Page 37 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t play innocent. There’s been something between you two since Aspen.”

I looked at her and bit my lip. I really didn’t want to keep it a secret from her anymore. “We’ve gotten together a couple of times since Aspen.”

“Shit. Really?”

I sighed. “Yeah, but after hearing about Violet, I just can’t do it.”

She plucked at a piece of lint on my bed and frowned. “Do you still think a relationship is out for you? I mean, you seem to be much more comfortable around people now. Maybe it’s something for you to think about.”

I hadn’t thought about it like that. I’d only been thinking of making things easier for Aiden. “I don’t know. Maybe…”

The truth was, I wasn’t exactly sure of anything anymore. I’d thought everything I was doing was for everyone’s benefit, but I’d clearly got that wrong with Aiden. Did that mean I’d got it wrong with Jace too? And what about myself? Was I stil

l hiding behind excuses?

I shook my head and exhaled. I couldn’t think about it anymore. It was doing my head in. The only thing that would work for me at this point in time was more time.

Chapter 20

Jace

It was the first live show we’d done since our YouTube clip went viral, and it was fucking awesome. It was the biggest damned crowd we’d ever played to, and the atmosphere was so insanely amped, it was like there was a fucking electric current zipping through the air. I swear we’d never played so hard in all our fucking lives.

I knew the reason I was so off the charts was because I was still carrying the full weight of what I was feeling for Mia, and I also knew I would continue to be like that until I stopped sitting on the fence about it. For now though, I didn’t want to think about which side I wanted to jump off. I just didn’t want to face that yet.

After the show, we joined the crowd to party like we always did, but instead of the usual few fans who liked to come say hi, we suddenly found ourselves completely swamped. It was insane.

Aiden, being the fucking legend he is, managed to get us some seats, and then some beers. After playing so hard, the first two went down easy. Too easy. I probably should’ve had some water, but my head was still somewhere up in the clouds. Not long after that, the girls came.

I watched them as they slinked on in wearing skirts that were borderline belts, willing my dick to pay attention, but frustratingly, he seemed to have turned into a one girl kind of man.

Downing half my beer, I let the blonde who’d been eyeing me off slide in beside me, hoping that the combination of the beer and her touch would spark something. She smiled widely, showing off her sparkling white teeth. “Hi, I’m Leah.”

I groaned. Why did she have to have a name that sounded so fucking much like Mia? I took another long swig of my beer before answering. “Jace.”

“You sounded really good on the guitar.”

I smirked. “Thanks.”

She cocked her head to the side as she studied me. “You look different than you do on YouTube.”

I hadn’t heard that before. “Good or bad?”

“Oh definitely good. You look…” her eyes ran down my length. “…hot.”

Damn, she was good. I reckon I could have her sucking my cock in five minutes flat. Maybe I could just close my eyes and pretend she was Mia. Yeah, because that didn’t defeat the purpose or anything…

I cleared my throat. “So, you live around here?”

She smiled again. “No, we came down from Redding when we heard you guys were going to be playing tonight.”

Holy shit. I couldn’t believe people were actually travelling to come see us.

“Is it true you’re going to be touring with The Dark Hybrid?” she asked.

I took another swig of my beer and nodded.

“That’s so cool. I might even go buy a ticket now.”

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