“Liar,” she said with a soft laugh before yawning and turning so that her back was to me.
Her sweet ass burrowed back into my lower body, and I knew she wasn’t blind to the fact that I had a raging hard-on. Yet she didn’t comment on it or even act like she felt it when it flexed against the seam of her ass through her thin layers of cotton sleep shorts and my boxers, the only thing I was wearing.
“Go back to sleep or get out of my bed,” she said. “I’m still sleepy.”
I was a glutton for punishment, because I stayed right where I was, savoring this moment with her even as my cock begged me to stake my claim and sink between her thighs, where I belonged. Instead, I ignored the constant ache and the heaviness of my balls and buried my face in her hair. I inhaled deep the scent of her mint and raspberry shampoo and closed my eyes as my hands locked together over her belly button.
She gave an exasperated sigh, but when I lifted my head to glance at her face, she was smiling. I kissed her cheek and then laid my head back on the pillow, which had begun to smell of me because I had used it so often lately. Soon, she was drifting back to sleep, but I was wide awake and my body was begging for something I had denied for over a year now.
I stayed there, holding her like that, for nearly two hours before her phone got an incoming text, which disturbed my own slice of heaven. I lifted my head to glare at her phone, which was sitting on the nightstand, wishing whoever was messaging her to the darkest parts of hell. It could have been any number of people wanting to talk to her. Kin or Angie or even Lucy Thornton came to mind first. They seemed to constantly be hanging out, and I liked that they all got along. Kassa deserved good friends—chick friends.
Guy friends, I could have done without her having, but it seemed like she was just as close to Nate as she was to Kin these days. She hung out with the bartender at least once a week, which irritated the fuck out of me. There had been times when all I’d wanted to do was put my fist through the guy’s face, but Kassa had warned me off him. Repeatedly. I was starting to tolerate ol’ Nate though, even like him a little, because he hadn’t tried to put the moves on my little caterpillar.
That motherfucker, Travis Braxton, on the other hand, was going to taste his own teeth if he kept trying to touch her whenever he was around her.
I gritted my teeth, thinking of the road manager Emmie had put in charge of the tour Tainted Knights was about to head out on the following week. The day before, he had been about ten seconds away from having my fist reshaping his face while we had been doing that boring-ass photo shoot. I got territorial as hell whenever that little douchebag was around, and while I knew I didn’t have the right, that didn’t really matter.
The first text was quickly followed by another, and Kassa groaned as she blindly reached for the phone. Pulling it down to her face, she peeked at the screen for a few seconds while I tried to read over her shoulder.
Be there shortly for the band meeting.
My hands tightened around Kassa’s waist, making her give a small mewl in protest. I quickly eased my hold up and snatched the phone from her hands. “I don’t like that fucker texting you.”
She took her phone back, giving me a glare as she sent a quick reply back to Travis. “He’s only doing his job, Gray. And, since none of you seem to answer when he calls or texts any of you, I’m the one he has to relay messages to.” She tossed her phone back on the nightstand before slapping at my hand, which was still firmly locked around her waist.
I reluctantly released her as she got out of bed and started for the bathroom.
“Get dressed, lazy,” she told me. “He’s going to be here in less than half an hour.”
I stayed where I was, watching the sway of her hips with each step she took. “I don’t like the way he looks at you,” I called after her. She had left the bathroom door half open, so I knew she could hear me. “You should stop leading him on.”
She laughed, but it sounded anything but amused. “I don’t lead him—or anyone else—on,” she assured me, standing in the doorway, her toothbrush in hand. “I’m just friendly.”
“Which he thinks is flirting,” I pointed out, ignoring the shot about “anyone else” because I knew that it was aimed at me, and got an eye roll from her in return. “I don’t like it, Kassa.”
“It’s not any of your business who I do or don’t flirt with. We’re friends, Gray, but I don’t belong to you.” With that, she nudged the door closed, and I heard the distinct sound of it locking.
I fell back onto the bed, scrubbing my hands over my face. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, we both knew she was wrong. Kassa belonged to me, just as I belonged to her. It had taken me a year—fuck, a year—but I was finally letting it sink in that, no matter how much I wanted to keep our relationship the same, that wasn’t going to happen. I wanted more—had always wanted more—but I had been too much of a chickenshit to let myself admit it.
I had dropped hint after hint to her that I wanted to finally see where we could go, because if nothing else, this past year had shown me what a relationship with her could be like—minus the sex. But she had been ignoring every single one of them. Whether it was on purpose or not, I had no fucking clue, but I suspected she was trying to punish me for having rejected the whole idea of being more tha
n friends. It was what I deserved—I knew and freely admitted that. But, hell, she was killing me with the cold shoulder.
I was still lying there when she came out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, a towel wrapped around her wet body as she used another to dry her hair. My cock stood to attention, and there was no way she could have not seen the way my body had instantly reacted to the sight of her in nothing but a few drops of water and a thin, white towel that didn’t completely cover her perfect ass.
Ignoring my cock, which was practically waving at her, she gave an exasperated sigh and walked into her closet. “Maybe you don’t remember the way to your own room—you sleep in here so much these days. It’s through that door and across the hall. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Blowing out a hard sigh, I repositioned my cock and pushed myself up and out of bed. Reluctantly, I left her room, not wanting to start an argument with her. In the past few weeks, it seemed like we argued at least once a day. She was usually the one starting them, although I had started it once or twice lately. The chick was so maddening, but it only made me want her more, damn it. I liked when her fiery side came out, and fuck, but it really came out when we were arguing about stupid shit.
In my own room, I pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt before brushing my teeth. The doorbell rang as I was rinsing my mouth, and Kassa’s bedroom door shut as she left her room, so I hurried to follow after her.
In the living room, Kale had apparently already been there for a while with Cash and Sin. Jace let Travis in and took the chair Kassa had already plopped down on the arm of, a notebook in her hand so she could take notes on the schedule Travis was supposed to go over with us for the following week.
We left for our first tour on Sunday, and I was thankful as fuck that Kassa had finally given in and agreed to go with us. If she had stayed home, I would have done nothing but worried about her for the next nine weeks. No fucking way could I have handled being away from her for that long. Hell, I couldn’t go an entire day without seeing her or I got edgy. More than two months would have probably had my bandmates murdering me in my sleep.
Travis, in his suit as always, started the meeting off as I took a seat beside Sin. I barely paid anything he said much attention because he would only repeat it the morning we left. Or, worse, Emmie would tell me. I understood how she had so easily taken over the rock world with her bands. The hot redhead was scary as hell, and everyone seemed to jump whenever she snapped her fingers. My bandmates and I weren’t any different from the other rockers she had performed miracles with over the last decade. I was kind of terrified of her.
What caught my attention and held it was how Travis’s eyes seemed to get a glint in them whenever he spoke directly to Kassa. When he moved toward her several times over the course of the meeting, it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to pound him into the ground.