Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
“Or if we were dating other people—”
“Good thing we’re not.”
“Right,” she replies eagerly. “It’s one less knot we don’t need to undo.”
Propping my foot one step higher, I ask, “Where do we go from here? I can have my attorney draw up the papers. You won’t need to spare the expense.”
“I can pay for an attorney—”
“You said you don’t want anything, so it shouldn’t be complicated.”
She steps down, bringing us closer. “We should look into annulments. It might be a time-saver, and I imagine that we’d qualify based on . . .”
“Based on what?”
“We haven’t consummated the marriage.”
She’s staring at me like she won a prize, but I’m not seeing that option as a positive. I refuse to lose this staring contest, though. She blinks first and says, “I’ll do some research.”
Coming down two more steps puts her right in front of me. “When will you be back from touring?”
“Um . . .” I rummage through the schedule in my head. “Maybe Monday. Could be Tuesday.”
“Touch base when you’re back, and I’ll share the data I’ve collected.” Seeing how excited she is, I start grinning like she is.
When I touch her hip this time, she stops and turns back. Question marks dangle in her eyes, but my mind’s gone blank in the proximity of her beauty. She pokes my stomach, and whispers, “See you next week, Shane.”
“Yes.” That’s all I manage before she goes to her car and opens the door. With a quick wave of her hand, she then disappears inside, taking my breath and heartbeats with her.
Who needs those anyway?
They come in handy as a drummer. Fuck it, I can survive a few days without.
11
Shane
“Say it to my fucking face, asshole!”
Yanked backward, I’m dragged away before I can punch the fuck out of that face for blindsiding me with a knock to my head. My ears are ringing, but the shouting of the death metal fans penetrates all else. I’m pushed through an opening, and the door is slammed closed behind me.
Seeing my cousins, especially Nikki, are safe, I whip back to the bodyguards, throwing my arms out wide. “Why’d you have to ruin a good time, fellas? We could have taken ’em.”
They’re smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Except for Jeff, who always pokes the bear. “Our job was to get you out of there, not have your back.”
“And here I thought they were one and the same.”
“Shane,” Nikki says, grabbing my arm. “Don’t.” Her voice is quiet, her hands trembling even while holding me. “Please.”
Should I be grateful that we were just pulled from a mob? Probably. It’s been a few years since Laird and I have been in a good fight, so it’s hard to walk away instead of finishing what we didn’t start.
Laird bends down to cool off. “What the fuck just happened?” When he stands back up, there’s a slash of blood across his chin. It’s hard to tell if it’s his or someone else’s.
“You’re bleeding.” Nikki goes to him. Lifting on the toes of her sneakers, she tells him to be still while she analyzes the situation.
Holding her by the elbow, he studies her as well. “Are you okay, sis?”
“Every hair on my head is accounted for, but you two took the brunt of it.” Popping the hem of his shirt, she adds, “Wipe it off. It’s superficial, but you should get a bandage so you’re not bleeding on stage.”
“Fuck that. I’ll bleed.” A smirk lifts the right side of his face. “Bleed for my audience. Bleed for the fans. What’s more rock and roll than that?”
I shouldn’t chuckle. I really shouldn’t, but if this were the old days, we’d be working this situation hard in our favor and have a couple of chicks, each, lined up to take care of our needs before we left the stadium. We’ve had some good and wild times.
When she rolls her eyes, reminding me of Cat, which is easy to do since I’ve been thinking about her too much to be considered healthy, Nikki asks, “Do you really want to worry Poppy in her last trimester? If she sees you with blood on your face—”
“She’ll already be upset that my face was touched.” He laughs with a grin so prominent I don’t think it could be wiped off. “She likes it a lot.” When I look over her head, though, a look of concern drops his expression. “You took a hit to the head?”
The throbbing had become a distraction to what happened, but I was hoping to keep it on the down-low. I reach up to where a pulse has situated in my forehead, knowing there’s no hiding it. “Fuck. Not good.”
“You need ice on that,” he adds, “before it swells.”
“More than it is,” I say, practically feeling it grow under my fingers. “That’s what I get for keeping my head down.” I shoot a glare behind me, but the guys are already gone. “Their one fucking job was to get us from the car to backstage. Nikki should have never been taken from the SUV.”