Page 81 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
“Tor. Got a friend.” Torren glances up slowly, his eyelids heavy as he focuses on Jonah. Jonah gestures to me. “Tor, meet sweets. Sweets, meet Tor.”
The introduction is weird, but what’s weirder is the way Torren reacts when he finally sees me. Or better, the way hedoesn’treact. For seconds that feel like hours, he stares blankly at me, pupils all but swallowing up his green eyes. My chest tightens and the floor feels unstable under my feet as I count his slow blinks.
One...two...three...
And then, like a haze has lifted, his brows rise in recognition, and his lips curl up at the corner.
“Firebird.”
Awkwardly, I raise my hand in a wave. “Hey.”
“You named this one,” Jonah says, and Torren nods, breaking eye contact with me to drag his eyes toward his bandmate. Every movement is delayed, like a half-step behind, and it makes me so nervous that it takes a moment for Jonah’s words to sink in.
You named this one.
I glance at Jonah with a furrowed brow.
“What’s that mean?”
He looks right through me, no longer interested, and his body turns away, dismissing me as he speaks.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a compliment.”
And then Jonah’s disappearing into the back of the bus, leaving me alone with Torren. His eyes drag leisurely over my skin in a way that feels both sensual and disconnected. He’s looking at me, but I can’t be sure that he’s really seeing me.
“What all are you on?” I ask, and he tilts his head to the side, observing me like he finds me amusing.
“You want some?”
I start to shake my head, but then I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders.
“I’ll...um...I’ll smoke with you? If you want.”
Torren smirks again, and I stay frozen to the spot as he pulls a joint from his silver cigarette case. Absently, I wonder just how many he’s got stashed in that thing as his long, tattooed fingers strike a match and light it up. He takes a drag and blows the smoke through his plush lips in a steady stream, then raises a hand and crooks a finger at me.
In three steps, I close the distance between us.
23
TORREN
PRESENT DAY
My dick is painfullyhard as I make my way to the dressing room I share with Jonah.
The adrenaline of playing a sold-out show always amps me up, but the encounter with Callie backstage has sent me over the edge. I took it further than we’d planned, but I can’t bring myself to regret it. Not yet.
She’s so soft. She’s so hot.
I let myself indulge, and now my dick aches for relief.
And then I walk into my dressing room and find Jonah on the couch with another redhead. He wasted no time. I bet he had security pull her from the pit before we did the first encore, and she was waiting here for him.
The fucker really does suck at celibacy.
I roll my eyes but I still fold my arms across my chest and watch. When he sees me, he pulls his dick out of her throat and slaps his thigh.
“Climb up here, sweets.”
