Page 9 of Wish You Knew
He half-carried, half-walked me to the bathroom. When I suggested he let me go in there alone, he ignored my protests and strode through the door. I rushed into the cubicle and heaved, the vegan burger making a very unwelcome reappearance. Scott pushed in behind me, pulling my hair from my neck and holding it back out of the way as I retched again. His fingers stroked my back. Conflicted sensations flooded through me, a combination of horniness and comfort. I guessed part of that was to do with whatever Mark had given me. After a while, when I was sure there was nothing left to reappear, I sat back on my heels and wiped my mouth. A sticky sheen of sweat coated my skin. Why did it have to be Scott who was watching me vomit?
“Thank you for looking after me, Scott. I’ll be okay now.” I took several steadying breaths, trying to stop the waving crests of nausea.
“Like fuck you will be. I’ll take you back to the hotel.”
“I’ll be fine,” I protested. Embarrassment about him seeing me like this began to overtake my initial fizzle of attraction. My stomach swirled, and I managed to get my head over the toilet bowl just in time to threw up again. This time, I wasn’t sure whether it was the drink or the drugs, or simply the hideousness of the whole situation.
“There is no way in hell I’m leaving you on your own tonight.” He resumed the soothing circles on my back. “I’m not having you choke on your own vomit and die on me.”
“Good to know,” I managed.
The cycle of throwing up went on for a few minutes until I knew I wouldn’t be sick again—nothing left to bring up either way. The thick-headed, woozy feeling remained though. I relented knowing Scott was right. I shouldn’t be on my own. “Okay, you can walk me back to the hotel.”
We left the cubicle, and I went to the sink to wash my face. There were two women touching up their make-up at the mirror. As we appeared, their mouths dropped, and their eyebrows raised.
“What are you doing in here? You’re in that band,” one demanded, pointing at Scott. “Did you two have sex in there?” Her nose wrinkled.
“Is that the only thing you think I’m capable of?” snapped Scott. “Don’t know if you heard my friend throwing her guts up, which really doesn’t do it for me by the way, but I wanted to make sure she was okay after some prick plied her with a date rape drug.”
I shrank back against his chest, not wanting everyone to know what had happened to me, how easily I’d been taken in by a guy who wanted to get into my pants. All I wanted was to go back to the hotel and hide under the duvet.
“Scott,” I croaked. “Can we go now?”
“Are you okay?” the other woman asked. “Do you really want to leave with him?” She cast a side-eye glance in Scott’s direction.
As he appeared to be the only one on my side right now, I definitely wanted to leave with him. “Yes. He really is a friend.”
Ha. Lies. I didn’t know what the hell we really were to each other, but I didn’t think they’d accept fuck buddies as an explanation.
“If you’re sure?” the first woman chimed in.
“I am.” I took Scott’s hand. “Thanks for looking out for me.” I smiled at the two women as I dragged him out of the bathroom. “I’m sorry about them,” I said, when we were in the main bar.
He shrugged. “People have an opinion. They think they know me.”
I knew what he meant. Because we were both in the public eye, people thought they could make assumptions. Like Scott was the bad guy, we’d got it on in a public toilet—seriously, no, never—and he couldn’t possibly be the one who had saved me.
Before we left, he took a diversion to a table in the corner where the other members of Trash Gun were nursing a round of drinks. Declan’s brows shot up when he saw me.
“Rosie, I didn’t know you were here.” His gaze swung between me and Scott, a questioning look in his eyes. “Scott didn’t say anything.”
“She wasn’t here for me. She was with someone else.” Scott slapped down a twenty pound note. “Get some more drinks in. I’ll catch you later.”
Mat gave me a knowing smile. “Oh, I get it.”
“Why do you immediately think we’re going to shag?” Scott’s question came out harder that perhaps he intended.
“Because you’ve got history?”
I placed a hand on Scott’s arm. “Leave it, Scott. Let’s just go.”
He huffed but did as I asked.
Silently, we walked along the road to the hotel. When we arrived in the foyer, I turned to him.
“Thank you for getting me back safely. I’ll be fine on my own.”
His green eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so.”
