Page 16 of Guarding the Shadows
“Ah, so you’re Raff,” he stated, wagging a knowing finger at me. He gave me the once over and nodded. “She’s told me about you,” he disclosed.
“About me? What about me?” I ground out. My eyes darted between Benny and Bodhi because I suspected Beth might have told that guy that she’d caught feelings for me, while on the tour.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “How you two were close while she tagged along on the tour with Screaming Shadows.”
Surprised by how disappointed I felt that he didn’t expand on his comment. “Then you have the advantage over me, Benny, because Beth has never mentioned you,” I replied gruffly, sounding smug.
Bodhi stared at me wide-eyed, then frowned, and I realized I’d attempted to start a pissing contest with a guy I’d only just met. Luckily Beth opened the bathroom door before anyone said anything else.
“Wow, Raff. You’re the last person I expected to see,” she said, acting casual, but sounding kinda breathless. Her feet faltered and I believed she was surprised to see me.
“Surprise,” I muttered, unsmiling because I was busy recovering the breath she had stolen from me by how amazing she looked.
My heart raced in the brief seconds her familiar, beautiful gray eyes met mine. Averting her gaze, she squeezed past me, her breasts brushing my upper belly. She reached up, hugged Bodhi, and thanked him for coming, and for a moment I thought she’d considered hugging me and became disappointed when she didn’t. Instead, she crossed the room and stood next to Benny. “I see you’ve met Benny.” She blushed as she slung her arm around his waist and placed her other hand on his chest.
“Met him, but he was just about to tell me what his relationship is to you,” I ground out, sounding more like her father than a potential love interest.
When Beth smiled as she glanced up at the guy, with an adoring look in her eyes, my heart crumbled up tight, because it reminded me of all the times she’d looked at me like that.
“Benny’s my hero,” she said, interrupting my thought. “If it hadn’t been for him, I shudder to think what might have happened to me last night.”
“No one mentioned a boyfriend when we were given the brief to come here,” I muttered, pissed that I’d agreed to come because I’d thought she was on her own. Bodhi turned around to look at me, and when I saw a puzzled look on his face, I wondered what I was missing.
When the guy pulled Beth into a side hug and laughed, I fought back an overwhelming urge to throat punch the fucker for disrespecting me like that. But I caught something flicker in Beth’s gorgeous gray eyes and she let go of him straight away.
Benny immediately made space between them, and I felt myself relax. “Jesus, dude. You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not her boyfriend, although I certainly wouldn’t kick Beth out of bed. I’m sad to say, I’m only this beaut’s faithful roadie.”
13
Beth
Tingles rippled down my spine when I heard a stern muffled voice through the bathroom door. I had just stopped the shower, so I quickly dried myself off, slipped on my panties, threw the pale pink sundress I’d chosen to wear, over my head and opened the bathroom door. Through a plume of steam that escaped from the bathroom, my eyes widened in shock the second my gaze caught sight of the man who had been hard to forget, and the last person I’d wanted to be there.
Kylie Minogue’s song, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” had played on the car radio the night we’d arrived home. And since the day I’d met Raff, I’d known exactly what she meant.
After the tour, I’d thrown myself into work, and did my best to forget him. But the moment I’d heard what Gwen had done to him, I’d wanted to let him know I was there for him. Bernadette thought It was a bad idea because I had the hots for Raff, which might have been true, but I was still a compassionate person. Although there had been a budding chemistry between us, comfort and a listening ear had been all I was offering back then, because no matter how I felt about him, I was no one’s rebound.
Not hearing from Raff fueled my determination to move on with my life. I even agreed to a date in Miami with a cute guy I’d known back in high school. Sadly, as nice as the evening had been, there wasn’t even a hint of the spark like the ones Raff ignited when he’d soothed my temple after bumping my head with his elbow.
My cheeks burned from the way Raff’s stunning blue eyes bounced between me and my roadie. And when I saw the muscle in his jaw tick, I loved that reaction from my hand on Benny’s chest.
Bodhi left the room to take a call from someone, and Raff immediately took over.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing to one of the two seats in the room for Benny to sit down. The moment I sat in the other one, Raff sat on the bed, facing me.
“Take it from the top, frame by frame if you can from when you first noticed him, Beth.”
Raff’s lips were fixed in a stern line as he listened to me relay what had gone down the night before. When I was done, Raff huffed out a breath of frustration and shook his head. “So, he looked intimidating? But he didn’t try to approach you?” Raff asked for clarification.
“That’s right. But I swear, I had no idea that he’d tried to gain access to Beth’s room until she told me this morning,” Benny interjected.
“You’re not sharing this room?” Raff asked, jabbing a finger to the floor. His blue gaze met mine for confirmation of this.
“What? No,” I blurted because the last thing I wanted was for Raff to think Benny and I were an item. I then cringed at the disbelief in my tone. It made me sound like I’d never date a guy like Benny. “Sorry, Benny, I didn’t mean it like that,” I said, pleading with my eyes.
“I know,” he replied, chuckling. Benny turned and addressed Raff again. “We usually try to get rooms with connecting doors … you know, just in case Beth needs my help with something.”
“Like?” Raff asked in that menacing tone of his while his penetrating gaze flicked to me then straight back at Benny. Raff began chewing the inside of his cheek like I’d seen him do more than once when he was managing his aggression, and butterflies swarmed in my belly when I suspected he might have been jealous about the arrangement between me and Benny.
