Page 18 of Loved Out Loud
“I did. You guys were incredible.”
“Why thank you, my dear,” Xander says as he drops onto the couch across from me. “It feels good to be back on stage.”
Darren is up the stairs next, pulling his tie loose as he gives me a nod of acknowledgment. He pulls the curtain closed between the bunks and the living room.
Jade sits down on the chair beside me, moaning as she slips off her heels. “Hey girl, how was the concert?”
“So good. I found an empty suite and watched from there.”
“Is that your preference?” Darren asks as he opens the curtain and joins us wearing a pair of sweatpants and an undershirt. “I can make sure you have one at every venue if you want.”
“Oh no. I kind of want to experience the show from multiple places, if that’s okay. Just to soak up the energy of the crowd.”
“I love that,” Jade says. “As long as you come backstage to hang with me sometimes. It’s so nice to have another woman around.”
“Stay away from the front few rows,” Stone says from the door. “Even with security you could get hurt.” His eyes are dark, and his hair drips as if he has just taken a shower. He’s wearing different clothes from those he performed in as he joins Xander on the couch. Maybe he did shower already.
Where the other two look euphoric and happy, Stone looks haunted. As if he’s holding himself back from the joy of performing. A muscle along his jaw ticks as I study him, and I realize now that he’s watching me watch him.
I break my gaze away first, the intensity of his stormy blue eyes too challenging to hold. Something about him pulls me in, a raw magnetism that I find so hard to ignore.
In the weeks between meeting him on the set of the morning show and now, I told myself whatever feelings he evoked were just made up. One of the little stories my mind crafts daily as I daydream. He’s a rock god, and I’m just me. A woman with more imagination than sense half the time. I bet the way I feel in his presence is how everyone feels.
I’m not special or different. He’s the star. It’s just his aura that fills the air around us and makes me feel like I’m suffocating in the most exquisite way.
Damn, I need to get a fucking grip.
Luckily for me, a barely dressed Tobias comes out of the bathroom with a cloud of steam behind him. He heads straight for the freezer drawer beneath the fridge and pulls out four frozen burritos. For the first time I get an up close look at the tattoo covering his back, which is gorgeous and macabre. It depicts a siren using her nail to cut a man’s throat, but he smiles like he’s enjoying it. Jade gives me a wry grin when I glance over at her with wide eyes.
There’s something so pedestrian about seeing him in a pair of basketball shorts making microwave food while tapping his fingers in a random beat on the counter. It feels oddly intimate. Actually, looking around the room, seeing them all in a relaxed setting feels that way.
Tobias sits down at the table across from Darren and digs into his food with gusto. I probably would too, if I didn’t eat all day and then spent hours on stage performing to tens of thousands. Hell, I can barely make it through a meet and greet signing with a couple hundred people. These guys have incredible stamina.
“What are you thinking?” Stone asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Honestly? How weird it is to be here.” I look around at everyone. “I feel like an interloper seeing you all relax after a show.”
The corner of Tobias’s mouth quirks up. “If you want to be a voyeur, come to the greenroom after a concert. I’ll make sure to give you a great show.”
“Ew. No thanks.” Jade pretends to gag. “Ignore him,” she directs her attention to me. “If there’s one thing you’ll learn real quick to survive a tour with these guys, it’s how to decenter them from day-to-day life.”
“Decenter them?” I swivel my chair towards hers.
“Yep. They already have egos the size of their bank accounts. It’s our job to keep them humble.”
“Good luck teaching her your evil ways, Jade. She has stars in her eyes.”
“She won’t when she realizes how gross you all are.”
Just like the tide pulled by the moon, my gaze is drawn to Stone. In another of our games of chicken, he holds mine with the type of lethal calm that tells me I’ll never win against him. I’m not even sure if I would want to.
Eight
STONE
“How was your signing?”I find myself asking her.
She relaxes into her seat. “Good, a little overwhelming but so fun. I’m going to be exhausted after all these are over.”
