.
I mentally slap myself. Why the fuck did you just say that?
He has the most amazing voice I’ve ever heard. The song starts slow and then picks up toward the middle where he releases a good scream. Swallowing down the build-up of saliva my nerves have created, I look away from him for a second before looking back. He removes his T-shirt and tucks it into the back pocket of his loose gray sweat pants, leaving it hanging out. He’s wearing white high-top Adidas sneakers and has a black leather necklace hanging from his neck with a couple leather bracelets around his wrist. His lip ring glistens from the light reflecting off it, the veins in his neck have surfaced and his abdominal muscles are ripped and tensing with each word he sings. There’s sweat dripping from his forehead, and I think my ovaries may have just erupted. He looks like pure sex.
He stops mid-song, throwing his hands up to his neck signaling ‘cut’ then turns to Tommy.
“We need to speed up that beat a bit more. I want a heavy pulse, a different beat. Skip it a few times.” Then he looks to Ryker. “Follow his lead.” He nods his head. I snap back into reality and look down at Nettie, who’s watching me from the doorway that takes us out of the stadium and down to the backstage rooms. She nudges her head toward the door, so I quickly run to her and we both make our way down the hallway to the back rooms. I wanted to hear the reformed version of that song.
“Have they released a new album, or is that song old?” I ask Nettie.
She shakes her head. “That song is new. You like?”
I laugh. “Yeah, I like it. Shame about the lead singer.”
We walk through the door that reads—Alyx Munroe. Fuck off.
I scoff. “Gladly, bitch!” Before we both laugh, pushing the door open.
“Well, it’s about time,” she says with venom, eyeing me up and down. I pull up a stool, placing it directly in front of her, before taking a seat on it. Elijah is doing her hair, glancing at me uneasily. I look up to him and give him a reassuring smile before bringing my eyes back to her.
“What are you doing? I don’t pay you to sit,” she spits, still eying me up and down with disgust laced through her eyes.
“Look,” I say to her, glancing at Belinda, who looks nervous.
Please, I’ve grown up around bikers, for fuck’s sake. This girl does not scare me.
“I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here. You’re rude, arrogant, and have your head so far up your own ass that you can’t even see how many people you piss off.” She opens her mouth to respond, and I throw my hand up. “I’m not done. Belinda wants me here, and to be honest with you, I’ve seen your wardrobe collection and there’s way too much pink. Who are you? Paris Hilton? No, the pink has got to go. Especially, now that you’re riding with Twisted Transistor.” I lean back and her mouth hangs open while she just stares at me. I almost forgot something, so I pipe in, “Oh! And another thing. Whatever happened between Ryder and me is in the past. We do not care for one another so you can have your ‘all you can eat’ with him. I’m not interested, and you don’t need to throw me little glares across the table when you’re with him. I won’t interfere.” I look around at all the shocked faces and shrug. “That’s all.”
Elijah turns his bright red face around, holding in his laugh so bad that his face is turning purple. He waves his hand in front of his face. “I’m sorry, I’m going to…” He runs out the door where I hear him burst out laughing as the door slams shut.
I hear a few grumbles of talk being tossed between people and Ryker’s loud laugh sound through the door, joining Elijah. I roll my eyes and look back to Alyx. “Are you going to say anything?”
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t care about what you just said. I’ll go laughing to the bank with my millions, and you can go home and race your shitty little cars around your shitty little track.”
I raise my eyebrows and smirk. ”I could race the crappiest car with a blindfold on, in cheap four-inch heels, and still be a nice person. You’re ugly? It’s to the bone. You don’t need to treat people like shit to get respect, Alyx. If anything, you’re doing the opposite. Now, I’m going to work on your wardrobe.” I stand from my stool as Alyx flicks through her magazine like she didn’t hear what I just said, but her glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes tells me otherwise. I look to Belinda quickly who’s sitting in the seat next to her with her hand covering her mouth hiding a smile. I smile lightly at her and spin around to make my way into the wardrobe, which takes up half of the room she occupies. That’s a lot of pink shit.
I begin working through it, my face scrunching up in disgust every two seconds.
This is going to be a long day.
By the end of the day, I’m beat. I’ve sorted through all of her clothes and have gone on two trips into town to purchase new outfits. This girl cannot dress for shit despite her status in this world. By the end of the day, my hair is tied into a messy bun on the top of my head, my boots are sitting in the middle of the floor, and my jacket has been thrown across the room onto a chair. I have sweat across my forehead, and the last thing I feel like doing is watching a show. Stalking out of the hole I’ve been held up in all day, I see everyone standing around, along with Twisted Transistor. It’s just my luck to see them all when I look like shit.
“Hey, so it’s all done for tonight. I’ll probably head back to the hotel. I lined all of your changing outfits in categories on your hanger, even though there’s only two.”
Alyx sneers at me. “You are dismissed.”
I laugh at her, walking up to where she’s standing and snatching my jacket off the back of the chair that’s in front of her. “Don’t fucking push me, Barbie,” I state before storming out of the room. I honestly don’t know why she doesn’t throw my ass out. Why is she putting up with my lip? I wonder just how much power Belinda does have over her, and if maybe she’s the reason for it.
I’m walking back down the hallway when I hear the door to Alyx’s room close behind me. I stop in my tracks. The energy surrounding the long space of the hallway is now thick with tension. I don’t turn around, keeping my head forward, I stand stock still.
??
?Phoebe.” The command in his voice is soft, but still compelling nonetheless.
I don’t move. Not an inch. I have the right mind to walk straight out that door and flip him the bird, but I don’t. Instead, I just stand there. Just like when he left me that morning that same feeling creeps into my chest. The air tightens around me, causing my breath to strain.
“Come here,” his voice is low and demanding.
I turn around, tired and slightly pissed off at the tone he’s using on me.
“Ryder, you don’t say a word to me for the past crazy twenty-four hours, now all of a sudden you want to talk?”
His jaw flexes as he looks to me under dark hooded eyelashes. God, it’s not fair for one man to be so incredibly good looking and be so talented.
Oh, that’s right, there’s two of them.
He cocks his head at me with a slight twitch in his eye. He’s freshly showered and ready for the concert. Wearing light blue jeans that are destroyed around the knees, sitting loosely on his hips. A chain hangs from his belt buckle, his black top sitting comfortably on him. His hair is styled in its usual way, short on the sides and longer on the top where it stands loosely everywhere.
“Do you want to do this here and now?” he asked, stretching his arms wide. “‘Cause, I can do this here and now, baby. Goddammit, I’ll stop the entire fucking show just for you to listen to what I’m about to say to you.”
Baby? WTF, I should slap him.
I place my hands on my hips. “All right then Ryder, shoot. What could you possibly say to me now that you couldn’t have said to me before?”
“Come here, I’m not yelling this down the goddamn hallway.”
I begin walking up to him with thoughts of kicking him square in the nuts.
Reaching him, I poke my index finger into his chest. “You do not get to turn my fucking world upside down for two weeks and make me feel special, all for you to shit on me by walking out without so much as a fucking goodbye Ryder! Why the fuck didn’t you say goodbye, you gutless piece of shit?”